This Hallmark Hall of Fame production of A Doll's House is a fine, sturdy adaptation of the classic Henrik Ibsen play. As a kinescope of the live television broadcast, it inevitably has some technical limitations, foremost among them the fact that the microphones simply did not pick up the sound as well as could be wished. This is rarely a problem for Julie Harris or Hume Cronyn, and only momentarily one for Jason Robards Jr., but is rather more frequently one for Christopher Plummer and Eileen Heckart. While the picture is not as sharp as one might wish, the camera is handled with admirable fluidity and only one or two mishaps. Modern audiences may see through some of the workings of Ibsen's dramaturgy, but, on the whole, the script holds up remarkably well. If Nora's final revelation seems to come about a bit too quickly, most will forgive the dramatic license and relish the exchange of ideas that it presents with such breathlessness. George Schaefer directs with a sure hand and both eyes on the fire and light that his very able cast brings to the material. One could scarcely ask for a better Nora than Harris, whose childish giddiness and playfulness never seems forced and who makes the character's naïveté and foolishness as natural as her strength and steely will. Plummer's innate charm gives his Torvald the charm the role requires to understand why Nora stays with someone so controlling, and Cronyn and Heckart bring nuance to roles that run the risk of seeming one-note.
by Craig Butler
review
