What struck me about the play is how differently he played “Marty” from the way he did so many of his movie characters. On the other hand, I saw a lot of live Tv performances in the ‘50s, and many of the stars came across very differently than in “films.” Much better, I remember. For some reason, something Bruce Cabot did on Playhouse 9o comes to mind. So much better than I expected from him, since he never seemed to improve in his “movies” after King Kong. But in this one, he seemed very much alive. We saw him ”in the round,”
Rod told me he didn’t accept the movie role because they wanted him to sign a five year contract with the studio and he said he would never sign a contract that long with anyone. The role went to Ernest Borgnine.