THE HOT HALF HOUR
By
A kinescope of the television end of the advertising game shows up some of the professional practices (""The sharp deal. The planted life... The fast talk. The loose language."") along with some of the procedural gismos and gimmicks of the trade. Roger Norden, a reasonably nice guy with a respectable agency, tapes his own rise- and fall- when he lands a big money femmes fashions account, the House of Karess, and deals in kind with the two conscienceless characters that run it- Myron Essenger and Merton Karamaz. Selling them on a give-away show, Put 'N Take, and grooming Mary Cranston (he romances her on the side) as its spokeswoman, he hits the Trendex top--to face another network's competition, another agency's appropriation of their account, and a last deserved defection- Mary's. . . . Not as unforgivingly unprincipled as earlier (Al Morgan, etc.) versions, this ticks off a brash business with some bright dialogue, adds an upbeat ending.