Harvard WWII Alumni Review T.V.'s 'The Last Convertible'

Alumni who attended Harvard during World War II said yesterday that "The Last Convertible," a T.V. movie about five wartime students, deals realistically with the effect of the war on the University, but exaggerates the social life of the typical student.

The television screenplay, based on a novel by Anton O. Myrer '44, is appearing this week on NBC television. The final segment of a 3-part series airs tonight at 9 p.m.

Most alumni said the book and movie accurately portray the insecurity of the students and their eagerness to fight in the war. "This was a very popular war," Irvin M. Horowitz '45 said yesterday. "There was virtually no anti-war feeling on campus," he added.

However, several alumni said that the movie and the book incorrectly portray student life in the '40s as constantly exciting and romantic. John J. Hardy '44 said that the movie focuses only on the atypical, unusually rich students at Harvard.

Horowitz said the T.V. characters were more socially mature than the average Harvard student in the '40s. "The characters had more money to spend on recreation and were more socially active than we were," Horowitz said.

"Freshman did not date Radcliffe girls. The seniors were the ones that dated them," he added