Enigma (I)

In 1947, I "Kraft Theatre" debuted on television and it stayed on the air until 1958. Well, this isn't exactly true. Instead of being canceled, it was renamed "Kraft Mystery Theatre" and remained that until, oddly, it was renamed "Kraft Suspense Theatre" in 1963 and played for two more seasons until the Kraft shows came to an end. That is a very long run and today you can see many of the later episodes of "Kraft Mystery Theatre" and "Kraft Suspense Theatre" on YouTube...and they are worth finding. Each episode was a self-contained story with all sorts of action and plot twists that sometimes made them marvelous. But, like any anthology show, it did have some disappointments as well- -a few terrible episodes. Don't give up if you try a few and you aren't hooked...there are some real gems among the shows. And, most importantly, they're fee to watch and have usually aged quite well.

I barely remember the show itself except as more serious competition with the first season of "Thriller" which at the time was more detective, pulp, noir kind of material. I distinctly remember the opening credit sequence with the abstract images floating eerily about a stylized shadow of a pursued man with one of the best themes written for television. John (Johnny) Williams rules.

This is a terrific program. It's on a rerun channel in my area (ME TV), and what a treat. It is truly excellent on every level. Perhaps its competition on other channels at the time caused it not to run as long as it otherwise might have. The actors and acting are top level. The plots are ingenuous and well executed. The sets and settings are high quality. You have variety with each program. It manages all this without offending the sensibilities - showing it can be done. For any mystery/somewhat thriller aficionado, I would think this one would rate high. If DVDs of this are available, they would well be worth pursuing. You have the variety and reliability. Excellent offering.

Roy Huggins ("Cheyenne","Maverick", "77 Sunset Strip", "The Rockford Files") was the uncredited executive producer of this entertaining hour-long anthology series from Universal.

The story editor was Anthony Boucher, who wrote the weekly Crime section of the Sunday New York Times Book Review.

The two-part opening episode was "The Case Against Paul Ryker". Lee Marvin played army Sgt. Paul Ryker, who was being court-martialed for treason during the Korean War. Vera Miles played his beautiful wife. Bradford Dillman was his JAG defense lawyer who has an intense flirtation with Miles. Peter Graves was the prosecuting attorney. The rest of the cast included Lloyd Nolan, Norman Fell, Murray Hamilton and Charles Aidman. Lee Marvin was the stand-out in this terrific cast. A fine legal drama/mystery that was later turned into a series called "Court Martial" with Dillman and Graves.

Another good episode (from a story by Robert Altman) had Mickey Rooney as a sadistic sheriff tracking down innocent fugitive James Caan with a pack of vicious dogs.

Jack Kelly ("Maverick") was a Las Vegas gambler trying to make a killing at the poker table in "The Name of the Game".

Cornel Wilde played a middle-aged man with amnesia in "Doesn't Anyone Know Who I Am?".

Jack Kelly played a man who hires an assassin to kill him so that a woman he has wronged will get the insurance money-but then changes his mind in "Kill Me On July 20th". (The story was by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne.)

"Rapture at Two-Forty" was the well produced pilot for "Run For Your Life", where Ben Gazzara played a lawyer with only one or two years left to live. The romantic interest was played by lovely young Katherine Crawford, who was Roy Huggins' daughter.

Herschel Bernardi played a small town lawyer who is dying of leukemia. Bernardi defends young Dean Stockwell, who is accused of murdering his wife. Stockwell doesn't want to live.

Jack Warden (without toupee) is superb as a Hemingway-like newspaperman/novelist who tells his New York psychoanlayst about his relationship with revolutionary/gangster Telly Savalas. This was an amazing pilot for a series with Warden. Sidney Pollack directed a script by David Rayfiel ("Three Days of the Condor"). The pilot was produced by Leslie Stevens ("Stoney Burke", "The Outer Limits") and Jack Laird ("Ben Casey", "Kojak"). Apparently the series would have been called "The Watchman".

Roy Huggins cast some of the stars of his Warner Brothers shows in "Kraft Suspense Theater": Clint Walker of "Cheyenne", Jack Kelly of "Maverick" and Roger Smith and Edd Byrnes of "77 Sunset Strip". Other former Warner Brothers contract players Huggins used in this series were Robert Conrad, Philip Carey, Peter Brown, Lee Patterson, Richard Long, Andrew Duggan, Diane McBain and Julie Adams.

Other guest stars included Donnelly Rhodes, Gary Lockwood, Brian Keith, Richard Conte, Tippi Hedren, Jeffrey Hunter, Gig Young, Peter Lorre, Tina Louise, Richard Crenna, Tom Tryon, Jack Lord, Robert Ryan, Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Nancy Kovack, Anne Helm, and Ronald Reagan.

John Williams wrote the suspenseful theme music.

Usually I'd watch a series of anthologies in chronological order. Unfortunately only a handful of the preceding Kraft Television Theatre and Kraft Mystery Theatre are currently available online. I was able to see all but six Kraft Suspense Theatre episodes, most are worth seeing with good picture quality. My favourites:

9 The Hunt. James Caan plays an easy-going surfer who drives into a small town where the small minded locals are non too friendly, especially sadistic sheriff Mickey Rooney.

14 Leviathan Five. Thoughtful drama, five men trapped in an underground laboratory decide one of them has to die so the others have enough air until they are rescued.

18 The Threatening Eye. A scheming French minx (Annie Fargue) worms her way into the affections of dull married businessman Jack Klugman. Very similar to the Thriller (1973) episode Sign it Death with Patrick Allen in the Klugman role. I'd give Sign it Death a slight edge, mainly because Allen makes a far more credible catch.

22 Portrait of an Unknown Man. Clint Walker files a claim on an old mine and moves in on some insular locals who don't take kindly to his taciturn manner, except the put-upon daughter of the storekeeper.

30 Operation Greif. A small group of US soldiers in France near the end of WW2 suspect one of their comrades of being a Nazi spy, but do they suspect the wrong man?

31 A Lion Amongst Men. I enjoyed this one the most. James Whitmore plays a decorated Korea veteran who tried to re-live his glory days by setting up a paramilitary organisation, for what purpose was not really explained. It's a more overblown reprise of the heavy handed authoritarian he did in The Twilight Zone episode On Thursday We Leave for Home.