Mister Beal Meets His Match

"Mr. Beal Meets His Match" is actually quite a strange and, yes, puzzling episode from TV's "Father Knows Best" (1958).

Most of the story is something of a surreal fantasy where each member of the Anderson family is enticed by the wicked Mr. Beal to make a wish and then suffer the consequences when their dreams become a reality.

Anyway - I found it really hard to believe that the pert & prim college girl, Betty Anderson had enough imagination in her pretty, little head to create such a story as this one.

An amusing spoof of the classic noir picture "Alias Nick Beal" which starred Ray Milland as Beal and Thomas Mitchell as the aspiring politician who finds himself entangled with the nefarious Beal, better known as Old Scratch, whose assistance comes at the price of his soul. This time out Betty (Eleanor Donahue) is reading a story she wrote to the Anderson family, and it includes a mysterious character named Beal who provides a set of enchanted books with pictures of possessions the Andersons merely have to wish for to get. However this version's Beal isn't Nick, it's Harry.

The episode contains the usual laughs viewers expect, except Betty's story does contain a twinge of darkness as Jim (Robert Young) discovers that wishing for the possessions they see in the books comes with a high price: anyone who wishes for something now belongs to the nefarious Beal, portrayed amusingly and competently by British actor John Williams.

An excellent episode spoofing the equally excellent noir, a picture that displays the versatile talents of Ray Milland and is one of Thomas Mitchell's best roles.

I had heard for years about this strange episode of "FKB" where the family is visited by the Devil himself. The Devil supposedly played by Ray Milland. I found hard to believe the series would do such an episode but here it is. But it's British actor John Williams who played the Devil, not Milland. Williams would later play Mr French on "Family Affair" after Sebastian Cabot left.

Wow! For a moment I too thought I'd tuned into The Twilight Zone. What else could explain the normally affable dad Anderson having an emotional fit, teeth grinding, eyes rolling, and arms flailing. It's like everyone's perfect dad suddenly turning into Mr. Hyde. But then, he is trying to save his family from the seductive depredations of the Lord of Fire and Brimstone.

Good thing we know at the outset that all this is happening in daughter Betty's literary imagination as she reads her story to the family. It's a real tribute to the staff that we forget this make-believe as the infernal story draws us further and further in despite the framing. Overall, the episode's quite a departure for the 1950's version of iconic family wholesomeness; plus, a showcase for actor Young's thespic talents that do, as we learn, go beyond a friendly smile. Then too, I suspect there's a backstory to this daring departure. After all, they're fiddling with the format of one of the decades most popular series.

Note also the unforced moral emerging at episode's end, one that's in perfect keeping with the series's family norm. And that's along with another typical 50's cautionary lesson: namely, don't read what father tells you not too. It could invite evil as it does here. Thus, it's parents who should decide what kids should read, no matter how trivial it may seem. All in all, the 30-minutes itself amounts to a rather daring departure for generally staid 50's TV, and shouldn't be passed up.