Kraft Suspense Theatre

I remember this TV show being released in France during the late sixties and far more recently on minor channels. Yes, this TV series was very unusual, as were CHEVY THEATRE or BOB HOPE PRESENTS...Dramas, thrillers, crime...Very surprising plots, although not every one may be worth for my own taste. For this series, for instance, some episodes bored me to death; some looked like a PEYTON PLACE intrigue with expected results. And if there is something I hate more than anything else in this kind of stuff is f...expected results, expected endings. In big screen movies, OK, I agree, but certainly not for small stories like these ones I am talking about now. I crave for sad, ironic, ambiguous or "open" ends and not happy endings. I don't think suspense was the master link of this TV show.

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.

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.

KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATRE was one of the great television anthology series that came out of the early 1960's. For the two seasons that it ran on NBC-TV,this was one of the few suspense programs that was produced in color,which the Peacock network's majority of shows were at the time. This was produced by the great Roy Huggins(whose name is uncredited here)who was behind some of the greatest shows ever produced for television("Cheyenne","Maverick", "77 Sunset Strip", "The Fugitive", "Run For Your Life", and "The Rockford Files") in arrangement with Roncom Films and Universal Studios. A total of 59 episodes were produced for NBC-TV from its premiere on October 10,1963 until July 1,1965. The theme music composed for this series was done by one of the greatest of all Hollywood composers to do scores for film and television......the maestro himself, John Williams.

And with other anthology series that were around during the 1960's,almost every program featured a self-contained episode with its own cast. Roy Huggins,also brought a wealth of talent to this series,including casting some of the stars from his Warner Brothers shows to be in some of the episodes for Kraft Suspense Theatre. Stars like Jack Kelly("Maverick"),Ebb Byrnes("77 Sunset Strip"), Ty Hardin("Bronco"), Clint Walker("Cheyenne"),Roger Smith("77 Sunset Strip"), Troy Donahue ("Surfside Six"),and Robert Conrad("Hawaiian Eye").

Several episodes from this series were brilliant including the premiere episode(which was a two-parter)titled "The Case Against Paul Ryker". The episode starred Lee Marvin as Paul Ryker,a soldier who is being court martialed for treason during the Korean War. Vera Miles played his wife,Bradford Dillman was his JAG defense lawyer who had an intense flirtation with Ryker's wife. Peter Graves was the prosecuting attorney. Marvin's performance in the role is astounding here. However,the 1968 theatrical film "Sergeant Ryker",starring Lee Marvin was actually a two-part made for TV film that first aired on Kraft Suspense Theatre is based on this episode,which Universal Pictures released as a theatrical feature with newly added scenes.

Some of Hollywood's greatest appeared in several episodes here:

Cornel Wilde("Doesn't Anyone Know Who I Am?")

Jack Kelly("Kill Me On July 20th")

Lloyd Bridges("A Hero For Our Times")

Leslie Nielsen("One Step Down",with Gena Rowlands, "The Green Felt Jungle")

Jack Lord("The Long Ravine")

Richard Crenna("The Long Lost Life of Edward Smalley",also starring James Whitmore and Phillip Abbott)

John Forsythe("The Kamchatka Incident","The Sweet Taste of Vengeance")

Brian Keith("The Cause of Anger")

Ronald Reagan("A Cruel and Unusual Night")

Ben Gazzara("Rapture at Forty Two",the pilot episode for the "Run For Your Life" TV series)

Telly Savalas("Watchman", "The Eye of the Tiger")

Philip Carey ("My Enemy,This Town")

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.