In the late 1940s and through the 1950s, television was amazing in that several weekly shows produced live teleplays---often of original stories written for television (such as the greatest of the teleplays, "Marty", "Requiem for a Heavyweight" and "Days Of Wine & Roses"). And often, they starred some of the top talent from Hollywood or Broadway--and it usually came off as very professional and even sometimes brilliant. Among the best of these shows were "Playhouse 90" and "Studio One"--and fortunately some of these live shows still exist on Kinescope copies. Now the Kinescopes are pretty ugly to look at (a bit blurry and washed out) but at least they are available if you are willing to look.
This episode of "Studio One" stars the famous supporting actor Thomas Mitchell. If you've watched a decent number of old movies, no doubt you've seen him in such films as "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Stagecoach". The other star if the much less famous Wendy Drew. He plays a mayor and she his daughter. When she is kidnapped, something inexplicable happens--one of the kidnappers actually falls for her and vice-versa. This is only the beginning--there's a lot more to it than this. But, I don't want to spoil the film by saying more.
The bottom line is that Drew was excellent and Mitchell his usual professional self. This good acting combined with an intriguing story make this one well worth seeing--even if it is a bit improbable and the narration at the end VERY heavy-handed. As a result it's not among the series' best, but it's still darn good--and you marvel that they were able to do this all LIVE! Wow.
This episode of "Studio One" stars the famous supporting actor Thomas Mitchell. If you've watched a decent number of old movies, no doubt you've seen him in such films as "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Stagecoach". The other star if the much less famous Wendy Drew. He plays a mayor and she his daughter. When she is kidnapped, something inexplicable happens--one of the kidnappers actually falls for her and vice-versa. This is only the beginning--there's a lot more to it than this. But, I don't want to spoil the film by saying more.
The bottom line is that Drew was excellent and Mitchell his usual professional self. This good acting combined with an intriguing story make this one well worth seeing--even if it is a bit improbable and the narration at the end VERY heavy-handed. As a result it's not among the series' best, but it's still darn good--and you marvel that they were able to do this all LIVE! Wow.