Early TV

 

SUSPENSE:"Dr. Violet"-1949-An engaged couple go to a carny wax museum about murderers. The host Dr. Violet (Hume Cronyn) is an expert on murder. One exhibit isn't finished as the murderer hasn't been caught yet. The police suspect a nutty customer Mousey (Ray Walston). Violet leaves the girl (Anne Francis; 7 years before FORBIDDEN PLANET) alone in the museum and we learn a little more of his background. The ending is kind abrupt and awkward. Also with Frankie Thomas and Mike Kellin. 

Screenwriter Halstead Welles later wrote 3:10 TO YUMA and THE HANGING TREE. Director Robert Stevens later directed 44 episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and the very unusual personality change drama CHANGE OF MIND (1969).

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Change

 

 (imdb)

CHANGE OF MIND-1969-White attorney David Rowe has his brain transplanted into a new body because he has terminal cancer. His new body is that of a black man (Raymond St. Jacques). David retains all the memories and feelings he had before except now he's black which he's OK with (he knew beforehand) as he's just happy and astonished to be alive. It's every one else who has a problem including his wife (Susan Oliver) and his mother. Later David has to defend a racist sheriff (Leslie Nielsen) accused of killing his black mistress.

 This is not a straight science fiction story as only the operation itself lends itself to that. This is basically a morality tale (filmed in Toronto) focusing on a white man who know must now face a new life. This one of only a handful of feature films directed by well-known TV director Robert Stevens.

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Early TV Horror

 

 (imdb)

AUTO-LITE PRESENTS "SUSPENSE": "THE YELLOW SCARF"-1949-Hettie (Felicia Montealegre), a street walker in 1876 London, is taken in by a mysterious and sinister doctor (Boris Karloff) who provides her with a room, clothes and food. Only two stipulations: she can't go out alone and she can never go into his lab. He has a hunchback assistant Tilson (character actor Russell Collins, unrecognizable in the makeup). Later to take attention away from his strange medical experiments, he marries her. She begins an affair with Tom (Douglas Watson), a mission worker. It doesn't end well.

 Very creepy and Karloff is especially sinister. Directed by Robert Stevens, the only person whoever won an Emmy for directing an episode of TV's “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”. Rex Marshall is the off-screen host/narrator.

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Boris!

 

 (YouTube)

AUTO-LITE THEATER PRESENTS "SUSPENSE" (1949)-"A NIGHT AT THE INN" by Lord Dunsany. Three mugs (Anthony Ross, Jack Manning, Barry Macollum) who stole a sacred Jewel from the head of a Hindu idol hide out at an Irish inn waiting to hear the plan their boss Toff (Boris Karloff) has for them. They decide to take the jewel by force from Toff and sell it in London. However Toffee has a plan which seems to work until something unforeseen happens….

This strange little tale is an interesting look at an early live TV production (shot in NYC) with a creepy atmosphere and Karloff giving a great performance.

 “Suspense” ran on the CBS network for 5 seasons starting in 1948. It's the offshoot of a radio show of the same name that ran for 20 years beginning in 1942. Auto-lite sponsored the show throughout it's run and the on screen narrator was Rex Marshall for many of them (around this time Marshall helped found WPIX TV in NYC. He later did many other TV announcing jobs and after that owned his own radio station in Vermont until his death in 2000). 

Like many early TV anthologies it based it's shows on stories written by well known authors (Edgar Allen Poe e.g.) and many well known stars and characters are were featured. Bela Lugosi appears in an adaptation of Poe's “The Cask of Amontillado”. Many episodes are lost but at least 90 exist. Director Robert Stevens was busy on TV through the 1960's (He directed 44 episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and the first episode of “The Twilight Zone”, “Where Is Everybody?”). He died of cardiac arrest after being beaten and robbed in his home in 1989. Screenwriter Halstead Welles also later wrote for “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and much later “Night Gallery”.

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Bela on TV

  (imdb)

SUSPENSE-THE AUTO-LITE THEATER-1949- "The Cask of Amontillado"-In Nazi Germany an arrogant drunkard General Fortunato (Bela Lugosi in a rare dramatic TV role) visits a once prominent citizen Count Montressor (Romney Brent; later a series regular on TV's “Zorro”) intent on killing him and stealing his faithless wife. At first the count accepts his enviable fate and inviting the general (who once worked for the count and married and murdered his sister) in for a drink but then resolving to kill his nemesis by burying him alive. The only other actors to appear are Ray Walston and Frank Marth, both in uncredited roles. Rex Marshall is the announcer. Robert Stevens directed this rare unusual version of the Edgar Allan Poe classic short story.

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