Wednesday, October 24, 2018

TELEVISION’S LOST CLASSICS VOL. 1: FORGOTTEN DRAMAS


There was a time when television presented weekly dramas that were not episodic but self-contained stories that discussed topics of the day and played out like weekly Broadway plays, live on camera. Almost all were sponsored by various companies that ran their commercials only during the shows. It was called the golden age of television and in many ways it was exactly that. The shows put on were more concerned with actual drama than a weekly mix up of regular characters. Most of those shows are long gone and many were never recorded. Fortunately some remain intact and now VCI is releasing a few on disc.

TELEVISION LOST CLASSICS VOL. 1 features two such programs. Both feature John Cassavetes on two different shows. Know going in that these two shows were not filmed but captured on kinescopes, the recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. It won’t have the clarity of film and you can tell it was originally videotaped. It doesn’t affect the performances, writing or direction of the program though.

The first episode comes from The Elgin Hour, a watch company that sponsored the show. Entitled CRIME IN THE STREETS it tells the story of troubled teen Frankie Dane (Cassavetes) who leads a street gang in a poor neighborhood in New York. His single mother (Glenda Farrell) struggles to raise her Frankie and his younger brother Richie (Van Dyke Parks) right, but isn’t doing so well. Social worker Ben Wagner (Robert Preston) takes an interest in Cassavetes and when word reaches him that Frankie intends to kill someone one night, he makes a point of stepping in and attempting to save Frankie from a life of crime.

The piece was later adapted into a feature film and came out prior to the release of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, both films featuring similar stories of troubled youth and gang culture. This episode was directed by Sidney Lumet who went on to direct such films as 12 ANGRY MEN, FAIL-SAFE, SERPICO, NETWORK, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS and DOG DAY AFTERNOON among others. It seems that a number of those included here went on to bigger and better things.

In the meantime the episode is entertaining and captures the city streets on an obvious soundstage, more play than feature. That they could accomplish a program like this live is an amazing thing and something that many in today’s shows would be hard pressed to equal.

The second program is from the series CLIMAX!, another anthology series. The episode shown here is NO RIGHT TO KILL and is loosely based on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Here Cassavetes plays writer McCloud. Impoverished and unsuccessful at getting published. In need of money he tries to pawn off the last valuable possession he owns to an uncaring pawn broker who ridicules him. When she does so, he kills her and takes the money he needs. Driven mad by guilt he deals with the fact that the police are looking for him and he still hasn’t achieved the success he sought.

The show is interesting but the weaker of the two shows included here. It has a nice supporting cast and was well written but the story moves at a much slower pace. The episode was directed by Buzz Kulik who directed tons of classic television programs including GUNSMOKE, THE TWILIGHT ZONE and more as well as feature films like VILLA RIDES, SERGEANT RYKER and SHAMUS.

The historical aspects of programs like these make them fascinating to watch. It is also nice to have on hand to show younger people how programs once were before the invention of color, before film was used to record shows and to display the amount of expertise that went into these shows. They may not be of interests to the masses but for many these were the best times for television. They at least deserve a watch. 

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