Reviews of Suspense:The Lost Episodes

Fanfare about the long awaited release of the Suspense television show is limited, but the few reviews that have drifted out on the internet are entertainment enough:

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Leonard Maltin's review of Suspense: The Lost Episodes can be found on the Leonard's Picks page. (Scroll down the page to find it.) His review is flattering and enthusiastic overall:

"...early episodes reveal all of the quaintness of live television: flimsy, obvious sets, shadows of microphone booms, and in at least one instance an actor ducking in front of the camera at the beginning of a scene he's not in."

"There is a marked change by the 1952-1953 season. Director Robert Mulligan shows what a creative person could do within the limitations of low-budget live TV; his shows are ingneniously staged and orchestrated, even if some of the scripts still fail to deliver on their promise."

Visit Leonard Maltin's website  and read his entire review for more information.

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The Baltimore Sun's reviewer Chris Kaltenbach states: "Though marred by dime-store sets (mostly made of cardboard, they tend to move in ways they shouldn't) and the occasional actor who doesn't realize the camera's on him, this collection is an invaluable relic from television's earliest days, when almost everything about the medium was new and untried."  (Kaltenbach, Chris. "Writer Cocteau's 'Enfants Terribles" Play a Fascinating Gam; Critic's Picks: New DVDs" The Sun. Baltimore, Md.: Jul. 22, 2007. pg. 8E)

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Chris Hicks of the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City, summarizes the new DVD with these words: "These are creaky kinescopes of this half-hour anthology series from the earliest days of television, etc...The show was broadcast live, and there are occasional bloopers, such as the guy in the Leslie Nielsen-George Reeves episode who makes an accidental on-camera appearance and quickly ducks out of sight."  ("TV's Benson and Woody Woodpecker Among Releases." Deseret News. Salt Lake City, Utah: Jul 23, 2007. pg. C 07)

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The reviewer at the site Monsters from the ID makes some good points in his review of Suspense when he says:  "...Television of this vintage is a very different animal from film or even from the television that comes along in the mid-1950's. It's a weird conflation of radio drama and stage play, performed live, with an accompanying organ track (the kind of organ track that persisted with soap operas longer than with any other genre)."

He also states, "The first thing you will notice about the picture is the murk."

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After reading these reviews, one can't help but want to see the actor who made that noteworthy, accidental, on-camera appearance. His quick blunder, (pictured left) was not so bad. Here we can see the blurry outline of our unfortunate friend as he darts in and out of this scene. Leslie Nielsen is the actor coming through the door.

After reading the reviews you may ask, "is there more to Suspense than just the cheap sets, "creaky kinescopes" and mistakes on live television?" Yes, there is some good stuff hidden in all of that murk.

Comments

[Shonokin]

Congrats on the new site! Looks great and very informative.

I wonder if "The Adventure of the Black Baronet" is one of the found kinoscopes and will show up in set 3. One can hope!

Thanks for putting this together.