Suspense Television

Still Watching...

Hi Folks,

Our crack team of imaginary experts are still going through the new Suspense DVD set. Overall, we are pretty pleased with this new collection.

It is taking me longer to pick out the ones that I want to write about because there are so many good ones this time around. I was also pleased to see that there are two episodes based on Cornell Woolrich stories. The first two sets didn't have any.

So, stay tuned. We are still working on it. I will be sharing some of my thoughts on these episodes via Twitter. You can find us at http://twitter.com/EscapeSuspense

Best,

Christine

Suspense: The Lost Episodes - Collection Three

The long-awaited third collection of Suspense: The Lost Episodes will be released on March 17, 2009.

For more information about the upcoming release, head on over to TVShowsonDVD.com for the details. You can also read brief summaries of the episodes included in this set over at ClassicFlix.com.

As you can see, Rod Serling graces the cover of this collection because he wrote one of the episodes from 1953, "Nightmare at Ground Zero." I think they should have put Suspense's favorite crabby old lady, Ruth McDevitt, on the cover... but they chose to go with Serling.

Here is the list of episodes that we can look forward to:

Disc #1: Post Mortem (1949), Yellow Scarf (1949), Goodbye, New York (1949), The Case of Lady Sannox (1949), One Thousand Dollars to One for Your Money (1950), I'm No Hero (1950), The Bomber Command (1950), and Death at the Stock Car Races (1963)

Disc #2: A Pocketful of Murder (1950), The Mallet (1950), Go Home Dead Man (1951), Pier 17 (1951), The Spider (1952), The Red Signal (1952), Death Drum (1952), North of Shanghai (1952), and Night Drive (1952).

Disc #3: Four Days to Kill (1952), Her Last Adventure (1952), The Old Lady of Bayeux (1952), Set-up for Death (1952), The Blue Panther (1952), A Time of Innocence (1952), and Mutiny Below (1953).

Disc #4: F.O.B Vienna (1953), The Man Who Cried Wolf (1953), The Dance (1953), Nightmare at Ground Zero (1953), The Hunted (1954), and the Funmaster (1958).

We're back... after an unexpected break

Hi Folks,

As some of you know, I broke my foot back in July. For that reason, I haven't been updating Suspense Television since then. It was too much work to keep both of my blogs going during that time.

I'm back on two feet now, so let's get things rolling again.

Thanks for your patience,

Christine

Spring Break

Hi Folks,

Sorry for the delay in updating this site. We are a bit behind schedule but will be posting new material soon. Stay tuned...

Christine

(Image from Stock.xchng)

Suspense - The Second Collection of "Lost Episodes"

Hello!

The second collection of Suspense: The Lost Episodes became available today. If you pre-ordered this item, then you may already be watching it right now.  If you haven't purchased it yet, well, there is no time like the present. You can purchase it through the handy-dandy purple widget on our sister site Escape and Suspense!

You can probably tell already that this collection of episodes is going to be interesting. How many episodes star Conrad Janis? What kind of cartoon stories does Rex Marshall tell us? Who are the big name stars? Which episodes are the best?

We'll be exploring those questions, and many more, soon.

Happy Halloween!

Christine

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.