This episode of the very old Live TV series "Suspense" is a curio, but surprisingly interesting in ways I wouldn't have suspected. It demonstrates how the medium has so drastically (and inevitably) changed, but that creativity, not expensive gimmicks, is what counts.
I had just watched Barry Nelson starring as James Bond (!) in the 1954 tv broadcast of "Casino Royale", a similarly primitive production. Both assignments reveal a side of Nelson I never knew -as a "pretty boy" actor he was also fully capable of playing the tough guy roles, in this case a "Tough Cop". This transition reminds me of Dick Powell, who I first saw on TV in those 1930s light musical comedies yet was so terrific in later film noir casting.
The show, resembling soap operas in technique (so heavily reliant on tons of dialogue) suffers from a live organ musical score, again soap opera time. But the acting is fine and the script dense and concise in telling a story. In the opening we see Nelson as a cop watching an older colleague give a fidgety suspect the third degree. Nelson and his cop pal Robert Emhardt (a character actor who appeared in numerous episodes of "Suspense") disapprove of that sort of policing, but it sets the stage for an ironic tale.
Nelson's plain-jane girlfriend (Katharine Bard, a Broadway actress turning to TV who later starred as axe-murderer Lizzie Borden (!) for "Suspense") enjoys a little role-playing with cop Nelson, but soon gives back his expensive engagement ring, informing him "I'm in love with somebody else", a guy named David Brenner (no, not the later-to-be wonderful comic by that name, of course).
Nelson becomes embittered, and turns into a tough, violent cop mirroring that bad influence we saw, and taking out his anger on suspects during interrogations. Eventually he's kicked off the force and happens to run into Brenner in a bar, where coincidentally his old pal Emhardt nearly arrests Brenner for getting into a fight. Ex-cop Nelson pretends to arrest Brenner himself, takes him home to Brenner's wife Bard and confronts her for having ruined his life two years ago by breaking off their engagement.
He roughs up Brenner and is poised to kill him old partner Emhardt shows up and kill Nelson in a shootout, with his death scene featuring a message for Bard: "I'm not so tough".
Nelson is great fun to watch transitioning so quickly (in the half-hour "Suspense" format) from good guy into a maniacal killer, turning on the James Cagney shtick from so many gangster movies.
On top of that, the show includes a strange, imaginative subplot to integrate jazz pianist/songwriter Joe Bushkin into the story. He's playing piano and singing live in the fateful bar where Brenner runs into Nelson, with Brenner's character as his partner in songwriting. Brenner is reading a newspaper story about "tough cop" Nelson having been bounced from the force and suggests that they write a song about him, but Bushkin rejects the notion -trying out "Tough Ex-Cop" at the piano. Their banter (with Bushkin's piano comping) plays as almost a musical recap of the show's plot line while we're still watching the show! Give credit to scriptwriter Alvin Sapinsley for this inspired, whimsical approach to storytelling -he was an unsung prolific TV writer for many, many fine series.
I had just watched Barry Nelson starring as James Bond (!) in the 1954 tv broadcast of "Casino Royale", a similarly primitive production. Both assignments reveal a side of Nelson I never knew -as a "pretty boy" actor he was also fully capable of playing the tough guy roles, in this case a "Tough Cop". This transition reminds me of Dick Powell, who I first saw on TV in those 1930s light musical comedies yet was so terrific in later film noir casting.
The show, resembling soap operas in technique (so heavily reliant on tons of dialogue) suffers from a live organ musical score, again soap opera time. But the acting is fine and the script dense and concise in telling a story. In the opening we see Nelson as a cop watching an older colleague give a fidgety suspect the third degree. Nelson and his cop pal Robert Emhardt (a character actor who appeared in numerous episodes of "Suspense") disapprove of that sort of policing, but it sets the stage for an ironic tale.
Nelson's plain-jane girlfriend (Katharine Bard, a Broadway actress turning to TV who later starred as axe-murderer Lizzie Borden (!) for "Suspense") enjoys a little role-playing with cop Nelson, but soon gives back his expensive engagement ring, informing him "I'm in love with somebody else", a guy named David Brenner (no, not the later-to-be wonderful comic by that name, of course).
Nelson becomes embittered, and turns into a tough, violent cop mirroring that bad influence we saw, and taking out his anger on suspects during interrogations. Eventually he's kicked off the force and happens to run into Brenner in a bar, where coincidentally his old pal Emhardt nearly arrests Brenner for getting into a fight. Ex-cop Nelson pretends to arrest Brenner himself, takes him home to Brenner's wife Bard and confronts her for having ruined his life two years ago by breaking off their engagement.
He roughs up Brenner and is poised to kill him old partner Emhardt shows up and kill Nelson in a shootout, with his death scene featuring a message for Bard: "I'm not so tough".
Nelson is great fun to watch transitioning so quickly (in the half-hour "Suspense" format) from good guy into a maniacal killer, turning on the James Cagney shtick from so many gangster movies.
On top of that, the show includes a strange, imaginative subplot to integrate jazz pianist/songwriter Joe Bushkin into the story. He's playing piano and singing live in the fateful bar where Brenner runs into Nelson, with Brenner's character as his partner in songwriting. Brenner is reading a newspaper story about "tough cop" Nelson having been bounced from the force and suggests that they write a song about him, but Bushkin rejects the notion -trying out "Tough Ex-Cop" at the piano. Their banter (with Bushkin's piano comping) plays as almost a musical recap of the show's plot line while we're still watching the show! Give credit to scriptwriter Alvin Sapinsley for this inspired, whimsical approach to storytelling -he was an unsung prolific TV writer for many, many fine series.