Portrait of an Unknown Man; Kraft Suspense Theatre; Clint Walker; Robert Duval

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Season #1, Episode #22

Portrait of an Unknown Man

Original Air Date - April 16, 1964

Setting/Time - A western mountain sheep herding town in the present (in October).

Plot/Review/Discussion

Clint Walker plays a very tall man (David Wolfe) who is new in town and wants to be left alone for reasons that are unclear. As he arrives near the town, he abandons his broken down car to roll down an embankment along the road. He shows up at a general store in the mountains and orders many supplies but refuses to say why. Walker then loads his supplies on a burro and begins a 3 hour trek up the mountain to his newly rented cabin.

The following clip picks up the action after Walker has ditched his car (and just after the locals have called the sheriff to find out who won the world series after their radio broke):




This event begins constant gossip among the townspeople over what Walker is doing up in his cabin three hours away. Several of them even walk up there (!) to visit/spy on Walker. Much of the plot involves additional scenes/confrontations in which the townspeople seek answers from Walker, while Walker remains secretive and professes his desire to be left alone. The suspicions of the local residents were based on the fact that Wolfe paid for his purchases with a one hundred dollar bill.

The story is very much like "My Enemy, This Town" (1.15). There is a constant series of confrontations between one man and the local residents, in which the man repeats the same theme over and over again. These confrontations are much milder in this episode than in "Enemy," but the repetitiveness still makes for an inferior plot.

This'll learn ya' to use 100 dollar bills!














There is a related plot involving the general store owner and his daughter. That conflict/plot had been brewing under the surface for years prior to the events of this story. Apparently the father wanted his daughter to marry the man who molested her when she was underage. Walker's arrival in town helps bring the secondary plot to the forefront, while the secondary plot helps bring the main story to a resolution.

There are small points where the plot is difficult to believe. The writers went to great lengths to isolate Walker/Wolfe in his mountain cabin. While that isolation reinforces Wolfe's character, it makes it difficult to create additional confrontations/interactions between Wolfe and the townspeople. The writers' solution was to have townspeople take a three hour hike (each way) to visit Wolfe so that new confrontations could advance the plot.

Miscellaneous - The exterior set would be reused in "The Long Ravine" (2.24).

Cars

Clint Walker drives what is most likely a 1952 Ford at the beginning of the episode. He then proceeds to push a different 1952 Ford down the hill (either it was different or things were removed on the exterior before it was released to its destruction). This car was difficult to identify due to the beat up condition. Aside from broken windows and many dents, the only problem with the car seemed to be a broken hose - until it rolled down the embankment.

The Sheriff drove a 1964 Ford Galaxie.

Actors

Clint Walker plays David Wolfe. He was active in TV and movies for more than 40 years. He played the title character in Cheyenne for seven years. He played a small role in The Ten Commandments.

Robert Duval in "Portrait of an Unknown Man"







Robert Duval plays in one of his earliest roles as Harvey the handyman. He remains active today after more than 50 years in Hollywood. At the time this episode aired, TV guest roles were typical for Duval instead of the movie roles that he would get regularly in the 1970's and beyond.

Mala Powers played the store owner's daughter. Her acting career began with the help of Ida Lupino, when she played a rape victim in Lupino's Outrage. She guest starred on numerous television series, including Cheyenne with Clint Walker.

Quote of the Episode -

Robert Duval/Harvey (shouting indignantly): "Wait a minute! You think you can come down here, hand an order in and then just fill it?"

Clint Walker/Wolfe (matter-of-factly): "Yes."

Lessons I Learned from "Portrait of an Unknown Man."

• If your car breaks down, just dispose of it by letting it roll down an embankment. No one will mind.



• Sheriff's deputies, in addition to their duties as art critics, also provide sports updates.



• You can come down here, hand an order in and then just fill it.



• Don't trust any man who has a 100 dollar bill.



• If your daughter is single, marry her off to the first child molester that becomes available.



• If you are curious about a stranger in town, spend six hours walking back and forth to his house so you can check up on him.
  

The Threatening Eye; Kraft Suspense Theatre; Jack Klugman; Annie Farge; Phyllis Thaxter; Ida Lupino; Coleen Gray

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Season #1, Episode #18

The Threatening Eye

Original Air Date - March 12, 1964

Setting/Time - Present day California [update April 13, 2013 - in March in a medium sized town.]

Plot/Review/Discussion -

I saw this episode once over a year ago (which means that RTV should be getting ready to re-run it again, but only after another 5 airings of "My Enemy, This Town"). I don't remember much of the detail, but I recall the basic plot.

"The Threatening Eye" was generally unique among KST episodes because the main plot involved a mystery. A middle aged man was pursued romantically by an attractive young woman. The reasons for this pursuit were unclear. We watch as the young woman does her best to wreck the man's marriage. Eventually, the young woman resorts to illegal means to pursue her goal. (Pardon my vagueness, but I am trying to avoid plot spoilers.) We share the man's puzzlement as he tries to explain/understand the woman's attraction to him and her anger at his rejection of her advances.

The plot thus combines both the pursuit (by various means) and the mystery. The underlying reason is not revealed until the very end. I recall the reason, but I do not recall that reason even being foreshadowed during the episode. In fact, the viewer might not even realize that a mystery exists until the answer to the mystery is revealed.

Much of the plot focuses on subtle manipulation and deception. The actual resolution of the mystery (and the lack of foreshadowing of such resolution) is less important than the subtle drama that takes us to that resolution. Of course, the plot and the young woman's tactics become less subtle as the story unfolds.

This snippet (midway through the episode) summarizes the mystery that the audience and Klugman's character struggle with until the final scene. 

The title comes from Shakespeare's "King John." Shakespeare's quote reads, "When Fortune means to men most good, She looks upon them with a threatening eye." -King John, Act iii. Sc. 4. This reference might be the closest the episode comes to foreshadowing the explanation to the mystery.  [Update - April 27, 2013 - This is the second of at least three episodes with a Shakespearean quote in the title.]

The episode was written by Howard Browne, who was well known for crime, mystery and action writing, including 1967's St. Valentine's Day Massacre, numerous television episodes, two later episodes of KST and his work editing a science fiction journal in 1952.

[Update - April 27, 2013 - There is an interesting line early in the episode that is a subtle reference to work-related sexual harrassment.  Dabney Coleman's character, in describing the sexual harrassment of a female employee, tells Farge's character,  "It seems that her boss figures a secretary should perform two functions - one of which is to be a secretary."]

Actors -

Jack Klugman plays the middle age businessman. He is most famous for his starring roles in The Odd Couple and Quincy M.E. in the 1970's and 1980's. Klugman has been visible in recent years for his appearances on numerous syndicated Twilight Zone reruns from the early 1960's. "Threatening Eye" was the first of his two KST episodes. Klugman remained active for more than 50 years.

Annie Farge played the pursuing secretary. Farge had played the title role in the sitcom Angel in the early 1960's. I could find no reference to her, either at IMDB.com or elsewhere, that post-dated 1964, even though she was young at that time. She appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson less than a month after this KST episode aired. Her final known acting role occurred in the fall of 1964 on Perry Mason. [Update - April 27, 2013 - Wikipedia reports that Farge returned to France in the mid-1960's and died six months after I posted the initial version of this review.]

Phyllis Thaxter plays the victimized wife. She enjoyed a 50 + year career in theatre, tv and movies. Her first movie was Thirty Seconds over Tokyo in 1944. In 1948, she starred with future KST actor Robert Ryan in Act of Violence. She acted in her share of Hitchcock episodes and one Twilight Zone episode. By the late 1970's she would play Clark Kent's mother in Superman. She often played similar roles to that of the wife in this KST episode - the patient and overshadowed victim of the more flambouyant villains. Her ex-husband, James Aubrey, was, at one time, the President of CBS-TV.

Pat O'Brian played the first of his two roles as a policeman on KST. Dabney Coleman made the first of his two KST appearances in this episode. [Update - April 27, 2013 - Coleman played a private detective early in the episode.]

Ida Lupino directed this episode. She had starred in Season 1's "One Step Down."

[Update - April 27, 2013 - Coleen Gray played another employee of Jack Klugman's company, whose friendship with Klugman played a pivotal role at various points in the show.  Her career spanned 40 + years, including recurring guest roles on such shows as Perry Mason, McCloud and Ironside, as well as a guest appearance on KST spinoff Run For Your Life.  For many years, she was active in Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship.]

Cars - I cannot recall the cars used in this episode. I recall only that they played an important role at one point in the plot and that interesting models were used. 

[Update - April 27, 2013 - Jack Klugman drove a light blue 1964 Ford Galaxie (one of two 1964 Galaxies that appeared in this episode).  The stalking secretary drove a 1961 Ford Galaxie.

Phyllis Thaxter's character drove a 1954 Ford - probably a "Crestline."

A snippet of one Galaxie following another (with a third Galaxie passing by).

1954 Ford Crestline

Kraft Suspense Theatre; One Step Down; Gena Rowlands; Leslie Nielsen, Ida Lupino; Phillip Pine

Season 1, Episode #6

One Step Down

Original Air Date - November 14, 1963 - This would be the last episode broadcast before the JFK assassination - 8 days later. KST would not resume until December 5th. I don't know whether news coverage disrupted the broadcast schedule. I suspect Thanksgiving interrupted regular programming (KST was a Thursday show). (There may also have been a Perry Como musical special during the hiatus - more on that later.)

Setting/Time - Ojai, California in the present.

Plot/Review/Discussion -

This episode is another of my favorites. The story involves a choice between right and wrong, much like "Hero" and "Are There Any More Out There Like You?" Unlike those two episodes, the choice in "One Step Down" is made in the beginning. The main character (Janet Cord/Gena Rowlands) makes a wrong choice to start the show, and spends the entire episode hoping to escape the consequences. The suspense comes not from wondering what choice she will make. The suspense comes from the fear of the consequences.

Cord/Rowlands opens the episode by going to a hotel with a married man (she is married herself to Dr. David Cord/Leslie Nielsen). Nothing happens - she gets cold feet and tries to leave. Events from this point forward spin out of control. I leave out a few facts to avoid spoiling the plot, but suffice it to say that the tryst is discovered, but only in part. The innocent spouses know only that something went on in a hotel between the boyfriend and an unknown woman. Cord/Rowlands seems to have dodged a bullet. We watch the scorned wife attempt to discover the identity of the unknown woman for most of the episode. The plot is complicated by the close friendship of the two couples. We see Ida Lupino as the scorned woman planning her revenge, not knowing that the target of her ire (Cord/Rowlands) stands before her in fear and anxiety the entire time.

Rowlands plays the part sympathetically, suffering from fear instead of enjoying the possibility of getting away with near infidelity. I wrote in "Hero" about "class" in KST. Gena Rowlands played this role with class. She was well-dressed, articulate and reserved. It was obvious that this situation was out of the ordinary for her character. Modern dramas feature actual infidelity as a routine matter. The women who are portrayed today differ markedly from Rowlands' character.

The resolution is enjoyable because it is believable. This is standard for KST. The Hitchcock resolutions (of the same era) are too clever, relying on improbable coincidences, Rube Goldberg plans or supernatural events. KST resolutions rely on human interaction and the ability to overcome fears, emotions and frailties. We can identify with KST, even if we have never been in exactly the same situation.

Cars - Leslie Nielsen drives a 1963 Mercury Monterey. The boyfriend drives a @ 62-64 Lincoln convertible. I cannot remember all of the vehicles, but I seem to recall a Plymouth police car and a 1958 GM car toward the end driven by the scorned wife. There is also one limousine, as I recall. I believe Rowlands drove an early 1960's Ford/Mercury. The plot does not revolve around the vehicles.

Update - December 5, 2010 - Rowlands drove a 1962-1963 Ford Falcon wood panel station wagon. Lupino drove a 1957-1958 Plymouth (similar to the car in Stephen King's Christine (1983)). The limousine I recalled was an early 1960's Cadillac hearse with too brief an appearance to identify exactly.

Actors - Gena Rowlands remains active today. She has acted since the mid-50's. This was the first of two KST episodes for Rowlands, the second being "Won't it Ever be Morning" in Season Two. She made 10 movies with her husband John Cassavetes.

Leslie Nielsen starred also in Season 2's "The Green Felt Jungle." He remains active today after 60 years of acting. He starred in 6 episodes of Kraft Theatre in the early 1950's. He was one of many KST actors to star in The Forbidden Planet in 1956.

Don Collier played the police detective. He appeared in Season 2's "Kill me on July 20th."

Ida Lupino was one of Hollywood's first female directors and producers. She helped found Four Star Productions in the 1950's, which produced many television programs over the next decade and more, including Big Valley in the 1960's.

Star Trek Connection -

The Star Trek Connection in this episode is Phillip Pine, in a supporting but important role as the private detective charged with discovering the identity of the unknown woman. Pine played Colonel Green in the Star Trek episode, "Savage Curtain." He was active in Hollywood for more than 60 years. He was known for guest roles on many police shows of the 1970's, including Barnaby Jones, Streets of San Francisco, Adam-12, Ironside, Police Woman, Swat, Police Story, Kojak, Chips, Hawaii Five-O, Baretta, The Rookies and more.