Wed 29 Jul 2020
A TV Episode Review: WESTINGHOUSE STUDIO ONE “The Case of Karen Smith.â€
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[7] Comments
WESTINGHOUSE STUDIO ONE “The Case of Karen Smith.†CBS, 60m. 26 March 1951 (Season 3, Episode 31). Teleplay by Mona Kent, based on a story by Viola Brothers Shore. Felicia Montealegre, Leslie Nielsen, Annette Carell, Paul Potter, James Westerfield, Jean Casto, Director: Lela Swift. Available on DVD and Amazon Prime.
Studio One began as a radio series but was converted into a television series very early on, beginning in 1948, where it continued on under slightly different titles through 1958, for a grant total of 467 episodes. As an anthology series, it featured all kinds of drama, including mysteries, and hundreds of well known actors and actresses, some very familiar, others making their debuts on the show.
A good many of the episodes can be found here and there on the Internet. I discovered “The Case of Karen Smith†streaming on Amazon Video, for example. I can’t tell you want prompted me to watch this particular one. It certainly wasn’t the name factor, but when looking up the credits afterward, several of the players had a long list of appearances on early TV; others only one or two.
The story is a strange one. A police detective (a very young Leslie Nielsen) encourages his girl friend, a night club pianist named Karen Smith (Felicia Montealegre), to go with a not-so-gentlemanly gentleman admirer to go with him to his apartment after a late night performance. Why? He won’t tell her, but to be on the lookout for another visitor. Not understanding, but agreeing, she is on hand to see her would-be date for the evening being shot and killed by a former jilted lover.
The twist comes when Karen Smith leaves evidence to incriminate herself, and then sets out on a trail that’s easily followed to a deserted beach where she commits suicide. We the viewer don’t believe this for a minute, but just what it is that’s going on? The story twists itself into contorted knots trying to explain, including a twin sister, and just barely succeeds. Maybe.
It’s still enjoyable enough to watch, but perhaps only to fans of early television to begin with. It certainly won’t convert anyone under the age of fifty to become one.
July 29th, 2020 at 10:37 am
Studio One seldom ived up to expectatiosn; make that seldom to never, and neither did most regularly scheduled live tv dramas, however the specials were just that; Best of Broadway, Producer’s Showcase, and many more,featuring top film people usually treading water. The Philadelphia Story with John Payne, Dorothy McGuire, Richard Carlson, Mary Astor and more. Or Reunion in Vienna with Greer Gason and Brian Aherne, not to mention The Caine Mutiny Court Martial with Lloyd Nolan in Bogart’s part, and better, with Barry Sulivan as Greenwald and Frank Lovejoy Maryk. Great stuff.
July 29th, 2020 at 8:56 pm
One of the problems in early television always seemed to be they never seemed to have the timing down right, no matter how many rehearsals they had done that week. It’s not unusual on the day to day stuff (Barry is right on about the specials) the ending seemed rushed as if they forgot there was an extra commercial to crowd in at the last moment.
It wasn’t just the bodies getting up off the floor or stray prop men seen through windows — specially distracting when the setting was a skyscraper — but sudden blank looks as less professional actors went up and gaps in story logic that often seemed the result of too ambitious writers adapting complex works in too short a space (Leslie Nielson in a thirty minute adaptation of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA).
Oddly, since radio had been doing this for years, the same writers seemed at a loss in early television, maybe the reason why the medium soon developed its own cadre of writers who understood it better. Radio often got away with those story problems by atmosphere, but that didn’t work as well on television where spooky music and a narrator weren’t enough.
Nostalgia for great live television seems to ignore how much of it was pretty tepid stuff like this one.
July 29th, 2020 at 10:50 pm
My second eye was de-cataracted today, and I’m doing fine. It’s not easy to type, though, with just one eye that needs reading glasses, so I’ll make the brief, and say that what I find distracting in old live TV productions, is not so much dead bodies getting up off the floor (didn’t happen in this one), but how aware the actors seem to be that the camera is on them. I can’t explain more than that, but it makes it a lot tougher to get into the story than it should be.
July 29th, 2020 at 11:47 pm
Among other problems, not enough rehearsal time. As for your eyes, follow up will happen in the next week or two, and in all probability, commercial reading glasses are in order, but nothing more complicated than that.
July 30th, 2020 at 8:32 pm
I’m looking at eventual cataract surgery too. Won’t rid me of my myopia, but at least the blur will go away. Hope you are cleared up soon.
July 30th, 2020 at 9:02 pm
Why wont it rid you of myopia? Of course, it will.
July 30th, 2020 at 9:38 pm
I’m doing fine. Drove today with only non-prescription sunglasses. And the all-day dusk is gone!
Looking up myopia and cataract surgery, I found this online:
“Cataract surgery in myopic eyes requires extra attention
Although the patients are often highly satisfied, cataract surgery in myopic eyes poses particular challenges and risks.”
Read more here:
https://www.healio.com/news/ophthalmology/20120331/cataract-surgery-in-myopic-eyes-requires-extra-attention