Kraft Suspense Theatre
Kraft Suspense Theatre is an American anthology series that was telecast from 1963 to 1965 on NBC. Sponsored by Kraft Foods, it was seen three weeks out of every four and was pre-empted for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall specials once monthly. Como's production company, Roncom Films, also produced Kraft Suspense Theatre. Writer, editor, critic and radio playwright Anthony Boucher served as consultant on the series. Later syndicated under the title Crisis, it was one of the few suspense series telecast in color at the time. While most of NBC's shows were in color then, all-color network line-ups did not become the norm until the 1966-67 season.
Seasons
1. The Case Against Paul Ryker (1)
Air Date: 1963-10-10
This story chronicles the court martial of a Korean War sergeant accused of treason. He is found guilty and sentenced to die, but his wife refuses to accept that her husband is a traitor and so persuades a prosecuting attorney to reopen the case and investigate further.
2. The Case Against Paul Ryker (2)
Air Date: 1963-10-17
Sgt. Ryker is sentenced to death for treason, but prosecuting officer David Young asks for another hearing on the grounds that Ryker wasn't properly defended. The request is granted, but Young is ordered to handle the defense this time.
3. The End of the World, Baby
Air Date: 1963-10-24
An artist romances both a mother and her daughter. Things get complicated when the mother wants to divorce her husband to marry the artist. The daughter acts to protect her father and ends up in trouble.
4. A Hero for Our Times
Air Date: 1963-10-31
A "happily married" and well thought of businessman witnesses a murder. Unfortunately, he is at his mistress' apartment when it happens. His dilemma about whether or not to report what he knows to the police is heightened further when a man he knows to be innocent of the crime is arrested.
5. Are There Any More Out There Like You?
Air Date: 1963-11-07
A spoiled teenager is implicated in a fatal auto accident.
6. One Step Down
Air Date: 1963-11-14
A dead husband turns up in a motel room, but the stunning woman he was with vanishes, leaving no fingerprints. When police show scant interest in the case, the rich widow falls off the wagon and swears revenge. With $7 million all to herself, the widow expects to track the temptress down and make her suffer.
7. The Machine That Played God
Air Date: 1963-12-05
A seemingly happy married couple have a fatal car crash. The husband dies and the surviving wife is suspected by the police of intentionally causing the accident. She tries to "prove" her innocence by taking two polygraph tests. The results confuse her and she comes to believe the "lie detector machines" know the real truth.
8. The Long, Lost Life of Edward Smalley
Air Date: 1963-12-12
Wielding a gun, Edward Smalley invades the office of attorney J. Marvin Bean. The attorney has no idea what this is all about until forced to remember an incident in World War II when Smalley had been accused of treason, and Bean was his court-appointed military attorney. The trial was cancelled before Smalley was given a chance to exonerate himself; the charges were dropped, but the accused man feels that he has never truly been cleared.
9. The Hunt
Air Date: 1963-12-19
A "surfer bum","600 miles from a wave", is roaming the back-roads of the U.S. in his woody wagon when it breaks down. His "rescuers" include a small town sheriff who has a habit of his prisoners escaping and then being hunted down and murdered by his bloodhounds. When the surfer is seen as a threat to report the goings-on he is arrested and is next in line to "escape".
10. The Name of the Game
Air Date: 1963-12-26
A professional craps player (who is habitually broke) is offered backing of up to $1,000,000 to play for a wealthy Southerner who has the goal of winning $200,000 from a Las Vegas casino. If successful they will split the winnings evenly. Complications include the craps players' love interest-and her boyfriend.
11. The Deep End
Air Date: 1964-01-02
A woman enters a private estate with a lake, strips down to a bathing suit and goes swimming. She is pulled underwater by a mysterious scuba diver and held until she drowns. The local police determine her death to be purely an accident, but an investigator from out of town is not so sure about that.
12. A Truce to Terror
Air Date: 1964-01-09
In Los Angeles,a wealthy man has a brief scuffle with a Spanish laborer and is accidentally hurt.Feeling the incident was actually a vicious attack,he vows to track down the Spaniard.He does find the man's daughter and by accident causes her to become hurt.Now the Spaniard becomes the hunter and is out for revenge.
13. Who is Jennifer?
Air Date: 1964-01-16
A teenager discovers that an old woman may actually be his long-lost mother
14. Leviathan Five
Air Date: 1964-01-30
Five men trapped in an underground Research Center determine that their oxygen will run out before they can be rescued They decide to have a "lottery" to choose who will have to die so the rest can live.After being saved,the four survivors are charged with murder and find the outcome could be fatal.
15. My Enemy, This Town
Air Date: 1964-02-06
A young man returns to Santa Marta, California after seven years,having been paroled on a ten year term for raping a local girl.He finds resentment from his father and the townsfolk.What no one will believe is that he is innocent.His "plan" to clear himself runs into a problem-he is set up to take a fall again.
16. The Action of the Tiger
Air Date: 1964-02-20
In 1943 a somewhat shell-shocked pilot is put back into action after being shot down for the second time in his total of four missions. However, he is shot down again and ends up in a German POW camp. He escapes to smuggle out intelligence information. On his way back to England he plays a game of cat-and-mouse with the Nazis.
17. Doesn't Anyone Know Who I Am?
Air Date: 1964-02-27
An overly stressed, financially strapped, high powered businessman goes on a sales trip and wakes up suffering from amnesia after being assaulted. He settles in a small town, meets a nice girl and gets a simple satisfying job. Then his memory returns. He goes back to his old life and finds unhappiness. What will he do?
18. The Threatening Eye
Air Date: 1964-03-12
In California,a young French-Canadian secretary relentlessly pursues marriage to a dull, married, middle-aged accountant. The man is flattered but mystified. What does the woman really want from him?
19. A Cause of Anger
Air Date: 1964-03-19
An "overdeveloped genius" teenage boy has periodic fits of violent anger. Accompanied by a C.I.D. officer and a psychiatric nurse he is driven by car from his home in L.A. to a military installation in Kansas for diagnosis. During the journey several odd incidents occur and eventually the boy is missing. Is it kidnapping or foul play?
20. Knight's Gambit
Air Date: 1964-03-26
In Majorca,Spain the U.S. Special Envoy is investigated for accepting bribes from organized crime while in his former position of D.A. The U.S. government uses an unlikely undercover operative - an international playboy worth 18 million dollars. The playboy begins the search for evidence by romancing the Special Envoy's secretary.
21. One Upon a Savage Knight
Air Date: 1964-04-02
Police authorities in Chicago are seeking serial killer "Georgie Porgie." His M.O. is to murder blondes with a "cheap" reputation. He was thought to have "gone south for the winter" after a killing in Tennessee. But he has returned to Chicago and kills a woman in the middle of a strip club. Georgie Porgie is somewhere on the Illinois Tollway. However, the manhunt is complicated by a missile convoy moving through the Chicago area.
22. Portrait of an Unknown Man
Air Date: 1964-04-16
A mysterious unfriendly man comes to a remote mountain town to buy supplies and causes the locals to wonder why he is there. He further puzzles them when he sets up a homestead next to a long played out mine and puts up a 'No Trespassing' sign. Meanwhile, the owner of the town's General Store and his daughter are battling their own demons.
23. Their Own Executioners
Air Date: 1964-04-23
In Wickfield, Mass. (just outside Boston) a quiet clean-cut young man confesses to murdering his wife. A local attorney who is dying agrees to see the man and comes away feeling there is a more to the case than premeditated murder. He finds there are motives involving the man's "pure" mother and "tramp" wife. Helping this man brings peace to the dying attorney.
24. The Sweet Taste of Vengeance
Air Date: 1964-04-30
A divorcee who skips the country and heads to Brazil, her ex-husband would normally be happy to see the back of her; unfortunately she took $2 million of his money before leaving. Private eye Forsythe is hired to bring her back. And just to keep Forsythe honest, a second private eye is engaged to bring him back.
25. Charlie, He Couldn't Kill a Fly
Air Date: 1964-05-07
An alcoholic, loudmouth, unemployed man on the verge of losing his wife and son is arrested for murder. He actually is a witness to who committed the crime but no one except a family friend believes him to be innocent. He becomes a hero to his neighbors as the murdered man was a drug dealer and begins to revel in the glory. When his friend finds the real killer it may be too late as the "hero" is now fully prepared to go to prison.
26. The Watchman
Air Date: 1964-05-14
An American secret agent, on the trail of a vanished scientist, must recover the scientist's revolutionary secret formula before the Enemy catches up with his quarry first.
27. The Robrioz Ring
Air Date: 1964-05-28
In the San Diego area (at Coronado) a family heirloom/good luck piece ring is sold by a man's mother to raise money. A spinsterish school teacher on vacation from Philadelphia buys the ring at a gift shop and the man, just too late to buy it back, decides to romance her to recover the good luck piece. As time passes the relationship becomes more important than the ring.
28. A Cruel and Unusual Night
Air Date: 1964-06-04
A stern Lucas County, California "letter of the law" judge is kidnapped and "sentenced" to death by a man he once sentenced to death. The one-time Death Row prisoner recalls the agonies he went through as he awaited death by gas chamber. As his story is detailed tension builds and two questions remain to be answered-(1) "Will the judge crack?" and (2) "Will the execution be carried out?"
1. The World I Want
Air Date: 1964-10-01
In San Francisco,an elderly cabinet maker has saved $62,000 and does not want his wife to inherit it when he dies.A lawyer explains how the man can leave it to his intended-an orphaned niece.The man fears his wife is trying to kill him and wants to provide for his niece and her love,an abused deaf and dumb cousin.The man is right-he is murdered.The cousin is blamed and later saves the niece from the murderous wife.
2. Operation Grief
Air Date: 1964-10-08
France 1944 and in a secret camp men prepare for a daring mission. The unusual thing is that they are German soldiers who will masquerade as U.S. troops in order to cause confusion and buy time for a last gasp German Offensive. Later,five U.S. G.I.'s travel toward the front lines and begin to suspect each other of being a German infiltrator.
3. A Lion Amongst Men
Air Date: 1964-10-22
In tiny Cedar Bay a tightly wound,much decorated Korean War veteran has plans to establish a para-military organization called the U.S. Vigilance Committee. Local teenagers show the man no respect and later decide to play a Halloween "prank" on him.The prank causes the re-awakening of a bad experience the man suffered during the war-and may lead to death.
4. That He Should Weep for Her
Air Date: 1964-11-05
In small-town Hainesville, California a kindly jewelry store owner feels guilty after killing a young Mexican man during a hold-up attempt at his store. The boy's sister is angry and wants revenge. She takes advantage of the jeweler's compassion and loneliness and gets close to him-a little too close for both of them. Later, she finds the man who truly was to blame for her brother's death.
5. The Kamchatka Incident
Air Date: 1964-11-12
A military air transport plane on a 15 hour flight from Tokyo to Seattle, Washington has engine and compass problems during a hurricane and wanders into Soviet air space. An emergency landing on uninhabited Russian soil with rough terrain is complicated further by the fact that one of the plane's passengers is an important Soviet defector.
6. The Jack is High
Air Date: 1964-11-19
Just outside of Reno, Nevada, five men with diversely different backgrounds ambush an armored car truck and make away with $3,000,000 in cash. The men make their getaway to Los Angeles using a gas tanker truck in which the money and three of the men are hidden inside. The trip is full of uncertainty as they fight amongst themselves while, unknown to them, a veteran police inspector is cleverly piecing clues together.
7. Graffiti
Air Date: 1964-11-26
Gestapo agents pick up resistance leader Bertine, but fail to to recognize the value of their catch. Because Bertine must be silenced before the Nazis realize who he is, his followers arrange for a young assassin to be arrested and place in his cell.
8. One Tiger to a Hill
Air Date: 1964-12-03
A notorious cat burglar has his activities closely watched by the police so he trains an "apprentice" to carry out his well planned thefts while at the same time providing himself with safe alibis.When the cocky trainee finds he enjoys the money and lifestyle being a "high class thief" brings,he decides to go into business for himself and eliminate the old pro.
9. Threepersons
Air Date: 1964-12-10
A Texas lawman wants Tom Threepersons, a Cherokee Indian with a reputation as a fighter, to work alongside him in a battle against Prohibition racketeers. But before he commits himself, Tom decides to cross the border into Mexico to see what the other side has to offer.
10. The Gun
Air Date: 1964-12-24
Near Bodie Air Force Base, a mild mannered dentist has problems getting respect from his wife and son following a robbery by a junkie over his reluctance to use a gun. Further complicating his life is his slightly mentally disabled son, who finds perverse joy in teasing a somewhat touched and lonely old lady neighbor.
11. The Wine-Dark Sea
Air Date: 1964-12-31
A one-time college professor,who lost his wife and children in a home fire,has fallen to the level of being a skid-row drunk.He investigates a "solid citizen" when a fellow "bum" is accused of a hold-up and murder-and he changes his life to do it.
12. In Darkness, Waiting (1)
Air Date: 1965-01-14
A sinister plot to destroy the U.N. by a series of calculated assassinations is discovered.
13. In Darkness, Waiting (2)
Air Date: 1965-01-21
The intrepid pair, Lt. Lacy and newspaperwoman Karen Lownes, are out to save the United Nations from potential assassinations.
14. That Time in Havana
Air Date: 1965-02-11
An American wife arrives in Havana,Cuba to beg for the release of her "adventurer" husband who has been jailed on charges of espionage. He actually was in Cuba trying to recover $1,000,000 in Mafia money left behind after The 1958 Revolution. The Communist authorities want the money and the woman enlists a reporter to help her find it and clear her husband. Meanwhile, anti-Castro patriots lurk in the background.
15. Four into Zero
Air Date: 1965-02-18
Four men with various motives plan to "make use of" printing plates recently made in Chicago for a South American country's currency.They will try to commit the crime while on the train from Chicago to Los Angeles from which the plates are being shipped. An unexpected injury could "derail" their attempt.
16. Streetcar, Do You Read Me?
Air Date: 1965-02-25
A S.A.C. (Strategic Air Command) bomber on a routine patrol mission from March Air Force Base in the U.S. to Spain-and-back suffers an on-board fire.The co-pilot,who has dodged the responsibility of becoming a lead pilot,is suddenly thrust into command when the pilot is severely injured due to the fire.Can the co-pilot conquer his fears and master his inadequacies?
17. The Last Clear Chance
Air Date: 1965-03-11
A French underground hero and a young American hope to escape from a German prison cell in France.
18. Won't It Ever Be Morning
Air Date: 1965-03-18
A story of an insecure jazz singer and her demented manager who is accused of murdering a young girl.
19. Nobody Will Ever Know
Air Date: 1965-03-25
An industrial research scientist who "married the boss's daughter" feels pressured to gain a promotion so he can afford her. When the chance to make money by selling company secrets is offered he takes it. Later,to his regret,he finds the choice is no longer his-he will continue to provide information or his wife will die.
20. The Green Felt Jungle
Air Date: 1965-04-01
When a bomb intended for him kills his wife, DA Paul Maytric resigns to fight the gambling syndicate as a private citizen.
21. Rapture at Two-Forty
Air Date: 1965-04-15
Paul Bryan, a lawyer with only a short time left to live, decides to spend his days hobnobbing with the jet-set on the French Riviera.
22. Jungle of Fear
Air Date: 1965-04-22
In Panama, casino operator Rory O'Rourke, a would be railroad builder, becomes involved with a young woman and her son who are fleeing political enemies from China.
23. Kill No More
Air Date: 1965-04-29
A U.S. scientist obsessed with putting an end to war by creating the ultimate weapon, endangers his marriage by neglecting his much-younger wife. He's a perfectionist, which riles his military overseers, who keep pressuring the physicist for quick results, because they fear he'll be nabbed by enemy agents.
24. The Long Ravine
Air Date: 1965-05-06
After his discharge from the service, Chris Sandoe heads for an almost-abandoned mining town where his sister and brother-in-law are living on credit hoping to strike it rich.
25. The Easter Breach
Air Date: 1965-05-13
A man plots to get his pregnant wife out of East Berlin by romancing her American lookalike.
26. The Safe House
Air Date: 1965-05-20
Nazi scientist Jeremias Lipp having successfully eluded the War Crimes commission, prepares to leave his Swiss refuge to take a job with a Middle Eastern government. But a group of Israeli agents have no intention of allowing Lipp to continue his activities. They spearhead the scheme to kidnap Lipp and deliver him to his accusers.
27. Twixt the Cup and the Lip
Air Date: 1965-06-03
The meek and hard working Lester Pennell, who worked at the Alburn Gallery, was displaying the silver spectre of Louie XIV monarch of France, worth two million dollars. Lester lost his job by being too honest and being a ""doormat"".Lester struck back in order to impress his girlfriend and change his wimpy image,by undermining a complicated and interesting plan to break in and steal the spectre.
28. The Trains of Silence
Air Date: 1965-06-10
A geologist from Vancouver,Canada comes to the U.S. to see his old college roommate who is now a reclusive Howard Hughes-ish multi-millionaire industrialist. He has a mining investment to propose but is not allowed to see his friend,is rudely treated by the man's staff and is almost murdered.After being "bought off", he persists and finds an unexpected result.
29. Kill Me on July 20th
Air Date: 1965-06-17
A washed-up race car driver named Tony Camion whose beloved brother is killed in a race that he should not have been driving. The brother only drove the car because Tony could not do it himself. In an effort to redeem himself to his brother's family, Tony changes his life insurance policy to make his brother's family the beneficiary and hires an unknown hit man to kill him on July 20th. He then sets about making sure his brother's family has everything they need prior to his demise.
30. The Rise and Fall of Eddie Carew
Air Date: 1965-06-24
When a senile VIP is accidentally locked into an "impenatrable" safe, a "reformed" safe cracker is recruited from State Prison to rescue him. The "Human Can Opener" is not enthusiastic about the offer and, despite his loyal girlfriend, hatches a rescue plan with a twist.
31. Connery's Hands
Air Date: 1965-07-01
A very sick businessman brings his wife's piano playing ex-lover into his home in order to carry out his sadistic plan.
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Rating
5.3/10
Release Date
1963-10-10
Episodes
59 (2 seasons)
Status
Ended