I've been watching episodes of "Thriller", the early 1960s anthology series hosted by Boris Karloff.
When the show originally aired, it came on at 9PM on Tuesday nights, which was past my bedtime for a school night in those days. That's probably why I don't remember it too well. In fact the episode that I remember best is the one entitled "The Cheaters", a truly chilling (at least I thought so then) story about a pair of spectacles that let the wearer see through the lies that most people tell. Since that show was first broadcast on December 27, 1960, I was probably able to see its first airing.
Anyway, last night I watched "The Fatal Impulse", in which a thwarted assassin drops his miniature bomb into the bag of one of the "girls" in a crowded elevator.
This is one of the better episodes of those that I've seen, although its leisurely pace seems strangely at odds with the ticking bomb nature of its story. But that pace is just a reflection of its time.
Also a reflection of its time is its use of "girls" for women and the casual depiction of cigarette smoking.
Anyway, what really struck me about the show was its cast, which featured many actors who would go on to star in some notable series in the 1960s and beyond, as well as one of those ubiquitous character actors whose face everyone recognized but whose name no one knew in the days before imdb.com, Elisha Cooke Jr.
Whitney Blake, of course, achieved fame as Don Defore's wife in "Hazel", and Ed Nelson went on to star in television's first prime time soap opera, "Peyton Place".
Robert Lansing made many television and movie appearances, but I don't think any one stands out.
And then there's that "girl" in the glasses. What did she ever do?
