Studio One:Sentence of Death

Rating:
Summary: Another gem from the golden age!
Review: Would you believe these Studio One episodes were rescued from a condemned warehouse? That's what the back cover claims! Many thanks to the art lover who understood what these old kinescopes mean to those of us in "the silent generation." (A term for children born in the '30s, between "the greatest generation" and "the baby boomers.") Thanks also to whoever digitally remastered them, for they are crisper and cleaner than when we saw them on our old cathode ray tube TVs.
James Dean turns in another fine peformance on August 17th, 1953, as a man falsely accused of killing Virginia Vincent's husband, while Betsy Palmer, an unbelieved eyewitness, frantically tries to get detectives Gene Lyons to believe her. There is also a plot twist at the end. The second episode from 1957 (two years after James Dean's death)is a about the mass hysteria created by "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast in 1938. Warren Beatty, Warren Oates, James Coburn, Ed Asner, Al Markim (Astro from Tom Corbett, Space Cadet), Vincent Gardenia, an uncredited John Astin, and many others are featured. Also, there's an exceptional documentary of other Studio One episodes narrated by Charlton Heston, Jack Klugman, John Frankenheimer, etc.. This is the stuff nostalgia is made of! I recently read the D. Russell novel "Dreamdust" (also available at Amazon), which covers that period of time. At last those of us "Deaners" in Jimmy's "silent generation" of the '30s can relive those tender moments like no other, when the whole neighborhood gathered at the house with the television set. It's great fun seeing these previews with Joanne Woodward, Elizabeth Montgomery, Dennis Hopper, Natalie Wood, Corey Allen (Buzz Gunderson from "Rebel Without a Cause."
I hope Westinghouse transfers all these "See them the night they're on or lose them" stories. James Dean Lives!