A Maverick in the Queen City - Pt. III

Hi!


JK and Broderick Crawford try to

decipher the plot

of "Shadow of A Man"

 

As promised, here's a humorous look at Jack Kelly's Kraft Mystery Theater episode "Shadow of a Man", penned by Cincinnati Post TV columnist Mary Wood and published on 6/20/1963:

"Kraft Mystery Theater returned to its old summer hour on NBC-TV last night, and, as far as I'm concerned, it certainly lived up to its title. Why poor Ed Begley was left up a creek without a paddle for insuring bridges and viaducts is still a mystery to me.

Is there an insurance man in the house who can explain it?

Until they sprang the bridges and viaducts on me, I had the plot fairly well in hand. It went like this: Handsome Jack Kelly, a former Brother Maverick, rode into a small southern town and started asking questions about the town's leading and most popular citizen, Ed Begley, a successful insurance man. In order to meet lovable old Ed, Jack cozied up to his beautiful daughter, Beverley Owen.

Tain't long before Handsome Jack, who is really an insurance investigator, fell into his own cozy trap. He was smitten with Beverley's charms, which were profuse.

So far, I'm with them--wholeheartedly.

Now comes Brod Crawford, a hard-bitten insurance investigator who is convinced that lovable Ed has absconded with $75,000 of the insurance company's dough. Insurance companies, I'm led to believe, take a dim view of such goings on, no matter how lovable the culprit nor how fine his motives.

Well, it finally was revealed that poor Ed was being blackmailed by his accountant. That I could understand because the accountant had a very shifty eye.

But they completely lost me right after the third commercial, the one for the sandwich loaf made with layers of egg salad, watercress, ham salad and iced with cream cheese. Then you slice it down. Yummy!

Oh yes. They lost me when that hard-nosed Brod found that poor Ed had been insuring bridges and viaducts because he couldn't get insurance on himself. Then poor Ed shot the blackmailing accountant on a lonely road and wounded himself. He lived long enough to run his car over one of those well-insured viaducts and that was that.

Beverley bid a sad farewell to Handsome Jack at the funeral and he rode off with hard-nosed Brod. So much for that promising romance.

But the bridges and the viaducts were never explained to my satisfaction, and I'm beginning not to care anymore."

If you care to watch "Shadow of a Man", here's a link to it.

Please stay tuned for more about Jack Kelly in TDS. :)

BREAKING NEWS: Look What I Just Found! :)

Hello All!

We'll return to 1960 and Hidden Valley shortly, but in the meantime, here's a fantabulous Jack Kelly performance from 1963. It's "Shadow of a Man", an episode originally broadcast on Kraft Mystery Theater which co-stars Broderick Crawford, Ed Begley and many other recognizable faces. By the way, if the names of JK's and Crawford's characters sound familiar, they were also used by Fred McMurray and Edward G. Robinson in the 1944 Billy Wilder film Double Imdemnity. Apart from the insurance investigator angle, though, "Shadow of a Man" has little in common with that famous film noir. It's still a blast to watch--enjoy! :)




 BUT WAIT--THERE'S MORE!!!

Bloodhound Bartista is on a hot streak tonight. I also found JK's segment ("La Canasta") from the episodic 1956 Mexican film Canasta De Cuentos Mexicanos (A Basket of Mexican Tales). In "La Canasta" ("The Basket"), based on a story by B. Traven of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre fame, a clever Mexican basketweaver outsmarts a gringo couple. JK's wife is played by Mari Blanchard, with whom he later co-starred in She Devil. The clip is in Spanish without subtitles, but JK is muy bueno in any language. :)