MYSTERY TV 1950/60
 
MARK SABER - This British-made series, starring one-armed actor Donald Gray as a former Scotland Yard inspector-turned-private investigator, ran for four years on NBC as MARK SABER, DETECTIVE'S DIARY and THE VISE (the title used in this episode).  In this episode, a young hot-rodder (Alan Dinehart III) is accused of causing an accident that resulted in the death of his girlfriend, and Matthews seeks the aid of a traffic detail officer (Richard Travis) in getting at the truth, and discovers that there is more to hot-rodding than loud engines and high speeds.
 
MR. AND MRS. NORTH - Hans Conried and Katy Jurado guest star in this episode of the 1952-53 series. Richard Denning plays publisher Jerry North, who finds himself with a jealous wife (Barbara Britton) after he begins working late with a passionate and beautiful author (Katy Jurado, of High Noon fame)--until she turns up dead, and then husband and wife are reconciled as they sift through a list of killers that includes Hans Conried as a frustrated paramour of the dead woman. CODE 3 - Richard Travis stars as deputy sheriff Barrett in this low budget syndicated series, which followed a pattern similar to other post-DRAGNET series, its plots developed from actual police files. In this case, the files in question are those of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's office. Stacey Harris (a veteran of DRAGNET) plays Fred Munson, a bookkeeper accused of embezzlement who puts his wife in jeopardy by refusing to cooperate with the authorities, until Barrett convinces him that it would be worthwhile to do so.    

 COUNTERPOINT: THE WITNESS  This syndicated series, which originally ran during the 1952-53 season, was a kind of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS-type anthology.  A two-bit hood decides to try an after-hours heist of a jewelry store, but is spotted by a player from a vaudeville show in a neighboring theater and has to go back to kill the witness. He sets it up, sneaks past the police and a watchman, sets up his target, and kills him--only to discover that there was no need, and that he could've gotten away clean. The twist is a good one, and coupled with the mix of actual location shooting (the streets and alleys look convincingly dirty and grimy), and the familiar faces in the cast (Lee Marvin, in his first TV appearance, plays a cop, William Schallert is a watchman, and Three Stooges straight man Vernon Dent is a stage door guard.