IT TAKES A THIEF Season One

Robert Wagner steals a kiss

IT TAKES A THIEF Season One. 1968.

The telefilm Magnificent Thief served as the pilot for this nominal spy series, which had a clever premise. Alexander Mundy (Robert Wagner), a gifted burglar, is told that he can stay out of jail if he goes to work for the government, herein personified by his liaison Noah Bain (Malachi Throne). As Bain tells him, "I don't want you to spy -- I want you to steal." So in the first brief season of sixteen episodes -- It Takes a Thief was a mid-season replacement -- Mundy has to snatch, under frequently impossible circumstances, everything from children accidentally left behind the iron curtain when their parents defect to a rare, extremely valuable DaVinci. None of the episodes are outstanding, but a few were better than average. "It Takes One to Know One" introduces a rival thief-impersonator played by Susan St. James (who'd show up again) and has a highly suspenseful climax when the two each try to snatch some royal jewels in a casino packed with booby traps. "One Illegal Angel" features an exiled dictator and a forged DaVinci and the necessity of getting the real painting away from said dictator. "Totally By Design" features a notable Mari Blanchard [Twice-Told Tales] as a vain princess who has fashion designer Mundy create a new trousseau for her even as he schemes to rob the palace safe. Celeste Yarnell and Marti Stevens guest-star in "Locked in the Cradle of the Keep," in which Al has to figure out just what he's supposed to steal before he can actually steal it. The show needed some better directors and better scripts, but it was basically mindless fun. Katharine Crawford [Kraft Suspense Theatre] appeared twice as another government agent. Wagner gets across his slightly amoral character without straining himself, and Throne is just fine as Noah Bain. In any case, the series is much better than the telefilm that spawned it.

Verdict: Acceptable time-waster. **1/2.

KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATER: SEASON ONE

Nina Foch and Katherine Crawford in "End of the World, Baby"

KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATRE aka Suspense Theatre. Season 1. 1963.

Kraft Suspense Theatre was the anthology series that began each week with stylized, Dali-esque drawings of running, furtive figures while intense, dramatic music blared in the background. The first two episodes, "The Case Against Paul Ryker," were quite good and were later spliced together and presented in movie houses as Sergeant Ryker. The third episode, "End of the World, Baby," had a mother and daughter (Nina Foch and Katherine Crawford) both involved with the same gigolo (Gig Young), and was mediocre if well-acted. I've seen most but not all of the first season episodes and generally the series was not in the league of, say, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but there were some episodes that were quite memorable. In "One Step Down" Ida Lupino wants to find out who her dead husband's lover was, unaware that it's somebody she already knows (Gena Rowlands). Tourists Julie Harris, Julie Adams and Virginia Gregg get involved with a Latin hustler (Robert Loggia) in "The Robrioz Ring." "Are There Any More Out There Like You?" stars Robert Ryan and features Katherine Ross and Great Old Movies' favorite Jay Novello in a powerful story of a man whose disaffected daughter and friends are involved in a deadly hit and run. "The Threatening Eye," directed by Ida Lupino, is a truly excellent tale of a businessman (Jack Klugman) whose life is turned upside down by a sociopathic fellow employee (Annie Farge) whose motives at first seem hidden. "A Hero for Our Times" stars Lloyd Bridges as a philandering husband who witnesses a murder during an assignation and wonders how he can tell what he knows without compromising himself or his lover. While many other episodes were all but ruined by really stupid endings, they were almost always extremely well-acted.

Verdict: Some gems among the junk. **1/2.