This is one of the very simple tales that have profoundly terrifying consequences. Tom Ewell, Anne Bancroft (credited with her former screen name of Anne Marno) and Joseph Wiseman, cook up a delightful, delicious and perhaps diabolical tale that reminds one of the Faustian legend.
The production is obviously sparse but yet, it's claustrophobic feeling helps to the establish the claustrophobic feeling of the story quite well. The performances are all wrought in a theatrical fashion which are perfectly suitable characterizations for this type of melodrama so filled with the legends of the ages, as it were.
I recommend this, firstly, because we get to see Anne Bancroft in one of her earliest roles... without the weight of her future acting styles to weigh her down. I found her delightful. Now, Tom Ewell and Joseph Wiseman, and Martin Gabel, really shine in their respective roles.
All in all, it's a delicious production, from the earliest days of television, when it was trying to find it's own niche in the world.
I recommend it without reservations, even with all of it's theater-bound staging, because it is an intriguing tale, well told.
The production is obviously sparse but yet, it's claustrophobic feeling helps to the establish the claustrophobic feeling of the story quite well. The performances are all wrought in a theatrical fashion which are perfectly suitable characterizations for this type of melodrama so filled with the legends of the ages, as it were.
I recommend this, firstly, because we get to see Anne Bancroft in one of her earliest roles... without the weight of her future acting styles to weigh her down. I found her delightful. Now, Tom Ewell and Joseph Wiseman, and Martin Gabel, really shine in their respective roles.
All in all, it's a delicious production, from the earliest days of television, when it was trying to find it's own niche in the world.
I recommend it without reservations, even with all of it's theater-bound staging, because it is an intriguing tale, well told.