Watching this episode of "Studio 57" (or Schlitz Playhouse -the credits were garbled) was torture, appropriately I guess considering the subject matter. This is overt propaganda, served up to the American TV public in 1954 as part of the anti-Communist crusade of the era.
Craig Stevens, ever the smoothie, plays an American businessman who outwits stereotypically beastly Commies led by an oily Leon Askin to help a leader of the underground escape to Paris with forged papers. The show is 100% hokey and stupid, but has just enough smidgen of rah-rah "we're the good guys" attitude to satisfy. Not really - while I was cheerfully watching "My Little Margie" on another network (CBS or NBC), some poor devils were watching this crap. It has zero entertainment value, 100% propaganda.
I felt a certain irony watching it in 2024, 70 years later, via YouTube. Included were 3 brand-new commercials, all very fake con jobs promoting health cures, one claiming eyesight problems have nothing to do with your eyes (really?) and the other two about peeing away your excess blood sugar or magically lowering your high blood pressure (stupid me taking Lisinopril every day). Yes, we've come a long way baby, and somehow good old Craig Stevens didn't manage to prevent a real Commie creep named Putin coming along to torture folks for real!