The human voice 1966 - A stunning representation of a woman's emotions

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IMDB Rating: 7,5

Director: Ted Kotcheff
Main Cast: Ingrid Bergman

"Originally penned by renowned playwright Jean Cocteau, The Human Voice chronicles the drama which unfolds throughout the course of the protagonist's monologue. Performed by the iconic Ingrid Bergman, a middle-aged woman reeling from a recently ended love affair offers the audience an intimate look at the goings-on of a person in the midst of a psychological breakdown." - www.allmovie.com

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Blithe spirit 1966 - An enjoyable TV version of Coward's play

Portrait of Dirk Bogarde

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IMDB Rating: 7,3

Director: George Schaefer
Main Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Roberts, Ruth Gordon

"Hallmark Hall of Fame television adaptation of Noel Coward's classic play."

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The hanged man 1964 - The second adaptation of Dorothy Hughes' novel

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IMDB Rating: 6,8

Director: Don Siegel
Main Cast: Robert Culp, Edmond O'Brien, Vera Miles, Norman Fell

The Hanged Man is a TV film directed by Don Siegel, in which a gunman seeks to avenge the death of his friend, who he believes was murdered. It is considered the second television film in broadcast history. It debuted on NBC on November 18, 1964. This television version was based on the Dorothy Hughes novel, which was previously filmed under the title Ride the pink horse directed by and starring Robert Montgomery. 

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Once upon a mattress 1964 - The first TV adaptation of a classic musical

Carol Burnett in Once upon a mattress (1964)

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IMDB Rating: 8,1

Directors: Joe Layton, Dave Geisel
Main Cast: Carol Burnett, Jane White, Jack Gilford, Joseph Bova, Elliott Gould, Shani Wallis

"Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. It opened off-Broadway in May 1959, and then moved to Broadway. The play was written as an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Princess and the Pea.
The first television adaptation was aired on June 3, 1964 on CBS. The production was videotaped in black and white in front of a live audience and featured Burnett, Bova, Gilford, and White from the original Broadway cast, as well as new principals Bill Hayes as the Minstrel, Shani Wallis as Lady Larken and Elliott Gould as the Jester. Due to the reduced running time of 90 minutes, several songs and scenes were either cut or shortened."

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Hedda Gabler 1963 - Ibsen's immortal classic featuring Ingrid Bergman in the title role

Ingrid Bergman and Michael Redgrave in Hedda Gabler (1963)

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IMDB Rating: 7,3

Director: Alex Segal
Main Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Trevor Howard

"In one of the great dramatic roles in all of theater, the always magnificent Ingrid Bergman seethes with frustrated ambition. Hedda Gabler is a woman who, for financial security, has married an earnest and dutiful academic who lacks the passion and imagination that drive Hedda. When Eilert Lovborg (Trevor Howard), a former lover, returns to their city, she discovers that a new woman has rescued him from his alcoholism and given him the strength to write a brilliant book. Consumed with jealousy, Hedda seizes an opportunity to ruin Lovborg's life - and by doing so, places herself in the power of the glib and predatory Judge Brack (Ralph Richardson), who longs to have his way with her.
This 1963 British television version of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is skillfully condensed into a taut 75 minutes, fantastically played by the superb cast (which also includes Michael Redgrave). Bergman and Richardson, in particular, draw out every drop of hidden resentment and lust."

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The lover 1963 - Eroticism on early television

Vivien Merchant

Alan Badel

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IMDB Rating: 7,2

Director: Joan Kemp-Welch
Main Cast: Vivien Merchant, Alan Badel, Michael Forrest

"At the time his first play for television, 'A Night Out' was broadcast, Harold Pinter was just beginning to attract attention. By the time of The Lover, Pinter was already well-established as one of the most gifted and versatile writers of his generation, switching freely between stage, television, radio and, shortly, film - his first screenplay, The Servant (directed by Joseph Losey) was released later in 1963.
The Lover is a typically claustrophobic work, in which a suburban middle-class couple, played by Alan Badel and Pinter's then wife Vivien Merchant, become trapped in the sexual role-playing games they use to spice up their otherwise conventional marriage.
From its striking opening, in which two sets of silhouetted fingers tap upon a drum and entwine themselves like a pair of mating tarantulas, the play creates an atmosphere of eroticism unusual for television in 1963."

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Calamity Jane 1963 - Part of the Carol Burnett Special

Carol Burnett in the title role of Calamity Jane (1963)

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IMDB Rating: 7,7

Director: Dick Altman
Main Cast: Carol Burnett, Art Lund, Bernard West

"For her first comedy special of the season, Carol Burnett plays Calamity Jane, a Western wildflower with a penchant for buckskin, brawling and back-slapping. She also drives the local stagecoach, quells a barroom rebellion and even falls in love - with calamitous results.
Carol first played Calamity in summer stock during 1961, when Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster augmented their 1953 movie score ( which starred Doris Day).  Phil Shuken adapted the book for television adding more ribald humor to the original. Dick Altman and choreographer Ernest Flatt directed. Joe Hamilton (Carol's husband) was the producer.
The witty dialog crackles and the song favorites include - 'Secret Love' ( as a finale-duet!), 'Windy City', 'Deadwood Stage', 'I Can Do Without You', 'Keep It Under Your Hat', 'Higher Than A Hawk', 'A Woman's Touch'   and others."

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Peter Pan 1960 - A television triumph three different times

Mary Martin as Peter Pan (1960)

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IMDB Rating: 7,4

Director: Vincent J. Donehue
Main Cast: Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, Lynn Fontanne, Maureen Bailey, Sondra Lee

"Mary Martin originally starred in the Jules Styne/Carolyn Leigh/Comden & Green musical version of James M. Barrie's Peter Pan on Broadway in 1953. On March 7, 1955, Peter Pan was restaged for television, live and in color, on NBC's Producer's Showcase. The telecast was so popular that it was repeated, again live, the following year. Blessedly, Mary Martin returned to commit Peter Pan to videotape in 1960; this version was first telecast on December 8 of that year. Forty-seven years old at the time, Martin is utterly enchanting as Peter Pan, the little boy who won't grow up and who whisks Wendy Darling (Maureen Bailey) and her brothers Michael (Kent Fletcher) and John (Joey Trent) out of their London nursery and off to Never Never Land. Song highlights include 'I've Gotta Crow', 'I'm Flying', 'I Won't Grow Up', 'Neverland', 'Ugg-a-Wugg' and 'Hook's Waltz'. As with the Broadway version, the staging and choreography was in the more than capable hands of Jerome Robbins. Cyril Ritchard shamelessly hams it up as the wicked Captain Hook, and also doubles as the more benign Mr. Darling. Both Martin and Ritchard re-created their Broadway roles, as did Sondra Lee as the incongruously blonde Indian princess Tiger Lily. Martin's daughter Heller Halliday also appears in the minor role of Liza the maid, while the whole wonderful package is narrated by Lynn Fontanne." - www.allmovie.com

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The scarface mob 1959 - Brutal, violent and a perfectly cast Robert Stack

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IMDB rating: 7,3

Director: Phil Karlson
Main Cast: Robert Stack, Keenan Wynn, Barbara Nichols, Pat Crowley, Neville Brand

"The Scarface Mob was the major two-part television event that ushered in the famed crime series, The Untouchables, in 1959. Phil Karlson - who had directed noted film noirs such as Scandal Sheet, Kansas City Confidential and 99 River Street - was the director of the two-part pilot for the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse production company, which, with Desi Arnaz, produced I Love Lucy. Referred to as The Untouchables: Part 1 and The Untouchables: Part 2, the TV episodes were later shown theatrically as one feature. Narrated by the resolutely earnest Walter Winchell, The Scarface Mob (and later The Untouchables television series) was a crisply black-and-white cops-and-robbers crime analogue with strong noirish stylistic flourishes and undertones. The Scarface Mob promised an entirely tougher, grittier television series for viewers."

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Meet me in St. Louis - 1959 - A charming remake of the classic version

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IMDB rating: 7,2

Director: George Schaefer
Main Cast: Tab Hunter, Jane Powell, Jeannie Crain, Patty Duke, Myrna Loy, Walter Pidgeon, Reta Shaw, Ed Wynn

"A television version of the beloved 1944 MGM classic film musical, Meet Me in St. Louis depicts the year before the 1904 World’s Fair in the life of the Smith family. The family is put into a tailspin when father Alonzo (Walter Pigeon) announces they will be moving to New York City without consulting his wife Anna (Myrna Loy) or the rest of the brood.  In the meantime, eldest daughter Rose (Jeanne Crain) is upset because her boyfriend Warren (Donald Symington) has not yet proposed to her. 17-year-old Esther (Jane Powell) is romanced by the boy next door (Tab Hunter), while little Tootie (Patty Duke) continues her preoccupation with death." 

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Brand 1959 - The BBC Television adaptation for World Theatre

Patrick McGoohan (playing Brand)

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IMDB Rating: 8,2

Director: Michael Elliott
Main Cast: Patrick McGoohan, Dylis Hamlett, James Maxwell, Patrick Wymark, Peter Sallis

"Henrik Ibsen’s Brand (1866) is rare amongst television adaptations of stage plays in that it was a drama never originally intended for theatrical production, but as an epic verse drama set out in dialogue as a script to be read. The play contains a scene of a storm at sea and concludes with an avalanche, both seemingly beyond the limitations of nineteenth century staging, and if performed uncut (as on its first staging in Stockholm in 1885). Patrick McGoohan stars in this adaptation ot the Henrik Ibsen play in which an uncompromising and ultimately tortured priest forces those around him to accept the only true path to God, including the residents of the village in which he was born. Through his fanatic beliefs he manages to cause the death of his wife, lose his son and eventually get exiled and stoned by the villagers."

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The pied piper of Hamelin 1957 - An excellent musical fantasy for children

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IMDB rating: 6,0

Director: Bretaigne Windust
Main Cast: Van Johnson, Claude Rains, Lori Nelson, Jim Backus

"The Pied Piper of Hamelin was originally filmed as a television special, then released theatrically outside the United States. The story is the familiar one: the town of Hamelin, plagued by rats, hires a mysterious piper (Van Johnson) to rid the town of rodents. The piper does so, on the promise that he'll be paid a handsome fee. But the duplicitous burgomeister (Claude Rains), on the advice of his Laurel-and-Hardy council (Doodles Weaver and Stanley Adams), reneges on his promise. In revenge, the piper lures all of Hamelin's children off to parts unknown. In a departure from the original, there's a happy ending this time. Most of the dialogue is spoken in rhyme (quite amusingly by Rains), while the songs are adaptations of Edvard Grieg tunes." - www.allmovie.com

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https://archive.org/download/Pied_Piper/The_Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin.avi

Annie get your gun 1957 - A marvelous TV version with Mary Martin and John Raitt

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IMDB rating: 8,0

Director: Vincent J. Donehue

Main Cast: Mary Martin, John Raitt, William O'Neal, Reta Shaw

"In 1946, Irving Berlin’s musical Annie Get Your Gun opened on Broadway, with Ethel Merman starring as the 19th century sharp-shooter Annie Oakley. It was a major hit and Merman received endless praise for her performance. In 1957, the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Association decided to celebrate its 20th anniversary by staging two shows starring Martin. One was an obvious choice - South Pacific, arguably Martin’s biggest Broadway success. The other was something of a surprise - Annie Get Your Gun, which the association decided to present both in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, with a special live telecast produced for NBC. The TV version of Annie Get Your Gun was reconfigured to fit a two-hour time slot. In order to preserve as much of the Berlin score as possible, a good chunk of the show’s book was cut out. As a result, this production moves somewhat faster than the 1950 film version - and the transition times between songs is often abrupt. Annie Get Your Gun was telecast in color, though most homes in 1957 did not have color television sets. However, 60 million Americans tuned in for the broadcast, which was sponsored by Pepsi-Cola. The success of the program helped speed along an album featuring the cast, which was a best-seller."

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The adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1955 - The second season opening of the Climax! TV show

John Carradine (who plays The Duke in the movie)

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IMDB rating: 6,4

Director: Herbert B. Swope Jr.

Main Cast: Charles Taylor, Robert Hyatt, Denise Alexander, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell

"Those who know the Twain book by heart and newcomers alike will treasure this 'Climax!' TV adaptation of the story of free-spirited Huckleberry Finn (Charles Taylor), who is joined by best buddy Tom Sawyer (Bobby Hyatt) for daring exploits along the Mississippi. Also starring: Elizabeth Patterson, John Carradine, and Thomas Mitchell."

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https://archive.org/download/ClimaxTheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn/Climax-theAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn.avi

Amahl and the night visitors 1951 - A family favorite for Christmas

Scene from Amal and the night visitors (1951)

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IMDB Rating: 8,7

Director: Kirk Browning, Gian Carlo MenottiMain Cast: Chet Allen, Rosemary Kuhlmann, Andrew McKinley, David Aiken, Leon Lishner

"A Christmas opera, composed especially for television by Gian Carlo Menotti, about Amahl, a crippled boy who joins the three wise men as they journey to Bethlehem on the eve of the first Christmas."

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https://archive.org/download/AmahlNightVisitors12241951/Amahl_night_visitors_12_24_1951.mp4