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

IMDB Link
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)

IMDB Link
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 world of Sholom Aleichem 1959 - Three sweet adaptations from classic Yiddish literature

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Don Richardson
Main Cast: Zero Mostel, Gertrude Berg, Conrad Bromberg, Jack Gilford, Lee Grant

"Many people are familiar with the name of the Russian-born, Yiddish-language writer Sholom Aleichem (1859-1916), but today he is primarily recognized as the literary source that inspired the beloved musical Fiddler on the Roof. However, not too many people have actually read his stories, which detail the trials and tribulations of the Jewish communities in Czarist Russia.
In 1953, American playwright Arnold Perl sought to capture the spirit of Sholom Aleichem by creating an Off-Broadway play. The World of Sholem Aleichem was actually a bit of a cheat, since only one of its three acts was directly based on an Aleichem story. Nonetheless, the work offered a vibrant celebration of the author’s spirit.
In 1959, producer David Susskind arranged for Perl to adapt his work for broadcast on the weekly television series Play of the Week. This production of The World of Sholom Aleichem was remarkable at several levels, and by contemporary standards it remains a landmark of sorts."

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