Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: THE CAPTAIN'S GUESTS (1959)

Today, we invite you to take One Step Beyond.  This episode (from May 26, 1959) was written by the great Charles Beaumont, best known in televisionland for his many scripts for The Twilight Zone and in movieland for The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao.  (True fans, of course, are also very familiar with Beaumont's exquisite short stories and his powerful novel The Intruder.)  The Captain's Guests stars Robert Webber and Nancy Hadley as Andrew and Ellen Courtney, a couple who had made the unfortunate decision to buy a house on the New England coast, a house that just happens to be haunted by the ghost of an old sea captain.

     Although not well-known names, both Webber and Hadley may be recognizable; both apparently have appeared in at least one episode of just about every television series made in the Fifties and Sixties.  Those with very sharp eyes may recognize Webber as Juror Number 12 in 1957's 12 Angry Men.

     One Step Beyond (also known as Alcoa Presents:  One Step Beyond) ran for 96 episodes from 1959 to 1961.  The host was John Newland, who directed 80 of the episodes, including this one.  Newland directed an awful lot of television shows over a thirty year period from 1953 to 1983.  In 1978, Newland returned to host the updated The Next Step Beyond, which ran for 25 episodes. 

http://www.archive.org/details/OSB-19_The_Captains_Guests

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