The Barbara Stanwyck Show: Volume 1

In 1960, Hollywood legend Barbara Stanwyck followed the example of fellow leading lady Loretta Young, turning to television to host and star in her own series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, a half-hour anthology drama with the actress playing a different character in an original teleplay every week. The show only lasted a single season (1960–61), but Stanwyck earned her first Emmy Award for her work. Despite introducing each episode in a glamorous gown, Stanwyck plays a wide range of characters, from tough business types to frontier women to middle-class housewives struggling to protect their families. In “The Key to a Killer,” one of the best offerings, Stanwyck is a deputy sheriff who has to outwit a killer (Vic Morrow) who tries to escape while handcuffed to her. Other guest stars include Charles Bickford, Julie London, and Lee Marvin. These are simple tales produced within the economic restraints of early television, performed on sets that would have been suitable for a stage production and choreographed with small-screen intimacy by top directors; but the stories themselves are unmemorable, little more than star vehicles for Stanwyck, who dominates every one. Fifteen of the show's 36 episodes are collected in this three-disc set, along with the unaired pilot (a Western co-starring Jeff Morrow), a brief clip of Stanwyck's acceptance speech for Best Actress from the 1961 Emmy Awards telecast, and an accompanying booklet. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)