David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the small town in rural Cornwall where Amy was raised. There, David is ostracized by the brutish men of the village, including Amy's old flame, Charlie. Eventually the taunts escalate, and two of the locals rape Amy. This sexual assault awakes a shockingly violent side of David.
This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included are: "A Tale of Chelm" starring Zero Mostel and Nancy Walker in the story of a bookseller attempting to buy a goat; "Bontche Schweig" about a poor man (Jack Gilford) whose recent arrival in Heaven makes the angels cry; and "The High School" about a Jewish merchant (Morris Carnovsky) persuaded by his wife (Gertrude Berg) to let their son attend a particular high school despite the enforcement of quotas for Jewish students.
While searching for a small fortune of embezzled money, an ex-con, a small-time bandleader, his doting wife and a kooky drifter find themselves being followed. Their chase takes them to trailer camps, bingo halls, laundromats and ultimately, a showdown with a group of unconventional bad guys.
James Herriot is a vet in Yorkshire, England, during the 1940's. He is assigned to the practice of Siegfried Farnon, who—together with his mischievous brother Tristan—already have a successful business. James undergoes a variety of adventures during his work, which are just as often caused by the characters of the county, including the Farnon brothers, as the animals in his care.
William Popper is the son of a stockbroker and is thoroughly disenchanted with "the system." So much so that even though he can prove that he ran over a woman in his car entirely by accident, he accepts a sentence for manslaughter.
The Dybbuk is a made for TV film adaptation of a classic Jewish folktale. The story is about a young Jewish man, Sender (Theodore Bikel) who loves a young Jewish woman, Leah (Carol Lawrence) but her father arranges her marriage with another man. The grief of this causes Sender to die, but his spirit passes into the body of his beloved on her wedding day. Rabbi Azrael (Ludwig Donath), who serves as our narrator through the beginning of the film, is charged with the task of exercising Sender’s Dybbuk (sometimes defined as a malicious spirit or demon who possesses the living) from Leah’s body.
In pre-WW1 England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.
An aging Southern belle's preoccupation with her past and her dreams for her children's futures threaten to smother her painfully shy daughter and her aspiring writer son.
Mistreated foundling Heathcliff and his stepsister Catherine fall in love, but when she marries a wealthy man, he becomes obsessed with getting revenge, even well into the next generation. [Originally aired on CBS's DuPont Show of the Month.]
A cynical, self-hating, failed actor visits the gruff, earthy daughter of his scheming Irish tenant farmer and passes a soul-baring night of guilt-ridden confessions, tenderness, and absolution.
A New York City cop who has retired to a small Western town is drawn into the local case of an Indian who is accused of murdering a sheriff.
A look at the past, present and future of Hollywood as seen through the eyes of the movie columnist.
Ten strangers are invited to a mansion on a remote island, where they are killed one by one by a mysterious assailant. Based on the Agatha Christie novel, also known by the title And Then There Were None.
Several different accounts of the same incident tell quite different stories about what happened.
The Hilliards are a middle class family whose lives are put in danger when escaped convict Glenn Griffin invades their home. Griffin is crazed, tormenting the Hilliards with his meek brother Hank and sadistic Robish.
Two derelicts, Vladimir and Estragon, occupy themselves as they wait for 'Godot' to make an appearance on Pozzo's estate.
In the early 1900's Tennessee, a loving family undergoes the shock of the father's sudden, accidental death. The widow and her young son must endure the heartache of life following the tragedy, but slowly rise up from the ashes to face the hope of renewed life.
A dark tragedy about a farmer's futile act of homicide that takes place on a small dairy farm in southern Texas during the 1890s. Sam Peckinpah directed this original adaptation of the Katherine Anne Porter novel for ABC, and the project became an hour-long presentation for ABC Stage 67, premiering on Nov. 23, 1966.
A betrayed queen takes a terrible revenge.
The good doctor is on trial before the British Medical Association Council, if he is found guilty, he will no longer be allowed to practice medicine. The story unfolds through flashbacks which depict his career and his subsequent downfall.
