Al Hodge
Werner Klemperer
Others

Producer

Frank Telford

Director

Pat Fay

Writer

James Blish (Telford, editor)

Broadcast time

30 minutes, Saturday, 11:30 AM

Sustaining

DuMont from New York

"The Secret Files of Captain Video" is a sustainer that alternates on Saturdays with the International Shoe-sponsored "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" to catch the DuMont net's pre-lunch kid audience. It's a new show although an off-shoot of the weekday strip series with some characters from the latter shifting over to the Saturday "Video" from time to time.

Opening script by James Blish, titled "The Box," was loaded with simply wonderful scientifiction gobbledygook that must have kept moppet eyes glued to their screens in awe at the electronic shenanigans. Even their elders should derive some escapist joy from the dipsy-doodle goings-on in this Frank Telford production that's directed by Pat Fay.

Initialer treated of a fog or "box" that overwhelmed a metropolis and how Capt. Video, played by stalwart, muscular Al Hodge, and a scientist, enacted by Werner Klemperer, cracked the "force dome" via a combination of their helicopter flights over the city and heads-up scientific analysis. It was a whopper of a yarn, done straight and surefire for its juve appeal. The characterizations were, as per usual in this type of a story, of stock dimensions, with large doses of cliche stances and verbiage, but the youngsters don't figure to be disturbed by any departure from logic or realism. This is their meat, complete with integrated film sequences to give them the feeling of being at the neighborhood theatre. Three spots at preem were used for public service announcements.

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