American Black/White TV
For details on American backed European-made series.
And for more on series made jointly in US/UK-
Count of Monte Cristo,
Charlie Chan, Rendezvous, Third Man,
One Step Beyond.
For details of
The Veil, Wire Service,
for the pilot of
King of Diamonds with John Lupton, the pilot
Jonnie and Me with Richard Greene,
and the abortive Rogue for Hire with Jerome Thor.
For other British made series with US stars, such as Errol Flynn Theatre etc:
go to Main Dinosaur TV Menu
T.H.E. Cat starring Robert Loggia (1966/7)
"Out of the night comes a man who saves lives at the risk of his own. Once a circus performer, an aerialist who refused the net. Once a cat burglar, a master among jewel thieves, and now a professional bodyguard, primitive... savage... in love with danger: THE Cat."
To the superb opening theme by Lalo Schifrin, the opening titles introduce Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat, leaping seemingly impossible gaps thru the night.
Nearly brilliant, sometimes dreadful, but also majestically moody and stunning.
The series was another NBC failure, although it was shown in Britain and deserves a wider appreciation. The best stories are very good indeed, but when it's bad, it's, admittedly, very bad.
My review of:
25 Twenty-One and Out
A truck pulls up menacingly outside a motel A man alights and enters to chat with the attractive waitress, when all of a sudden gunshots and an explosion.
An old friend of the shell-shocked waitress Laurie Neal (Susan Oliver) is Cat. He is here now to protect her. She needs it too. She's a key witness against her former boss, Johnny Radek, who is alleged to have put a $200,000 price on her head. At such a price, "he'll make sure somebody collects it."
Cat asks Radek to drop this reward, but the "not likeable" Radek refuses, for what Laurie knows could send him to jail. "Laurie is going to die," is his parting shot to Cat.
However she seems to be taking her danger very calmly, but that's only because she feels she's "dead already," so she might as well live it up. Thus she books into a swish hotel and Cat finds her enjoying herself at a party. But Radek's men are closing in- they have been told she's there. "We'll wait," promise Radek's roughs.
Cat helps Laurie escape via the lift and they cheekily hide away in Radek's own casino. It would appear to be a safe refuge where Radek wouldn't think of looking for them, but his cameras have picked them out, and he enters. "Hello Laurie."
Cat and Laurie are to be shot, but Cat calls Radek's bluff, there's a fight then a gunshot.
So now Laurie is safe as police round up the gang, Radek taken away in a pine box. This is a tense drama, though Radek, by this show's standards, is almost a normal type of villain, compared with the usual tortured weirdos
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