DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT (1952) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT (1952) – Brian Donlevy, famous as Professor Quatermass in a pair of movies, starred as secret agent Steve Mitchell. He received his missions from a man called “The Commissioner” (Herb Butterfield).

Dangerous Assignment had started as a radio series in 1949 with Donlevy already in the lead role. Thirty-nine 30-minute episodes were produced. 

STANDOUT EPISODES:

THE SUBMARINE STORY – The Commissioner sends agent Steve Mitchell to the South China Sea in the undercover identity of a rogue submarine commander called Captain Jaeger. Mitchell’s assignment is to infiltrate and shut down a gun running operation in the area. Paul Frees and Robert Easton guest-starred.

THE MEMORY CHAIN – Steve’s latest assignment finds him in Munich, where he is to collar a spy ring passing U.S. nuclear secrets through West Germany to East Germany and then to the Soviet Union. Jeanne Bates and Lynne Roberts were among the supporting cast members.

THE KEY STORY – Steverino is sent to Switzerland to recover documents that can prove the leader of a nation friendly to the U.S. did not commit suicide but was murdered. Guest stars included Suzanne Dalbert and Stanley Waxman. 

THE BANDHARA STORY – Agent Mitchell goes to India to clear an American citizen framed for sabotage and subversion. Steve suspects that Communist China is behind it. Lee Tong Foo, Hillary Brooke and Bhogwan Singh guest starred.

THE LAGOON STORY – Steve is sent to Africa to find two missing agents and prevent the germ culture they were seeking from falling into the hands of hostile countries. Christine Larson guest starred, along with John Hoyt himself.

ORDER OF THE SACRED DOVE – In Cairo, Steve Mitchell clashes with an international league of assassins called the Order of the Sacred Dove. Lyle Talbot and Martha Wentworth also appeared.

THE CABOOSE STORY – Agent Mitchell goes to Tokyo to capture a former spy girlfriend of his named Marta. She’s behind a string of sabotage incidents. Maria Palmer and Frank Gerstle guest starred.

THE HAVANA MICROFILM STORY – Interesting tale set in pre-Castro Cuba. Steve Mitchell poses as an American traitor vying with other underworld figures in Havana for microfilm of Top Secret documents. With Jeanne Tatum and Lyle Talbot.

THE BRIEFCASE STORY – It’s up to Steve to stop a plan to sabotage a crucial summit meeting in Paris held among the U.S. and three East European countries. Guest starred Laura Mason and David Leonard.

THE PIECE OF STRING STORY – When large amounts of dynamite are being stolen in Panama, Agent Steve Mitchell is sent to determine if someone’s plotting to blow up the canal. Hugh Beaumont and Lynn Roberts guest starred.

THE PARIS SEWER STORY – Mitchell must go where he’d prefer not to when he learns a spy ring in France is using the sewers as their secret hideout. NO state secrets are worth that. Jim “Jock Ewing” Davis and Carol Thurston appear.

THE ATOMIC MINE STORY – Enemy agents steal an experimental nuclear explosive from a base in the American southwest. Steve must find them on a train packed with passengers before the device goes off. Celeste Clark and Herb Vigran are in the cast.

THE ONE BLUE CHIP STORY – Agent Mitchell is sent to the casinos of Macao on the trail of a counterfeiting ring flooding the Far East with bogus American currency. Michael Ansara and Elizabeth Fraser guest starred. NOTE: Here’s a spy story set in Macao casinos from BEFORE the James Bond stories would make such settings routine. 

THE KNITTING NEEDLE STORY – When the Mafia is interfering with the latest elections in Italy, Mitchell is sent in to guard a journalist covering the story. Guest starred Fay Baker and William Boyett.

THE DECOY STORY – Agent Mitchell goes behind the Iron Curtain to help a diplomatic attache smuggle secret documents out to the U.S. Betty Blythe, Jim Davis and Michael Ansara guest starred.

FOR MORE FORGOTTEN TELEVISION CLICK HERE.