FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: TARGET (1958)

TARGET (1958) – This syndicated 30-minute suspense anthology series was hosted by the one and only Adolphe Menjou. It was a Ziv production and ran for 38-41 episodes, depending on which online source you go by.

STANDOUT EPISODES:

BREAKING POINT – A woman finds that violence is her only recourse against a sinister stalker and her distrustful husband who suspects she is having an affair with the stalker. Features Howard Duff and Maria Riva.   

POLICE DOCTOR – Accident victim Joe Burns (Leo Gordon) freaks out and thinks he’s being held by hostile forces at the hospital. He grabs a cop’s gun and a standoff results. An MD (Gene Barry) tries to talk the man back to reason. Also with Brett Halsey.

EDGE OF TERROR – Handicapped female author Alice Ward (Bonita Granville) slowly realizes the “friendly stranger” she is alone with matches the description of a homicidal maniac at large. Also with Ottola Nesmith, the Movie Host who played the Landlady of Nightmare Alley on the late-night B-movie show Nightmare Alley. (Yes, I’m relentless when it comes to Movie Hosts.)

FIVE HOURS TO LIVE – An airliner lands in Africa, where a man realizes his suitcase which contains his son’s needed medicine has been accidentally switched with a suitcase full of a criminal’s money. The criminal wants his money back at any cost.

THE LAST STOP – Neville Brand stars in this tale about two fugitives from the law and the detective pursuing them across the burning desert at the U.S.-Mexico border. The conditions threaten to kill both of them.

MAN ON A BIKE – A motorcycle cop scours the city to find the two thugs who killed his partner. Paul Burk and LEONARD NIMOY are in the cast.

BANDIT’S CAVE – In the 1860’s a bandit (THE Cesar Romero) makes off with a fortune from a Confederate train and must elude his pursuers while trying to rendezvous with his beautiful woman (Lynn Cartwright).

BACKFIRE – A woman is part of a violent gang of pawn shop robbers. When she is injured during a caper her fellow gang members kidnap a nurse to keep her alive.

ASSASSIN – James Best himself stars as an international assassin who tries to kill his latest target in French town only to realize he’s being stalked by a killer himself.

ONCE TOO OFTEN – A detective hunts a man with multiple wives in various states as he starts killing off his excess spouses. Starring Arthur Franz.

UNREASONABLE DOUBT – Macdonald “Like sands through the hourglass” Carey plays a lawyer trying to prove his client was framed for murder. Angie Dickinson also stars.

TURMOIL – An unfaithful wife (Joan Greenwood) tries to gaslight her husband into thinking he has a fatal disease. She hopes to drive him to suicide so she and her side man can marry.

DEATH BY THE CLOCK – A murder witness (Menjou himself) is besieged in a steam bath by the killer (Lon Chaney Jr.) who waits outside to slay him.

THE UNKNOWN – A seeming class reunion on a remote island is really a death trap run by an unknown killer. Menjou himself stars again alongside Frances “Aunt Bea” Bavier and the Folgers Coffee Lady Virginia Christine.

ON CUE – Future stars Ted Knight and Dyan Cannon star in this story about a jealous husband who plans to kill his unfaithful wife and frame her lovers.

FOUR AGAINST THREE MILLION – A quartet of international thieves link up in London to pull off a monumental gold theft. Nigel Patrick stars. 

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