Man with a Camera is an American television crime drama starring Charles Bronson as a war veteran turned photographer and investigator.[1] It was broadcast on ABC from October 10, 1958, to February 29, 1960.[2]
| Man with a Camera | |
|---|---|
 Original title card | |
| Genre | Crime / Drama |
| Written by | James Edmiston Paul David Wilton Schiller |
| Directed by | Paul Landres Gerald Mayer |
| Starring | Charles Bronson |
| Theme music composer | Herschel Burke Gilbert |
| Composer | Leon Klatzin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 29 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Don W. Sharpe Warren Lewis For MWC Productions, Inc. |
| Production locations | Hollywood, California at Desilu Studios, doubling for New York City |
| Cinematography | Paul Ivano Robert B. Hauser Black-and-White |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | October 10, 1958 – February 8, 1960 |
This is the only TV series in which Bronson played the lead role.
Plot
editBronson portrayed Mike Kovac, a former World War II combat photographer. He usually assists "newspapers, insurance companies, the police, private individuals, and anyone else who wanted a filmed record of an event.[1]
By often acting as a private eye, Kovac gets himself into plenty of trouble involving criminals of every kind, helping with cases the police could not handle.
Besides an array of cameras for normal use, for surreptitious work Kovac employs cameras hidden in a radio, cigarette lighter and even his necktie. He also has a phone in his car, and a portable darkroom in the trunk where he could develop his negatives on the spot.
Kovac's police liaison is Lieutenant Donovan (James Flavin),[1] though he frequently seeks advice from and is aided by Anton Kovac (Ludwig Stössel), his father.[1] They are of ambiguous Eastern European ancestry, in one episode Mike and his father serve kapusta to another character.
Main cast
edit- Charles Bronson as Mike Kovac
- James Flavin as Lieutenant Donovan
- Ludwig Stössel as Anton Kovac
Selected guest stars
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- Mario Alcalde
- Rachel Ames
- Roscoe Ates
- Phyllis Avery
- Baynes Barron
- Arthur Batanides
- Nesdon Booth
- Steve Brodie
- Sebastian Cabot
- King Calder
- Anthony Caruso
- John Cliff
- Marian Collier
- Booth Colman
- Russ Conway
- Yvonne Craig
- Norma Crane
- Audrey Dalton
- Alan Dexter
- Angie Dickinson
- Dolores Donlon
- Don Durant
- Robert Ellenstein
- Bill Erwin
- Frank Faylen
- Virginia Field
- Don Gordon
- Rodolfo Hoyos Jr.
- I. Stanford Jolley
- William Kendis
- Don Kennedy
- Jess Kirkpatrick
- Berry Kroeger
- Fred Krone
- Ethan Laidlaw
- Tom Laughlin
- Nolan Leary
- Norman Leavitt
- Ruta Lee
- Karl Lukas
- Gavin MacLeod
- Howard McNear
- Eve McVeagh
- Theodore Marcuse
- Walter Maslow
- Dennis Patrick
- John M. Pickard
- Phillip Pine
- Joe Ploski
- Bert Remsen
- Lee Roberts
- Penny Santon
- Simon Scott
- Johnny Seven
- Doris Singleton
- Harry Dean Stanton
- Ludwig Stössel
- Lawrence Tierney
- Peter Walker
- Casey Walters
- Dick Wessel
- Jesse White
- Grant Williams
Episodes
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Season 1: 1958–59
edit| No. overall |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Second Avenue Assassin" | Gerald Mayer | William Fay | October 10, 1958 |
| 2 | 2 | "The Warning" | Gerald Mayer | Richard M. Bluel | October 17, 1958 |
| 3 | 3 | "Profile of a Killer" | Gerald Mayer | Story by : Richard M. Bluel Teleplay by : James Edmiston | October 24, 1958 |
| 4 | 4 | "Turntable" | Gerald Mayer | Lowell Barrington | November 7, 1958 |
| 5 | 5 | "Closeup on Violence" | William Castle | Jack Laird & Wilton Schiller | November 14, 1958 |
| 6 | 6 | "Double Negative" | Gerald Mayer | Story by : Ken Pettus Teleplay by : James Edmiston | November 21, 1958 |
| 7 | 7 | "Another Barrier" | Gerald Mayer | Stanley Niss | November 28, 1958 |
| 8 | 8 | "Blind Spot" | Gerald Mayer | Donn Mullally | December 5, 1958 |
| 9 | 9 | "Two Strings of Pearls" | Gerald Mayer | Robert J. Shaw | December 12, 1958 |
| 10 | 10 | "Six Faces of Satan" | Boris Sagal | David P. Harmon | December 19, 1958 |
| 11 | 11 | "Lady on the Loose" | Gerald Mayer | Oliver Crawford | December 26, 1958 |
| 12 | 12 | "The Last Portrait" | Gerald Mayer | Wilton Schiller & Jack Laird | January 2, 1959 |
| 13 | 13 | "The Face of Murder" | Gerald Mayer | Berne Giler | January 9, 1959 |
| 14 | 14 | "Mute Evidence" | Paul Landres | Dallas Gaultois & James Edmiston | January 16, 1959 |
| 15 | 15 | "The Big Squeeze" | Harold Schuster | David P. Harmon | January 23, 1959 |
Season 2: 1959–60
edit| No. overall |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 1 | "The Killer" | Paul Landres | E. Jack Neuman | October 19, 1959 |
| 17 | 2 | "Eyewitness" | Gene Fowler Jr. | Paul David | October 26, 1959 |
| 18 | 3 | "The Man Below" | Gene Fowler Jr. | David P. Harmon | November 2, 1959 |
| 19 | 4 | "Black Light" | Paul Landres | Wilton Schiller | November 9, 1959 |
| 20 | 5 | "The Positive Negative" | Paul Landres | Oliver Crawford | November 16, 1959 |
| 21 | 6 | "Missing" | Gene Fowler, Jr. | Story by : Hal Evarts Teleplay by : Robert E. Thompson & Lee Loeb | November 23, 1959 |
| 22 | 7 | "Live Target" | Paul Landres | Barry Trivers | December 7, 1959 |
| 23 | 8 | "Girl in the Dark" | Gilbert Kay | Barry Trivers | December 14, 1959 |
| 24 | 9 | "The Bride" | Paul Landres | Paul David | December 21, 1959 |
| 25 | 10 | "The Picture War" | Paul Landres | David P. Harmon | January 4, 1960 |
| 26 | 11 | "Touch Off" | Paul Landres | Oliver Crawford | January 11, 1960 |
| 27 | 12 | "Hot Ice Cream" | Paul Landres | Story by : Howard Koppelman Teleplay by : Howard Koppelman & Paul David | January 25, 1960 |
| 28 | 13 | "Fragment of a Murder" | Wilton Schiller | Gilbert Kay | February 1, 1960 |
| 29 | 14 | "Kangaroo Court" | Gilbert Kay | Wilton Schiller | February 8, 1960 |
Production
editMan with a Camera was filmed in Culver City, California, at Desilu Studios.[3] From October 1958 to March 1959 it was broadcast on Fridays from 9 to 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time. From October 1959 to February 1960 it was broadcast on Mondays from 10:30 to 11 p.m. E.T.[1] General Electric's Lamp Division sponsored the 1959-1960 episodes.[4] Warren Lewis was the executive producer for Sharpe & Lewis Productions. A. E Houghton was the producer, and Gerald Mayer was a director.[3]
Home media
editThe entire run of the series' 29 episodes was released in 2007 by the Infinity Entertainment Group, in collaboration with the Falcon Picture Group and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, from which the source prints were obtained.
Alpha Video has released three individual volumes on DVD, each containing four episodes from the series. A fourth volume was released on February 25, 2014. On October 17, 2017, Mill Creek Entertainment released the complete series on DVD + Digital. Entire Series can be seen on Tubi streaming.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (1999). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (7th ed.). New York: The Ballentine Publishing Group. p. 623. ISBN 0-345-42923-0.
- ^ McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present (4th ed.). New York, New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc. p. 515. ISBN 0-14-02-4916-8.
- ^ a b "This Week (Cont'd)". Ross Reports. October 6, 1958. p. 93. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
- ^ Adams, Val (August 10, 1959). "Bellamy to Play Jefferson on TV". The New York Times. p. 47. Retrieved July 16, 2023.