The 20th Century-Fox Hour (TV Series) Christopher Bean (1955) User Reviews

Entertaining with lots of surprises

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 6 January 2024]

What an interesting plot! If you like Christopher Bean, you will definitely want to watch it twice. It was based off of a play, and it was very obviously based off of a play. The dialog is not realistic, and since it is also a live television production, some of the acting does come across as trying to reach the background. However, if you like it, there's an awful lot to like about it.

The title character starts off deceased. He was a young alcoholic artist who boarded a room for a time in Dr. Gene Lockhart 's home. Neither Gene nor his shrewd wife Mildred Natwick cared for him very much, but their live-in domestic, Thelma Ritter, was kind to him. The impetus of the plot occurs when Gene receives a letter from someone who used to know the late artist and wants to talk about his work. As you can imagine, the play harps on the worst of human nature: greed , jealousy, deceit, manipulation, etc. There are twists and turns around every corner, which is saying something since it is a short TV production. I can imagine it was very fun to watch on the stage, and I did enjoy it as an appetizer to my evening.

Greed and treachery are not a pretty picture.

[mark.waltz · 10/10 · 19 January 2022]

While this classic play has had one feature film, a 1933 MGM drama with Marie Dressler, Lionel Barrymore and Beulah Bondi, it remains unknown simply because the original movie has not been seen in years, one of the few and GM films not broadcast on TCM. Certainly on the top of my list to see though, but I was glad to find this TV version starring Thelma Ritter, Gene Lockhart and Mildred Natwick. It is a story of an unseen painter, a former employee of Lockhart and Natwick who was known for his fondness for drink and not much else, at least not in their memories. For Ritter though, he remains a positive memory of her past, and there is a reason why that you have to wait until the ending to discover.

Natwick and Lockhart are pretty dismissive of Ritter's memories of Mr. Bean, whom as we find out early on dabbled in art. The arrival of Allyn Joslyn from New York stirs up memories of him as he claims to be an old friend of the now late Mister Beans, searching for paintings he did simply for sentimental reasons. But there's much more than that, and Lockhart is furious when he finds out that his wife burnt all of the paintings years before, thinking them trash. Apparently, now they are worth over $1,000 each, and the greedy couple scramble to find as many as they can, deciding to frame one of Ritter that was one of the last paintings that he did while in their employ. The arrival of others interested in his paintings (Philip Ober, Les Tremayne) reveals that Joslyn was a fraud.

There's also a young romance between a young artist (Craig Hill) and Lockhart and Natwick's daughter (Kipp Hamilton) whom her parents obviously disapprove of. But their greed takes over any disapproval they have when they begin to believe that he could be as famous as Bean is down the road. Like Dressler in the 1930's, Ritter struck a chord with audiences in the 1950's, and was probably the most popular character actress of the time. She is feisty, strong and lovable, and yes even romantic. The way she handles these greedy employers is brilliant, and her performance is top-notch. Same goes for the rest of the cast, and it's funny to watch the greedy couple get their comeuppance. Hopefully one day the movie will be made public somehow, but other than a possible theatrical revival (there was one way off Broadway in New York a few years ago), this is all that there is available at the moment, and it is a delight.