User Reviews

Arguably the best episode from this two-season series. "Kraft Suspense Theatre" was a worthy effort in the crowded field of 1950s-60s suspense anthologies (Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Thriller, etc.). What makes this episode stand out is how it leaves room for viewers to draw their own conclusions. The story could go in many directions and by leaving it open-ended invites all sorts of speculation. One possibility I thought was intriguing is how Judy could have had a life of luxury just for the taking, but showed no interest in that at all. Charlotte would have willingly given it to her whether she was her daughter or not. Brenda Scott and Gloria Swanson inhabit their roles perfectly, and you kind of root for each one in their own way. And who can resist a story set on the dramatic coast of Carmel's 17-mile Drive?

Also deserving of mention is the series' opening credits, both the stylized drawings and John Williams' nerve-jangling music. The first season's theme sounds very modern, even half a century later. Why they toned it down in the second season is a mystery.

This episode of "Kraft Suspense Theatre" begins in jail. An annoying young lady is in police custody and she seems to have a strange, flippant attitude towards authority. When a routine examination shows she's got type AB- blood (a rather rare type), that combined with her age makes a detective wonder if she could be a girl who disappeared long, long ago. Finger prints seem to indicate she is and the police take her to see her rich long-lost mother, Charlotte Heaton (Gloria Swanson). The meeting is a bit awkward--which isn't surprising considering all the years that have passed as well as the mystery girl's annoying demeanor. She, by the way, does NOT think she's the lady's daughter--but doesn't exactly remember her own childhood. What's REALLY going on? See the show yourself...as it's available along with other episodes of this excellent show on YouTube.

This episode, to me, it much more like a mystery movie than most of the shows in the series. I liked that and found the story very unusual and worth seeing. Not the best but among the best of the "Kraft" shows.

What could be a better opportunity for a young actress than to work with a screen legend in a thriller that is written as basically a two-hander? Brenda Scott is the lucky girl to be cast opposite Gloria Swanson in "Who Is Jennifer?", an outstanding entry in the Kraft Suspense Theatre series.

The script by George Slavin, an unheralded but prolific writer for TV and film, is ingenious, as it turns genre cliches on their head, opting for originality. The basic outline is simple: Dan Duryea is a cop working with some unsolved crimes/mysteries, and proves instantly to be an unreliable narrator (not literally, just functionally) driving the story forward. He has a teen girl (Scott) who with some circumstantial evidence he matches to Gloria Swanson's missing daughter, who might have been murdered over '10 years ago, when Gloria was accused of child abuse.

He sort of blackmails Scott to spy on Gloria by ambiguously filling the slot of the missing kid, not pretending to be her but actually denying it all the way. This is the opposite of the standard plotline of a con job where someone pretends to be the missing relative in order to get some inheritance, but here it works in a reverse-psychology fashion.

With elements of Gothic tale and even a hint of the then very popular "Baby Jane?" genre starring older actresses in leading horror roles, it's an engrossing hour that keeps one guessing. Even the final reel twists and turns are quite different than one would expect and give the viewer lots to think about, even after the show has ended. The two ladies give excellent performances, with contrasting acting styles, in a memorable pas de deux.

***SPOILERS*** Cheesy "Kraft Suspense Theater" episode involving this distraught mother Charlotte Heaton, Gloria Swanson, who's been looking for her teenage daughter Jennifer who had disappeared into thin air ten years ago when she was seven years old. It's when local police pick up teenage runaway, Brenda Scott, who has no identification on her, and refuses to give them her name and where she comes from, that they feel that they've finally found Mrs. Heaton's long lost daughter. Everything fits in the girl being the right age as well as having the same facial features, by studying old photos of Jeniffer, eye color and even having Jennifer's same rare blood type AB negative.

It's later that we find out that the policeman in charge of all this Det. Let.Boyd Manners, Dan Duryea, who was on the original Jennifer Heaton disappearance case has other ideas on his mind and reuniting Jennifer and her mother Mrs. Heaton isn't one of them! In fact he feels that Mrs. Heaton had murdered and buried her daughter ten years ago and in him using this nameless runaway is going to prove it!

***SPOILERS*** Despite the first class cast the TV episode smells to high heaven like a slice of Limburger cheese on a sardine sandwich. The surprise ending if you can call it that is about as confusing as if you didn't even have one in explaining what exactly was going on between Det. Manners the runaway girl as well as Ms.Heaton herself. We do get some kind of explanation of what happened to Jennifer or if the runaway girl is her but it's so convoluted and confusing that it makes you wish,in how confused you get, that you've never seen it!

There's also in the "Kraft Suspense Theater" episode old and decrepit looking Morris Ankrum looking like death warmed over as Police Chief Austin in what I think is his last film & TV appearance. Ankrum was to pass away a few months later on September 2, 1964 at age 68 from the ravages of trichinosis.