Original air date: 25 February 1968
Rerun 30 June 1968 and 4 May 1969
Inspector Lewis Erskine send a secret radio message to a kidnapped woman to aid her rescue. Good, taut episode, very inventive.
Anne Baxter makes her one and only appearance on the series. She won an Academy Award, Best Supporting Actress, for her role in 1946’s The Razor’s Edge. By the Sixties, she was doing a lot of television roles.
Ms. Baxter has the unique distinction of being the only actress to play two different guest villains on Batman (ABC: 1966-1968): She played Zelda the Great during the first season and Olga, Queen of the Bessarovian Cossacks, during the third season (1967-1968). For the latter, she even learned to swear in Russian! Like most performers who guested on that series, she maintained that it was an enjoyable experience. Ms. Baxter’s first husband, John Hodiak, was of Ukrainian background.
Batman was still being broadcast in February 1968. On 22 February, the episode “I’ll Be a Mummy’s Uncle,” was broadcast; Victor Buono played King Tut for the final time. And on the following Thursday, “The Joker’s Flying Saucer,” aired. It was Cesar Romero’s final appearance in that role.
And both Ms. Baxter and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. would share acting credits on the ABC series Hotel, which ran from 1983 to 1988. This was her final acting role, as she died on 12 December 1985 in New York City. Mr. Zimbalist had a role on the series in 1986.
- Steve Ihnat, like Ms. Baxter’s first husband, is of Ukrainian background.
- FBI Carousel Bulletin: In his third series appearance, Mark Roberts plays yet another agent. An earlier “repertory part” was S.A.C. Howard Schaal, previously portrayed by Paul Comi.
- No interesting autos.
- Oddly enough, this episode was repeated twice on ABC, and in different seasons!
Credits:
Directed by: Jesse Hibbs
Written by: Robert Soderberg
Performer | Role
- Steve Ihnat | Frank Padgett
- Anne Baxter | Katherine Daly
- Arthur Franz | Joseph Daly
- Dean Harens | SAC Bryan Durant
- Corinne Cole | Linda Soames
- Mark Roberts | SRA Will Channahon
- Skip Ward | Tony Chandler
- Hal Lynch | Alfred Barnes
- Tom Palmer | Michael Peterson
- Steven Marlo (as Steve Marlo) | Gilroy