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Made by The Danzigers in Britain in 1954-5 for America TV, where they were screened as The Vise,
the stories were later repeated in USA as
'The Pendulum.'
A few of the 25 minute films were made into compilations and premiered in UK cinemas as second features, but it wasn't until the early 60's that they reached UK TV as 'Tension' or 'Crooked Path'. After 65 had been made, the series continued with all the stories about Mark Saber. The introduction to most of The Vise films was read by Ron Randell. It appears in all except the first few stories, and some of the last and ran- "How do you do. The story we are going to tell is about people caught in the jaws of a vice, in a dilemma of their own making. We'll start the story in a moment." For The Pendulum John Bentley read some new lines as though he hadn't been paid very much- "The Pendulum swings. And Destiny weaves a pattern. This is the story of people who tried to change that pattern, but found they could not stop the Pendulum." My favourite episode of those I have seen myself: #13 Lucky Man- tho' a comedy and rather untypical of the series Dud episode: #7 The Diamond Expert- even Paul Carpenter can't save this one. |