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Q: I would like to know about a program that aired maybe in 1958. It was about a woman held captive in her home by a man who had escaped from prison. I can remember watching it at nine years old, scared out of my wits. Did Kraft have any programs on at th

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

To be honest, I'm not sure I can help you.

This is a tough one, partly because there were literally dozens of dramatic anthology series on around the time you specify, and partly because escaped prisoners and women held captive were well-used devices in such shows, which were heavily influenced by the pulp-novel thrillers that preceded them.

Despite this, no single episode I could find quite matched your description.

The closest thing that aired on "Kraft Television Theatre," one such anthology series, was an episode called "The Eighty-Seventh Precinct." It aired in 1958 and did feature a woman held captive in a home invasion, but the action seems to have focused more on the titular police station that she called repeatedly for help, but didn't take her seriously until it was too late.

Another candidate is an episode of "General Electric Theater" called "Somebody Please Help Me," again about a woman taken captive by an intruder. The only thing that disqualifies this one is that it aired in 1962 (which means you would have been watching it at the much less impressionable age of 13).

Another possible episode of "General Electric Theater" was called "Disaster." It aired in 1959 and did feature an escapee breaking in to a woman's home, but that seems to have been a sort of side point -- the larger plot was about the natural disaster that they were both hiding in the house to escape.

It should be noted -- with apologies to your friend -- that "Rain in the Morning" was something else entirely. It was the title of an episode of the anthology "Matinee Theater," but it was a much lighter affair, about a husband who tries to coach his wife on being more assertive before his boss comes for dinner.

 

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