'The Continental' is unintentionally hilarious to jaded modern viewers, but in its time it was an interesting utilisation of the possibilities of low-tech early television. In the early '50s, 'The Continental' was so popular among Alice Kramden-type neglected housewives that it was parodied by the gang at EC Comics, and there was even a Popeye cartoon in which Olive Oyl swooned over the charms of 'The International' (Brutus in disguise, with a shave).
The only performer onscreen was Renzo Cesana, attempting to depict a suave Continental playboy who has lured an attractive lady to his bachelor pad. The gimmick is that we, the viewer, are that lady ... through the device of a subjective camera. At the beginning of each episode, the door would open and Cesana (looking directly into the camera) would purr a suggestive come-on such as: 'You have nothing to fear. It is only ... a man's apartment!' Shyly, the camera would enter the room. For the rest of the episode, Cesana would ply the camera lens with champagne flutes and lit cigarettes, all the while murmuring about 'how lovely you look tonight'.
Oh, yeah. The sponsor was Cameo Stockings. This was during the period when onscreen talent usually did their own commercials. So, every few minutes between offering us champagne and ciggies and chatting us up, Renzo would casually compliment us on how attractive we look in our Cameo stockings.
It's easy to laugh at this tosh, but 'The Continental' made a lot of lonely housewives feel good. Nowadays, most women are too sophisticated to fall for such stuff ... while plenty of guys fall for e-mails purporting to be from gorgeous women saying things like 'I think you're hot and I want you.' There's no point in re-issuing the entire run of 'The Continental' on video, because the episodes are all alike ... but any *one* episode would be worth issuing on video, as a typical example of this very unusual (and formerly very popular) series.
