S01 E17 Night Cry (1961)

Hong Kong

DirectorWalter Doniger
ProducerArt Wallace
Production Company20th Century Fox Television
AiredJanuary 25th, 1961, ABC
CastRod Taylor (Glenn Evans), Lloyd Bochner (Neil Campbell), Liam Redmond (Marriott), Michael David (Bartley), Antoinette Bower (Laura), Dean Harens (Hal Spencer), Maria McClay (Sou Mei), Peter Chong (Old Chinese Man), Barney Phillips (Crane), Victor Sen Yung (Tung Poy)
Maria McClay as Sou Mei, putting the squeeze on a murderous cop in Hong Kong.

Where is Rod Taylor? The headlining star is almost completely absent during the one episode of the series that Maria played in. Instead this episode is about his friend, Inspector Neil Campbell (Lloyd Bochner in official Hong Kong police shorts) who must track down a bad cop who kills guy and then frames an old friend of the police chief.

Maria’s character, Sou Mei, helps out by pretending to blackmail the murderous cop in order to get him to confess or give himself away otherwise. While this is definitely one of her shorter appearances in a TV show, she actually not only has a lot of lines but is able to show off a considerable range all the way from sweet and submissive to hard-nosed and intense as she clearly enjoys squeezing her victim for all he’s worth.

This is also the first time, at least as far as what we’ve been able to determine, that she appears in the credits as Maria McClay rather than Maria Tsien or Maria Tsien McClay.

Scenes Featuring Maria

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S01 E17 – China Doll (1958)

The Californians

DirectorByron Haskin
ProducerFelix Feist
Production CompanyCalifornian Film Enterprises, Desilu Productions
AiredJanuary 21st, 1958 on NBC
CastAdam Kennedy (Dion Patrick), Seán McClory (Jack McGivern), Nan Leslie, Keye Luke, John Anderson, Maria Tsien (Mei Soong), Kam Tong, Richard Cutting
Maria McClay as Mei Soong is being placed as a bet during a high stakes poker game.

Dion Patrick (Adam Kennedy) and the vigilantes are investigating human trafficking in San Francisco’s China Town. While making inroads with the community Dion wins Mei Soong, played by Maria, from a dubious Chinese business man.

In the end he manages to return her to her true love, his Chinese guide during his investigation, and, with help from both, takes down the true villain: the white English teacher in a school for Chinese children.

Maria McClay as Mei Soong finds herself in a confusing situation while being kept safe at Dion’s home.

Maria didn’t get to many lines in this role but had plenty of screen time. While there are still plenty of racial stereotypes in play in this show at least it was surprisingly low on Yellow Face and had a comparably high number of non-white actors in Asian roles for its time.

Scenes Featuring Maria

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Maria McClay