Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 144: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction/Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 129

December 1956 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystery Tales #48

Cover by Bill Everett

"Inside the Silent Box!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★1/2

"They Took Me Away!" (a: Al Williamson & Roy Krenkel) ★★

"The Hidden Man" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★

"Harmless!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"When They Appear!" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2

"The Man Who Was Erased!" (a: John Forte) ★

Greedy old miser Ebediah Riggs suddenly walks through his hometown as if he's got an invisible load upon his back. What gives? Well, Eb sponsored a trip to the island rumored to be Sinbad the Sailor's last stop. The caves should be filled with treasures, right? Eb does find a chest in a dark cave and takes a look "Inside the Silent Box!" Out pops a specter, introducing itself as "the old man of the sea" and informing Eb that he once sat atop the strong shoulders of Sinbad. Now, the ghost needs new transportation. And that's why the old-timer walks the streets of Anytown with a stoop. The facts are presented plainly, with no excitement nor straying from cliche. The Sinnott art is nice but Joe gets nothing to inspire him.

Brilliant scientist Carl Johnson dreams of a day when man will replace machine, when emotion no longer hampers progress. Yeah, sure, the nights are forever without a babe to hold on to, but Carl sacrifices for the good of mankind. Suddenly, a strangely garbed gentleman pops up in Carl's home and explains that he's Dr. Lars from the future, a future that Carl yearned for, with machines no longer ruling science. In that tomorrow, Carl is a God, idolized for his prescient studies and theorems. The mystery man invites Carl to travel to the future and they hop into the time machine and blast off. But when Carl spends time in the new paradise, he realizes that man was meant to live with emotions, with love, and all that cornball stuff. He travels back to the "present" and destroys his research, thus erasing the future he visited. He then grabs the car keys and heads to a local bar to find some "love." "They Took Me Away!" is a dreary time travel melodrama that ticks all the right post-code "safe" boxes including the future girl that Carl immediately falls in love with. Williamson and Krenkel do what they can but not even the futuristic Prince Valiant costumes can save this snoozer.

"The Hidden Man" is a thief who steals from hardware stores and leaves the proprietors frozen. When the police track the robber to a nearby cave, they discover that the man is from Saturn and he was short on Earth cash so he was stealing equipment to repair his rocket ship. As the cops look on in amazement, the alien blasts off back to his own world. Dreadful stuff, with one-time fave Tony DiPreta delivering lifeless artwork. 

Even worse is "Harmless!," wherein Frank is released from prison a bitter man who swears this world will pay him back for the five years he spent inside the big cage. He gets a job at a warehouse and falls in love with "lovely" Mildred, all with an eye to cracking the business safe. He does indeed pull off the heist and frames the company watchman, who turns out to be Mildred's dad (last names were never exchanged during the steamy love affair between Frank and Mildred). Mildred puts two and two together (a miracle since she doesn't seem to be very bright in the first place) and confronts Frank about framing her Pop. Suddenly, everything around him disappears and Frank spends the rest of his life on a park bench talking to an invisible Mildred, who explains that the town she lived in was always invisible "except to the very lonely" and Frank was lonely so he could visit, but he's also evil, so he's been banished. Words cannot express just how awful "Harmless!" is; a convoluted, nonsensical script and ugly Winiarski sketches clash to make a meat loaf topped with tuna. No one involved seems to give a damn.

Quality woes continue with "When They Appear!" A young couple having a "gay picnic" are kidnapped by aliens from another world. The military are about to blast the UFO out of the sky when the visitors telepathically inform their captives that they merely borrowed them away from their gay affair to help communicate with Earth's big brass. You see, these aliens can't talk! The Powell art is a distraction but, as seems to be the norm in December 1955, the script is hurried and convoluted. Without teeth, the CCA-approved Mystery Tales seems closer to the romance genre than SF or horror. 

The hits just keep on coming with "The Man Who Was Erased!," about a scientist who creates a gizmo that can whip up "multiple celled life!" All his research means that he's neglected his family for years and he convinces himself that now that he's stumbled on the greatest achievement known to mankind, he'll play catch with little Timmy and dry the dishes with Hazel. He drives home that night to discover his house gone and his neighbors unaware of his identity. "I've got it!," screams the looney egghead, "I must destroy all my notes and gizmos and my life will reappear just as it was before I had my fabulous breakthrough!" He does so and his home reappears, wife and son intact. I mean, he's no scientist now since whenever he works on a project he's essentially screwed but hey, we all make sacrifices for our art, no?-Peter

Mystic #54

Cover by Bill Everett

"Who Steals My Brain" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★★

"Tyrant!" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2

"The Four Sam Smiths!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★

"The Face in the Air!" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★

"The Thing!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★1/2

"Out of the Swamp" (a: Bob Forgione) ★1/2

Mr. Octi has arrived on Earth from a faraway planet, an emissary sent to pave the way for a full-blown invasion. He takes over the brain of  brilliant scientist Brad Forest and forces him to take him to Forest's home so that he can study our species up close. Octi is startled to find that our race just digs violence, with children mimicking shootouts at the OK Corral and wrestling and boxing on television. In the end, Octi releases Brad from his cerebral cortex prison and explains that his own species would never make it against such a violent society. As Octi's ship blasts off and heads back to outer space, Brad chuckles and praises God that Octi misinterpreted a little fun and games for violent behavior.

"Who Steals My Brain" delivers a double whammy, being the rare, decent preachy and, let's face it, a rare, good read in the middle of so much detritus. That final panel, of Brad musing about Octi's "false impression of our true natures...," is hilarious and I wonder if the uncredited writer was trying to get across a subtle message about our love for war and death or if it was a simple defense of mankind. The quality returns to normal with "Tyrant!," about a politician who falls into a volcano and survives, exiting a mind-reader. He uses his new powers to climb the political ladder and boasts he'll soon be "the greatest man on Earth!" Then his power fades. 

Dishonorable Sam Smith pulls a job and is chased into a University lab by the cops. There he falls into an atom-smasher and is split into four parts: himself, now the "good" Sam Smith,  Sam the thief, Sam the liar, and Evil Sam, the one that "does evil just for the sake of evil!" With his newfound honesty, the good Sam Smith swears he'll return the money and make his wife proud. In the end, it turns out, the other three Sam Smiths were actors, hired by Sam's best friend to bring Sam to his senses and make him a good guy. The final panel of "The Four Sam Smiths!," where the twist is revealed, is hilarious, reaching new heights of inanity only previously hinted at.

A soldier is wounded on the battleground and sees a hovering face topped with a mane of silver. But why? Turns out he saved the man from drowning years before and now the stranger has saved his life... he's an army surgeon! "The Face in the Air!" is a three-pager with some really sub-par work by Mac Pakula.

Rocket X-24-B falls safely in the desert after... doing something... in space. Radarman Paul Baker and his assistant head out into the desert to find the wreckage and arrive just as a fluffy white creature steps out from amidst the twisted metal. Fearing for their lives, the men unload their pistols into the animal, to no effect. They turn tail and run. Their story is met with derision until the creature is spotted in town. The military devise a way to cordon it off from the rest of civilization but "The Thing!" disappears just before the soldiers can lower the boom. In space, a Martian child smiles, happy that he has his pet Tinto back in his arms again. Got to admit, this one was a cute little distraction, with some nice Stallman art, no hidden messages, and a happy ending for all concerned.

Millionaire Lem Hass is sick and tired of his fellow man, so he wanders into a nearby swamp to find a life of peace and quiet. Lem stumbles across an old man who leads him through the swamp, where he arrives at a wonderful little town on the edge of the murk called Gladestown. Hass deposits his million dollars in cash in the town's bank and begins a life of excess and respect. Only one thing eludes him: the gorgeous Eleanor. But the pretty blonde is already engaged and wants no part of him, so the vengeful Lem destroys his competition's successful business and waits for Eleanor to come crawling to him. That doesn't happen. What does happen is that the town begins disappearing right before Lem's eyes. Eventually, he's back to standing in a "filthy" swamp when the old man returns and explains that Gladestown is nothing more than a mirage. "Out of the Swamp" makes little to no sense; if it's a mirage, how could the old codger see exactly what Lem saw? The only original aspect of this one is that Lem is not a criminal; he's not a great guy, that's a given, but his wealth was not achieved through robbing banks or offing rich wives. Bob Forgione dukes it out with Mac Pakula for the issue's most primitive art.-Peter

Mystical Tales #4

Cover by Bill Everett & Carl Burgos

"The Condemned Man!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★1/2

"When the Phantoms Speak!" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★★

"He's Still Following!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★

"Fade-Out!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"Invaders of Earth!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"The Other Me!" (a: Bob Powell) ★★1/2

A tyrant orders a man to be shot but, when the man runs off, the tyrant dismisses him, remarking that "'it no longer matters.'" The tyrant heads outside and gets into a waiting car that takes him to a secret location. Knowing that the war is nearly lost, the tyrant has arranged to be put into suspended animation for 300 years, at which time he'll awaken and retake power.

Something goes wrong and he sleeps for an eon! When he awakens, he finds the world changed and not at all as he expected. Finally, after days of wandering, he comes upon his palace, where he is arrested and another tyrant orders that he be shot. The first tyrant escapes and the second tyrant is unconcerned because he, too, is heading off to be put into suspended animation for three centuries until he can reassert his power. The first tyrant watches from the bushes, understanding that the new tyrant is as much a fool as he was.

This tale has been told over and over and it never changes. Even Reed Crandall, an artist I respect, seems to have been unenthusiastic about the subject matter, since most of the four pages show little of his usual spark. I do like the last two panels on page two, which depict the outside of the cave where the tyrant sleeps as time alters his plans. Crandall can sometimes convey more without words than with them.

A very EC-like panel from "When the Phantoms Speak!"

Jim Case is an astronaut who was sent into space in secret to look for signs of intelligent life that could help mankind find peace. Despite visiting many planets, he never found life as intelligent as mankind and eventually his spaceship malfunctioned and he drifted. His ship was pulled down onto a planet, where he learned that "When the Phantoms Speak!" they can cure his ills, fix his spaceship, and restore his youth. He heads back to Earth determined to keep their existence a secret, since no one would believe it.

It's interesting to compare Forgione's art on "Out of the Swamp" in this month's Mystic with his art as inked by Abel in this story. It looks to me like Abel helps quite a bit, since Forgione's solo work is pretty bad. In fact, the art on this story is quite strong--too bad the writing is so weak.

In 1780, greedy Bruce Carmody enlists the aid of a sorcerer named Hollowell to find the gold left by his father to his brother Joe. One potion later, Bruce sets off on a long series of adventures in far-flung places, only to end up back at home, where the treasure was hidden all along. "He's Still Following!" is four pages that seem like four hundred, with sub-par art by Carrabotta and a narrative that jams way too many events into a small space before ending with a head-scratching climax.

Bored with his job as an astronomer, Grover Hawkins suddenly finds himself transported from the New York City subway to a mountainside, where he is butted by a large ram. He is suddenly back in the subway! The next day, he is transported to the Black Sea, where his sailboat capsizes! Each day, another adventure occurs before Grover is catapulted back to ordinary life, until one day it all stops. Little does he know that it was part of a test by aliens to see if he could survive on their planet, since he signed up on a list at the planetarium for the first trip to outer space.

So many of these Atlas stories follow a pattern where a character undergoes one or more unexplained events and it turns out to have something to do with creatures from outer space testing man's ability to withstand space travel or to survive on another planet. Unfortunately, all of them are equally awful and the harebrained explanations fall as flat as the art by Dick Ayers.

In an undersea kingdom under a dome, Jo-Sep argues vociferously for a plan to invade the surface world. Ignoring the concerns of leaders, he mans a thousand ships and heads up through the water, only to find that he and his people have changed too much in comparison to the surface dwellers and must return home. Above the surface of the water, a boy and girl look down into an aquarium and the boy remarks on the tiny submarines that appeared for a moment.

Another tired Atlas trope involves the discovery by one group that they are tiny in comparison to another group. "Invaders of Earth!" adds nothing original to the plot device and the art by Stallman is particularly wretched.

A young man named Carl Hanson saves an older man named Lucius Farrar from drowning. The thankful Lucius carves a miniature doll that looks just like Carl as a gift for his savior and tells him never to part with it or abuse it. Six months later, Carl needs money and agrees to sell the doll to a man named Kashmir but, in the months that follow, Carl experiences painful visions and discovers that Kashmir is a smuggler who has escaped the authorities and carries the doll with him. Carl tracks the man down and recovers the doll just as Kashmir's hideout is on fire! He vows never to part with it again.

Bob Powell saves the day, and not for the first time in an Atlas comic. The story is predictable but Powell gives something extra to his pages and his art continues to look like it did in some very fine work he did in the '40s.-Jack

Spellbound #31

Cover by Joe Maneely

"The Betrayer!" (a: George Roussos) ★★

"Oh, Perfect Crime!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★1/2

"He Won't Open the Door" (a: William Wellman (?) and Jack Abel) ★

"The Man Who Didn't Belong!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"They Dare Not Come" (a: Bill Everett) ★1/2

"Man in a Trance" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

A spaceship is headed for Earth, but is its mission to bring peace or war? Wealthy Philip Clark is one of the only people who knows and he spends lavishly to build an underground bunker for himself on the remote island of Bimur in the South Pacific. If the aliens turn out to be friendly, no worries, but if not, he'll be protected in his isolation. Clark is "The Betrayer!," having lied that his goal was to save his fellow man when all he really cared about was his own safety.

As the rocket approaches, it's determined to be on a mission of peace. Clark thinks he's safe, unaware that when the huge rocket touches down, it will destroy all life for miles around. Not knowing Clark's location, generals direct the aliens to land on the isolated island of Bimur!

Not a bad start to an issue, "The Betrayer!" doesn't try to do too much and ends with a twist that I did not see coming. For once, the story is better than the bland art.

Ever since an accident, the Great Gambo has had the power to teleport objects from one place to another. He signs with an agent named Mac Connors, hoping for work on stage, but Connors insists that the Great Gambo steal for him. Gambo reluctantly agrees and, when Connors tells him to teleport a million dollars from an armored truck to his office, Gambo makes it happen. Unfortunately, the magician is a bit too anxious to please and teleports the entire truck into the office, causing the floor to collapse and the police to show up and arrest Connors.

Not much to see here, folks--the Great Gambo is not developed as a character and the twist ending to "Oh, Perfect Crime!" is silly. O'Donnell's art is pleasant enough in a cartoony sort of way.

When professors show him a map leading to the lost gold of Pizarro in the Amazon jungle, a tycoon named Preston agrees on the condition that he lead the expedition. In the jungle, he alienates everyone by pushing them too hard, but his increasingly high offers of payment keep things moving along. Alone one night, he sees a hut by a river that's not on the map. Preston is convinced that crossing the river is the key to vast riches, so he begs the man in the hut to take him across. Inside, Charon wonders if he should accept Preston's offer and ferry him across the River Styx!

"He Won't Open the Door" is a poorly written, badly illustrated story that seems to have been created backwards from the surprise ending. Preston is an unlikeable character and I didn't care what happened to him. The art is so bad that the last few panels hold little weight.

When Steve Donner bravely pulls men out of a cyclotron after an accident, one of the men is unfamiliar to everyone. "The Man Who Didn't Belong!" only knows that his name is Rex and his mother's name is Denise, but otherwise he has amnesia. Steve lets Rex share his pad and gets him a job at the plant, but over time Rex becomes an irritant, getting promoted over Steve and stealing his gal. One day another accident occurs at the cyclotron and Rex disappears. Among the cadre of reporters interviewing Steve is a blonde named Denise, and he intuits that they'll marry one day and have a son named Rex.

Robert Q. Sale's art is always a little off to me and in this story it veers into just plain ugly. Of course Rex was Steve's future son. How did he end up in the cyclotron as an adult? Ask Carl Wessler, master of the confusing plot and disappointing twist.

Things are looking bleak at the weather station on Mars. Supplies are running low and men are collapsing left and right, but when a supply ship approaches and sees the terrible storm, well, "They Dare Not Come." The station commander won't tell the ships to land and eventually he's the only one left standing. Finally, the weather clears and the ship lands. All of the men who collapsed receive medical attention and the commander gets a new fuel pellet. After all, he's a weather robot!

What a difference a competent artist makes! Not much happens in this three-pager, but Bill Everett manages to make it look exciting. I was wondering if the men were dropping dead or just passing out; thank goodness it turned out to be the latter.

The four Flynn brothers have been searching all over England for the long-lost Drake diamond. Brother Ronnie invents a formula that allows a person to pass through the dimension of time and enter the past, but no one wants to take a chance, so they follow a rumor to the shore of Newcastle, where the diamond is said to be buried. After two weeks of digging, Ronnie decides to try the elixir and travels back through the centuries, where he soon falls in love with Drake's pretty daughter, Nancy. Drake doesn't want her to marry a pauper, so they decide to steal Drake's diamond and elope. They are chased to (where else) the shore of Newcastle, where they bury the diamond. Ronnie refuses to divulge its location and, before he is imprisoned, he returns to the present and tells his brothers that he knows where the diamond is buried. He digs it up, but his love for Nancy makes him rebury it so it will be there when she tells her father where it is. The brothers give up looking in disgust and Ronnie thinks happily that Nancy did not get put in a dungeon.

Partway through the four pages of this convoluted story, I felt like a "Man in a Trance" due to the unlikely twists and turns of events and the uninspired art by John Forte. I guess that the diamond was not there when Ronnie and his bros first dug, but after he went back in time and buried it, it was there. But if he leaves it there for Nancy to find, won't it not be there? My brain can't handle this kind of complexity.-Jack

Next Week...
Batgirl Gets Her Back-Up
Let's Hope That's a Good Thing!

Batman in the 1960s Issue 54: November/December 1968

 

The Caped Crusader in the 1960s
by Jack Seabrook
& Peter Enfantino

Novick

Batman #206

"Batman Walks the Last Mile!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Irv Novick & Joe Giella

There's a new master crook in Gotham City and he calls himself the Planner! When Batman and Robin investigate a theft from the Orphans' Fund during a charity ball, they quickly determine that the culprits are Big Squat, Chief Sittin-In, and Li'l Moose, all members of the musical combo known as Custer's Last Stand. A few well-thrown punches are sufficient to defeat these guys and Batman theorizes that there must have been a brain behind the scenes.

The next night, the Dynamic Duo are being honored at a dinner when a claims investigator named E.G. Never leaps up and insists that he's the brains behind Batman's success, secretly solving all of their cases for them and never getting credit. Never challenges Batman to a duel in which they'll each race to solve the next case. At midnight, the Planner, whose headquarters are at an auto graveyard, instructs two goons known as Chomp and Stomp on the details of their next heist.

Another day goes by, and that night Chomp and Stomp rob a check-cashing service. E.G. Never solves the case in no time, leaving Batman and Robin to collect the crooks and avoid being squashed by a wrecking ball. It turns out that the Planner and E.G. Never are the same person, and he/they next instruct a villain, who goes by the name Cat-Crook and dresses just like Batman, on how to steal diamonds. After the heist, Never identifies the culprit and the Dynamic Duo bring him in. The Cat-Crook recognizes Never's voice as that of the Planner and, when he escapes from the police station, the Cat-Crook goes looking for Never, who is waiting to kill Batman.

Tony Hillerman it ain't...

In the moonlight shadows at the auto graveyard, Never mistakes the Cat-Crook for the Caped Crusader and fatally shoots him. Robin saves Batman from being crushed in a car-crusher and the Planner is apprehended. Everyone testifies against him and he's sentenced to die in the electric chair! Never goes off the deep end in prison, insisting that he's Batman and demanding to be executed in his Batman costume, so the last we see of the villain is him being led to the chair dressed as Batman!

I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy, so I'll accentuate the positive and say that Novick's art is a big step up from Moldoff's. I like that we're seeing full-length stories, since they allow for more plot development. There's a lot of corn in this one, however, from the Indian rock group to the incredible coincidence of the Cat-Crook dressing almost exactly like Batman and being mistakenly shot and killed. The end, where the Planner is led to the electric chair, is surprising--this would not have happened in the earlier '60s Batman comics. Instead, after being revealed as a visitor from Mars, he would have flown off into space.-Jack

Peter-Frank Robbins's dialogue has shifted into Phase Two; Phase One being annoying, Phase Two being indecipherable. In one panel, Robin exclaims to an adversary, "Like... Pow! You're all strung-out -- 'Git' happy!" What the hell does that even mean? Did this issue come with a special Frank Robbins decoder ring? Can anyone out there tell me they ever heard real human beings talk like the characters in the opening panel (below)? What are these two lunks droning on about? I have no idea. Un-PC dialogue of the issue goes to Batman, after clobbering the Indians: "Have no 'reservations' about you sittin' out this war dance!" No, wait, how about naming the Indian rock group "Custer's Last Stand"? After being transformed into a cool senior citizen by Neal Adams (in B&B), Gordo resumes his role of doddering old fool here. And how about the biggest cheat of them all: that cover?

Novick

Detective Comics #381

"One Drown--One More to Go!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella

On a dark, murky night in Gotham Harbor, a trench-coated stranger drags a dazed Boy Wonder to a boat, rows out a bit, chains a couple of cinder blocks to the kid's legs, and dumps him overboard. As Robin sinks below the surface, we see the assailant is none other than... Batman! Holy cow! And we thought the team had gotten over their latest argument a couple issues ago! To learn the whole story, we have to go back an hour before Robin took a header into the drink.

Returning to Gotham in his Bat-Copter after a tension-filled adventure with the Justice League, Batman makes sure to "black out" his vehicle in order to avoid detection by the underworld (why he doesn't do this in any other adventure is up to you to decide) and thereby must wear his infra-red goggles to read his instrument panel. That's how he notices the Gotham Harbor lighthouse is transmitting a Morse Code message reading "Kill Robin! The kid knows everything!" 

Immediately, Bats gets on his walkie-talkie and contacts Dick, who's out patrolling the streets. Batman orders his pre-teen partner to get back to Stately Wayne Manor, pronto! Neither knows how close Robin was to death as a man on the docks was about to ventilate our young hero. Seeing that Robin is heading home, Bats heads for the lighthouse for a discussion with old friend, lightkeeper Capt. Cyrus Spume. The old, salty sea dog seems to be doing fine (if, I mean, playing chess with a sea lion is fine) and sends Bats out into the night; the Dark Knight ain't buying it. His brilliant detective brain detects something evil at work.

Sure enough, when Bats climbs to the light at the top of the building, he overhears two ruffians plotting yet another assassination attempt on the Boy Wonder. Heading back to the Batcave, Bats asks the Teenage Tornado if he's stumbled onto anything lately that would lead to a target on his back. A pair of infra-red goggles Robin is playing with catch the Caped Crusader's attention and Robin explains that he acquired them at a recent fight at the waterfront. The kid had stumbled into a ring of thugs breaking into a safe on board a ship and monitoring the beam at the nearby lighthouse. "Ah-ha!!!," exclaims the World's Greatest Detective™, "I knew it had something to do with that lighthouse beam!" 

Out on patrol, the boys get an urgent call from Gordon, claiming he got a tip phoned in while he was on the 18th hole, from a guy claiming that Batman was in trouble down on the docks and that Robin should get there asap. "I smell a rat!" opines the three-time Gotham Aptitude Award winner and Batman hatches a remarkably disposable scheme to fool Robin's would-be killers. Rather than try to bust the scumbags the usual way, Bats takes out "Dead-Eye," the hitman waiting at the docks, dons the killer's purple (!) trench coat, and dumps the kid in the harbor. 

Of course, Bats has equipped Robin with a breathing device and two chlorine tablets to fight off the hepatitis bacteria from Gotham's sewage. The ruse is successful and the hidden "Mister X" takes the bait, believing "Dead-Eye" has put an end to the illustrious career of Batman's partner. Unbeknownst to the mysterious X, Robin is actually swimming to the (as far as I know) heretofore unrevealed "Seaside Auxiliary Underwater Batcave" (!!!).

Meanwhile, back at the docks, Batman has shed his Mike Hammer overcoat and is spying on yet another safecracking job on a nearby ship. Waiting to nab the crooks as they exit the boat, Batman is amazed to see the thieves load their booty into a "Scuba-Motor" (think torpedo) and launch the mini-sub. Bats dives in and grabs hold of the missile as it zooms towards its base, which happens to be Capt. Spume's lighthouse. Surfacing, our hero is greeted by gun-toting thugs who introduce him to the brains of the outfit... Captain Spume! With the help of Spume's sea lion, Batman makes a getaway, but a lone gunman takes aim and...

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a giant suction cup hits the gunman square in the head and pulls him to the rail. Turns out, the sucker is attached to the end of Robin's bat-rope. The kid pulls himself up without breaking the gunman's neck and assists his mentor in putting the kibosh on Spume and his Spumesters. In a freak accident, the Captain takes a tumble off the lighthouse and falls to his assumed death. The boys shrug and blame the CCA for not paying attention.

Have we had our fill of "This team is through!" frauds? Though "One Drown..." is no less stupid than any other Bat-Adventure we've endured in the 1960s, it's also got a lot of goofy charm and I have to admit to smiling quite a bit during its length. Sure, I'm smiling at the absurdities (let's start and finish with the hat-wearing, chess-playing sea lion, Albatross) but the point is, I'm smiling. Once again, the Duo go to incredible (and dangerous) extremes to present an elaborate ruse when just putting knuckle sandwiches into teeth might have sufficed. Extra star for having the kindly old codger revealed to be Mister X.-Peter

Jack-Frank Robbins likes playing with silly names, doesn't he? E.G. Never in Batman and Captain Cyrus Spume in Detective! I'm beginning to wonder if the covers came first and then Robbins had to come up with a story to explain them. He certainly goes to some plotting extremes to justify the seemingly-impossible situations depicted on the covers, which I presume were dreamed up to lure readers into plunking down twelve cents. Batman's grey tights and blue boots are conspicuous sticking out from under the purple trench coat and I don't think any crooks would've been fooled for long by the disguise. Finally, this is the second comic this month to have the bad guy die (or be on his way) at the end. Is this a new era for the Dark Knight, one with more violence and grit?

Adams

The Brave and the Bold #80

"And Hellgrammite is His Name!"

Story by Bob Haney

Art by Neal Adams

As Batman confronts an arsonist on the roof of a building, he is distracted by a helicopter that passes by overheard and blasts out a loud announcement for Jack Ryder on WHAM-TV. The arsonist falls off the building but lands in a fire department net; Batman confronts Ryder, who insists that Batman watch his TV show tonight for important news. On the show, Ryder warns of a dangerous new criminal in Gotham: "And Hellgrammite Is His Name!" He looks like a man-sized grasshopper and Batman isn't impressed.

Commissioner Gordon asks Batman to look into the disappearance of gangster Ace Branigan, but Batman heads back to the TV studio, where Ryder wants him to help capture Hellgrammite. When the Caped Crusader defers, Ryder presses a button and transforms into the Creeper, who is wanted by the law. Batman ignores his warnings about Hellgrammite and the two trade blows until the Creeper lures Batman to a giant cocoon, where Hellgrammite, a former entomologist, must return to recharge his insect powers every 24 hours. Just then, Hellgrammite slithers up, fights Batman to a draw, and disappears.

Commissioner Gordon shows up and tells Batman that his new top priority is to capture the Creeper! Instead, Batman and the Creeper agree to team up temporarily to go after Hellgrammite. The fickle Commissioner Gordon asks Batman to protect Big Al Dalko from Ace Branigan in order to prevent a gang war, so Batman enlists the Creeper to help. They visit Dalko's "pad" and discover that Dalko was nabbed by Hellgrammite! They find the super bug has wrapped himself in an impervious cocoon and wait for him to emerge. Out he comes at full power and easily escapes.

Another mobster named Turk Trask thinks that the Creeper snatched both Branigan and Dalko and wants to avoid the same fate. He and his goons attack the Creeper and capture him, but Batman comes to the rescue. In the confusion, Hellgrammite snatches Trask. As Jack Ryder, the Creeper broadcasts a warning to Hellgrammite and the Creeper and Batman track the villain to a closed subway station, where they find the three missing mobsters wrapped in cocoons. Batman takes the cocoons to a nearby hospital, where a dose of radiation frees the crooks, who are allowed to go on their way. Batman and the Creeper locate Hellgrammite, who is none too pleased that his cocoons are gone; after a big fight, the Creeper zaps the bug with electric current and defeats him before disappearing.

There's not a lot of substance to this story, despite the fantastic artwork. Jack Ryder and the Creeper appear for no particular reason and I could never figure out Hellgrammite's goal. Adams and Giordano's Creeper is not as impressive as Ditko's and at one point Batman notes the character's resemblance to the Joker. Although Hellgrammite's outfit is ridiculous, Adams draws the heck out of him and his appearances are the artistic highlights of the story, though nothing on the inside lives up to the cover. It's safe to say that anything Adams drew at this point in his career was worth reading.-Jack

Peter- Ludicrous villain (former bug analyst), hilarious bad guy monikers (Bronk Boyle and Turk Trask, anyone?), and silly script (Bob Haney continues to write dialogue for Batman that makes him sound like a dimwitted hippie), but.... oh, that art. Good gracious, this Adams guy was a force to be reckoned with. I love how Gordo changes his "Number One Priority" every four pages. "Yeah, Batman, I know that I said the Creeper was your top assignment ten minutes ago, but Big Al Darko sounds like the real deal... wait, this just in, Gotham Golf and Country Club will be auctioning off a rare diamond tonight, so get over there, pronto!" Hellgrammite wears the typical villain costume that would be impractical in "real life."

In the end, Batman never thinks to tell Gordo how the Creeper helped save Gotham, never nay-saying Gordo's firm stance. Put in a good word for the felon? Nope, the Dark Knight (and he does look like a Dark Knight) accepts the accolades, collects the "Hero of the Month" Award, and keeps mum. The best thing about The Brave and the Bold, I'm finding, is that it gives me a taste of some of these lower-tier DC heroes who might have had a short run series or back-up in Adventure Comics but have interesting and quirky qualities. I was a Marvel Zombie and wouldn't have been caught dead with anything carrying the DC logo, so I had little knowledge of the Creeper or Deadman prior to this voyage. 

Novick

Batman #207

"The Doomsday Ball!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Irv Novick & Joe Giella

A mysterious man in a fancy car gives a new bouncing ball to a street kid named Skinnay just as police in Gotham City are alerted that the Mad Bomber has delivered a midnight ultimatum! Batman and Robin are summoned to City Hall, where they learn that an H-bomb has gone missing. The Mad Bomber demands to be paid $10M by 11:30 p.m. or he'll blow up Gotham at midnight!

Batman decides that the only clue is the Mad Bomber's voice on the tape and who better to identify it than another crook? He and Robin head to syndicate HQ, where they barely survive attacks by crooks for several pages before they finally talk to Brill, the boss. He can't ID the voice so he calls in his associates, one of whom hears background noise on the tape that allows him to identify the location where it was recorded.

Batman and Robin head to the neighborhood and overlook Skinnay playing with his ball; they make their way to the city lot where cars that are towed are stored and find the H-bomb in the fancy car's trunk. Unfortunately, a note warns that any attempt to defuse it will be met with instant retaliation. Commissioner Gordon dispatches an armored trunk with the $10M ransom, since time is getting short, and the Dynamic Duo ride along to the airport, where they fight with the Mad Bomber until he's killed by a taxiing airplane.

Thank goodness Batman remembers Skinnay and his new ball! He and Robin head back to the neighborhood and find the ball, which turns out to contain the detonator. They clip a wire and Gotham is saved from destruction!

First of all, take a good look at that cover and tell me that the faces and the awkward body positions don't suggest that Frank Robbins had a hand in the drawing. I know the GCD credits Novick and says that the squiggled signature reads "IN," but it sure looks like Robbins was involved. The story could've been a lot shorter, especially if they had cut the unnecessary pages where Batman and Robin have to fight their way into the big boss's home just to ask him to listen to the tape. You know it's bad when the cover scene is taken from a pointless part of the story.-Jack

Peter-I thought it odd that the Mad Bomber's identity was kept in the shadows even after he died. I like to imagine that he's the Kingpin's younger and shorter brother, Myron Fisk. The whole plot this time out, bomb and the bouncing ball, is unnecessarily complicated, but then I complain when Frank Robbins's scripts are stupid and simple, so that just goes to show that I cannot be satisfied. I love how Batman questions whether the bomb scare might be a hoax until he sees that ultra-secret government tag (that, no way no how, could be replicated) and then jumps in with both feet. Why are Brill's district captains wearing Robin-esque eye coverings? To protect their secret identities?! I so wanted one of the disguised thugs to point to Robin and say, "Hey, aren't you Dick Grayson?"

Infantino & Novick

Detective Comics #382

"Riddle of the Robbin' Robin!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella

The Smokescreen Gang and the Blowtorch Mob both have a big problem: after every heist, their booty disappears. Each gang suspects the other of foul play but both sets of morons never think to turn their attention to the one point in the middle: the "Armorer!" That would be Mr. Armory, the kindly old funeral home director who moonlights as a criminal mastermind, repairing damaged weapons and supplying important information to the crooks.

But what the dopey crooks don't realize is that Mr. Armory is planting listening devices on the weapons and then listening in as the villains plan their next robbery. Once the deed is done, Armory swoops in and cracks the safe the booty resides in. Both mobs are getting understandably upset and, after a confrontation where both sides almost eliminate the competition, decide to join forces to root out the mysterious looter.

Together, the boys will steal the Kimberly Star, a priceless diamond which is set to be delivered to the Cranston Jewelry Shop the following week and stash the rock in the mob safe. The safe will be rigged with a high-powered rifle that will put really big holes in anyone who opens the door. Hearing this new plan, the Armorer realizes he's got a big problem. If no one takes the bait, the gangs might start narrowing down the list of suspects and realize their mutual arms supplier is the guilty party; if he skips town, they'll know it fersure.

Armory decides the best patsies would be Batman and Robin, who have been experiencing a down cycle of violent crime in Gotham. Rather than nabbing Penguin while he's busting into the Gotham Toiletry Arcade, the boys are busting the homeless and hungry for stealing apples and public urination. Armory impersonates a hobbled old man who stumbles in the street before a patrolling Batmobile; when the Duo race to assist the old geezer, he tips them that the Kimberly Star is going to be stolen at Cranston's when it's delivered in ten minutes and then runs like a rat down the avenue.

Suspicious of the tip, Batman orders the Boy Wonder to head to the airport where the diamond is set to be delivered to its courier at any minute and he motors over to Cranston's. It's not long before Bats realizes they've been screwed with. The mobsters grab the courier and the diamond and Robin gives chase. But his walkie-talkie gets damaged and he can't properly communicate with his boss so Batman has to use the World's Greatest Detective Mind™ to track his little buddy to the Blowtorch Mob hideout (he overhears a conversation with Armory and Robin and realizes the mortician has the same voice as the old man in the street), where he arrives just in time. Good thing too, since the gun inside the safe would have necessitated a new three-eyehole mask for the Boy Blunder. The boys safely recover the diamond and slap the cuffs on Armory. 

The most fun I had with this snoozer was the splash, where we see the Dynamic Duo running down petty criminals during their break from high-profile adventure. Robin breaks the wrist of a kid stealing some fruit while his mentor shakes down a human department store, with toaster, alarm clock, and transistor radio emerging from the hardened criminal's pockets. A toaster? The art's okay (certainly better than Moldy Moldoff) but the script by suddenly omnipresent Frank Robbins is dull and unengaging. His "hip" dialogue probably came off as dated when the comic was on the newsstand and it doesn't help that he populates his scenario with the world's stupidest criminals ("Hmmm. What could be the focal point of our problem? We all shop at Raley's, our wives get their hair done at Jeannie's, the kids all go to Gotham Elementary... Nope, not seeing it!"). 

None of the villains are named Joe or Ralph; they're "Fingers" or "Stick." Do you think more than one mobster carried the same moniker? It's a big town; perhaps there's a "Mumbles I" and "Mumbles II"? Don't mind me, I'm rambling. One other thing before I go: did I miss the panel where Robbins explains how the Armorer opened the mob safes? Did he have the combos or was his listening device able to transmit the sound of the tumblers falling?-Peter

Jack-"Riddle of the Robbin' Robin!" is utterly forgettable. The first page doesn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the story, but after pages and pages of fighting and wisecracks I found it hard to care. It's awkward to have a two-way radio in your belt buckle, since it would be likely to get damaged in just about any scrap. Robin's walkie-talkie is messed up when it knocks into the steering wheel of the Batmobile! At least the art in Batman and Detective is consistent, probably due to the fact that Joe Giella inks both comics. As is so often the case, the cover is the best thing about this issue--the GCD says Infantino laid it out and Novick drew it.

Next Week...
Yeah, It Might Only Be Four Pages But...
It's Williamson and Krenkel, Dudes!

The Hitchcock Project-The Impossible Dream by Meade Roberts [4.28]

by Jack Seabrook

"The Impossible Dream" is a great example of how to adapt a mediocre short story into an outstanding episode of television. The TV show aired on CBS on Sunday, April 19, 1959, and it was based on a story called "Blackmail" by John Lindsey that was published in a 1936 British anthology of short stories called Thrills.

As the story opens, a man named Carew watches through the window of his home as his servant, Hall, leaves on vacation. His hands trembling slightly, Carew mixes himself a drink and thinks that, in an hour or two, he'll be free of Jagger, who has been coming to his house every month for six years to collect blackmail payments regarding a series of letters Carew wrote. Carew has a plan and thinks it's flawless.

As night falls, he draws the curtains. From his desk drawer he takes a small bottle of poison and pours a single drop into a glass; he plans to murder Jagger and leave his body on a common far away in the country, where it will look like an accidental death with no connection to Carew. He unpacks a trunk in his bedroom that Hall had packed for him. Jagger arrives and examines an envelope on the hall table, wondering if it's from a woman and remarking that he "'might know things she would like to know.'" The men go into the study, where Carew sits behind his desk and sips from a glass of whisky. After giving Jagger a pile of pound notes, Carew offers to pour a drink for his unwanted guest.

"Blackmail" was published here

Jagger drinks the poisoned whisky and, once his body is still, Carew washes out the glass and dresses Jagger in a suit he had prepared. He burns the man's clothes in the kitchen fire and, after a drink to fortify himself, he takes Jagger's body and puts it in the empty trunk. Two hours later, Carew returns, having placed Jagger's body on the common without being seen. He sits in his study and pours himself a drink to celebrate his freedom.

Just then, the study door opens and Hall enters and coughs, causing Carew to drop his glass. Hall explains that he forgot his ticket and missed his train, so he returned to Carew's home and stepped over the sill of the open study window. Hall opens the desk drawer, takes out the bottle of poison, and slips it into his pocket before asking Carew if they can speak tomorrow, saying there are "'one or two things I wish to purchase.'" Hall leaves the room and Carew realizes that he has to deal with a new blackmailer who knows that he is a murderer!

"Blackmail" includes suggestions of Hall's presence that, in retrospect, show that he was witness to the murder. In the first paragraph, Carew "stood behind the curtain," watching Hall leave; this plants the idea of someone watching events from behind the curtain without being detected. Later, when Carew is about to pour whisky into the poisoned glass, "he saw the curtain move slightly. He felt a sudden terror. What if someone saw?" Moments later, just before Jagger takes the fatal drink, "The wind stirred the curtains again. For a moment Carew's heart stood still."

Franchot Tone as Oliver Matthews

The reader is also not allowed to forget about Hall, the butler. When Carew burns Jagger's clothes, he wonders, "'What if Hall smells something when he returns?'" After he has dumped Jagger's body on the common, Carew carries the empty trunk back into the house and plans to "pack it again as Hall had packed it." When Hall suddenly appears in the study, it is a shock, yet it follows the clues that have been planted along the way. The story's conclusion is particularly subtle: "With a terrible calm Hall left the room. Carew lay writhing in his chair. So it was to go on? Jagger was dead, but Hall had stepped into the dead man's shoes. And this time the secret was far grimmer and the torturer for ever at his elbow!"

John Lindsey was a pseudonym used by John St. Clair Muriel (1909-1975), who also wrote as Simon Dewes. Though this is the only time one of his stories was adapted for TV or film, he wrote short stories, poetry, novels, and non-fiction, including a four-volume autobiography. His works were published between 1930 and 1962.

The story was adapted for television by Meade Roberts (1930-1992) in his only teleplay for the Hitchcock series. He wrote plays, including for the Actors Studio, and his TV and film work spanned the years from 1952 to 1968, after which he taught dramatic writing. Roberts also acted in a few films from 1976 to 1982.

Carmen Mathews as Miss Hall

The TV version is retitled "The Impossible Dream" and the events appear to take place in 1959, so the time has been updated from the short story, which was published in 1936. The first scene is a trick: a man is dancing with a woman and tells her that he refuses to give her up. She pulls a gun, shoots him point blank, and he falls to the floor. The camera then pulls back to reveal that this is a scene in a movie being filmed on a studio set, probably the set where Alfred Hitchcock Presents was filmed. Among those watching the actors is a woman who looks concerned; she is soon identified as Miss Hall and her character corresponds to the butler named Hall in the short story.

The male actor is Oliver Matthews and Miss Hall is his assistant. She enters his dressing room and takes over packing his suitcase for vacation, dismissing a wardrobe man and caressing one of Matthews's shirts as he enters the room. She compliments his acting in the scene that was just filmed but he rudely dismisses her as he pulls out a bottle and takes a drink. He laments how far his career has fallen and she suggests that he take his sedative instead of having more to drink; she measures a dose into a paper cup using a dropper from a medicine bottle and this is the first time we see what will later be used as the murder weapon. Matthews cruelly tells Miss Hall that she needs to find a man and reveals that he knows that she writes the fan letters he receives or else she pays people to write them. Matthews tells Miss Hall that he knows this secret and has known it for a long time, just as at the end she will use similar words to tell him that she has always known about his blackmailer. Telling her to face the truth that he was once a king and is now a beggar, Oliver accuses Miss Hall of dreaming impossible dreams of being his companion and tells her that she should not waste her intelligence and sensitivity.

Mary Astor as Grace Dolan

Matthews opens the dressing room door and sees a woman with a limp standing outside; Miss Hall identifies her as Grace Dolan, who works in the studio's wardrobe department. Miss Hall adds that Dolan's pretty daughter died a year ago and there are stories about what happened. Oliver and Miss Hall emerge from the dressing room onto a studio street, where he takes his suitcase from her and gets into a car to drive himself to the airport, declining her offer to accompany him and telling her that she should also take a vacation.

The first two scenes introduce the show's three main characters, each of whom corresponds to a character in the short story. Oliver Matthews is an aging movie star who drinks and complains about his life and career; he is the show's version of Carew, from the story, who is well-off and also drinks; as the story opens, he watches Hall, the butler, leave on vacation. Miss Hall is Oliver's assistant; she is in love with him and devoted to him, despite his cruelty to her. She replaces the male butler, Hall, from the story and her character is expanded. Finally, Grace Dolan is the TV version of the male blackmailer, Jagger, in the story; in the show she works at the studio and Matthews pretends not to know her.

That artifice is shattered in the long scene that follows, which begins with Oliver going home to his Hollywood mansion. He is drunk and the camera is tilted to suggest his mental state. Signed photos of pretty women line the walls and he takes out his bottle of sedative, perhaps entertaining thoughts of suicide. He puts down the bottle and a glass of whisky and puts on an old phonograph record, underlining his desire to live in a happier past. He sits behind his desk and is about to pour the sedative into the glass when a woman's voice calls out: "'Mr. Matthews!'" He quickly hides the bottle in the desk drawer.

Josie Lloyd and William D. Kruse

Grace Dolan enters the room and tells Matthews, "'Thanks for leaving the door open! You're learning!'" It appears they do know each other after all, and her arrival parallels that of Jagger in the short story. In the story, it is clear that Carew puts poison in a glass as part of a plan to kill Jagger. In the TV show, it looks like Matthews is suicidal, but Grace's arrival makes his actions in retrospect possibly look like he was planning her murder. Grace tells Oliver that she appeared at his dressing room door to remind him of their date that evening and she criticizes him for focusing on the past before expressing displeasure that he has not displayed a photo of her late daughter Janice among those of his many girlfriends.

After Grace opens Oliver's desk drawer and takes out the sedative bottle, she asks him if his sleep problems are due to a guilty conscience. She blames him for Janice's death and comes to his house each week for a check. At first, Oliver claims that he's broke, but when Grace tells him that she has letters in her bag that he wrote to her daughter, letters that every scandal magazine would love to see, he writes her a check. It's Friday and she promises not to cash it till Monday, telling him to make sure it won't bounce. At this point, there is a close up of Oliver's face and his expression suggests that he's considering violence. Instead, Oliver takes the bottle of sedative from his drawer and pockets it as Grace begins to walk away.

Irene Windust as Myra Robbins

He suddenly becomes solicitous and his skill as an actor is on display as he charms Grace and overcomes her reservations. Oliver suggests that they toast their new friendship and pours a glass of the creme de menthe she requests. While she browses through his record collection, Oliver pours the entire bottle of sedative into her glass and stirs it with his finger before the screen fades to black. This long scene replaces the scene in the story where Jagger visits Carew, receives his check, and drinks the poisoned whisky. In the TV version, there is more detail about the contents of the letters that are at the heart of the blackmail scheme. Oliver is more morose than Carew and Grace is more vulgar than Jagger yet making her the mother of a dead young woman adds a layer of sympathy that is missing from the story.

The shot fades back in and it's later that evening as Oliver carries Grace's body outside and puts her in the passenger seat of his car. At first, she appears to be dead, but when she stirs in the car it's clear that she is alive but groggy. In the short story, Jagger drinks the poisoned whisky in one scene and is dead in the next; having Grace remain alive makes her fate even worse. Oliver drives to a lake where he has just taken a length of chain out of a bag when he is suddenly bathed in light from the headlights of a car parked nearby; two teens have been necking and quickly drive off when the girl insists on going home.

Having escaped detection, Oliver takes Grace's body out of the car, wraps one end of the chain around a rock and the other end around her neck, and pushes her into the lake. This scene is particularly gruesome as he wraps the chain around the neck of the woman who is groggy but still alive. There is a sound of bubbles as she sinks and Oliver watches his blackmailer disappear. In the short story, more time is spent as Carew cleans up the murder scene, redresses Jagger in a suit, burns his clothes, and works up the nerve to put his body in the trunk. The disposal of the body on a common is not described, so the scene at the lake in the TV show is new.

Dick Jeffries as the director

In the short story, one can find suggestions of Hall's presence in retrospect, such as the moving curtain, and Carew worries that his butler will smell the odor of burnt clothes when he returns. In the TV show, there is no hint that Miss Hall was present when Oliver drugged Grace. However, when he returns home, Miss Hall immediately rushes into the room to confront her employer, while in the story, Carew brings the trunk inside, sits behind his desk, and fixes a drink, all before the butler enters. Miss Hall confronts Oliver, saying that she suspected he might change his mind about flying to Mexico. She reveals that she has always known about Grace and her daughter and she also knows what happened earlier this evening. She followed him to Mulholland Drive when he left the house and she shows him the empty sedative bottle that she picked up. Oliver asks her what she wants and she replies that she wants him to make an impossible dream come true.

The short story ends with Hall asking Carew if they can speak tomorrow and Carew realizing that he'll be blackmailed again. The show has one final scene that demonstrates what happens next in a particularly satisfying way. The screen dissolves to the interior of a movie theater, where the movie that Oliver was filming in the first scene is playing. He and Miss Hall sit together, watching it; she takes his hand and he flinches, closing his eyes in disgust as the screen fades to black. Oliver has made Miss Hall's impossible dream come true and now will spend the rest of his life with a woman he does not love.

"The Impossible Dream" is a brilliant adaptation of "Blackmail" where Meade Roberts reimagines the story and makes changes and additions that make it far more interesting, with added emotional depth. The performances of the three lead actors are outstanding, as is the direction.

Pat O'Malley as the wardrobe man

This was one of the 49 episodes of the Hitchcock series that Robert Stevens (1920-1989) directed; he won an Emmy for "The Glass Eye."

Hollywood veteran Franchot Tone (1905-1968) plays Oliver Matthews; he was a founding member of the Group Theatre in the early 1930s, a movie star beginning in that same decade who was married to Joan Crawford from 1935 to 1939, on TV starting in the '50s, on stage from the '20s to the '60s, and in the classic Twilight Zone episode "The Silence." Tone was also in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "Final Performance."

Carmen Mathews (1911-1995) appeared on screen from 1950 to 1992; here she plays Miss Hall. She was born in Philadelphia and started her acting career on stage in England before returning to America, where she was seen mostly on TV and occasionally on film. She was also frequently on Broadway, from the late 1930s until the early 1980s. She appeared once on The Twilight Zone and was seen six times on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Older Sister."

Grace Dolan is played by Mary Astor (1906-1987), the great Hollywood actress whose screen career began in silent films in 1921. Born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke, Astor's most memorable role on film came in John Huston's 1941 adaptation of The Maltese Falcon, with Humphrey Bogart. She began appearing on TV in 1954 and her screen career ended in 1964. This was one of her two appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents; the other was "Mrs. Herman and Mrs. Fenimore."

In smaller roles:

• Josie Lloyd (1940-2020) as the young woman in the car by the lake; Norman Lloyd's daughter, she was on TV from 1959 to 1967 and appeared in six episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Graduating Class." She was also on The Twilight Zone. In "The Impossible Dream" she is billed as Suzy Lloyd.
• Irene Windust (1921-1999) as Myra Robbins, who shoots Oliver in the opening scene; she had a brief screen career from 1958 to 1963 but managed to appear in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Blessington Method."
• Dick Jeffries (1938-2012) as the director of the movie being shot in the first scene; he had a brief screen career from 1958 to 1968.
• William D. Kruse (1933-2016) as the young man in the car by the lake; his screen career lasted from 1958 to 1962 and he was in one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "A Night with the Boys."
• Pat O'Malley (1890-1966) as the wardrobe man who is packing Oliver's suitcase; he was in countless films from 1908 to 1962 and on TV from 1950 to 1962. This was his only role on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but he appeared on Thriller, in three episodes of The Twilight Zone, and in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).

Watch "The Impossible Dream" online here or order the DVD here. Read the GenreSnaps review here.

Thanks to Morgan Wallace for research help, to Mike Ashley for a copy of the short story, and to Tom Seabrook for helping rule out other stories as the source of this episode.

Sources:

The FICTIONMAGS Index, www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub, 2001.

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

"The Impossible Dream." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 4, episode 28, CBS, 19 April 1959.

Lindsey, John. "Blackmail." Thrills, Associated Newspapers Ltd., Dublin and Cork, Ireland, 1936, pp. 123–132.

"Meade Roberts; Actor, Screenwriter and Playwright." Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 15 Feb. 1992, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-02-15-mn-1567-story.html.

Meade Roberts, Writer, 61, Dies; Tennessee Williams Collaborator - The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/1992/02/15/theater/meade-roberts-writer-61-dies-tennessee-williams-collaborator.html.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "Suspicion" here!

In two weeks: concluding thoughts and links to all of the posts!