The Hitchcock Project-Kill With Kindness by A.J. Russell [2.4]

by Jack Seabrook

"Kill with Kindness" was the second and last episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to be based on a story by A.J. Russell. The first, "The Hidden Thing," was adapted by James Cavanagh "based on a story by A.J. Russell," according to the credits. It appears that Russell's story was actually a teleplay he wrote for an earlier TV anthology series called The Clock, which featured an episode titled "The Hidden Thing" that aired on July 13, 1951. Russell also wrote a number of episodes for another early TV anthology series, The Web; one was titled "Kill with Kindness" and it aired on May 14, 1952. From the brief plot synopsis available in online sources, it seems that it was the basis for the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode of the same title. Unlike "The Hidden Thing," which was adapted by a different writer for the Hitchcock show, A.J. Russell also wrote the teleplay for the Hitchcock version of "Kill with Kindness."

Unfortunately, this episode of The Web appears to be lost, so it is unavailable to compare with the episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Still, the Hitchcock episode, which aired on CBS on Sunday, October 21, 1956, seems like it could have been done as a live TV show in 1952, since it features a small cast and few sets.

Time seems to have stood still in the parlor of the Oldham siblings, a middle-aged pair named Fitzhugh and Katherine, who pass the time pleasantly one sunny day. She sits on the sofa knitting while he tweets happily at his pet canary. Butterflies, mounted and framed, line the walls behind Fitzhugh, who is also a serious birdwatcher. He summons his sister to the window to point out a rare bird that he has spotted through his binoculars, but she is more interested in an old, ragged man who sits on a park bench every day, feeding the pigeons. He "'looks about right,'" she says.

Hume Cronyn as Fitzhugh Oldham

Fitzhugh notes the bird sighting in his journal and asks Katherine if they can keep his butterfly collection, making the viewer wonder what is going to happen that will put his treasures in jeopardy. Whatever it is, Katherine is clearly more determined to carry it out than her brother, remarking that the collection "'will have to go like everything else.'" After making her brother promise not to say the wrong things, Katherine visits the man on the park bench and offers to feed him some of the stew she has prepared. She calls her offer "'an act of human kindness'" and tells the man to pay no attention to anything her brother says. The man, who slurs his words as if he has been drinking, is surprised and glad to accompany Katherine across the street to her home.

Once he is inside the man announces that his name is Jorgy and laments that he has no home or family, admitting that he wanders from place to place, often driven out of town by the local police. He wears ill-fitting clothes and a rumpled hat and he is unshaven with thinning grey hair. Fitzhugh happily shows the man his butterfly collection, confessing that he and his sister are "'impoverished--nothing left except this house and my insurance policy.'" At this point, the viewer begins to suspect what is happening and gets an inkling of Katherine's plan.

Katherine serves the stew and Jorgy digs in, wrapping one arm around his bowl, bending over close to the stew and spooning it quickly into his mouth, clearly used to protecting his food from others. A moth flits through the parlor and Katherine wants Fitzhugh to kill it, but he catches it and releases it out the window. This demonstrates the siblings' differing views on killing, at least when it comes to small creatures. Fitzhugh remarks to Jorgy that Katherine once tried to kill him, noting that she is the beneficiary of his insurance policy and demonstrating why Katherine had told Jorgy to ignore her brother's comments. He goes on to reveal that he told his sister that they need to find a substitute for his corpse, thus revealing the Oldhams' plan and giving Jorgy a good reason to stand up and announce he's leaving.

Carmen Mathews as Katherine Oldham

Katherine is persuasive, however, and convinces the old man to stay with a promise of warm milk. Fitzhugh leans his head despondently against the fireplace mantle, upset with himself for having said too much, until Katherine distracts him by suggesting that he give Jorgy a suit and shoes to replace the rags he's wearing. Instead, Fitzhugh goes to attend to a job in the basement, leaving his sister to take Jorgy upstairs to change into her brother's clothes. Before they ascend the stairs, another moth flits around the parlor and Katherine catches it and feeds it to Fitzhugh's canary, explaining to Jorgy that she kills the insects when her brother is out of the room.

Upstairs, Katherine helps Jorgy into one of Fitzhugh's suit jackets, flattering him that it is a perfect fit and again deeming her own acts "'human kindness'" even though they are nothing of the sort, since her plan involves deception and murder. Down in the dirty, cobweb-filled basement, Fitzhugh locates a large can marked "Kerosene."

In the next scene, Katherine is back on the sofa, happily knitting, when Jorgy enters the parlor wearing Fitzhugh's suit. She insists that he stay the night and he agrees. Katherine then goes down to the basement to check on her brother, who is happily spreading straw around the room, explaining that he must start a fire, go upstairs, and change into Jorgy's clothes, and then leave by the back door. Katherine reminds him to take the ring off of his own finger and put it on Jorgy's finger so that his corpse will be identified as Fitzhugh's after the house is destroyed by fire. The siblings lament all that will be lost; Katherine expresses sorrow that Jorgy will be killed while Fitzhugh is upset about losing his butterfly collection.

James Gleason as Jorgy

Back in the parlor, Katherine serves Jorgy a glass of drugged milk. Later, she sits on the sofa knitting while Fitzhugh shows Jorgy his butterfly collection. Jorgy begins to yawn and his eyes begin to close, so Fitzhugh takes him upstairs and leaves him in the bedroom. Fitzhugh returns to the parlor, anxious to start the fire, but Katherine insists that they go upstairs to confirm that Jorgy is asleep. She instructs her brother to put on Jorgy's clothes and leaves him in the bedroom but, after she is gone, Fitzhugh rushes downstairs and grabs the birdcage and one of his butterfly frames before joining his sister in the basement, where she lights a match and starts a huge fire.

At this point all of Katherine's careful plans begin to come apart. As smoke fills the parlor, she tells her brother to hurry up and change clothes so that he can leave, but she notices that he forgot to take the ring off of his finger and put it on Jorgy's. She realizes that, without her brother's ring on Jorgy's finger, his corpse will not be identified as that of Fitzhugh and her scheme to defraud the insurance company will fail. They go upstairs and see that Jorgy already has his own ring, which is stuck on his finger and won't come off. As smoke continues to fill the house, the Oldhams panic and Katherine wakes Jorgy and has Fitzhugh help him downstairs.

Later, Jorgy and Katherine sit side by side on the park bench where they had met the day before and a woman brings coffee to Fitzhugh, who holds his precious birdcage. The woman calls him a "'real hero'" and he agrees. A fireman also praises Fitzhugh and, as Katherine looks crestfallen, her brother remarks to the fireman that "'You know how women are in an emergency. Poor Katherine. She always loses her head.'" Fitzhugh smiles smugly and watches his house burn down as the screen fades to black.

"Kill with Kindness" is a classic episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that includes great acting by the three leads and mixes humor and dark themes in a way that recalls Arsenic and Old Lace. The difference here is that no one is killed.

Margie Liszt

Hume Cronyn is superb as the eccentric Fitzhugh Oldham, who seems so focused on his butterfly collection and his bird watching that he fails to understand that he and his sister are no longer able to support themselves. Childlike, scatterbrained, and forgetful, he is a gentle soul whose personality contains contradictions: he wants to save moths and set them free yet he kills butterflies and mounts them in frames on the wall; he has no compunction about killing another human being and he has an unhealthy interest in setting and watching fires.

Cronyn does a wonderful bit of business each time he goes up or down the staircase. Instead of stepping on alternate stairs with alternate feet, he looks down intently and makes sure that each foot lands on each stair, shuffling along quickly like a child afraid of falling. The effect is humorous and subtly demonstrates the character's arrested development.

As Katherine, Carmen Mathews is cold and calculating, having once tried to murder her own brother to collect on his insurance policy and now trying to carry out a plan to murder a stranger and make it look like her brother has died. She is cheerful at all times and repeatedly refers to her own acts as being done out of "'human kindness,'" yet underneath she is trying to manipulate the men around her to suit her own purposes. She treats Fitzhugh more like a son than a brother, often referring to him as "'dear'" and gently chastising him.

Finally, James Gleason is utterly convincing as Jorgy, the homeless man who is brought into the Oldhams' home in order to be killed. At once charming and pathetic, he eats like he rarely gets a hot meal and he is easily manipulated with promises of warm milk, clean clothes, and a comfortable bed. It seems like Jorgy has so little to lose that he is willing to overlook clear signs of danger from Fitzhugh and Katherine Oldham; perhaps his brain has been so addled by alcohol that he no longer has much interest in self-protection.

Taken together, the clever story and the fine acting make this an enjoyable episode of the series. It's not clear where the story takes place, though. Behind Jorgy on the park bench, the background resembles New York's Central Park, with tall buildings seen in the distance. However, in a subsequent scene, Fitzhugh refers to "'our little town'" and Katherine later reminds him that he is to go to the Trenton Hotel in Spring City, clearly a fictional place.

The buildings in the background look
like Central Park West in New York City.

A.J. Russell (1915-1999) was a successful writer for television beginning in 1950. He wrote 11 episodes of Lights Out and adapted Fredric Brown's story, "Crisis, 1999" for the series, Tales of Tomorrow. He began writing for The Jackie Gleason Show in 1952 and was one of the writing staff responsible for the classic 39-episode season of The Honeymooners in 1955-56. He went on to write for The Phil Silvers Show in 1957-58 and shared an Emmy with the rest of the show's writing staff in 1958. He continued writing for television into the 1980s. Russell's skill with humor is evident in his teleplay for "Kill with Kindness."

"Kill with Kindness" is directed by Herschel Daugherty (1910-1993), a prolific TV director from 1952 to 1975 who also directed a couple of movies. He directed 27 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in all, including "The Blessington Method," and he directed 16 episodes of Thriller.

Hume Cronyn (1911-2003) began his acting career on Broadway in 1934 and he was on screen from 1943 until 2004. He had important roles in Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Lifeboat (1949) and was also one of the writers credited on Hitchcock's Rope (1948) and Under Capricorn (1949). Cronyn appeared twice on Alfred Hitchcock Presents (the other episode was "The Impromptu Murder") and among his other memorable film roles were The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and Cocoon (1985), a late-career hit. His wife, Jessica Tandy (1909-1994), was also a great actor who appeared on the Hitchcock TV show.

Mike Ragan

Carmen Mathews (1911-1995) appeared on screen from 1950 to 1992. 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," another story of domestic murder between siblings.

James Gleason (1882-1959) was a veteran character actor who started out on stage and who served in the Army in WWI. He appeared on film from 1922 to 1958 and on TV from 1952 to 1958; he was very busy in films in the 1930s and 1940s. This was one of two appearances he made on Alfred Hitchcock Presents; the other was "The End of Indian Summer."

The woman who calls Fitzhugh a hero at the end is played by Margie Liszt (1909-1992), who appeared on radio, film, and TV from 1947 to 1964. Hers was the voice summoning Fats Brown in the classic episode of The Twilight Zone, "A Game of Pool."

Rounding out the cast as the fireman is Mike Ragan, who was born Hollis Bane and who appeared in countless movies and TV shows starting in 1924. He was seen on the Hitchcock TV show eight times, including "Breakdown."

Watch "Kill with Kindness" here or order the DVD here.

Sources:

CTVA US Anthology - “The Web” (CBS) Season 2 (1951-52), ctva.biz/US/Anthology/Web_02_(1951-52).htm#google_vignette.

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

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

"Kill with Kindness" Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 2, episode 4, CBS, 21 October 1956.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater" here!

In two weeks: "Crackpot," starring Biff McGuire and Robert Emhardt!

Batman in the 1960s Issue 32: March/April 1965

 

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

Infantino/Giella

Detective Comics #337

"Deep-Freeze Menace!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella

Fifty-thousand years ago, two Cro-Magnon gentlemen, Krag and Brugg, fought over territorial rights to Heap Big Mountain and Brugg won, with Krag taking a header into a deep rock crevasse. But the joke's on Brugg since the "minerals from the stalactite ceiling" above Krag's inert form kept the brute in suspended animation until an earthquake released the frozen Magnonsicle into the air of present day.

For some reason, the ice has formed a shield around Krag and absorbs the powers of the elements around him. It's also given the caveman ESP (!) and the gift of flight. With only one thought in mind ("Kill Brugg!"), the scantily-clad redhead takes to the skies in search of his old enemy.

Cruising over Africa, Krag sees a Sikh hunter trailing a tiger and, immediately knowing (despite his ESP) that this man must be Brugg in disguise, dives in for the attack. With super-human powers, Krag quickly defeats his enemy and then has a look. "Nope," sighs the brute, "He no smell like Brugg!" Disappointed, Krag takes to the air once again, with his ESP sonar telling him that the real Brugg is hiding out in Gotham City. The ESP just needed to be fine-tuned, I guess. Krag suddenly realizes he can harness the power of lightning, whether it's storming or not, and the bolts send him speeding to Gotham.

It's only a matter of time before the Dynamic Duo are informed by the man with the easiest job on the planet, Commissioner Gordon, that there's a semi-nude, ice-sheathed caveman flying through the streets of Gotham. Batman and Robin speed to the scene, expecting to find the caveman looting the Gotham Cotton Candy Factory, and instead find Krag atop one of the city's tall buildings, just chillin'. As the Dark Knight swings in on his Bat-rope, Krag addresses him as Brugg and tells him that, even though he's wearing a mask and cowl, he recognizes him as his true enemy. Batman, his super-tuned hearing aid having been left back in the Cave, mistakenly hears the monster call him "Bruce!" and becomes alarmed. How would a giant popsicle know his true identity?

Robin joins in the battle and flings tear-gas at Klag, but the beast's ice shield sends it right back into the Teen-Age Thunderbolt's face. Momentarily forgetting that the Dynamic Duo have fought aliens from outer space, supermen from the future, and women dressed as cats, Batman declares that they've "never fought anything like him before!" End of Chapter One!

Klag gets the better of the Duo, knocking both out with his super-powered club. With his sworn enemy prostrate before him, Klag unmasks Batman and... "It no Brugg!" Really riled up, Klag flies away in search of the real Brugg. Robin reaches his unconscious boss and pops his mask on just as the cops show. Coming to, the Masked Manhunter orders his teenage flunky to gather any clues (including ice drippings) so they can go back to the Cave and study this menace.

Back at the cave, the duo agree that Klag is 50,000 years old and the minerals which bathed his body gave him "strange and unusual powers." Just then, an Interpol message comes through, informing the pair that Klag had attacked a Sikh in Africa; the picture reveals... a Bruce Wayne twin! "Holy double danger, Batman," screams a suddenly very smart Robin. Batman declares he now knows how to defeat the primitive menace. Another Interpol message informs our heroes that Klag has been sighted flying over the Atlantic toward Spain.

Shortly thereafter, Klag lands smack-dab in the middle of a ring in Malaga, Spain, just as a bullfight is about to commence. One of the matadors looks just like...Bruce Wayne! As Klag is about to clobber the cow-killer, a Bat rope descends into the arena and stays the mighty club. Reasoning that the ice sheath around the mighty Samson-ite allows him to breathe somehow, Batman sprays a plastic sealant around the ice and the caveman becomes solid rock. Batman declares that they'll take Klag back to Gotham, where scientists and doctors will clean him up and educate him. Then he'll run for Mayor of Gotham and, who knows, perhaps become the President of the United States sometime in the 21st Century.

As noted plenty of times before, I roll my eyes at most of these goofy scripts, but Gardner Fox must have had a few extra Coronas before he sat down in front of his Smith-Corona to type out the classic kitsch known as "Deep-Freeze Menace!" I love how Fox just throws out anything resembling common sense (how does a man move while he's encased in ice?) and decides he's going to give the ten-year-olds that make up the bulk of his audience a thrill ride. And what a thrill ride this is! A caveman who can survive a stories-high plunge. Lightning bolts that spring out of nowhere. Cavemen who don't question their sudden mastery of flight. Bat-computers that can analyze ice particles and tell the boss that minerals in a cave gave this big guy super-powers. Oh, and if Robin can collect drip specimens, that means the ice is melting, correct? Would Klag's super-powers have eventually worn out? Alas, the follow-up where we see Klag cleaned up and reporting to work as Gotham's new D.A. never materialized.-Peter

Jack-Those must have been some amazing minerals in that cave if they could give ESP and the power of flight to a frozen caveman! Why did he stay sheathed in ice the whole time? Wouldn't it melt? I guess the super minerals resisted the sun's rays. Batman really needs to get his hearing checked. Imagine how bad this story would be if the art weren't so sharp!

Infantino/Giella

Batman #170

"Genius of the Getaway Gimmicks!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Sid Greene

"The Puzzle of the Perilous Prizes!"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Joe Giella

Batman and Robin chase a trio of crooks who robbed a factory payroll but fail to catch them because the criminals were aided by the "Genius of the Getaway Gimmicks!" Roy Reynolds has figured out that most crooks can't resist trying to kill the Dynamic Duo when they should be focused on escape. When the same crooks rob a department store safe, Reynolds ensures their getaway with a handy oil slick on the road in front of the Batmobile.

Batman figures out what's going on and sets a trap. A story in the paper reports that a villain called the Hexer has vowed to use the Bat-Signal against the Caped Crusader and, when the crooks steal a valuable chess set and are chased by Batman and Robin, the Bat-Signal seems to emit a ray that causes the Dynamic Duo to be wrapped in their own expanding uniform emblems. Reynolds keeps running but the other two can't resist the seeming golden opportunity to do away with the good guys once and for all. Batman and Robin easily overpower the crooks, who are so annoyed at Reynolds that they tell Batman where he's hiding. Batman and Robin find and apprehend Reynolds in two panels!

Moldoff and Greene provide art that is marginally better than that of Moldoff and Paris, all in service of an uninspired story. The main thing I took away from this one was that Batman and Robin were not wearing seatbelts in the Batmobile as of 1965, since when the Batmobile hits the oil slick they are both thrown from the car before it runs headlong into a telephone pole. It's probably for the best, because they didn't have air bags, either.

Aunt Harriet tells Bruce and Dick about her friend, a retired nurse named Mrs. Tompkins, who won first prize in a contest without ever having entered! Batman and Robin set out to solve "The Puzzle of the Perilous Prizes!" Traveling to Hillvale, where the winning entry was mailed, they accidentally stumble across criminal activity and barely survive the Batmobile being blown off the side of a cliff. Crooks try to run them over with a bulldozer and again the Dynamic Duo are nearly killed.

Batman analyzes a wristwatch he finds at the scene and it leads him to the town's riverfront dock, where they confront the crooks. Stilts, the gang's leader, sets a grizzly bear on Batman (don't ask), but to no avail. Batman discovers that the gang was using animal cages and a showboat to transport stolen loot from city to city to fence it.

But what of the contest? It turns out that Jimmy Statten, a young gas station attendant who Mrs. Tompkins kindly nursed back to health before she retired, entered the contest in her name, hoping to win and pay her back. In the end, Bruce wonders if Aunt Harriet suspects him and Dick of being Batman and Robin.

So much for the New Look! This story stinks like a dead deer on the side of the road. Now we know what it looks like when Joe Giella inks his own pencils--come back Sheldon Moldoff, all is forgiven! Bill Finger penned this terrible tale and I wonder if it was a leftover file story, since we haven't seen much of Finger's work lately. Also, two stories in one issue where the Dynamic Duo are thrown from the Batmobile and the car is wrecked! Who is their mechanic? Do they have an unending supply of new Batmobiles?-Jack

Peter-Neither one of these dim-witted adventures rung my bell. What a great gimmick for an arch-villain: do everything you can not to hurt Batman. We never got a moniker for our new criminal mastermind. How about the Eluder? The Neutral? The Sissy? Two juicy nuggets I learned in "Getaway Gimmicks": the newspapers somehow get hold of action photos of Bats and Robin they couldn't possibly be witness to and, as shown during the big oil skid, the Caped Crusaders do not wear seat belts. "Perilous Puzzle" should have been titled "Slow Crime Day in Gotham." Seriously? The boys are putting all their investigative skills into finding out how poor Mrs. Tompkins received a free car, fridge, stove, freezer, and Ginsu steak knives? The Dynamic Duo are in for a lot of work when Dick Clark and Ed McMahon start sending out their Publishers Clearing House packets in a few years! 

Infantino/Giella

Detective Comics #338

"Batman's Power-Packed Punch!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

A lab accident leaves Batman with a power-packed punch. Bruce Wayne is visiting one of the labs assigned to the Alfred Foundation, learning about Dr. Orval Manning's new potion, which, when applied to a wooden surface, makes that object invulnerable to rot and termites. The nutty professor accidentally spills some of the liquid onto Wayne's hands, but there is no visible damage done. 

Dr. Manning then introduces his boss to another invention, the Encephitector, a gizmo that enables bank presidents to detect when a person is thinking of committing a robbery. "Holy Minority Report!" thinks Bruce. Later, in the Bat-Cave, just to show off to Robin, the Caped Crusader whips up an "improved" version of the Enchephologramitizer and installs it in the Batmobile.

While on patrol, the boys run across a band of thieves running from a bank and give chase. The criminals head into a construction yard and use a crane to level Batman with a wrecking ball. The thugs get away but the Teenage Thunder-Bolt notices the ball has a fist imprint in it. Somehow, the wood-protector formula has transformed Batman's hands into fists of fury. Suddenly, the Enciphipecktor goes off again and the boys head to yet another heist. Bats uses his strong fists to bust through a wall and discovers two of the knuckle-headed thieves who had just robbed the bank, now cracking a safe. Don't these guys know when enough is enough?

Meanwhile, Robin has run down the rest of the bank gang and, with a returning Batman, makes quick work of the bozos. The boys haul the crooks to jail and Robin suggests they go see Dr. Manning and find out how long "Batman's Power-Packed Punch!" will last. Batman slaps the kid on the back, breaking Robin's shoulder, and admits the Teenage Tomato has a good idea now and then. 

I'd have liked Prof. Manning (or Batman) to explain to me why the Enchiladizer can possibly focus in on only bank robbers and not all crimes in general, such as men who are about to murder their wives or embezzling accountants or Avatar sequels. Is there a part of the brain reserved just for heists? As Robin says, the Duo "waste a lot of time driving around Gotham City on our patrols night after night..." Imagine a world where Bats and Robin can arrest the Penguin before he's even released from jail for his previous crime!

I'm not sure if visiting the scientist who spilled serum on Bruce Wayne's hands, while dressed as Batman, is really a good idea. My favorite scene is where Bats and Robin detect a crime going down behind a brick wall and our law-abiding detective exclaims, "No need to waste time looking for a door, Robin! I'll blast a door in that stone wall--with a power-packed punch!" Oh, and the crooks who are cracking the safe look like two of the guys who were robbing the bank but forgive me if I'm wrong. Shelly & Joe have a very limited amount of facial features and three-piece suits from which to work with.-Peter

Jack-This is just as bad as the stuff we were being subjected to before Infantino and the New Look came to Gotham. It's hard to believe Gardner Fox wrote the story. In the caption on page seven, the narrator refers to "rock 'em and sock 'em fists," which has to be a nod to the popular toy boxers, the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, which were introduced in 1964 and which I got for Christmas several years after that. The fact that there is an Alfred Foundation suggests that our favorite butler won't be rising from the dead anytime soon.

Next Week...
Hardboiled Sci-Fi!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 121: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 106

May 1956 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales #46

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Sands Are Running Out" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★★

"The Man From Nowhere" (a: Joe Orlando) ★

"Repeat Performance" (a: John Severin) ★1/2

"The Wild, Wild Wind" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"You Must Not Look" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Greatest Experiment" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★★★

Mean old skinflint Hiram Holt acquires a magic hourglass that can transport him far into the future. He finds himself on his hometown street, obviously years in the future. When he inquires as to the date of a passerby, he is told, "Of course, it's '71." His land seems to be the centerpiece of a mining operation and when he stops another walker, he is told the block is rich with "Pennsolium," the mineral that makes rocket ships fly. Anyone owning a piece of this land is a billionaire.

With dollar signs in his eyes, Holt heads back to the 1950s and buys up his neighbors' lots at inflated prices. Almost bankrupt but knowing he'll be the world's richest man in fifteen years, Hiram can't help but travel back to the future to check his bank account. When he asks the teller for his account balance, the man tells him there is no account for Hiram Holt. Panicked, Holt explains he deposited the money six years before, in 1971. The teller laughs and explains that 1971 is one hundred years in the past! It's 2071!

What with werewolves, vampires, and ghouls forbidden, the overworked writing staff in the Atlas lunchroom had to devise new variations on innocuous plots, ergo the unending time travel yarns. "The Sands are Running Out" is actually one of the better post-code time travel tales, with some fabulously dark Sinnott work and a twist that is genuinely surprising.

Detective Joe Axel investigates the bizarre case of "The Man from Nowhere," a guy who seems to materialize out of nothingness during freak lightning storms and then vanish into thin air within seconds. The disappearing man causes no damage but Axel wants to nab him before he starts a panic. Then the detective heads home after a hard day's work and is greeted by his gorgeous blonde daughter, Judy, who explains that she met the man of her dreams during a freak lightning storm. 

Axel calmly tells Judy to invite the charming man over for dinner and then sets his trap. Unfortunately, the precocious and impatient Judy elopes to Mars with her mystery man, a Martian who explains that he's perfecting his "molecular displacement" and as soon as his research is done, he and Judy can settle down to a happy Earthly existence. Dopey script (wouldn't you run off with a Martian at a moment's notice?) and truly uninspired Orlando art sink this one faster than Kevin Costner's Horizon Part II.

Ted and Alice, history-loving tourists, visit the site of the Battle of Lexington and find themselves transported back to the "skirmish" itself. The sharp Severin art in "Repeat Performance" is wasted on a brainless script. No explanation why Ted and Alice (who are doubtless waiting for Bob and Carol) are sent back in time, not even picking up a relic from the past and wishing themselves back in the past. It just happens and then it's over. In the equally dreadful "The Wild, Wild Wind," a two-man crew are carried by a supernatural wind to a desolate atoll where they discover the descendants of the passengers of the S. S. Mauru, victims of a mutiny. Turns out the boat the pair are sailing on is, you guessed it... the Mauru. How did these people survive and thrive through the years without food or water? Who knows? 

Ada keeps warning her lazy husband, Charlie, about that box on her dresser: "You Must Not Look"! Charlie keeps at it and finally Ada confesses that it contains a letter addressed to her father from when she was a child. Being a little brat and pissed with Pop, Ada tore the letter to pieces and then hid it in the box. Her father asked Ada if the letter had arrived and she lied... over and over. Her dad told the little ragamuffin that the repercussions of what was in the letter meant nothing compared to the sorrow in his heart; how could his little girl lie to him? 

"Just tell the truth and your troubles are over!" he calmly told her but she continued to fib. Finally, in a fit of guilt, Ada tells Charlie to open the box and her hubby finds a perfectly fine, untorn envelope containing five thousand dollars. "Our problems are solved! Now I can get that liver transplant! Let's have a drink, Charlie!" she exclaims. And yet another selfish brat is rewarded for her insolence. This is some dreary stuff, four pages that feel like forty. The artist's signature can be found on the splash but this is truly the worst Paul Reinman story I've ever seen, scratchy and drab.

Three travelers awaken in their ship, deep in space, destination unknown. Turns out the trio are a crew of robots sent from Earth by greedy, selfish scientists looking to mine other planets. The ship has been programmed to land on a planet but there's a malfunction during touchdown and the rocket crashes, marooning the androids. 

Back on Earth, the trio of eggheads are confident "The Greatest Experiment" has been a success, so they power up another rocket and head for the uncharted planet. When they arrive, they are astonished to find that not only have their robots survived but they've built a huge city to live in. The trio of beaker-lovers exit their vehicle and are immediately set upon by hostile hands, who lovingly pop them back in their vessel and shoot them back to Earth. Later, we learn that the robots have come to love their new home and aren't happy to share it with gold-diggers. 

Easily the best story so far of 1956, "The Greatest Experiment" is the perfect combination of clever story, unique plot, and dazzling art. The story starts out very similar to Ridley Scott's Alien but then veers off into different territory. Ditko's detailing is sensational. In fact, I've strayed from the usual and presented more than one panel from this story. It's heartening to find a diamond among all the detritus we've been plowing through.-Peter

Uncanny Tales #43

Cover by Bill Everett

"And After Death..." (a: John Forte) ★★★

"The Hidden Answer" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★1/2

"The Building That Grew" (a: Ed Moore?) ★

"Don't Nobody Move" (a: Tony Mortellaro) ★★1/2

"Double Identity!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Man Who Saw a Groplin" (a: Bob Powell) ★★1/2

After completing work on his insanely genius gizmo, the Mental Projection Machine, Professor Galway collapses, the victim of a massive heart attack. Moments from death, Galway calls his dog over and switches on the MenPro. Galway's genius is immediately transported into the brain of Rex. 

All the wonderful things he can now accomplish! Rex/Galway muses to himself that he'll get around to teleporting his brain into a more suitable subject someday but, for now, he'll enjoy the lazy life of a dog. The final panels find Rex lolling lazily at the feet of Professor Galway's assistant. "And After Death..." is a delightfully goofy SF yarn, with John Forte's depiction of a very alert and obedient Rex being the highlight. It's never made clear whether Galway's protracted "vacation" is voluntary or if (and I'll do my own scripting here) the gizmo ain't all it's cracked up to be and the consciousness of the teleported brain fades after a bit of time. By the climax (which can be construed as both a sad and a happy ending), it sure looks that way. 

You think that was silly? You ain't seen nothin' yet! Appearing on the "A Week to Find Out" show, Chester Chandler is asked the $500,000 question: "How many people have homes on the moon?" Chester is given one week to research and provide the right answer on TV to win the booty. Undeterred, Chester finds a scientist who wants to test his moon rocket and convinces the egghead that he's the perfect pilot (never mind space training or anything silly like that); in no time he blasts into space. One week later, he gives the answer: 63. The show runner calls him on it and Chester produces his evidence: all 63 moon men are in the audience. They made faster rockets at the time "The Hidden Answer" was written (by pulpmeister Carl Wessler); a round trip to the moon plus time to convince everyone there to fly back with you in under seven days! I can't get the plumber out in seven days! Oh, and this Paul Reinman can't be the same Paul Reinman who illustrated the awful "You Must Not Look" in Strange Tales #46. This is the Reinman who immediately captures my attention.

Back to reality I come crashing thanks to the abysmal "The Building That Grew," wherein the very tall Mammox Building somehow continues to add floors (from the ground up) on an hourly basis. We find out in the badly-realized climax that an alien race from either: a/the center of the Earth, or b/another planet, is striving to build their tallest skyscraper and it's butting up against the Mammox. I've explained too much already so I won't stick around to add that the Earth turns so a building connected from another planet to a building in New York wouldn't... yeah, you're right...

While working on a time travel machine (I mean, like, who isn't?), Professor Dukes discovers that when he flips the "On" switch, the entire neighborhood freezes. "Hmmm, peculiar that... but of what use is this?" questions the goofy scientist. Just for giggles, Dukes decides to monkey with his machine to see just how far-reaching the effects can be. He hits "On" once again and then turns on his TV. The entire population of Earth (except for Dukes himself) is frozen. 

At just that moment, a group of alien invasion scouts land on Earth and witness the strange display. Reasoning that the planet must have been overcome by some strange virus that might prove deadly even to the warriors of Planet-OU812, the enemy ship flies back into space. Minutes later, the population returns to normal and Professor Dukes vows not to waste any more time on a gizmo that has no value to mankind. "Don't Nobody Move" adds to the general whimsical farce theme of this issue.

Through an amazing coincidence, a failed nightclub juggler becomes a sensation on a faraway planet. The less said about "Double Identity!" the better. And I'm serious. In the finale, "The Man Who Saw a Groplin," ace reporter Floyd Hubbard scores a string of exclusives thanks to his invisible alien friends, the titular Groplins. No one believes Chester until he makes a TV appearance and gives the world proof. More whimsy and some great Bob Powell art. Maybe Uncanny Tales should have been retitled Charming Fantasy.-Peter

World of Fantasy #1

Cover by John Severin

"The Cry of the Sorcerers!" (a: Werner Roth) ★1/2

(r: Crypt of Shadows #21)

"The Secret of the Mountain Top!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★★

"What Went Wrong?" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★★1/2

"The Useless Ones!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★

"When Will They Come?" (a: Bob Bean) ★1/2

"Let There Be Light" (a: Dick Ayers) ★★

A couple of backwoods folk are poling their boat through the Black Swamp when they hear "The Cry of the Sorcerers!" When they reach their village, they encounter a city feller named Perry who took a detour and got lost. He makes fun of the swamp folk and their belief that there's gold hidden in the sorcerer's cave before driving off the next day.

A few nights later, Perry returns with a map that shows where the cave is. He sells it to the swamp folk and drives off. That night, the swampers pole their boat to the cave, explore it, dig in the spot shown on the map, and find gold! Suddenly, a sorcerer appears out of the fog and warns them. They hear a cry from deep inside the cave and make a run for it. As they run, they see the city feller run past them in a sorcerer costume. They pole off in their boat and never see him again. But what was the source of the cry in the cave?

Werner Roth's usual mediocre effort doesn't help this confusing tale. I thought that the city feller was after the gold, but if that were the case, why would he go to all the trouble of cooking up a map, selling it to the swamp folk, dressing as a sorcerer, and waiting for them in the cave? None of it makes sense. If he knew where the gold was, why not just go dig it up?

The tallest mountain on Earth looms large over a small village, bathing it in shadow. A stranger arrives, vowing to climb to the peak, but the mayor tells him the story of the strange mountain, which suddenly erupted from the ground over 100 years ago. Climbers came from far and wide but none who scaled the mountain ever returned. The young climber ignores the warning, determined to learn "The Secret of the Mountain Top!" Battling snow and wind he reaches the peak and finds people dressed like Ancient Greeks; they explain that they used to live by the Earth's core. They wanted to learn surface ways so they ascended, camouflaged by the mountain. They have learned all they need to know from the various climbers and now are ready to head back down to the center of the Earth. The young man appears to stay with them, the mountain disappears, and sun shines again on the village.

So many of the post-code Atlas stories are like this one in that the writer sets up a relatively interesting premise and then ends it with a sappy conclusion. The secret turns out to be ludicrous and everyone lives happily ever after. Bernard Baily was a pro and gives the art a good try, but there's not much anyone could do with this bland story.

Martian invaders have planned every detail of the invasion of Earth and are certain of success. Their ship launches and, as it approaches touchdown in an Idaho field, the crew see a sign that reads "Detour." Assuming the Earthlings posted the sign to warn them, the Martian ship makes a turn and promptly crashes into the side of a mountain. On Mars, observers wonder "What Went Wrong?" On Earth, a construction worker is chastised for sticking the detour sign in the wrong place, not knowing that his error saved the planet.

Forgione and Abel draw Martians that resemble humanoid birds, with purple skin, beaks, and slits for pupils. Their misplaced confidence is funny, as is the sudden way their mission ends. Best of all is the construction foreman who blows pipe smoke in the face of the worker who unwittingly saved us all. This is a rare Atlas story where the humor works.

A scientist who hopes to contribute something great to mankind looks out his window and feels sorry for "The Useless Ones," an old couple next door who spend all their time working in the garden. Little does the scientist know that their efforts will save the planet! When a strange, extra-terrestrial plant blooms and the husband cuts off a flower to give to his wife, she complains that it stinks. He promptly heads outside with weed killer, destroys the plant before it can spread, and unknowingly saves mankind.

I like the subtlety of this story, where no one ever breaks character; the scientist looks down on the old couple while they methodically go about their business. No one but the evil, extra-terrestrial plant ever has an inkling of the importance of what happens. Tony DiPreta's art is nothing special but it matches the low key nature of the story.

A young man has recurring dreams of a pretty girl and always wakes up crying out "When Will They Come?" Found as a baby and raised in an orphanage, he is telepathic and knows that his girlfriend Janice isn't sure she loves him. The man takes a vacation at a lodge near where he was found as a baby and (surprise!) sees the girl from his dreams standing outside the window. It turns out that he was lost as a baby when his parents' alien spaceship landed on Earth but had to leave in a hurry. Now he's reunited with Tala, his betrothed. Janice will be fine without him.

Any reader who didn't know what was going on right at the start must go back and reread six Atlas comics as punishment. Bob Bean's art is competent but no more.

A dense smog has spread over the Earth and Dr. Ross is determined to do something about it! Meanwhile, a blond man walks around with a lantern asking strangers for a light, but no one helps him, since matches are going for three dollars each. Dr. Ross is convinced he has a solution to the smog problem and heads for the Academy of Science. At his home, his son Billy encounters the man with the lantern and demonstrates his Boy Scout skills by rubbing two sticks together to make fire. The man turns out to be Apollo! He hops in his chariot and takes off for the sun, where he says, "Let There Be Light." The smog dissipates and Dr. Ross is congratulated for making the sun come back, unaware that it was Billy's act of kindness that saved the day.

Part of the "fun" of reading these comics is in trying to guess the ending of each story as I read it. In this one, I thought the stranger would be Diogenes, looking for an honest man and finding only a child. But nope, he was Apollo! It's not a great twist but I give it credit for outsmarting me.-Jack

Next Week...
Batman Encounters the
Menace From the Dawn of Time!

The Hitchcock Project-The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow by Alvin Sargent [9.25]

by Jack Seabrook

"The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" is based on a long story of the same title that was first published in The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow and Other Stories, a 1961 collection by Patrick Quentin.

Hugh C. Wheeler (1912-1987) and Richard W. Webb (1901-1966) used the pseudonyms Q. Patrick, Patrick Quentin, and Jonathan Stagge. They wrote many novels together and won a special Edgar Award in 1963 for The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow. Wheeler also wrote the books for Broadway shows, winning Tony Awards for A Little Night Music (1973), Candide (1974), and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979). "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" was adapted for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour by Alvin Sargent and it was broadcast on CBS on Friday, April 17, 1964.

As Quentin's story opens, Adelaide Snow, a sixty-year-old widow who lives in Manhattan, is apprehensive when her niece Lorna announces her engagement to Bruce Mendham, whom she recently met and who has neither job nor money. Mrs. Snow keeps her own counsel and agrees to hire Bruce to handle her affairs. Eighteen months later, her sapphire ring disappears.

"The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow"
was first published here

After Lorna goes to Long Island with her friend Sylvia Emmett for the long Labor Day weekend, Mrs. Snow has lunch with Bruce and begins to suspect him of having stolen the ring and tampered with her bank accounts. She calls her banker and her statement arrives by mail the next day. After telling Joe, the handyman, that he can take the weekend off, she discovers that Bruce has been writing forged checks on her account. She writes "Forgery" across one of the canceled checks and calls Bruce into her study, where she confronts him.

Bruce claims that he lost the money on a bet at the racetrack. Adelaide telephones Sylvia, intending to tell Lorna about Bruce, but Lorna is out. Bruce threatens Mrs. Snow, who walks into her vault to get her lawyer's telephone number. Bruce closes the door behind her, locking her inside the vault. She calls out to him but he ignores her and the house is otherwise empty, since Maggie, the maid, stayed home due to illness. Bruce makes sure that no one will rescue Adelaide by telephoning Arlene, the cook, to tell her that Mrs. Snow went away for the weekend. Bruce puts the forged checks and the sapphire ring in his briefcase and leaves to join Lorna.

Patricia Collinge as Adelaide Snow

Mrs. Snow begins to panic and thinks of her late husband for support. Though she expects Arlene to arrive at noon, the cook is delighted at the prospect of a four-day weekend and, though she nearly goes to Mrs. Snow's house to collect her salary, she is talked out of it by her boyfriend, who convinces her to enjoy her time off with him. By 12:45 p.m., Adelaide realizes that Bruce must have told Arlene not to come and switches her hopes to the arrival of Joe or Lorna. Lorna is enjoying her time in East Hampton when Sylvia tells her that her aunt telephoned; Lorna heads for the house to call Adelaide but is intercepted by Bruce, who lies and tells her that Mrs. Snow found her missing ring, so there is no need to call her back.

After six hours have passed, Adelaide gives up on Lorna and hopes that Joe will arrive. She has begun to tap on a heating duct to make noise that will be heard by anyone who comes to the house. Meanwhile, Joe sets out to go to Mrs. Snow's house to pick up a machine to sand the floors in his apartment but detours to a bar, where he ends up spending the rest of the evening. By midnight, Adelaide realizes that Joe is not coming and begins to fear her own death. Unscrewing a light bulb from the ceiling, she lies down on the floor to sleep in the darkness.

Jessica Walter as Lorna

The next morning, Adelaide awakens and pries open an air duct to provide herself with fresh air to breathe. In East Hampton, Lorna again nearly telephones her aunt but is stopped by Bruce, who reports that Mrs. Snow is spending the weekend at the home of a friend named Mrs. Lindsay. Lorna fleetingly wonders if her husband is making up the story. Adelaide recalls that Hilary Prynne, her banker, always comes at 12: 30 p.m. on Saturdays for lunch. She hears him ring the door buzzer but only her cats respond. Standing outside, Hilary begins to worry before concluding that Mrs. Snow must have been called away.

That night, after dancing with Bruce at Sylvia's house, Lorna overhears a stranger ask him about the $5000 bet he lost on a horse. She begins to suspect him of stealing money and the ring from her aunt, but he reassures her. In the vault, Adelaide's despair grows as she spends a second night alone. On Sunday morning, Lorna learns that Mrs. Lindsay died the week before and realizes that Bruce has lied to her. She telephones her aunt and gets no answer, then she telephones Arlene and learns that Bruce gave her the weekend off. In Bruce's briefcase she finds the ring, the check marked "Forgery," and a gun. Realizing that Bruce must have locked Adelaide in the vault, Lorna pockets the check and the ring.

Don Chastain as Bruce

When Bruce discovers that the check is missing, he thinks that he must have dropped it in Mrs. Snow's study and makes an excuse to insist that they return to Adelaide's house right away, assuming that the woman must be dead by now. Bruce drives Lorna back to New York City and they enter Mrs. Snow's home. The hungry cats jump on Lorna, who drops her wallet, from which the check falls out. Bruce sees it and knows that Lorna has learned the truth about him. They struggle until Bruce suddenly collapses, hit on the head by the sanding machine wielded by Joe, who has appeared in the nick of time. Joe and Lorna open the vault to find Adelaide, groggy but alive, who tells Lorna that she was worried about the cats!

In a review of the collection, Anthony Boucher called the title story "an almost too professional and neat exercise in suspense," but I think it is well-plotted and carefully structured. "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" creates great suspense even though the reader never really thinks that Adelaide will die in the vault. Each potential savior fails to arrive and the narrative moves back and forth between the vault and the acts of those connected to the woman inside; all of her family, friends, and staff have unrelated reasons for not going to the house, either encouraged by Bruce or on their own. A few of them almost go there but change plans at the last minute. Adelaide is heroic and selfless, solving the problems of a lack of fresh air and the need for darkness in order to sleep. Lorna is a detective of sorts as well as a woman in danger; she solves the puzzle and is in peril at the same time. Only the sudden and unexpected appearance of Joe prevents her from an uncertain fate.

George Macready as Hilary

The story was adapted for television by Alvin Sargent (1927-2019) in his only teleplay for the Hitchcock TV show. Born Alvin Supowitz, he began writing for TV in 1956 and branched out into writing films in 1966. After 1974, he wrote only for the big screen, winning Academy Awards for his screenplays for Julia (1977) and Ordinary People (1980).

Sargent did a fine job adapting "The Ordeal for Mrs. Snow" for television, finding ways for characters to express their thoughts in dialogue, making small changes that tighten the story's structure, and improving the ending. The show begins with a scene where Mrs. Snow talks to her two Siamese cats like they are people, setting her up as a lonely, older woman and establishing that she talks to her pets, a detail that will be important when she is locked in the vault. Bruce and Lorna are introduced in the next scene and there is already a subtle division between them; she is still in a negligee, eating breakfast in bed, while he is dressed for work, sitting on the floor and reading the newspaper. Their dialogue quickly establishes their background and relationship; she went to Bennington, an exclusive college, while he grew up poor and frequented the East Side Athletic Club.

Cal Bartlett as John Wilson

In the first addition to the story, it is revealed that Lorna will inherit money on her birthday. Bruce is called downstairs to speak to an unexpected and unwanted visitor, a man named Charlie Arthur, who is there to try to collect money that Bruce lost on a bet. Arthur is charming and funny but behind his smile is a threat and he's clearly a member of the criminal class; their exchange establishes that Bruce has a gambling problem and needs cash.

The following scene shows Bruce and Adelaide in her study, where she explains that she follows her late husband's practice of signing every check herself. After Bruce leaves, Lorna confronts her aunt in another scene that is not in the story. She wants to collect her inheritance ahead of schedule because she and Bruce need the money to advance in society, but Adelaide reminds her that she does not control the money. The older woman is firm but clearly disturbed by the altercation with her niece and, in the next scene, Mrs. Snow is in her study with Hilary, her banker, as she writes out a check to give to Lorna. This act causes him to mention her other, recent large checks, of which she recalls nothing, and soon her bank statement is delivered and she discovers Bruce's deceit.

Unlike the story, where a maid, a cook, and a handyman are all dissuaded from coming to the Snow house by a combination of Bruce's lies and their own activities, in the TV show, Adelaide simply tells Frieda, the maid, that she can take the weekend off. There is no mention of it being a long weekend and the scenes in the story where Arlene and Joe start out on their way to the house before being distracted are omitted. Adelaide writes "Forgery" across one of the checks and, when she confronts Bruce in her study, she has a different reason for walking into the vault. In the story, she goes in looking for Hilary's telephone number, but in the TV show, one of her cats runs into the vault and she follows it in to retrieve the pet. When Bruce locks her in, she has her cat to talk to, which allows her to express her thoughts aloud, even though the only response she gets is an occasional meow.

The vault as seen from above.

There is a wonderful shot from overhead soon after Adelaide is trapped that establishes just how small the space is and, from then on, when she is shown in the vault, a combination of close ups and tight shots remind the viewer that Mrs. Snow has very little room to move. Since Arlene and Joe have been eliminated from the plot, Adelaide pins her hopes on the arrival of Hilary, who is coming to take her to dinner that evening at 7:30 p.m.

A contrast is set up between Mrs. Snow's dire predicament and the empty life of the young and rich in East Hampton in a scene at the house of Sally Wilson (as Sylvia Emmett has been renamed), where she and Lorna engage in insipid conversation over drinks. Bruce's lack of concern for his fellow man is underlined by an offhand comment he makes after he and Sally's husband John arrive, having driven to Long Island from New York City; he remarks, seemingly in jest, that "'a man jumped off the Triboro Bridge,'" showing that a stranger's death only concerns him as the cause of an inconvenient traffic slowdown.

Early that evening, Hilary and his wife Ruth arrive to take Mrs. Snow to dinner. He rings the doorbell and the addition of his wife, a character not in the story, gives him someone to talk to as he waits on the front step. In fact, in the story, Hilary muses that he might propose marriage to Adelaide at some point, but in the TV show he is happily married and his banter with his wife, both on the front step and at the restaurant soon after, provides some of the only humor in the episode. Right before the commercial break, music supervisor Stanley Wilson inserts a snippet of Bernard Herrmann's ominous, five-note phrase from "Behind the Locked Door," an episode that had aired not quite four months earlier and whose title fits this episode equally well.

From here on, the show consists of alternating scenes, as Lorna gradually begins to figure out her husband's duplicity while Adelaide slowly deteriorates inside the vault. She never manages to create a source of fresh air, as she does in the story, and at one point she looks at a model ship on a shelf and recalls sailing with her late husband, hallucinating that the model ship is being tossed on real waves. Mrs. Snow gains strength when she resolves to leave a message for Lorna about what Bruce has done. In the story, she writes a note and drops it in the air duct, but in the TV show she cannot find a writing utensil and instead resorts to a wonderfully visual method of written communication, tearing the shapes of letters from sheets of paper, spelling out "BRUCE SHUT DOOR" in paper letters arranged on the floor of the vault.

June Vincent as Ruth

In East Hampton, Lorna discovers the forged check in the inside pocket of Bruce's jacket when she hangs it in the closet. She learns that her aunt is not visiting a friend when she makes a telephone call and learns that the woman is vacationing in Europe (not dead, as in the story); when Bruce enters the room, she holds the folded check behind her back and there is more suspense as he nearly touches her hand and almost discovers what she is holding. They go back downstairs, where a party is in full swing; Lorna tries to sneak out and get in the car to drive back home to check on her aunt, but Bruce catches her and insists on driving her to New York City.

The final scene is somewhat different than that in the story. When Bruce and Lorna arrive at home, she rushes around the house, looking for her aunt, while Bruce goes immediately to the study. A cut to the inside of the vault shows Adelaide lying unconscious or dead on the floor, her message to Lorna spelled out on paper next to her. In the study, Bruce insists that Adelaide has left, but when Lorna confronts him with the forged check, he admits his crime and attempts to portray himself as a victim, blaming his wife for bringing him into a world where he had to forge checks to keep up. Lorna is relieved and believes Bruce's story until she hears a cat meowing in another room. She brings the cat into the study and it leads her to the door of the vault, where she suddenly understands what has happened. Bernard Herrmann's menacing, five-note musical phrase plays again on the soundtrack and Lorna searches for the combination to the vault. She finds it and, as she opens the door, a gust of air scatters the paper letters on the floor, eliminating what could have been a dying clue. Fortunately, Adelaide awakens and looks at Bruce before asking Lorna to bring food for the cats. The show ends as Lorna and Bruce exchange looks.

Presumably, Bruce will be imprisoned for theft and attempted murder and his marriage to Lorna will be over. The ending is subtle but effective; as in the story, Adelaide is selfless and only concerned for her cats even though she has just survived a near-death experience. Lorna is devastated by her husband's treachery, while Bruce is resigned to his fate. Alvin Sargent's way of resolving the conflict is more believable than the sudden appearance of Joe the handyman at the end of the story, who saves Lorna by hitting Bruce on the head with a heavy object.

Pamela Curran as Sally

"The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" is an outstanding adaptation of a story that uses dialogue to translate thoughts into words for the visual medium. The teleplay is focused on the key event and eliminates characters who are not necessary to the central story. Having Adelaide locked in with one of her cats gives her someone to talk to and strengthening the theme of Bruce and Lorna's lack of money and Bruce's desire to fit into society gives the villain of the piece a more nuanced reason for his crimes.

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."

Patricia Collinge (1892-1974) gives a strong performance as Adelaide Snow. She was born in Dublin, Ireland, and began her career on stage in 1904, coming to the United States with her mother in 1907. Collinge appeared on Broadway from 1908 to 1952 and played roles on screen from 1941 to 1967. Her films included Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and she was seen on the Hitchcock TV show six times, including "The Landlady."

Bartlett Robinson

Her niece Lorna is played by Jessica Walter (1941-2021). Walter started on TV and on Broadway in 1960 and had a long career on the big and small screens. She was featured in many TV shows and won an Emmy Award in 1975 for Amy Prentiss, a short-lived mystery series. She had a great deal of success late in her career with regular roles on two long-running series: Arrested Development (2003-2019) and the animated Archer (2009-2021). "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" was her only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show.

Don Chastain (1935-2002) plays Bruce. He had an unremarkable screen career from 1960 to 2002, mostly on TV, and this was his only role on the Hitchcock show.

In smaller roles:

• George Macready (1899-1973) as Hilary*, the banker; familiar as a heavy, he had been on stage since 1926 and began working in film in 1942, adding TV roles in 1951. He had a noticeable part in Gilda (1946), appeared in Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957), and was on the Hitchcock show four times, including "Vicious Circle." He also made appearances on Thriller, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Night Gallery.
• Cal Bartlett (1935- ) as John Wilson, Bruce's friend and Sally's husband; he has had a long career on TV and film, starting in 1963, and he appeared in one episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker and one other episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
• June Vincent (1920-1988) as Hilary's much younger wife, Ruth; she had roles in films from 1938 to 1959, but once she started appearing on TV, her film roles mostly dried up and she was a busy TV actress until 1976. This was her only role on the Hitchcock TV show.
• Pamela Curran (1930-2023) plays Sally Wilson; she was on screen from 1958 to 1971, appeared three times on Thriller, and was also in "Where Beauty Lies" on Alfred Hitchcock Presents..
• Bartlett Robinson (1912-1986) plays Harvey Crane, a talkative guest at Sally's house party; he was on screen from 1949 to 1982 and was seen in no less than 11 episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Thanatos Palace Hotel."
• Edit Angold (1895-1971) as Frieda, the maid; she was born Edit Goldstandt in Berlin and had a career on the German stage and on film in Germany before coming to the US, where she was on screen from 1940-1967. This was one of four appearances on the Hitchcock series, including "Sylvia."

Edit Angold

• Danny Gardino as Charlie Arthur, who comes to the Snow house to try to collect on a gambling debt from Bruce; this was one of his two TV credits, both from 1964.

Danny Gardino

Read "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" here. Watch the Hitchcock version here.

*In the story, Hilary is spelled "Hilary," while in the credits at the end of the TV show, it is spelled "Hillary." I use "Hilary" for consistency.

Sources:

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

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

"The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 2, episode 25, CBS, 14 April 1964.

Quentin, Patrick. "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow." The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow and Other Stories. London: Victor Gollancz, 1961, pp. 7-64.

"Summer and Smoke: The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow and Other Stories (1962), by Patrick Quentin." The Passing Tramp, 27 July 2018, thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2018/07/summer-and-smoke-ordeal-of-mrs-snow-and.html.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater" here!

In two weeks: "Kill With Kindness," starring Hume Cronyn!