The Hitchcock Project-James P. Cavanagh Part Eleven: Where Beauty Lies [7.38] and Wrapup

by Jack Seabrook

Alfred Hitchcock Presents began its seven-year run in October 1955 with "Revenge" and ended in June 1962 with another tale of revenge, "Where Beauty Lies." The teleplay is by James P. Cavanagh and the title card says it is based on a story by Henry Farrell, but no such short story was ever published. Instead, it appears that Farrell wrote a teleplay and sold it to the TV show, where James P. Cavanagh revised it. Two copies of Farrell's original script are in the collection of his papers at Boston University; they are dated March 22, 1962, and to review them one would have to go to Boston and visit the library in person, since they are under copyright and the library staff will not make copies nor allow copies to be made.

The final version of the script, as by Cavanagh and as filmed and directed by Robert Florey, aired on NBC on Tuesday, June 26, 1962, and was the last new episode of the half-hour series to air on network television. The unaired episode, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," later turned up in syndication packages.

Cloris Leachman as Caroline

"Where Beauty Lies" opens with a scene deceptive in several ways, as Paul Ross and Caroline Hardy embrace passionately. She seems apprehensive yet he is aggressive; as they cling together on a couch, the doorbell rings. Paul's wife Julie is at the door and he leaves with her, after which Caroline's brother Collin arrives to take his sister home. What is going on here? We soon learn that Caroline has an unusual love/hate relationship with her brother (she's 37 and he's two years younger), a famous and very handsome stage actor. Back at home, Caroline sets out dinner in a room decorated with numerous framed photographs of her brother (and what appears to be an Oscar on a bookshelf). Collin returns from a rehearsal and she is angry at him for breaking up her affair with Paul.

George Nader as Collin

Caroline is bitter that her brother lives his life as he wishes while she serves him. Believing her chances at happiness are few, she is the plain sister of a handsome man and she has spent her life in her brother's shadow, envying his good looks. The following Thursday evening, Collin and Caroline dine together at a fancy restaurant and she is happy until his beautiful actress/girlfriend Joan arrives and the two of them leave for a party, leaving Caroline alone and heartbroken.

The next week, Caroline is at home supervising a man who is repainting the interior walls. Collin comes home and informs her that she is not going to Boston with him, where he is about to star in a play. Caroline had been angry at not being included in the party after their dinner together, and now, once Collin is gone, she makes a telephone call to confirm her suspicion that Joan is going with him. Caroline smashes a framed photo of Collin on the floor and we see his face being obliterated by paint thinner that spills from a can that tipped over on the floor.

One day soon after that, Caroline receives a telegram that reports that Collin will arrive home on the late train. She looks at his partially destroyed photo and asks the painter to start working on the walls in Collin's study. That night, she prepares the study and pours the flammable paint thinner all over the logs in the fireplace. She leaves a note for her brother, telling him that she was tired and went to bed and instructing him to "put a light under the soup." Later, Collin arrives home and she listens from another room as he enters the study, closes an open window to keep out the cold, and bends down to light the fire in the fireplace. He lights the fire and suddenly the flames roar up from the paint thinner that was poured on the logs; he screams as his face is burned.

We next see Collin and Caroline in his hospital room, where he lies in bed with his face wrapped in bandages. The doctor asks Caroline to speak to him in the hallway and tells her that her brother will be blind; his face will be disfigured but plastic surgery may help.

The show's final scene takes place back at Collin's home, where Caroline serves him lunch on a tray that he angrily knocks to the floor. Blind and bitter, he wants to be left alone and has shut himself away from other people for weeks. Collin keeps his face hidden and turns away from the camera. Distraught at losing his good looks, the former leading man laments that "'I'm only fit to play in horror pictures.'" Throughout the scene, he keeps his face turned away, building up suspense and making the viewer yearn to experience the full horror of his disfigurement. Caroline seems to comfort him, insisting that he does not look bad, but he tells her that he knows he is "'grotesque.'" Finally, he turns, and the real horror is revealed: Collin's face looks perfectly normal and he is as handsome as ever! His sister has tricked him into thinking he is deformed as punishment for his treatment of her, and now she can have him all to herself.

Collin hides his face from view, thinking himself deformed.

"Where Beauty Lies" is a delicious tale of revenge whose concluding scene recalls the famous 1960 Twilight Zone episode, "Eye of the Beholder." In that show, a beautiful girl believes she is ugly in a world where everyone else's face is hideous. Her face (and those of the others) is kept hidden from the viewer throughout most of the episode by means of a combination of bandages, shadows, and camera angles. In the final scene of "Where Beauty Lies," director Robert Florey uses similar tricks to hide Collin's face from the viewer until the truth is revealed. The irony is superb: all her life, Caroline lived in the shadow of her handsome younger brother, believing that she was unattractive and envying his god-given beauty. Now she holds the upper hand and can ensure that he feels the way she always did: he is the ugly one who must depend on his sibling.

Florey keeps the story moving quickly and saves his best camera work for the latter scenes. When Collin arrives home on the fateful night, the camera is positioned above (similar to a shot in Florey's "A Jury of Her Peers") and we see Collin enter the house and head for his study. When he bends down to light the fire, the camera is inside the fireplace looking out, as the flames engulf the handsome actor. The final scene is well-staged, keeping Collin's face hidden until the last moment when it is revealed.

Cavanagh's script is well-written and both plotting and dialogue work to tell the story clearly and effectively. The two lead actors are perfect for their roles; both George Nader (as Collin) and Cloris Leachman (as Caroline) are utterly believable as two siblings with a close relationship that is ultimately destructive.

None are so blind--

In Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy writes, "Beauty to her, as to all who have felt, lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized." In "Where Beauty Lies," unfortunately, beauty symbolizes unhappiness to Caroline and is something that must be attacked and then kept hidden from sight, lest it continue to cause her despair.

George Nader (1921-2002) served in WWII and then starred in film and on TV from 1950 to 1974. He was in Robot Monster (1953) and he was seen in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Nader and his partner Mark Miller were close friends with Rock Hudson and inherited the interest from the actor's large estate when he died of AIDS. Nader also wrote a science fiction novel titled Chrome (1987).

Vanity of vanities...

Cloris Leachman (1926- ) was in the 1946 Miss America Pageant before becoming an actress. She studied at the Actors Studio and began appearing on screen in 1947. She was in Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and she appeared on The Twilight Zone ("It's a Good Life") and Thriller before winning an Academy Award for her role in The Last Picture Show (1971). She played Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977) and on its spinoff, Phyllis (1975-1977) and won nine Emmy Awards. She also had a memorable role in Young Frankenstein (1974). Leachman was in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including the second one to air, "Premonition."

In smaller roles:

• Pamela Curran (1930- ) plays Joan Blake, Collin's beautiful actress/girlfriend; she was on screen from 1958 to 1971, appeared three times on Thriller, and was seen twice on the Hitchcock show.

Pamela Curran as Joan

• Charles Carlson plays Paul, the man who passionately kisses Caroline in the opening scene before his wife shows up; he had a brief TV career from 1960 to 1964 but managed to show up on The Twilight Zone and on five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Greatest Monster of Them All."

Charles Carlson as Paul

• Raymond Bailey (1904-1980) was a busy character actor who appeared in eleven episodes of the Hitchcock show, including the very first one filmed, "Breakdown." A busy character actor, he is best known as Mr. Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962 to 1971).

Raymond Bailey as the doctor

• Marilyn Clark (1929- ) plays Julie, the wife who shows up in the first scene to collect her straying husband; she was on screen from 1950 to 1980 but only has eight credits on IMDb in the course of three decades.



Marilyn Clark as Julie

• Norman Leavitt (1913-2005) is another character actor with a familiar face; he was on screen from 1946 to 1978 and was seen in seven episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "One More Mile to Go."

Norman Leavitt as the painter

Robert Florey (1900-1979), the director, had a long career in film and on TV that is summarized in my discussion of the last episode he directed that was written by James P. Cavanagh, "A Jury of Her Peers." Florey directed five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Henry Farrell (1920-2006), who wrote the original teleplay that Cavanagh revised, was born Charles Farrell Myers. He wrote novels, short stories, teleplays, and screenplays and also used the pseudonym, Charles F. Myer. While this was the only episode of the Hitchcock TV show to be based on his writing, he is best remembered today for his novel, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1960), that served as the basis for a popular film of the same title that was released in 1962. Farrell seems to have thought highly of "Where Beauty Lies," since the collection of his papers at Boston University also includes a 300-page typescript of a screenplay with the same title that he wrote in 1968-1969; no film was ever produced of this story, however.

Watch "Where Beauty Lies" online here. The seventh season is still not available on DVD. If anyone happens to go to Boston University and read Farrell's original teleplay, I would be interested to hear how it differs from the version that was produced.

Sources:

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

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/.

The Inventory of the Henry Farrell Collection #1371. archives.bu.edu/finding-aid/finding_aid_121953.pdf.

“Where Beauty Lies.” Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 7, episode 38, NBC, 26 June 1962.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, www.wikipedia.org/.

James P. Cavanagh on Alfred Hitchcock Presents: An Overview and Episode Guide

James P. Cavanagh wrote the teleplays for 15 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, all based on stories written by others. Eleven episodes were based on published short stories, while two were based on unpublished stories, one on a radio play, and one on a stage play. Two of the shows he wrote, "One More Mile to Go" and "Arthur," were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

His 15 episodes were spread out over six of the show's seven seasons, with two coming near the end of season one, five spanning the entire run of season two, three in season three, none at all in season four, two in season five, just one in season six, and two in the final season, including the last episode to air on the network. Cavanagh was skilled at translating stories from page to screen, often turning extended bits of narrative into lively dialogue.

EPISODE GUIDE-JAMES P. CAVANAGH ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS

Episode title-"The Hidden Thing" [1.37]
Broadcast date-20 May 1956
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on an unpublished story by A.J. Russell
First print appearance-none
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"The Creeper" [1.38]
Broadcast date-17 June 1956
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "The Creeper," a radio play by Joseph Ruscoll
First print appearance-none; radio play first broadcast March 29, 1946
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Fog Closing In" [1.38]
Broadcast date-7 October 1956
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "The Fog Closing In" by Martin Brooke
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 1956
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

"Fog Closing In"

Episode title-"None Are So Blind" [2.5]
Broadcast date-28 October 1956
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "None Are So Blind" by John Collier
First print appearance-The New Yorker, 31 March 1956
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"The End of Indian Summer" [2.22]
Broadcast date-24 February 1957
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "The End of Indian Summer" by Maurice Baudin Jr.
First print appearance-Esquire, April 1945
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"One More Mile to Go" [2.28]
Broadcast date-7 April 1957
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "One More Mile to Go" by F.J. Smith
First print appearance-Manhunt, June 1956
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

"One More Mile to Go"

Episode title-"Father and Son" [2.36]
Broadcast date-2 June 1957
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "Father and Son" by Thomas Burke
First print appearance-Vanity Fair, August 1934
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Heart of Gold" [3.4]
Broadcast date-27 October 1957
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "M is for the Many" by Henry Slesar
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March 1957
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

"Heart of Gold"

Episode title-"Sylvia" [3.16]
Broadcast date-19 January 1958
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "Sylvia" by Ira Levin
First print appearance-Manhunt, April 1955
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"The Festive Season" [3.31]
Broadcast date-4 May 1958
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "Death on Christmas Eve" by Stanley Ellin
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January 1950
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Arthur" [5.1]
Broadcast date-27 September 1959
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "Being a Murderer Myself" by Arthur Williams
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 1948
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Arthur

Episode title-"Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?" [5.26]
Broadcast date-10 April 1960
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?" by Q. Patrick (Hugh C. Wheeler and Richard C. Webb)
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July 1948
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Coming, Mama" [6.26]
Broadcast date-11 April 1961
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "Coming, Mama" by Henriette McClelland
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, September 1960
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

"Coming, Mama"

Episode title-"A Jury of Her Peers" [7.12]
Broadcast date-26 December 1961
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on Trifles by Susan Glaspell
First print appearance-play first performed 8 August 1916
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

Episode title-"Where Beauty Lies" [7.38]
Broadcast date-26 June 1962
Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh
Based on "Where Beauty Lies" by Henry Farrell
First print appearance-none
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

In two weeks: Our series on Arthur Ross begins with "Three Wives Too Many," starring Teresa Wright and Dan Duryea!

Listen to two great podcasts on Alfred Hitchcock Presents:

Presenting Alfred Hitchcock Presents (website here)

Good Evening: An Alfred Hitchcock Presents Podcast (website here)

Both are highly recommended!