The Knights of the Golden Lodge have a problem. The four board members meet and recite their pledge: "'We, Knights of the Golden Lodge, pledge ourselves in brotherhood unstintingly to help our fellow members and those less fortunate than ourselves.'" Cato Stone, currently in charge, sits in a large, wooden, throne-like chair at the head of the table and leads the discussion of the difficulty they have been having in selling plots in their new cemetery, which they have recently renamed Elysium Park in an effort to make it more appealing.
Brother Elkins fondly recalls when the cemetery was a golf course and Harry Brown comments that no one wants to be the first to sign up. He mentions Clarence Weems, whom no one has seen at lodge meetings recently, since his wife died, his business went sour, and he got sick. The poor man is not expected to live out the year. Brown proposes a solution: the lodge will offer to pay Weems the sum of fifty dollars a week if he will agree to be the first person buried in Elysium Park.
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| Robert Middleton as Cato Stone |
The foursome agree to give it a try and visit Brother Weems, who lives in a fourth-floor walkup apartment. After they trudge up the stairs, Weems's pretty daughter Laura greets the lodge members at the door. Cato is noticeably winded from the climb. To the surprise of three members, Laura is dating Harry and reminds him that he is taking her to the movies tonight. Harry confesses that their wedding had to be postponed last December but, before he can explain why, they are summoned into Clarence's bedroom, where he lies in a large, four-poster bed and admits that he may not last much longer.
Cato makes an "'honest business proposition'" and Weems points out that Stone's real estate office handled the sale of the golf course to the lodge. Weems accepts the offer, remarking that "'it has the sound of an honorable arrangement,'" and signs a contract. He tells the lodge brothers that, now that Laura knows he has been taken care of, she can give up her job and get married; Cato shoots a look at Harry, aware that he will also benefit from the arrangement. Brodsky optimistically assures Cato that Weems won't last a month.
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| Joe Mantell as Harry Brown |
After Cato and the other lodge brothers leave, Mrs. Collins, Weems's neighbor, brings him chicken broth, but he perks up and says that he feels like a steak. He also surprises her by complimenting her appearance and telling her, "'Call me Clarence.'"
Sometime later, at another board meeting, Brodsky remarks that Harry is getting married next month and Harry opens an application for active membership from Clarence Weems, who enclosed six months' worth of dues. Elkins rushes in to announce that he saw Weems walking with a woman in the park and looking very healthy! The four men head back up the three flights of stairs to check on Weems, with Cato looking visibly winded at the top and fanning himself with his hat, only to have Laura answer the door and say that her father is napping and can't be disturbed. Brodsky looks on the bright side and suggests that perhaps Clarence is just holding on until his daughter's wedding.
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| Russell Collins as Clarence Weems |
At a lodge dance, Cato is shocked when Clarence and Mrs. Collins enter and Weems buys two tickets. Cato calls an emergency board meeting and accuses Harry of fraudulently talking the others into the scheme to support Weems so that he could marry Laura. Harry fires back that Cato's firm got the commission for the sale of the old golf course. They agree to speak to Clarence's doctor to find out how sick he really is.
Back in the Weems apartment, the board members uncomfortably share a sofa as Laura serves coffee. Dr. Allen emerges from Clarence's bedroom and explains that Weems had given up and was wasting away until the lodge gave him a reason and a will to live. The doctor compliments the men for having "'brought a dying man back from the grave.'" Stone, Elkins, and Brodsky leave while Harry stays with Laura.
At another board meeting, the brothers try to figure out how to stop the financial bleeding. Cato suggests offering Clarence $500 to tear up the contract and the others agree that it's worth a try. They climb the three flights of stairs again, with Cato rushing at first but getting progressively more winded. On the fourth-floor landing, Weems is seen pushing a heavy piece of furniture toward Mrs. Collins's apartment; when Cato sees this he cries out, "'Look! He's as strong as an ox!'" and collapses, dying of a heart attack at the top of the stairs. Dr. Allen arrives on the scene moments later and explains that Stone's heart failed because he was climbing three flights of stairs every week to check on Weems.
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| Don Keefer as Elkins |
At Cato's funeral, there is a large flower arrangement donated by Clarence, who admits that he also gave Stone his cemetery plot: "'It was the least I could do; he tried dreadful hard to make a success out of this place.'"
"The Indestructible Mr. Weems" is a wonderful, comedic episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents with an original teleplay by George F. Slavin that is a textbook example of story construction. There is no murder or crime at all, beyond some questionable ethical decisions by two of the lodge brothers: Cato Stone profits off of the sale of the golf course to the lodge to be used as a cemetery, and Harry Brown frees his girlfriend from the burden of working to care for her father by talking his lodge brothers into providing a steady stream of income for the older man. The surprise ending, where Cato Stone collapses from a heart attack, is set up beautifully by having him display a temper and by showing him get tired every time he has to make the long ascent to Clarence Weems's apartment, yet there is never a sense that he is in danger until the end.
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| Harry Bellaver as Brodsky |
Stone and Weems are on opposite trajectories during the episode; Stone starts out seeming hale and hearty, only to decline and suffer a fatal cardiac event at the end, while Weems begins the show in bed, lamenting the short time he has left to live, only to improve steadily throughout the tale until, in the end, he outlives Stone. The direction of the show by Justus Addiss is excellent, using only a few minimal sets to tell an engaging and fast-moving story. Funniest of all are the stairs leading up to the Weems apartment; each level is clearly the same set, but on the first level there are two framed pictures on the wall, while on higher levels the walls are bare. The design of the lodge meeting room is also effective, with Stone's large, ornate chair demonstrating his seeming power and influence in what is really a social gathering place for local businessmen.
The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion quotes Slavin as saying that this was the first comedic episode of the series; earlier episodes had had humorous elements but this does appear to be the first one not focused on crime or murder. Slavin added that a rabbi told him the story that became "The Indestructible Mr. Weems" at his father's funeral! He comments that the production was kept quiet from Hitchcock, who was on vacation at the time and who was not in favor of comedies on the series. In the end, Slavin said that his teleplay was nominated for a Writer's Guild award.
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| Rebecca Welles as Laura Weems |
George F. Slavin (1916-2001) served in the Air Force in WWII and then wrote for film and TV from 1947 to 1980. In addition to writing this episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he wrote an episode of Star Trek. His papers are held at the University of Wyoming.
Director Justus Addiss (1917-1979) worked in television beginning in 1953 and directed ten episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "A Bullet for Baldwin." In his private life, he was the lifetime companion of Hayden Rorke, who played Dr. Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie. Addis worked almost exclusively in television, from 1953 to 1968. He also directed three episodes of The Twilight Zone. His only feature film was The Cry Baby Killer (1958) for producer Roger Corman; this film was notable for being Jack Nicholson's first onscreen role.
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| Gladys Hurlbut as Mrs. Collins |
Leading a terrific cast of character actors is Robert Middleton (1911-1977) as Cato Stone. Middleton was a formidable presence on TV and in films from 1951 to 1977. Born Samuel Messer, he was on Alfred Hitchcock Presents three times, including "Crack of Doom," and he was on Thriller twice.
Joe Mantell (1915-2010) plays Harry Brown. Mantell appeared twice on Alfred Hitchcock Presents; his other episode was "Guilty Witness." He was on screen from 1947 to 1990, appeared twice on The Twilight Zone, and had a role in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). Film fans will best remember him for delivering the final line in Chinatown (1974): "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown."
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| Theodore Newton as Dr. Allen |
The indestructible Clarence Weems is played by Russell Collins (1897-1965) in one of ten appearances on the Hitchcock TV show. A wonderful actor whose stage career began in the 1920s, he began appearing in films in the 1930s and on TV in the early 1950s. Most of what we see of him today is from later in his career, such as his role in "Kick the Can" on The Twilight Zone and his appearances on the Hitchcock show, including Fredric Brown's "The Night the World Ended."
In smaller roles:
- Don Keefer (1916-2014) as Elkins; a familiar face to viewers of The Twilight Zone from his role in the classic episode, "It's a Good Life," he was in three episodes of that series and three episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Percentage." Keefer had a long career on screen, from 1947 to 1997, and was also on Star Trek and Night Gallery as well as being part of the original Broadway cast of Death of a Salesman (1949-1950).
- Harry Bellaver (1905-1993) as Brodsky; a veteran of stage, screen and television, he appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents twice (see "Silent Witness") but is best known as one of the policeman on Naked City, appearing in nearly every episode of the series, which ran from 1958 to 1963.
- Rebecca Welles (1928-2017) as Laura Weems; prior to 1957, she acted under her real name, Reba Tassel. She was married to director Don Weis and appeared in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Backward, Turn Backward." Her career was mostly on TV from 1951 to 1964.
- Gladys Hurlbut (1898-1988) as Mrs. Collins; she worked on Broadway from 1920 to 1949 as both an actor and a playwright before starting a screen career that lasted from 1951 to 1961. She was in one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "The Perfect Murder."
- Theodore Newton (1904-1963) as Dr. Allen; he was on Broadway from 1928 to 1951, in films from 1933 to 1963, and on TV from 1949 to 1963. He was in seven episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "O Youth and Beauty!"
Watch "The Indestructible Mr. Weems" here or order the DVD here. It aired on CBS on Sunday, June 9. 1957. Read the GenreSnaps review here.
Sources:
Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.
IMDb, www.imdb.com.
"The Indestructible Mr. Weems." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 2, episode 37, CBS, 9 June 1957.
Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.
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