Monday, April 7, 2025

Batman in the 1960s Issue 45: May/June 1967


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


Infantino/Anderson
Detective Comics #363

"The True-False Face of Batman!"
Story by Gardner Fox
Art by Carmine Infantino & Sid Greene

Batgirl proves she's got staying power by quashing the robbery of solid gold bugs at the Amerindian Museum. Unfortunately, it turns out there are one too many felons for our gorgeous hero-gal to handle and Babs ends up handcuffed and at the mercy of a cold-blooded criminal. Lucky for her, Batman and Robin have picked up the sonar impressions of a gunshot at the scene on their Bat-Gunshot-Sonar-Detector (the one kept in the Bat-Boot and never to be heard of again) and come to her rescue. One of the bad guys gets away but the trio are happy enough with the results.

Batman asks Batgirl how she came to have knowledge of the heist but Babs is mum. That's for a good reason: if she told her idol the truth, he'd guess her secret identity and the Bat would be out of the bag. Batman informs his shapely female counterpart that he has a surprise for her. He blindfolds her, tosses her in the Batmobile, and he and Robin take her to the Batcave. There, he unmasks, revealing Bruce Wayne under the cowl! But obvious traces of wax on Bruce's face lead Batgirl to suspect something is afoot; Batman is not Bruce Wayne and vice versa! But she keeps mum on her suspicions, hoping to learn why this ruse was necessary.

As to how Barbara Gordon tripped over the gold bug heist: in her daytime job as Commissioner Gordon's beautiful librarian daughter, Barbara Gordon unearthed an unholy pattern. Each time a book is checked out, a crime reflecting the title of that book is committed. Well, no, that's not right. Thousands of books are checked out at the Gotham City Library every day. There are no thefts of God's Little Acre or stolen limbs after the checking out of A Farewell to Arms, silly. No, it's only the books checked out between two shady characters named Crowell and Hart. Villains get craftier (and more complicated) every day!

After giving Batgirl a close look at his mug, Batman drops her off at Sephora (after extracting a tracking device from her flowing mane) and then confides in Robin that the ruse was to put the bad guys onto their trail and off the weaker frail's. Yeah, Batman might like to watch Batgirl throw a punch but, deep down inside, he knows she can't last a fistfight with a masculine enemy. He and Robin head out to a remote cabin (tracker in hand) and wait for the villains to arrive. It doesn't take long.

The Caped Crusaders make quick work of most of the criminals but are unaware that a pair of assassins await them outside the cabin. Luckily, Batgirl had followed the Batmobile with the aid of her brand-new Multi-Colored Bat-Bike Light Tracker (let's see if that gets used again) and she swoops in to distract the gunmen. Later, Batman stakes out the library (he's the World's Greatest Detective) and nabs John Hart, a/k/a "Mr. Brains," checking out The Moon and Sixpence just prior to an exhibit of rare coins at the Ambassador Building! Forget the estimable Mr. Hart, this Bat-Guy is Mr. Brains!

More overly-complicated crime plots! I'm hazy on how this one worked. Rather than just slip a note under Mr. Crowell's door, Mr. Hart checks out a book with a nifty title and, what, Crowell returns the book? Does Hart hand the book off to Crowell, wink, and say "Make sure you return it before the late fees kick in"? If my brain is too small to figure out how this deception works better than these two dopes whispering in the park, I'm sure ace Bat-plot unraveller, Jack Seabrook, will fill me in on the details. I wish this was a two-parter wherein Batman appears in court and explains how he got a judge to sign off on a warrant to search Mr. Hart's house for evidence on the basis of a book loan.-Peter

Jack-It was a complicated scheme, to be sure. One guy would check out a book from the library and then use a special chemical to underline key words that would spell out the details of how to pull off a particular robbery. The other guy would then check out the same book, put on specially tinted glasses, read the instructions, commit the robbery, and mail half the loot to a P.O. Box, where the first guy would pick up his share. It all seems too elaborate. The Infantino/Greene art helps, as does the presence of Batgirl, but as I read this story it seemed padded with too many pages of fighting and yet another recap of how Batgirl changes from her librarian clothes into her crime-fighting costume. The ideas seem limited at this point and I expect that, as the TV show fervor wanes, the comic will need an injection of new blood.


Infantino/Anderson
Batman #191

"The Day Batman Sold Out!"
Story by Gardner Fox
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

"Alfred's Mystery Menu!"
Story by Gardner Fox
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

Batman catches up with Ira Radon, a criminal who has been stealing radioactive isotopes. After a brief battle, Batman uses Judo to toss Radon into a radiation chamber unintentionally. The crook is bathed in radiation but not killed; the only consequence beyond burns is that he can never steal again or the radioactivity in his body will cause his death. Angry at the premature end to his life of crime, Radon vows to force Batman to retire from crime fighting.

Months later, Batman goes on TV to announce that he's retiring and, the next day, he auctions off all of his crime-fighting equipment. Batman thinks back to the previous weeks, when he was in the middle of rounding up baddies and a mysterious ray of light would bathe his Bat-weapons. Eventually, a message came from Ira Radon, explaining that he contaminated all of Batman's gizmos and Batman has absorbed enough radioactivity to fall under Radon's control. The crook instructs him to retire. Batman secretly bought all of his own items at auction but, when Radon discovers this and visits the home of Andrew Kunkel, who supposedly bought the Batarang, he encounters Batman, who has surrounded himself with thick clay that blocks radiation. Radon is accidentally killed when he steps in front of a beam of radiation from his own device and Batman is free to return to crime-fighting, confident that he can remove the radiation from his body and weapons.

In 2025, anyone with any sense knows that this is preposterous, but in 1967 the public was less educated about the dangers of radiation, or so it seems from reading "The Day Batman Sold Out!" The GCD credits the story to Gardner Fox but, if I did not see that, I'd guess Bob Kanigher as the writer of this tale, which is fun, fast-moving, and ridiculous. Batman resembles Clayface in his clay protective suit and Ira Radon resembles Lex Luthor. Midway through the story, there's a series of panels depicting the Penguin and the Joker in jail, both upset that they will be deprived of getting revenge on the Caped Crusader.

When Batman and Robin break up a robbery at a specialty food store, they don't realize that they are eliminating a key ingredient in "Alfred's Mystery Menu!" The butler has been kidnapped by Duke Kelsey, who has just joined the Millionaire Mobster Club and who wants the butler/chef to prepare an initiation spread for his fellow crooks. Alfred orders up a list of foods that provide clues to his whereabouts and, once the Dynamic Duo have figured them all out, they interrupt the dinner, catch some crooks, and save Alfred.

It's a silly story and the art is the usual fare from Moldoff and Giella, but I'm glad to see Alfred featured. The method of planting clues makes sense and goes along with the character's interests so, in a childish way, this is clever stuff.-Jack

Peter-It's hard for me to recall two stupider and more convoluted tales than the "adventures" we must endure in this issue, a result, I'm afraid, of the popularity of the show. Do we really need another instance of Batman not informing Robin of what's going on because he wants to protect the little feller? Why have a partner in crime fighting if you constantly have to coddle the twerp? Fox's dialogue is particularly egregious this issue, as in when Ira Radon has a moment of clarity in his hospital bed: "I shall live! Yet--I shall never be my old self! The radiation dose changed my metabolism... so that if I should ever steal again, the radioactivity in my body--which I can never lose--will prove fatal!" How does he come to this conclusion?  In the second tale, Al's rescue hinges on clues obtained through stolen produce. Yeah, the Bat-guy is the World's Greatest Detective, but come on!


Infantino/Cuidera
The Brave and the Bold #71

"The Wrath of the Thunderbird"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by George Papp

Native American businessman Tom Tallwolf is determined not to let himself be outdone by white men, so he runs a tough trucking business and has his drivers shove competitors' rigs off the road. After Batman rescues one of the drivers, who fell in a river after his truck was sideswiped, the Dark Knight visits another Native American named John Whitebird, who explains that he's training for an upcoming contest of skills to replace the recently deceased chief of the Kiowa Nation. His opponent is none other than Tom Tallwolf! Whitebird enlists Batman's aid to hone his skills and Batman calls on Green Arrow to give John some tips on archery.

The training sessions are secretly witnessed by a crook nicknamed Checks, after his checkered jacket, who reports to another shady character knows as the Big Promoter, who agrees to fix the contest so that Tallwolf wins. The contest takes place at Gotham Stadium and, due to some hard-to-detect cheating, Tallwolf is victorious. Batman and Green Arrow soon figure out what happened and Green Arrow uses a special arrow to allow them to eavesdrop on a post-match conversation between Tallwolf and the Promoter, where Tallwolf is forced to agree to give the Promoter the power to summon "The Wrath of the Thunderbird."

At the Kiowa reservation, the Promoter calls forth the Thunderbird, a giant condor that flies out of a cave and has a really bad attitude. Tallwolf and the Promoter try to escape by helicopter and must be rescued by one of Green Arrow's special arrows when the big bird rips the tail off of the chopper. The Thunderbird grabs the Caped Crusader in its talons and Green Arrow saves his pal with an arrow that delivers an electric jolt, stunning or killing the bird. Tallwolf and the Promoter have a change of heart and turn themselves in to the authorities; soon, Whitebird is made the new chief of the Kiowas and Batman suggests that he will be calling on the reformed Tallwolf for help.

I was not impressed by George Papp's art, but when I looked him up I learned that he co-created Green Arrow in 1941, so he deserves some respect. I also learned that he was among the writers and artists fired by DC in 1968 when the demanded retirement benefits. So much for truth, justice, and the American way, DC! The story by Haney makes sense but is not very interesting.-Jack

Peter-Unlike the subtle racism found in Batman #192 (below), there's nothing subtle about the treatment of Native Americans to be found in "The Wrath of the Thunderbird." Not only are there red-colored characters but there are phrases like "injun," "paleface," and "redskin" tossed about repeatedly. I'm amazed that Batman and Green Arrow can take time out of their busy schedules to help John Whitebird get a leg up on the competition. Isn't that cheating? My favorite aspect of this turkey would have to be the Thunderbird itself. I have no doubt as to where Bob Haney got the inspiration for his big loony bird.


Infantino/Anderson
Detective Comics #364

"The Curious Case of the Crime-less Clues!"
Story by Gardner Fox
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

After interrupting the Riddler smack dab in the middle of a heist at the Fluffy Towel Company, the Dynamic Duo deposit the dastardly dunderhead in the Gotham pokey but are perplexed by the writing on the headlights of the Batmobile: "What day of the year is a command to go forward?" Robin laughs and explains to his smarter partner that the Riddler must have set up a clue prior to his arrest (not taking into account that the arch-fiend had no time to pen such a missive) since the guy is rotting in a cell at this moment. 

The boys head home and the next morning at breakfast Alfred yawns and admits he's pretty beat since he did the laundry, washed the dishes, took care of Aunt Harriet the night before, and might have engaged in some extracurricular activities to boot (hmmmm...). Bruce, realizing he's got dishwashing liquid in his espresso, commands Al to hit the sheets for a nap. Harriet, realizing she's to pick up the slack, harrumphs and heads to the kitchen with the dirty dishes. Bruce and Dick suit up and head out for patrol, where they find...

We know how ya feel, Al!
A quartet of nattily-dressed thugs stealing a chest of Spanish gold doubloons from the woefully-secured Marine Warehouse! The boys make quick work of the out-of-shape criminals and are then bewildered by a sight on the warehouse floor: doubloons arranged to spell out a joke. "Holy 1966 TV show influence, Batman! This must be the work of the Joker! But he's in prison right now!" Batman roughs up one of the shackled prisoners for info but the guy is as surprised as our masked hero.

"Something odd is definitely up, little buddy!" exclaims the Dark Knight. The following day, after watching Alfred yawn yet again, the boys head out to patrol the streets of Millionaire's Row, where the wealthiest Gothamites live in their mansions of gold. The boys watch as a trio of nattily-dressed men run from the estate of the vacationing Jackson family into their getaway car. These guys are toast. After mopping up the closely-mown grass of the Jackson plantation with the faces of two of the bad guys, Batman and Robin head into the house after a fleeing goon. 

Inside, they discover footprints that lead up a wall and disappear on the ceiling! Batman opines that the offending footprints belong not to Lionel Richie but to their arch-enemy, the Getaway Genius! But interrogating the trio of goons outside (yep, obviously the guy who ran into the house had a change of heart and surrendered cuz there he is standing with his two buddies!) leads nowhere... they insist there was no Getaway Genius. 

After depositing the dopes at the quickly-overpopulated Gotham jail, the boys head to a "big shed" housing the float they're supposed to ride on in the March 4th Founder's Day Parade. The float contains wax replicas of the Duo's most feared enemies. "Holy It's So Obvious, Batman! March Fourth. The day of the year that commands you to go forward!" Putting two and two together, the Dynamic Duo arrive at the parade later that day fully prepared. When the wax figure of the Penguin suddenly spits out poisonous gas at the boys, it's their "audio-animation" doubles (robot figures that walk and talk uncannily close to their human counterparts!); the real deal are still safe in the crowd.

At that moment, Alfred faints at the sight of his master and the little guy blowing up, not being in on the ruse for some reason. Suddenly, Al awakens and mutters "I did it! I destroyed my mortal foes--Batman and Robin!!" Robin gets that look on his face and exclaims, "Holy Outsider, Batman! It was a possessed Alfred who was confounding us the whole time! No wonder he was forgetting to dust my water polo trophies!" With the menace finally at rest, the boys can breathe easily. The Outsider is gone forever!

But how can they make that assumption? Bruce opines that now that the Outsider has gotten what he wants (or so he thinks), he'll just magically disappear and not check in on Al now and then. Makes no sense. Another thing that makes no sense is that DC has Carmine and Sid at their disposal to bring to life the adventures of their best-selling superhero and they hand the job off to Shelly & Joe instead. Truly awful work here, guys. I do love how Dick turns to us (well, the six-year-olds who were reading 'tec at the time) and explains the climax to anyone who napped through the final pages. It certainly helped me.-Peter

Jack-On this issue's letters page, the editor keeps up the charade that Bob Kane is drawing the Batman strip, even though he admits that Joe Giella inked a recent issue. The readers who write in clearly think Kane has been responsible for drawing Batman for nearly thirty years. Oddly enough, pages two and three feature the Riddler, who would have made a more interesting adversary than Alfred. The highlight of the story for me was the parade float featuring depictions of our favorite villains, including the Joker, the Penguin, and the Scarecrow.


Infantino/Anderson
Batman #192

"The Crystal Ball That Betrayed Batman!"
Story by Gardner Fox
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

"Dick Grayson's Secret Guardian!"
Story by Gardner Fox
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

Batman and Robin are patrolling in Chinatown when they spy Lisan, the wife of a tea merchant named Chen Ku, crying as she walks down the sidewalk. Batman knows her in his guise as Bruce Wayne, so he pulls over and asks her what's wrong. Lisan explains that her husband must not love her anymore because he spends all of his time staring at a statute in his office called the White Lotus. Batman promises to help and he and Robin head for the office of Chen Lu, where they find him being menaced by four goons, who announce that the Swami told them they'd get away safely.

A fight ensues in which Batman and Robin team up to defeat a burly crook named Silent Stan while the other three crooks escape. Chen Ku is upset that the bad guys stole the White Lotus, the safety of which means the world to him. Batman says that they'll go after the Swami to retrieve the statue and he disguises himself as Silent Stan and heads for the Swami Gang's hideout, following the address listed on Stan's driver's license. "The Crystal Ball That Betrayed Batman!" not only shows that Batman is interfering in the Swami's plans but that Silent Stan is really the Caped Crusader! The Swami's crystal ball causes Batman to be unable to rise from his chair, so the trio of hoods knock him out. When he wakes up, he finds that the Swami has dressed him in a Batman costume because he determined that it would not be fitting for Batman to die in disguise.

The Swami reveals himself to be Johnny Witts, who is always one step ahead of the Dark Knight. He planned the whole sequence of events that led Batman to his hideout and explains that he also has Robin trapped in a soundproof chamber underneath a trap door outside the house where Batman is being held captive. Witts turns a Lensolater on Batman, but our hero is able to smash the lens of the blinding light with a swift kick of one of his boots. He rescues the Boy Wonder and the duo race to an art museum and make short work of Witts and his gang. Batman returns the White Lotus to Chen Ku, who explains that a Tong leader had threatened to kill Chen's wife if he didn't keep the White Lotus safe. He will return it and everyone sits down to a nice meal of Chinese food.

This is wretched stuff! In the May Brave and Bold, DC skewered Native Americans, and in the June Batman the Chinese get the same treatment. The art is terrible and the story ridiculous. Among the more nonsensical things are the fact that, with Batman disguised as Silent Stan, stuck to a chair, and unconscious, what does the Swami do? He dresses him in a Batman costume! I have no idea how he got him into the duds without unsticking him from the chair and, as we know from umpteen prior stories, Batman always wears his Batsuit under any disguise. So we're supposed to believe that he has on a Batsuit, a Silent Stan suit over that, and another Batsuit over that! Not to mention the facial makeup to turn him into Silent Stan. Incredibly, Johnny Witts had appeared before, in Detective #344, and would return in the future!

Dick Grayson heads back to Gotham High for the fall term and meets Frank Reynolds, a very tall classmate who has been bussed in to school and who is going out for the basketball team. Dick next approaches another tall, bussed-in student, hoping he likes hoops, only to meet Toughy Loomis, who hates rich kids and smacks Dick in the face. Nights later, Toughy and two of his pals ambush Dick in Gotham Park. Dick uses his judo skills to avoid trouble until the trio gang up on him. Suddenly, a tall young man wearing a mask comes to Dick's aid, tossing the boys around with ease.

Dick meets Batman, who is out on patrol, and changes into his Robin duds. He soon comes upon Toughy and his pals attacking Frank Reynolds, who was "Dick Grayson's Secret Guardian!" Robin knocks the boys out but Frank disappears. Robin locates him nearby, using his great strength to protect a man whom he thinks is weak but who is really a mugger. Robin intervenes and is tossed in the air; he lands on Frank and knocks him down. Reynolds reveals that he was wearing a Man-Amplifier gadget that his father invented with which he was able to lift and toss the other boys around. After Toughy attacked him, he was in a daze and went after the wrong person; only Robin's wallop brought him back to his senses. At the Batcave, Robin tells Batman that Toughy has sworn to turn over a new leaf and plans to go out for basketball.

Not quite as bad as the first story in this issue, but close. I'm not sure where these tall, white, well-off students are being bussed in to Gotham High from, but it could be the farms outside of town. They sure don't look like any of the bussed-in students that caused such a furor in Boston. These solo Robin stories aren't very good, are they? Things will improve in a few years when Robin goes to college.-Jack

Peter-Hard to believe that, as late as 1967, Asians were still being presented as yellow-skinned (actually, more of an orange tint). Shelly & Joe really like those outfits their goons wear as it's the same patterns every issue. These guys must go to the Ajax Criminal Men's Wearhouse. If Batman was really the World's Greatest Detective, he'd just patrol the streets looking for men in bad suits and arrest them pre-crime. I wonder if Silent Stan's driver's license actually says "Silent Stan." While we're on the subject, if Joker gets pulled over for doing 25 in a school zone, does he have to present a proper ID or risk being cited? And does the Swami get an electric bill at his secret hideout? Mail delivery? The art, as always with  Moldy and Joe, is odiferous. A stand-out would have to be the splash for the Robin solo story. The Boy Wonder appears to be leaping from a second floor building that is about five feet off the ground. Nothing spells out "Let's be friends!" like "We wanna make you bussed-in kids feel welcome!" Well, welcome to Gotham Elementary, Toughie Loomis and Chills Carmody!

Next Week...
In Ditko We Trust!

Thursday, April 3, 2025

The Hitchcock Project-A Matter of Murder by Boris Sobelman [9.23]

by Jack Seabrook

"A Matter of Murder" is a fast-paced romp where the crime of the title has already happened offscreen before the episode begins.

When four men in suits, who are loitering outside a bar in a rural area, see a Rolls Royce drive by and turn down a remote road, they jump into their car and follow it. The Rolls pulls up next to a lake and the driver, Sheridan Westcott, walks out onto a pier, where he lowers a weight at the end of a rope to measure the water's depth. Suddenly, the other car pulls up next to his and one of the passengers jumps out and drives off in the Rolls. While Westcott runs down the empty road calling for help, the two cars drive into a nearby town and quickly enter a garage.

Darren McGavin as Sheridan Westcott
The car thieves, led by Philadelphia Harry and including his young nephew, Weldon, and two other men, Vinnie and Al, soon discover an unanticipated impediment in their plan to scrape the car and get it over the border tonight: inside the trunk is a woman's corpse, wrapped in plastic and with chains around its legs. Harry tells his helpers to wipe all of their fingerprints off of the vehicle so that they can  put it back where they found it.

Meanwhile, Westcott, who appears to have murdered his wife and planned to dump her body in the lake, has had a change in plans and decides to take advantage of the unexpected turn of events. He arrives back at the bar that was seen in the first scene and reports that his car was stolen and his wife kidnapped! Back at home, he and his wife's niece, pretty Enid Bentley, tell a police lieutenant what Westcott claims happened. Sheridan is able to describe one kidnapper well enough that the policeman and his partner, Harv, recognize the leader of the gang of car thieves as Philadelphia Harry, a crook who they say is well known for stealing cars but who would never kidnap anyone. When Westcott suggests that his wife's life may be in danger, the policemen laugh at the thought.

Patricia Crowley as Enid Bentley
Just as Harry and his gang are returning the stolen car to the spot by the lake, Harry hears a news flash on the radio reporting that he is being sought for kidnapping Phoebe Westcott, the rich woman whose corpse is in the trunk. Harry and his men drive both cars back to the garage, aware that if they had left the vehicle by the lake they would be accused of murder.

At Westcott's house, the police have left and Sheridan and Enid share drinks and toast "'the perfect crime.'" The police return and inform them that they have confirmed that Harry is in the area; they assure Westcott that Harry is "'as honest as they come'" and that Phoebe could not be in better hands. They suggest waiting for a ransom note. At Harry's garage, however, Harry decides that there will be no ransom note. Instead, they will return Westcott's car to the garage at his home and hire a stool pigeon who goes by the name of General Delivery to tip off the cops to the car's location. At Westcott's house, Enid expresses concern that Harry will not send a ransom note and suggests that she and Sheridan send one for him.

Telly Savalas as Philadelphia Harry
The first act of "A Matter of Murder" moves quickly, cutting back and forth between locations to set up parallel stories that are interrelated and whose characters try to outthink each other without knowing what the other is doing. In act two, events continue to spiral out of control even as the characters desperately attempt to manage the outcome. Under cover of darkness, Harry and his gang return the Rolls Royce to the Westcott garage and admire the convertible sports car parked next to it. The next day, Westcott's lawyer, a man named Flagstone, brings a briefcase containing $200,000 to pay the ransom for Phoebe, but when Enid discovers that the Rolls has been returned to the garage, with a note on the windshield that reads, "Stealing is one thing. Murder ain't. I hope you get the chair," she and Sheridan must think fast. Enid suggests leaving the car on a remote road for the police to find so that they will suspect Harry of murder.

Patrick McVey as the
police lieutenant
At Harry's garage, the stool pigeon known as General Delivery is brought in, wearing a blindfold, and paid to telephone police chief J.X. Doran to report that the missing Rolls has been in Westcott's garage the whole time. Incredibly, inside the garage, Sheridan and Enid have managed to do a professional job of repainting the car a silver color in record time! They drive off, Sheridan behind the wheel of the Rolls and Enid driving the convertible, just before the police arrive and find the garage empty.

Howard Wendell as Flagstaff
In a scene that replays the first scene of the show, Enid drives by the bar in the convertible and two of Harry's gang members see the expensive car and give chase. Westcott leaves the repainted Rolls near Lookout Point and Enid picks him up; the gang members soon pull up and steal the silver Rolls, not realizing that it is the same car that they had left in Westcott's garage the night before. After Sheridan drops a ransom note in a mailbox, Weldon returns to Harry's garage in the silver car, where Harry opens the trunk to see that it contains Phoebe's corpse.

Than Wyenn as General Delivery
By this point, the fact that Sheridan Westcott murdered his wife and planned to dispose of her corpse in a lake has become secondary to the race to avoid being held responsible for the body in the trunk. Act three begins at Westcott's house, where Flagstone has turned over the ransom money and the characters discuss how to handle the imaginary handoff to the nonexistent kidnappers. Sheridan goes to the idyllic small town of Flamingo Corners and spends the day in the town square, watched closely by undercover policemen as he waits for someone to come and take the briefcase of money, knowing full well that no one will come. That night, Harry awakens with a start when he realizes that the Rolls was repainted in order to make it look like his gang did the paint job. He calls a criminal named Lopez whom he can count on to take the car and get it quickly and safely over the border. The only problem is that they cannot leave the body in the trunk or Lopez would discover it.

Lewis Charles as Lopez
The next day, Westcott accuses the police of scaring off the kidnappers at Flamingo Corners and Enid expresses certainty that Phoebe is dead. Westcott drives into town, unaware that he is being followed by Harv, and makes an anonymous call to the police to report that the Rolls Royce has been sitting abandoned near Lookout Point for the last two days. As act three ends, it appears that the police are beginning to suspect Westcott of something, but they are not sure what.

The final act begins as the lieutenant conveys his suspicions regarding Westcott to the chief. He thinks that Phoebe's body may be hidden in Westcott's cellar! At Harry's garage, the car thief pays Lopez $100 to take the car over the border; at Westcott's house, the police have completed their fruitless search of the cellar. The lieutenant plans to drag the lake in the morning and admits to his colleagues that he has grave doubts about finding Phoebe's corpse. After the police leave, Sheridan and Enid celebrate, thinking that they have outsmarted everyone. The Rolls will be found with Phoebe's body in the trunk, and Harry will be accused of murder.

Jordan Grant as Al
However, in a final, delicious twist, at Harry's garage the Rolls Royce is gone but the corpse, still wrapped in plastic and with chains around its legs, remains! Harry and his gang put it in the trunk of their own car and head for the lake to put the body where Westcott had intended to put it in the first place. They do not know that the police plan to drag the lake the next day. The police lieutenant will be in for quite a surprise when he locates Phoebe's corpse and, if all goes as expected, Westcott will be held responsible for the crime he committed and Harry will be suspected of nothing more than the usual car theft. In short, all of Sheridan and Enid's scheming will come to naught and, instead of the body being in the lake where no one would ever think to look for it, it will be found by the police the next day.

Paul Potash as Vinnie
"A Matter of Murder" is a fun black comedy that benefits from clever plotting, tight direction, and strong acting. Telly Savalas steals the show as Philadelphia Harry, the "honest" car thief who cannot believe that he could be suspected of kidnapping and possibly murder after twenty years in the business. Darren McGavin makes an amiable Sheridan Westcott and Patricia Crowley is perfect as his take-charge younger lover, Enid. Rounding out the cast are supporting actors who make the most of their time on screen.

Tyler McVey as J.X. Doran
The teleplay by Boris Sobelman is original and is not based on any story or prior TV show. The title card shows a copyright date of 1963 but the show did not air until Friday, April 3, 1964, on CBS, which may have delayed airing it for some reason.

This was the only teleplay written for the Hitchcock TV show by Boris Sobelman (1909-1971), who was born in Russia and who emigrated to the United States and wrote exclusively for TV from 1961 to 1971. In addition to this episode, he penned three episodes of Thriller and one episode of Star Trek.

Marc Rambeau as Weldon
"A Matter of Murder" was one of two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour to be directed by David Lowell Rich (1920-2001); the other was "To Catch a Butterfly," which is anything but humorous. Rich directed many TV shows from 1950 to 1987, as well as a number of films. He won an Emmy in 1978.

Darren McGavin (1922-2006) appeared on three episodes of the Hitchcock TV series, including "Triggers in Leash." Born William Lyle Richardson, he was seen on stage, film, and TV from 1945 to 2008. He starred in five TV series: Crime Photographer (1951-1952), Mike Hammer (1958-1959), Riverboat (1959-1961), The Outsider (1968-1969) and, of course, The Night Stalker (1974-1975), which followed two popular TV movies featuring the same character, Carl Kolchak, who kept encountering supernatural menaces while working as a newspaper reporter in Chicago. McGavin also had a memorable role as the father in A Christmas Story (1983) and there is a website about him here.

Calvin Bartlett as Harv
In her only role on the Hitchcock TV show, Patricia Crowley (1933- ) plays Enid. She was on screen from 1950 to 2012, mostly appearing on TV, including an episode of The Twilight Zone. She was a regular on two TV series, Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965-1967) and Joe Forrester (1975-1976), and she had recurring roles on two soap operas, Generations (1989) and Port Charles (1997-2001).

Telly Savalas (1922-1994) served in the Army during WWII and his career on screen lasted from 1959 until his death. He was also on an episode of The Twilight Zone and had important roles in The Dirty Dozen (1967) and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), but the role that made him a star was as the lead in the TV series Kojak, which ran from 1973 to 1978 and which continued in occasional TV movies until 1990. Savalas has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In smaller roles:
  • Patrick McVey (1910-1973) as the police lieutenant; he was in films from 1941 to 1973 and on TV from 1950 to 1972; he also appeared on Broadway from 1947 to 1970. He was in Hitchcock's North By Northwest (1959) and he was a regular on three TV series: Big Town (1950-1954), Boots and Saddles (1957-1958), and Manhunt (1959-1961).
  • Howard Wendell (1908-1975) as Flagstone, the lawyer; he was on screen from 1949 to 1971, appeared in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) and on two episodes of Batman, and was in one other episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "Diagnosis: Danger."
  • Than Wyenn (1919-2015) as General Delivery, the stool pigeon who plays his role blindfolded; his screen career lasted from 1949 to 1985 and included three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, one of which was "Triumph," and appearances on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, and Night Gallery.
  • Lewis Charles (1920-1979) as Lopez, who is paid $100 to take the Rolls Royce over the border; he was on screen from 1940 to 1980 and appeared in Hitchcock's Topaz (1969), as well as four episodes of Batman and the TV movie, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) with Darren McGavin.
  • Jordan Grant (1937-1996) as Al, one of Harry's gang; born Richard Jordan Gerler, he was on screen from 1961 to 1994, first as Jordan Gerler, then as Jordan Grant, and finally as Adam Roarke, appearing on an episode of Star Trek and in one other episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "The Sign of Satan."
  • Paul Potash (1936- ) as Vinnie, another member of Harry's gang; he had a brief career on TV from 1963 to 1967 and appeared in a film in 1968. He was also a folk singer in the early 1960s as one half of the duo, Art and Paul.
  • Tyler McVey (1912-2003) as the police chief, Captain J.X. Doran; his long career began in the 1930s on the radio and he was on screen from 1950 to 1986. He can be seen in eight episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "Human Interest Story," and he was the president of AFTRA from 1965 to 1967.
  • Marc Rambeau (1942-1985) as Weldon, Philadelphia Harry's nephew; he had a brief TV career from 1962 to 1966 that included three appearances on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; one of the others was "Death of a Cop."
  • Calvin Bartlett (1935- ) as Harv, the police lieutenant's partner; he had a long career on TV and film, starting in 1963, and appeared in one episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker and one other episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow."

Watch "A Matter of Murder" online here.

Sources:

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

IBDB, www.ibdb.com.

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

"A Matter of Murder." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 2, episode 23, CBS, 3 April 1964.

Podell, Art. “Play On.” FolkWorks, Art Podell https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FolkWorks-logo-large.png, 19 Feb. 2021, folkworks.org/play-on-2/.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.


Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "The Indestructible Mr. Weems" here!

In two weeks: "Apex," starring Patricia Breslin!