The Hitchcock Project-The Pearl Necklace by Peggy and Lou Shaw [6.29]

by Jack Seabrook

"The Pearl Necklace" is a lighthearted episode with a dark message underneath about love, money, power, and revenge. It opens outside a large mansion, with an expanse of lawn, a pool, and a tennis court, where an older man in a wheelchair is pushed to a spot where he can watch the end of a tennis match between a pretty young woman and a handsome young man. The older man, Howard Rutherford, looks on disapprovingly as the young couple kiss passionately. He summons the young woman to his side and dismisses the young man.

The woman is Rutherford's secretary, Charlotte, and he informs her that all of his ex-wives have been paid off and he is now worth over eleven million dollars, "'give or take a few.'" When he says that his next wife will inherit it all, she asks whom he plans to marry and he brazenly puts his hand on her bare thigh and tells her that, by marrying him, she will earn much more than her current salary of $85/week. As an enticement, Rutherford reveals that he has a weak heart and has at most a year to live. Charlotte responds that she's flattered but she has plans to marry Mark Lansing, her tennis partner; Rutherford suggests that she discuss his offer with Mark, whom she could marry after Howard dies.

The idea of an older man wanting to marry a much younger woman is not new, but the frank, direct way it is presented here seems almost like prostitution, where Rutherford offers a large sum of money to Charlotte in exchange for sharing his bed.

Hazel Court as Charlotte

In the next scene, Mark and Charlotte are lying on the floor of his apartment in front of a fire, kissing. She is above him and in charge of the relationship, or so she thinks. They switch positions and he is on top as they begin to discuss Howard's proposal. When Mark learns that the older man has at most a year to live, he quickly warms to the idea, reminding her that he doesn't earn much as a salesman. Though Charlotte seems shocked at his suggestion that she marry Howard, Mark frames it as a way for her to prove her love for him, reminding her that Howard is 65 years old with one foot in the grave.

After a dissolve, time has passed and Charlotte has married Howard. A maid leaves and Rutherford joins her in their bedroom, where he compliments her beauty and presents her with a necklace that has a single pearl; he expresses his wish that he could give her a pearl for "'every year of bliss that we share together.'" For the third time in as many scenes, Charlotte looks horrified, as she did at Howard's initial proposal and Mark's support for the idea.

More time passes between this scene and the next one, where Howard and Charlotte are seated at either end of a long dinner table. From his pocket, he takes a pearl and rolls it along the table to his wife before drinking a toast to five years together; she looks less than thrilled and Howard asks if she's thinking of Mark. He reminds her that there will be "'plenty of time for that after I'm gone'" and chuckles in a way that suggests that he knows he has tricked her into a longer union than she expected.

Ernest Truex as Howard Rutherford

Later, at Mark's apartment, Charlotte makes a surprise appearance and he expresses worry that she'll be seen. Deflecting her question about why he has taken down her pictures, Mark assures Charlotte that Howard can't last much longer. She is now 30 years old and Mark tells her that she can't quit now, insisting that the wait has been hard for him, too. Just as they declare their love for each other, another woman walks in and asks Mark, "'Hi, lover boy, am I late?'" Charlotte leaves in disgust, telling Mark that he can kiss $11M goodbye.

In the following scene, a decade has passed and a pretty nurse is tending to Howard, who is sitting up in bed. He rolls another pearl along the bedspread to Charlotte to mark 15 years of marriage; she is beginning to doubt him when he says that he could die soon and her necklace is now filled with pearls. Outside the mansion, Mark waits by the pool and receives a chilly reception from Charlotte. He saw news of Howard's illness in the paper but Charlotte's attitude toward her old paramour has changed; she is now warm to her husband but cold to her ex-lover.

Jack Cassidy as Mark Lansing

Charlotte meets Mark's ten-year-old son Billy and Mark explains that he and Billy's mother divorced some time ago. The rich woman is charmed by the boy and invites him to return the next day to play tennis with her; in a sense, he is taking the place of his father, with whom she played tennis in the first scene, over 15 years ago. Later that summer, after a game of tennis, Billy leaves and Charlotte tells Mark that her husband has agreed to send Billy to the same prep school that Howard attended. Mark doesn't know it yet, but Charlotte is grooming the boy as a substitute for both her husband and her ex-lover. "'He's a very attractive boy, very intelligent,'" she remarks, before referring to her former relationship with Mark as "'unpleasant'" and telling him that she wants no further contact with him.

This is followed by two more scenes at the dinner table, where Howard rolls a pearl to Charlotte to mark another year of marriage; the pearls show the passage of time in their increasingly lengthy marriage and Charlotte's reaction now is noticeably more welcoming than it was at first. Finally, Howard looks much older and is barely able to roll the pearl to Charlotte, who looks older as well--he is 90 and she is 50 and he thanks her for "'25 years of unbelievable happiness.'" Howard laughs at the idea that this is the last pearl, since he has been warning of his own impending death for a quarter century; Charlotte tells him, "'I confess, I've grown rather fond of you.'" Howard collapses in his chair, dead at last, and Charlotte drinks a toast to her partner.

Michael Burns as Billy at 10

In the show's final scene, Mark confronts Charlotte in a rage, telling her that her plan to marry someone new is indecent, quite a change from his initial support for her marriage to Howard. Mark's son Billy enters, now a young, handsome man of twenty who embraces Charlotte and tells his father that "'our marriage was made in Heaven.'" The show ends on a close up of Charlotte as she smiles knowingly.

There is no crime or murder in "The Pearl Necklace," except perhaps Mark's crime in destroying Charlotte's love for him. The only suspense lies in waiting for Howard to die. There is no mention of sex, yet it is behind everything that occurs, especially Charlotte's marriage to Howard and her impending second marriage to Billy. She flips tradition on its head by planning to marry a man thirty years younger than herself and, by doing so, enacts revenge on Mark. Earlier, Howard admitted that he and Charlotte are proof that money can buy happiness and the real surprise in this story comes early, when Howard keeps on living and Charlotte and Mark's plan to inherit his money falls apart. The next surprise comes in the form of Mark's girlfriend, and the final surprise is that Charlotte is going to marry Billy. It's a transgressive ending that shows how far things had come on American television by 1961!

David Faulkner
as Billy at 20

"The Pearl Necklace" is directed by Don Weis (1922-2000), who started in movies in 1951 but worked mostly in episodic television from 1954 to 1990. He directed The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953) and episodes of The Twilight Zone, Batman, The Night Stalker, and many others. His five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents also included "Santa Claus and the Tenth Avenue Kid." An interesting article about Weis's career was published here.

This episode is not based on another source but is instead an original teleplay by a husband-and-wife team of writers. Peggy Shaw (1922-2014) began writing for TV in 1958, often with her husband, Lou Shaw, and their credits together ended in 1962. She continued writing as Peggy Shaw until 1965, then took a seven-year break and wrote for TV as Peggy O'Shea from 1971 to 1993, serving as head writer for three soap operas: Search for Tomorrow (1975-1976), One Life to Live (1979-1983 and 1984-1987), and Capitol (1983-1984). She won a Daytime Emmy in 1987. It's not clear if she and Lou Shaw remained married after they stopped writing together, but "The Pearl Necklace" was their only teleplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Diane Webber as the other woman

Lou Shaw (1925-2015) wrote mostly for TV from 1958 to 1986 and co-created the series Quincy, M.E., for which he wrote many teleplays from 1976 to 1983, winning an Edgar Award in 1978 for one of them. He also wrote a novel. Like his wife, this was his only teleplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

British beauty Hazel Court (1926-2008) was 35 years old when she played Charlotte Rutherford. She made movies from 1944 to 1981 and was on TV from 1956 to 1975, appearing in episodes of The Twilight Zone and Thriller. Born in England, she was featured in many great horror films of the 1950s and 1960s, including Curse of Frankenstein (1957), The Premature Burial (1962), The Raven (1963), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964). Her autobiography, Hazel Court-Horror Queen: An Autobiography, was published in 2008. Court said that CBS brought her to America, where she appeared in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; "The Pearl Necklace" was the last. When she filmed this episode in 1961 she was married to actor Dermot Walsh; however, in 1963, she divorced Walsh and married Don Taylor, whom she had met when he directed her in "The Crocodile Case."

Shirley O'Hara
as the maid

Howard Rutherford is played 71-year-old by Ernest Truex (1889-1973), a wonderful actor who began his career on stage at age three. He was in movies from 1913 to 1965 and his many film roles included one in His Girl Friday (1940). He was seen on TV from its earliest days, in 1948, and his TV career ran until 1966. He was a regular on a series called Jamie from 1953-1954, appeared in two memorable episodes of The Twilight Zone ("Kick the Can" and "What You Need"), and was on Alfred Hitchcock Presents twice (see "The Matched Pearl").

Jack Cassidy (1927-1976) was a year younger than Hazel Court when he played Mark Lansing. He was a star on Broadway, in film, and on TV from 1944 until his untimely death in 1976. He won a Tony Award in 1964 for his role in She Loves Me and also appeared in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ("The Photographer and the Undertaker"). Later, he was on Night Gallery and a regular on the series, He & She (1967-1968). He was the father of music and TV star David Cassidy and he was married to Shirley Jones from 1956-1975. He died in a fire at home that started when he fell asleep with a lit cigarette.

In smaller roles:

• Michael Burns (1947- ) was actually thirteen years old when he played ten-year-old Billy Lansing; he appeared on TV and in films from 1960 to 1986 and was a regular on It's a Man's World (1962-1963) and Wagon Train (1963-1965). He was also seen on Thriller and he was on two other episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Special Delivery." Burns grew up to be a history professor and writer.
• David Faulkner as twenty-year-old Billy Lansing; he was on various TV shows from 1959 to 1983.
• Diane Webber (1932-2008) as the other woman; she was a nude model who appeared in Playboy and many other men's magazines. Her screen career lasted from 1959 to 1974.
• Shirley O'Hara (1924-2002) as the maid; she played small parts on film and TV from 1943 to 1980 and was on the Hitchcock show three times, including "Death of a Cop." She also appeared on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.

Watch "The Pearl Necklace" online here or order the DVD here. Read the GenreSnaps review here.

Sources:

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

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

"The Pearl Necklace." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 6, episode 29, CBS, 2 May 1961.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss season two of Alfred Hitchcock Presents here!

In two weeks: "The Impossible Dream," starring Franchot Tone!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 142: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 127

November 1956 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales #52

Cover by Bill Everett(?) and Carl Burgos (?)

"Simon's Stooge!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★1/2

"Who Lurks There?" (a: Dave Berg) ★

"The Empty Chair" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

"The Frightened Man" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2

"The Last of Professor Hogarth" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"You Can't Find Me!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★

Lobar, the man who can read minds and make fabulous guesses about how much money is in the wallet belonging to a customer, is bringing in thousands a week, but it's his "manager," Simon, who's raking in the dough. Simon gives Lobar only a small percentage of the gate and yet Lobar seems perfectly happy about the situation. Simon's over the moon as well!

It all goes swimmingly until one night, before a show, "Simon's Stooge!" suddenly tells Simon he'll be leaving show business and heading out to find something to cure "the boredom of this life." Despite promises of a wage increase, Lobar sticks to his plan and exits stage left. Like a boat without a rudder, the panicked Simon follows him until they reach a deserted patch of land. Simon insists he'll do anything to keep their partnership alive and Lobar smiles, assuring his ex-boss that their union will continue.

That's when the spaceship lands and takes both men to a distant planet, where Lobar becomes the boss and Simon the stooge. Yep, Lobar was an alien the whole time! Though the plot and reveal are both old hat, I enjoyed "Simon's Stooge!" thanks mostly to Joe Sinnott's no-nonsense graphics. I'm not sure if Joe did his own inking or if the assist man is lost to the ages, but the shading makes all the difference with Sinnott's art. 

A group of villagers must band together and prepare to fight when giants in a "flying village" invade their world. In the end, we discover the "giants" are an archaeological research team attempting to locate a mythical village of lilliputians and their "flying village" is a helicopter. "Who Lurks There?" displays zero imagination and zero enthusiasm on the parts of both writer and artist. Berg's art seems to have taken a full three steps back. The only moment of entertainment comes from that intro panel where, seemingly, Lem is giving Tod a full-body massage in front of a giant typewriter. Wertham must have been already on to his next conquest (Rock + Roll = Rebellion?) and missed that image, or else he'd have the comic biz back in the courts. I'd have rather gone into that story rather than the cliched nonsense we're given. The tiny people are (ostensibly) Americans; why are they so tiny, why are they in Africa and, more important, how did they get their expertly made tiny clothes and tiny equipment?  

"The Empty Chair": try to keep up now. Sailor Dave dies and leaves his entire fortune of fifty grand to his ten-year-old nephew, Tommy, much to the chagrin of Tommy's cousin, Seth. Tommy's dad announces at the dinner table that the money will be put into a trust fund for Tommy to acquire at the ripe old age of thirty. Seth mumbles and eats his cold stew, clearly not happy with the events unfolding around him. Suddenly, a stranger appears at the table and explains that he's from twenty years in the future, his name is unimportant (but we know that's a plot point), and he has arrived... well, we don't really know why he's arrived. That's a secret.

Early the next morning, Seth breaks into the room holding the chest that contains the fortune in gold and heads out the front door, destination the bus depot. There, the weird 1976 stranger appears, nabs the chest, and takes it back home. The next day, Seth attempts a partnership with the stranger and an agreement is reached: the visitor will take the fifty grand with him back to the future and Seth can claim it in twenty years. Seth insists on a receipt but doesn't read it until the stranger disappears. The promissory is signed "Thomas Holt, aged 30!" (yes, that exclamation is on the note!!!). 

Holy cow, the stranger was Tommy from the future come back to 1956 to make sure Cousin Seth didn't run away with the money. I had to take two Excedrin for a headache from the Carl Wessler-penned script and Visine for the eye strain from the purely-by-the-numbers Orlando pencils. By the smile on Tommy's face in the final panel, I assume he knew that the stranger was an older version of himself (he does talk in an oddly mature way for a pre-teen), but then does that mean he keeps that secret to himself for the next twenty years? And who's going to hand over the gold to 30-year-old Thomas? Wouldn't future Seth follow Tommy to the gold and then kill him? Would the gold suddenly appear in a safe deposit box, the location of which is known only to the elder Tommy... more Excedrin please! I should have listened to the two-hours-older Peter who appeared at my table just before I started reading "The Empty Chair!"

Bob Powell's art was the only thing that kept me from nodding off during "The Frightened Man," a preachy about a guy who steals government bonds and then uses a magic potion to evade capture. In the end, after seeing what damage his theft has wrought, he gives himself up and vows to help the world become a better place to live in. It's bad enough we have to wade through the inane transporting, but then we have to listen to a "heartfelt" monologue penned by Carl Wessler to add the cherry on top. Yeccch.

Professor Hogarth has developed a way to transfer a human brain into another body without using scalpels and all that other messy stuff, but when his body breaks down and he asks his colleague, Doctor Kalmus, to find a suitable vessel, all poor Kalmus can find is their dog, Rover! Beggars can't be choosers, so Kalmus does what he's told and, just like that, Rover is theorizing about quantum physics and biological conundrums. But not for long. The brain switcheroo also gives Hogarth a sixth sense and he suddenly sees Kalmus's desire to use Rover to rule the world. Hogarth starts yapping and eating his Kibbles 'n' Bits. "The Last of Professor Hogarth" is actually entertaining while insanely inane (inanely insane?). The panels of Rover talking like Hogarth are minor gems, but the Winiarski art resembles what Rover will leave in a pile in the yard after he eats his dog chow.

In the finale, three men head into space on the XBY and land on an uncharted planet. There they are met and hypnotized by an alien being who wants to conquer Earth. He disguises himself as human and accompanies the trio back on their return trip. But Earth brass knows something's up since they only sent three guys up! Who could the alien be? Hilarity ensues when the masquerading creature gives himself up because he doesn't hit on Colonel Marley, a 36-24-36 space pilot with special skills. I gotta say that climax for "You Can't Find Me!" is something special, but even more special is the striking Gray Morrow art (complete with some fabulous Colonel Marley cheesecake panels). Morrow is quickly becoming that special talent we know and love from the Warren and Marvel comics of the 1970s.-Peter

Uncanny Tales #49

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Man With No Face!" (a: Gene Colan) ★1/2

"Four Frightened People" (a: George Roussos) ★★

"I Follow Him!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Lifeless One!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★

"The Man in the Satellite" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

"Footprints to Nowhere!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★★1/2

Clive Talbot is not warming to his new neighbor, especially when the man parks his junk wagon in the drive. Clive tells his wife he won't stand for it and will start a petition to remove the junkman. Alice calmly reminds Clive that if he were to take that huge stick out of his ass, he'd remember that he got his own start as a junk dealer before blossoming into a legitimate antique huckster. 

But Clive won't hear of it and begins a door-to-door in order to solicit the help of his other neighbors. Turns out, the residents of Elm Street kinda like the new guy and they sure don't like Clive. Undeterred, Clive heads over to the offending neighbor's door but when the man answers, Clive is startled to discover "The Man With No Face!" The guy literally is a blank slate. In terror, he rushes home to gossip with Alice but his wife has her own bombshell to drop on her prudish hubby: she's in love with the guy next door, "The Man With No Face!"

For some inexplicable reason, Clive gets it into his head that if he goes over and breaks bread with "The Man With No Face!," Alice will forego the divorce proceedings. The couple visit "The Man With No Face!" and the second Clive apologizes for his rude behavior, the man grows a face. It's the younger version of Clive! Alice smiles and admits that this is the man she's always been in love with and the couple lives happily ever after.

Now, you might be asking yourself, "What are the logistics of this situation?" "The Man With No Face!" disappears along with his horse and wagon, but all the residents of Elm Street saw the guy and knew Clive didn't like him. Will there be a police investigation? Could Clive go to the chair for a murder he never committed? Will the bank foreclose now that young Clive (who had to sign some papers for the loan, right?) has taken a runner? Don't ask me; none of it makes sense. Well, one thing makes sense: it's a Carl Wessler script! The Colan art is as good as usual but I still pine for the days when Gentleman Gene would draw men with lobster hands.

Riik and Kujo, aliens from Atron, are tasked with kidnapping an Earth couple and bringing them back to their planet for study. What Riik and Kujo find is the Wyatts, who dwell in a loving family environment (not like what you'd find on Atron) with noisy brat kids and neighbors who visit nightly and drink all of Paul's beer and eat all his peanuts. Realizing they've found just a little slice of heaven on this tiny green planet, Riik and Kujo head back to Atron to tell their commander that Earth is uninhabited and a desert wasteland. They then arrange for a tiki party with dancing girls and loud music. "Four Frightened People" is that one-in-ten Wessler script that hits all the sweet spots: it's stupid as a reality show with classic Robot Monster-esque dialogue (Paul ignores the possibility of a horrible death and insists that Riik and Kujo must leave because the Wyatts are expecting company) and hilarious situations. As dumb as a box of rocks, "Four Frightened People" is nonetheless entertaining.

In "I Follow Him!," mind reader the Great Marlo becomes frustrated that his act isn't earning him millions and he sets out to find something that will make him rich. As he wanders the streets reading minds, he happens upon an alien disguised as an earthling; with further delving, Marlo discovers the visitor lives on a planet whose streets are made of gold. Bingo! But when Marlo gets to this distant Eden, he discovers that it ain't at all what was advertised. "I Follow Him!" is followed by the equally yawn-inducing "The Lifeless One!," wherein a homely man falls in love with a display window dummy. When a catastrophe hits the city, the dummy reveals herself to be an alien from another planet and saves her paramour, teleporting both of them back to her home. They live happily ever after on a planet where every woman is Elizabeth Taylor and every man is Mr. Potato Head. Stiff, awful art accompanies a stiff, awful script.

"The Man in the Satellite" is the three-page sequel to last issue's "They'll Never Find Me," which detailed a con's escape from prison and subsequent launch into space in a satellite he's hidden in. About a quarter of this continuation is devoted to a review of what came before and the rest of it shows what happens when you spend fifty years isolated in a little ball. The results are not pretty.

Arctic explorers Lewis and Shaw happen upon man's greatest discovery... the missing link frozen in ice. But it was actually Shaw who found the caveman and Lewis is hungry for fame and fortune, so he deliberately loses his colleague in a blizzard and heads into camp to take credit for the discovery. To his shock, Shaw makes it back alive and promises that Lewis will rot in prison. 

Not one to take failure lying down, Lewis sets out on the ice to blow up the missing link. If he can't claim the rewards, no one will. When the rest of the expedition arrive at the scene of the explosion, they find two sets of footprints leading from the scene and no Lewis! Though this snowman/yeti/ bigfoot/caveman plot had been done to death by 1956, "Footprints to Nowhere!" squeezes out some enjoyment anyway. Back in 1953, Lewis would have put an axe in Shaw's head and then found himself facing the missing link, but since the CCA deemed violent snowman comics were leading to teenage alcoholism, we're left with this tame stuff. Some nice Carrabotta work here. Let's make the best of it!-Peter

World of Fantasy #4

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Strange Wife of Henry Johnson!" (a: John Forte) ★★

"A Robot Among Us!" (a: Herb Familton) ★

"Girl in a Trap!" (a: Werner Roth) ★1/2

"The Frightened Ones!" (a: Ruben Moreira?) ★1/2

"The Only Clue!" (a: Bob Powell) ★★

"Voice of the Dummy!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★1/2

Why is Henry Johnson running through the streets at night? He thinks back to a few months before, when he was strolling by the lake and a blinding flash was followed by the sudden appearance of the beautiful woman he would soon marry. Their life together was happy, so Henry began to worry, especially when she gave him warm milk every night to help him sleep. One night he only pretended to drink the milk and, when he was in bed, he heard his wife talking to two men.

Henry snuck out of the bedroom and found two men from space who complimented his wife on drawing knowledge from Henry's mind with her thought tentacles. They discover Henry and try to seize him, but he escapes and makes a run for it. He is quickly caught and taken to their spaceship, but his wife tricks the spacemen into taking off without her and Henry. She admits that she came to Earth as a spy but fell in love with him!

The highlight of this story is the design and coloring of the spacesuits on the aliens; they have groovy shades and a yellow and purple color scheme that is appealing. I knew that Henry's wife was in love with him, so "The Strange Wife of Henry Johnson!" isn't so strange at all.

It's the end of the 41st century and a ruthless tyrant rules Myklovia. A spacecraft lands and the ruler is told that there is "A Robot Among Us!" The robot is sent to see the ruler but never arrives, and when the Myklovian guards find it they are surprised to discover that it is an empty metal shell. A freedom fighter named Torgus reveals himself and admits that he used the robot as a Trojan horse to gain admittance to the ruler's chamber. The ruler summons his guards, but they all stop in their tracks, since they are really robots and the freedom fighter disabled their controls. He tells the ruler that "mankind always wins out."

Herb Familton's art reminds me of some of the bad art I saw in Charlton or Gold Key comics of the 1960s. His characters are so stiff that they make John Forte's panels look supple! The story is nothing much.

Anna Malkin is a pretty young woman who lives in a country behind the Iron Curtain. A gypsy tells her that she will meet a bold, dashing man who will help her escape from the Communists; when she runs from the state police and is given shelter by handsome Josef Roebler, she thinks the gypsy's prediction has come true. There's just one problem: Josef keeps saving her and then disappearing from sight! Anna finally escapes across the border and meets Josef, an embassy attache who swears that he's never been to her country. The young woman suddenly realizes that the visions of Josef she saw were the personification of her hope.

In the time I've been reading along with Peter, there have not been many stories that came right out and said that the bad guys were Communists--usually, it was some sort of made-up place that stood in for the Eastern European lands. I wonder if developments in 1956 led to this more overt story? The art by Werner Roth is not very good, but it's better than much of what we're seeing at this point. The story by Carl Wessler is the usual mess.

On the planet Og, the kindly Ogians build a spaceship and plan to fly to Earth and make friends. Unfortunately, Og's evil giants escape from somewhere and the Ogians run and hide, causing the giants to call them "The Frightened Ones!" The giants like the idea of flying to Earth so much that they build a giant spaceship and spend months on a journey through space. To their surprise, when they reach Earth, they discover that humans are giants in comparison to the giants of Og, so they head back to their planet.

The GCD suspects that the uncredited artist is Ruben Moreira, and his Ogians and giants are kind of cute, but there is not even enough plot here to support the three-page story length.

An archaeologist named Elder is on his last expedition, and he's determined to make an important find. He and his colleagues travel through the jungle until they find natives; Elder asks them who built the ruined city to the north. They offer to let him ask their god, Tualco, who is inside a grass hut, but Elder scoffs at the idea and insults them, which causes them to chase him and his colleagues away. Too bad Elder didn't look inside the grass hut, where "The Only Clue!" resides! It looks like a totem pole with images of a stone idol, a native, and possibly an American soldier.

Bob Powell tries his best to make the story interesting and includes one of his patented panels where we see a partial close up of a character's face, but the problem with this story, for me, is that the payoff in the last panel isn't clear. I'm guessing at what the faces on the totem pole are meant to represent, but my lack of certainty dooms the story.

A trio of hoods needs a hiding place for their loot, so they enter the tent of a ventriloquist called the Great Gabby and hide the stolen jewels inside the ventriloquist's dummy named Droopy, telling the pretty assistant, Julia, to keep quiet. The cops come and take Gabby away, convinced that he's at fault. Once the police are gone, the head crook picks up Droopy and suddenly hears the "Voice of the Dummy!" warning him that the cops are coming back. The crooks hop on the roller coaster with Droopy, who tells them to run once the ride is over.

They next enter the funhouse, where Droopy guides them out the back door and into a nearby truck that turns out to be the paddy wagon. Once in a cell, the head crook accuses Gabby of being their leader, but Julia reveals that both Gabby and Droopy are dummies and she's the real ventriloquist!

Thank goodness this mess was handed to Bernard Baily to illustrate, since he makes it palatable. The plot makes as much sense as any other Wessler tale. In the splash panel, Gabby is sitting up with Droopy on his knee, and on page two, Gabby walks out of the tent with the police, It makes absolutely no sense that he's a dummy, but Baily does the best he can.-Jack

Next Week:
At Long Last...
Our Savior Arrives!

Batman in the 1960s Issue 52: July/August 1968

 

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

Infantino/Adams

Batman #203

"The 1,000 Secrets of the Batcave!"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Jim Mooney & Charles Paris

(Reprinted from Batman #48, September 1948)

"The Birth of Batplane II!"

Story by David Vern

Art by Dick Sprang & Charles Paris

(Reprinted from Batman #61, November 1950)

"The Secret of Batman's Utility Belt!"

Story Uncredited

Art by Dick Sprang & Charles Paris

(Reprinted from Detective Comics #185, July 1952)

"The 100 Batarangs of Batman"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

(Reprinted from Detective Comics #244, June 1957)

"Secret of the Batmobile"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

(Reprinted from Batman #98, March 1956)

"The Flying Bat-Cave!"

Story Uncredited

Art by Lew Sayre Schwartz & Charles Paris

(Reprinted from Detective Comics #186, August 1952)

Peter-One of the rare DC comic books I had as a kid (most of them were the "Giants" as, even as a pre-teen, I hated the contemporary "Jimmy Olsen: Werewolf" nonsense) and I remember with fondness cutting out the "Secrets of the Batcave" spread and hanging it up on my bedroom wall not far from the Famous Monsters of Filmland covers and Creedence 45s. As usual, this bunch is full of kinetic energy and bursting at the seams with goofiness. I would say, though, that, aside from that aforementioned spread, these stories don't dwell much on the fabulous secrets found within the Cave. I enjoyed them despite the bait-and-switch.

Jack-My favorite was "The 1,000 Secrets of the Batcave!," which features a villain named Brando and which reveals that Bruce Wayne lives in a modest suburban house! The two stories pencilled by Dick Sprang are not bad, but the Moldoff entries are snoozers. Like you, I remember this comic from early childhood!

Novick

Detective Comics #377

"The Riddler's Prison-Puzzle Problem!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Frank Springer & Sid Greene

Batman is summoned to the Gotham Library, where he finds a book waiting for him. The pretty librarian informs the Caped Crusader that her office did not send for him, but the book has magically appeared on her desk. Sensing a deadly trap, the World's Greatest Detective uses a yardstick to detonate the book. Luckily, the pretty librarian was snapping a photo of her hero when the book exploded. The instant photo reveals a cryptic message: "Why is a diamond like a stew?" Yep, the Riddler is out on bail again!

The clue leads our heroes to the estate of Mr. Morland, collector of gold coins, and the boys interrupt the Riddler in the middle of his heist. Fisticuffs ensue, but Batman and Robin are triumphant and E. Nigma is hauled off to the 23rd Precinct building where he is booked for fifteen different crimes and thrown in a cell. Like clockwork, the Riddler's bail arrives five minutes later and he is released but, before heading out the door to freedom after his long nightmare of incarceration, he gives the Batman a cryptic message about his cell.

Using his computer-like brain, Batman has himself arrested and thrown into the cell once used by Nigma (instead of, I don't know, just checking the cell out after the Rogue leaves). Batman had noticed one of the question marks on Riddler's costume was missing, so he checks the cell for invisible writing. Sure enough, a message is written on the mirror--"Why is a room filled only with married people like an empty room?" That clue leads the Dynamic Duo to the Museum of India, which is displaying the priceless "Bachelor Diamond," and the boys again arrive mid-heist. A whale of a brawl kicks up but, once again, law and order reign supreme and the Riddler is slapped in cuffs. The villain sits in a cell, awaiting his obligatory release in four issues.

Unlike most adventures, the Riddler doesn't seem to have a goal this time out. It's just rob, puzzle, rob, puzzle, rob. What's with the new-look Riddler? This version looks nothing like the guy we've become so familiar with. He's demented, with scraggly hair. Perhaps Frank Springer took inspiration from the TV show, when John Astin took over for Frank Gorshin? While this event is hardly as disastrous as that TV debacle, the villain's new look is quite startling. I will say, though that, Astin look aside,  the Springer/Greene art is not bad at all. The fight scenes have choreography and dynamics that we never saw in the Shelly/Giella age. Hilarious, in our opening scene, that Batman suspects the book at the library is booby-trapped but doesn't think to ask the pretty librarian to step outside while he checks it out.-Peter

Jack-It's a decent Riddler story; better than some, worse than others. I agree that the art is a notch above Moldoff's work; in some spots, it resembles Infantino's style, while in others, it features the dynamic poses of Kane. The Novick cover is a classic and bodes well for the new artist who will soon take over the interior art too.

Brown/Esposito

The Brave and the Bold #78

"In the Coils of Copperhead!"

Story by Bob Haney

Art by Bob Brown & Mike Esposito

After Batman barely escapes being run over by an armored truck driven by crooks, a king and queen visiting Gotham City are shocked when a beggar steals the queen's tiara and reveals himself to be the Copperhead, a villain dressed like a snake who escapes by slithering up the side of a building, using suction cups on his fingertips. Batman gives chase but Copperhead escapes, which really bums out the Dark Knight.

No worries, though, since two days later Wonder Woman and Batgirl begin leaving smoke messages in the sky expressing their love for Batman! The gals fight over who is more devoted to Batman and Copperhead watches the TV news and wonders if it's all a trick. Batgirl and Wonder Woman try so hard to win Batman's love with gifts and displays of affection that he doesn't notice when a hoodlum tries to commit a robbery.

Thinking that Batman is too distracted by the hotties, Copperhead attempts to steal the priceless Casque of Montezuma, only to have Batman reveal that the whole lovefest was a ruse. Copperhead gets away again and this time the gals seem to have really fallen for Bat Guy. He's so bothered by smooches that Copperhead makes off with the Casque. Batman gives chase, only to learn that WW and BG have hidden messages revealing their secret identities for him to find. Copperhead learns of this by means of a listening device and is about to discover that WW is Diana Prince and BG is Babs Gordon when Wonder Woman intervenes.

She follows the reptilian rascal to his cave, where he knocks her out with gas. Batgirl follows and takes a kick to the head. Finally, Batman locates Copperhead's hideout and beats the living daylights out of the baddie, but not before one of Copperhead's fangs manages to inject deadly poison into the Bat bod. Fortunately, Batgirl brought along some anti-venom serum and saves the day. Copperhead is captured, the Casque is recovered, and Batman tells Wonder Woman and Batgirl, "Don't call me, I'll call you!"

First of all, Bob Brown's cover is a knockout and it looks like he and Mike Esposito put a bit more care into it than they did on the interior art, which is a bit scratchy in spots. The whole idea of Batgirl and Wonder Woman fighting over Batman is silly, and Copperhead is a wacky villain. None of this bothered me at age five, however, and I vividly recall reading this comic on the sidewalk in front of my grandmother's house in Texas. It's the first comic I remember reading.-Jack

Peter-I'd love to see the uncut version of Bob Haney's "Copperhead" script, wherein we get to view Bats as he convinces Wonder Woman and Batgirl that a large-scale public display of affection is the only thing that might work ("the toughest, most baffling foe I ever faced!"--Bruce Wayne mutters while having a lapse of reason). "No, seriously, you two laying smooches on me and generally doing things that might be construed as a public hazard will be the only way to lure this devious, treacherous rogue out of hiding!" Almost as hilarious is Gordo claiming that Batman is letting down the citizens of Gotham by not slapping the cuffs on the dopily-dressed, Grade-D villain: "If you don't catch him by the time I'm on the 18th hole, we're done!"

Say this: Bob Haney's script is no more coherent nor logical than Frank Robbins's stack of papers that became "Batman! Drop Dead... Twice!" in 'tec #378, but it's a whole lot more fun and Bob doesn't pepper his dialogue with "groovy"s or "far out"s. That's gotta be worth something, no? Fun extra: just in case none of the target eight-year-old readers know what a copperhead is, the editors provide a full-page guide to the world of serpents. Perhaps the powers that be should have noticed and provided a glossary of hippie terms over in 'tec.

Novick

Batman #204

"Operation: Blindfold!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Irv Novick & Joe Giella

It's midnight in Gotham City and a blind man is chased down by a car and shot to death in an alley. With his dying breath, he scratches a message with his cane on a wall" "Commissioner Gordon...they found out I'm Batman!" The killers report to their boss, who is named Schemer, that Batman is dead. They then call the police, and soon Commissioner Gordon is at the scene.

The next step in Schemer's plan is to station blind men along the possible route of a truck carrying gold bullion. In the alley, Gordon and the cops try to figure out if the dead man is really Batman. At the waterfront, the real Batman happens to be in disguise as a blind man in order to uncover a ring of smugglers. Just as he seems to be surrounded, Robin arrives and the Dynamic Duo wrap up the bad guys before placing a call to police headquarters and hearing that Batman has been reported dead.

Batman and Robin race to meet Commissioner Gordon, but he arrests the Caped Crusader, convinced that he's a fake. Robin escapes! Riding in the back of a police car with Gordon, Batman discovers that the dead blind man in the alley had a radio receiver and a radio transmitter, and he uses them to listen in to a conversation between the schemer and his goons concerning "Operation: Blindfold!" The crooks see the truck carrying gold pass by and try to stop it, but Robin gets involved to try to prevent the hijacking. The police car carrying Batman nearly crashes into the truck carrying gold; Batman is ejected and seems to be at the mercy of one of Schemer's blind crooks. As Robin rides on the back of the truck carrying the gold and Schemer plans to rob it when it reaches the bank, Batman faces death!

This is the first issue of Batman or Detective to feature credits for someone other than Bob Kane! Think of that! For a while now, the editor in the letters column has admitted at times that other writers were involved, and any reader with a pair of eyes could see when Carmine Infantino was doing the pencils, but up till now the facade that Bob Kane was the creative mind behind these stories has been continuing unabated since 1939. Almost 30 years! This issue is credited to writer Frank Robbins, penciller Irv Novick, and inker Joe Giella, and it's about time. The story is a bit scattered, but it's also exciting and the art is Novick at the top of his game. The narrative doesn't feel padded, even at 23 pages, unlike so many stories that feature page after page of fighting. And it's continued, to boot! I think this may be the real transition to the Batman of the 1970s that we've been waiting for.-Jack

Peter-Hard to believe this turkey was advertised as "a daringly different Batman" when it's the same ol', same ol', desperate attention-grabber. Batman dies. Robin dies. Batman quits crime-fighting. Robin quits crime-fighting. Whoever believes this rot? How did DC get away with ripping off Marvel's the Owl (->) for their reboot of the Schemer in this issue? I mean, the guy's even got an owl! Is this parody, homage, or lack of imagination?

Novick

Detective Comics #378

"Batman! Drop Dead... Twice!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella

Well, he's gone and done it again! Robin has thrown a hissy and quit the team, obviously upset that a reporter didn't write about all the nifty moves he put on the Riddler the month before. While watching an interview with Yoko Ono, the Boy Wonder decides that the Duo should be billed as Robin and Batman from here on out and, when Bruce challenges the idea, Dick is out the door, baby.

Meanwhile, running parallel is the story of Chino, the ward of a local mobster, who similarly wants more credit for the amount of mayhem done in Gotham. When his boss, Salvo, tries to put the kid in line, Chino cold cocks him and trucks out the door.

Dick and Chino meet at a local dumpy hotel, where they pool their resources, rent a room, and become quick palsies, baby! That is, until Chino's piece falls out of his suitcase and Dick becomes alarmed. A bit of a tussle occurs and Chino grabs the gun, pointing it right at Dick. Grayson wisely plays it ice cool and Chino reveals what's on his mind: he's going to dress Dick up like Robin, dangle him as bait until Batman shows up, and then off the Dark Knight to impress Salvo. Ironic, no? Cuz Dick is really Robin! And vice versa!

Meanwhile, on the other side of this groovy yet convoluted yapper, Salvo dresses up one of his goons as Robin to... well, essentially do the same thing as Chino. Holy coincidence, Batman! It's about this time that Bruce Wayne decides he's done a bad deed watching Dick walk out the door. After all, whiny teens should be coddled and given everything they want, right? The groovy thing to do is to go out and apologize to the kid and beg him to come home, so that's just what the big feller proposes be done (and Alfred doesn't help one bit, putting all the blame on the boss's shoulders).

Chino grabs the suited-up Dick and hangs him high above the concrete streets, knowing that Bats will get the word somehow. At the same time, Salvo has staked out his Faux-Robin on a rooftop and we see Bats swing in for the rescue. Alas, the World's Greatest Detective doesn't notice the sniper atop a nearby roof and gets one right in the back. But hang on, all you flower children: next panel, we see Batman ride up in his funky Bat-ride at the docks where his ex-partner is hanging. As he exits the vehicle, Chino takes aim and... TO BE CONTINUED

How many times in a two-year span will we see Robin lie on the floor and throw a tantrum? I searched my thesaurus for a stronger word for convoluted and all I could come up with is "stupid." That about sums up this dopey script by Far-Out Frank Robbins, a guy Jack and I "loved to death" (sarcasm) during our investigation of 1970s Dark Knight literature and who was, at this time, fifty-two years old and, therefore, not the best guy to be writing dialogue best reserved for a Buffalo Springfield single. I've no doubt worn out my welcome whining about Gardner Fox's complex and/or inane plots and dialogue but, truly, Robbins takes the cake with this abomination ("Throbbin' palpitation, Alfred!"). It's no wonder the new kid on the block, "Nefarious" Neal Adams, took a look at this crap, remembered what an iconic character this was once upon a time, and said, "Hold my beer!" Alas, that won't come our way for a bit. Till then, we're stuck with this pap. We've still got about sixteen months left in the '60s (God help us), but "Drop Dead... Twice!" is a shoo-in for Worst Story of the Decade.-Peter

Jack-Hang on, daddy-o--I dug this story the most! I got a kick out of the hood dressing up as Robin and I thought the art and storytelling were much more entertaining than what we've been getting from Fox and Moldoff. I don't like Brown's pencils as much as I do Novick's, but they're still a great leap forward from what they replaced. I like the continued stories, which is probably a sign of Marvel's influence, and I enjoy the groovy lingo.

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