tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post3730115614169806969..comments2024-03-27T05:54:38.797-07:00Comments on <i>bare</i>•bones e-zine: The Hitchcock Project-Robert C. Dennis Part Twenty-Six: "Invitation to an Accident" [4.36], Robert C. Dennis Overview and Robert C. Dennis Episode GuideJohn Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082147756474762000noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-25225952736367020402023-11-18T12:24:19.086-08:002023-11-18T12:24:19.086-08:00Thanks, Rich!Thanks, Rich!Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-79481999625815077742023-11-18T04:13:31.318-08:002023-11-18T04:13:31.318-08:00Another clue to Albert's sexuality appears to ...Another clue to Albert's sexuality appears to be his preference for sherry, as opposed to the "Manhattan or whiskey" that Joseph offers. Joseph seems dumbfounded at the idea of a man drinking sherry, and Virgilia has to elbow him in the ribs to honor the request.Rich Atomichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12750540515663481100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-8277173737831551442017-09-08T08:17:29.967-07:002017-09-08T08:17:29.967-07:00I agree with you about Don Taylor. I've been i...I agree with you about Don Taylor. I've been impressed by the shows he directed. I think Joanna Moore is underrated but she did not have a lot to do in this one.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-60031896369187050212017-09-07T23:19:24.598-07:002017-09-07T23:19:24.598-07:00I just watched Invitation To An Accident again, Ja...I just watched Invitation To An Accident again, Jack, and it held it very well. The acting was first rate, especially the men. Joanna Moore seemed to be coming from another place, was too light for the episode IMO but maybe that helped it. Gary Merrill and Alan Hewitt nailed their parts, and the dialogue was pleasantly sophisticated, and well ahead of its time, in its handling of the subtext. I have to give it up to actor Don Taylor's work as a director on the series. The episodes he directed that I've seen were all above average, and some better than that.john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-54628013395680385922016-07-30T10:26:14.758-07:002016-07-30T10:26:14.758-07:00Yes, one could call it either way, Jack. A lot of ...Yes, one could call it either way, Jack. A lot of it is what kind of country club they belong to: old money kind or nouveau riche? Also, the author of the story's intent. If it had been, say, John P. Marquand, Hewitt would represent the status quo; but if was John Updike, or better still, John Cheever, Merrill would represent the newly minted status quo, Hewitt the fading Old Guard. Either way, that's probably more analysis than the story, as presented on television, warranta. Go back a couple of generations, to Henry James or Edith Wharton, and the characters would be fleshed out more, the author's perspective, easier to see.john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-60920658826841944152016-07-30T06:34:45.684-07:002016-07-30T06:34:45.684-07:00I think you're right, but I also think that th...I think you're right, but I also think that the story and teleplay are written to present the dandy as the old fashioned/cultured man and the rough-hewn character as the modern, less refined man. Interesting.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-58272887359063730002016-07-29T20:36:20.296-07:002016-07-29T20:36:20.296-07:00Thanks for the response, Jack. I've always lik...Thanks for the response, Jack. I've always liked Gary Merrill, not sure I understand your "of their time" remark about Merrill and wife Bette Davis. Merrill strikes me as an American Everyman leading man type, more inner directed than most, he seems best when cast as a man whose intelligence cannot by itself save him despite his clarity of thought, even wit, due to some character flaw that isn't always evident on screen, thus he intrigues me. His performance in Invitation To An Accident, while fine, is unusual for him in his playing a clueless character, a man with one idea, and it's a wrong one. Usually he's more ahead of the curve than behind it. <br /><br />He never made it to the big leagues as a star due to probably his age, his too rugged looks (for the kind of actor he was) and the ferocious competition in the postwar years. At his best I see him as a kind of brainier, more reflective Glenn Ford, but Ford got there first, got the big breaks, was better looking than Merrill, and he didn't seem to carry so much (as we like to say) "baggage". As to Bette Davis, I find her riveting and very gifted. Yes, of her time, but all actors are. So were all the great stars of her generation. People born in the late Victorian to Edwardian and even world war era and just after came of age in a very different world from the one you and I were raised in. Even as they "became modern" they did it via adjustment, not internally. Nowadays, it seems, people are born hip. There's no need to go out and acquire it, as was the case in the past.<br /><br />This topic, while I'm still on it, is actually quite relevant to the Hitchcock half-hour we've been discussing. If one, in a symbolic sense, views the homosexual as a modern man, reasonably at ease with himself, trying to do the right thing, and Merrill's more self-made, rough hewed sort as an evolutionary throwback (to, say, the robber barons and their kind), there's subtext of another kind in spades to explore in Invitation To An Accident.john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-59373728853299020152016-07-29T11:56:35.697-07:002016-07-29T11:56:35.697-07:00That's an intriguing idea. I'm glad you sa...That's an intriguing idea. I'm glad you saw the same subtext in this episode. I wondered if I was digging too deep and putting a 2016 overlay on it. I like the "Odd Couple from Hell" idea! Gary Merrill is one of those movie stars who I never could quite figure out, kind of like his wife, Bette Davis. Their appeal is not timeless--it is of another time.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-76344013281787399952016-07-29T10:58:03.247-07:002016-07-29T10:58:03.247-07:00A very good, more dramatically intense than usual ...A very good, more dramatically intense than usual Hitchcock episode, I've only seen this once, remember the ending, which I found more moving than most due to its coming from within the the major characters, their personalities, as much as the plot. Gary Merrill and Alan Hewitt were perfectly cast and gave excellent performances as a kind of Odd Couple from hell. <br /><br />In this case, however, there was subtext abounding, and it was obvious in an early scene, as I recall, just to make sure the viewer understood where Hewitt's character was coming from. For all that, he was the good guy; and the good guy lost. That final campfire scene is memorable, with the startled look on Merrill's face highly effective. <br /><br />There were also some class issues in the story, also nicely handled, and without resorting to stereotypes. Indeed, the story would have worked just as well, arguably, without the gay subtext, yet it was the straight man's inability to recognize, much less understand a gay one, that gave it the sting in the tail.<br /><br />I can't help but wonder,--if you'll excuse the ramble--whether the inability of people to recognize one another for who (and what) they really are is a central theme in the Hitchcock series, both of them. In the half-hours it's often this theme that constitutes the Big Twist at the end. The Dangerous People is another instance of this; and so is, raised to the level of massive heartbreak and madness, The Glass Eye.john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.com