The Hitchcock Project-Bernard C. Schoenfeld Part Eleven: Hitch Hike [5.21] and Wrapup

Journeys and generational conflicts have always been fertile subjects for stories, from Homer's Odyssey to the Biblical tale of David and Saul. In his last teleplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bernard C. Schoenfeld used both themes to weave an entertaining half hour in "Hitch Hike," based on a short story by Ed Lacy called "Pick-Up," which had been published in the January 1959 issue of Mystery Digest.

Ed Lacy was a pseudonym of Leonard Zinberg (1911-1968), a writer born and raised in New York City who began publishing short stories in the 1930s. He was interested in left-wing causes, boxing, and race relations, and he wrote under his own name, the Lacy name, and the pseudonyms Steve April and Russell Turner. He began writing novels in earnest after serving in Italy in WWII and published the majority of his works as Ed Lacy, writing 28 novels and well over 100 short stories in all. Room to Swing (1957) won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1958 and was one of the earliest books to feature a black private detective.

"Pick-Up" is narrated by an unnamed man who, with another 100 miles to go on his drive to Detroit, picks up a young hitchhiker, who admits that he just spent 18 months in the state penitentiary for pick-pocketing. The driver, a salesman, worries about the young man but won't admit that he is frightened, and decides to take a longer route through small towns because he thinks it will be safer than taking the lonely thruway. After stopping for lunch at a diner, the car is pulled over for speeding. The narrator gets out to argue with the policeman and is joined by the young hitchhiker. Realizing he has been caught in a speed trap, the narrator is given a ticket and drives off. He complains to the young man and hands him the ticket, which the young man tears up. The hitchhiker shows the driver the policeman's ticket book and admits that he picked the cop's pocket. The young man says that he plans to go straight but decided to do the driver a favor and suggests that they burn the ticket book in an open field.

"Pick-Up" was first published here

"Pick-Up" is a very short story, only three and a half pages long, little more than a vignette with an unexpected ending. To turn this into a half-hour television show, Bernard C. Schoenfeld expanded the tale a great deal, adding a third passenger to the car and introducing new themes that make for a memorable show. The title was changed to "Hitch Hike" and the episode aired on CBS on Sunday, February 21, 1960, directed by Paul Henreid and starring John McIntire as Charles Underhill, the driver, Robert Morse as Len, the hitchhiker, and Suzanne Pleshette as Underhill's niece, Anne, the new passenger in the car.

The show begins with Underhill and Anne descending the steps outside Juvenile Hall; they get into his car and he drives off, breaking the uncomfortable silence between them by trying to engage her in conversation and providing background on the situation for the viewer. Anne was arrested for riding around town with a car thief and the judge let her off with a reprimand to protect the reputation of Underhill, a respected councilman from nearby Allendale, a town 50 miles from San Francisco. Despite having attended Deep Valley School, "the finest finishing school in the West," Anne fell prey to temptation and her uncle tells her that she can spend the next year working in his office as punishment.

The first scene of "Hitch Hike" establishes the story's location and introduces two of the three main characters. Charles Underhill represents the older generation; he is a middle-aged, successful businessman whose livelihood depends on maintaining the status quo. His niece, Anne, represents the younger generation, on the cusp of major changes about to erupt in the new decade and questioning the value of traditional gender roles. She has upset her uncle by turning her back on her training at finishing school and enjoying a ride with a young man on the wrong side of the law: Charles sees himself as her guide and protector and, although he is not her father, he takes it upon himself to try to ensure that she does not continue to stray from the safe path.

John McIntire as Charles Underhill

Charles parks the car and walks across the street to a tobacco shop to buy cigarettes, leaving Anne alone in the car and subject to new temptation, which comes along in the form of a handsome, young hitchhiker a short way up the block from where the car is parked. He and Anne exchange glances just before Uncle Charles returns to the car. Fate intervenes as another car backs into the front of Underhill's car, causing him to sound his horn, which gets stuck in the on position. Charles opens the hood to look for the source of the noise and suddenly the hitchhiker appears next to him and pulls a wire under the hood, silencing the horn and solving the problem. This small gesture foreshadows the story's conclusion, where the hitchhiker will once again come unexpectedly to Charles's aid.

The young man is headed to San Francisco and speaks in a beatnik lingo that marks him as belonging to a different generation than Underhill; he tells the older man, "Either you dig a motor--or you don't." He talks his way into a free ride as far as Allendale. Once they are on the road, with Charles driving, Anne in the passenger seat, and the young man occupying the back seat, Charles again tries to make conversation and asks the hitchhiker his name, eliciting the reply: "If it's names you want, make mine ... Len." It seems that the young man makes this name up on the spot and it is possible that Schoenfeld was giving a sly nod to Leonard "Len" Zinberg, the author of the short story upon which the teleplay is based. Len is reticent about providing personal details and suddenly Underhill has to stop because a truck is blocking the roadway. In the back of the truck are a group of young men who yell with delight when they see pretty Anne in the front seat of the car; she appears to enjoy the attention and, after the truck moves on and the car resumes its trip, Len explains that the men in the truck were convicts from a nearby youth correctional facility.

Robert Morse as Len

Charles questions the source of Len's knowledge and Len reveals that he had been a resident at the prison until that morning. Underhill immediately stops the car and orders Len out, but then changes his mind and decides to keep his word and give the young man a ride to Allendale. Len then lectures Anne about Insiders and Outsiders, putting himself in the second category and Charles in the first. Len begins to make Charles nervous when he discusses his friend who loves knives and knows how to fix cars; it is clear that Charles suspects that Len is talking about himself. They stop at Henry's Diner to eat and, inside the diner, Len continues to discuss his friend, remarking that: "He was a flipper, from way, way out." Len plays a song on the jukebox and dances with Anne, while Charles goes outside to a phone booth to call the police. Len suddenly appears next to him, interrupting Charles and hanging up the phone.

Back in the car, night has fallen and the conversation between the two young people turns to literature, as Len recommends Dostoevsky and alludes to Crime and Punishment, where a poor student murders an older businesswoman. In the first sign of growth and change among the characters, Anne has become emboldened by her time with Len and talks back to her uncle, telling him that she will return to school despite his threats to keep her from doing so. Len remarks that he would like to build a race car and suggests that if his friend were there he would cut Charles's throat. This is all too much for poor Underhill and, perhaps inspired by Len's mention of a race car, he begins to drive faster and faster, hitting 80 mph in a 45 mph zone and attracting the notice of a motorcycle cop, who follows him and pulls him over for speeding.

Suzanne Pleshette as Anne

Charles, relieved at no longer being trapped in the car with Len, tells the policeman that the hitchhiker threatened him. The cop pays little attention to Charles's story at first, putting the councilman in the unfamiliar position of being an Outsider to the policeman's Insider. However, Charles convinces the policeman to speak to Len and the cop searches the young man, finding only a pocket comb instead of the knife that Underhill feared.

After the cop leaves, Len pulls out the ticket book and admits for the first time that he spent three months in prison for "picking a guy's pocket when I was out of a job." In a clever turn of events, Len asks Charles if he wants to return the ticket book to the police station across the street and risk going to jail for speeding. Charles thinks for a moment and then the trio get back in the car. As they drive off, Len rips up the ticket and lets the pieces fly out the car window, where they scatter in the breeze.

A good story often shows how a character or characters change and grow in response to catalysts. In "Hitch Hike," each of the three main characters learns something from their time together and exhibits growth. Anne begins the show quiet and ashamed, afraid to respond to her uncle's criticisms of her choices and seemingly resigned to her fate. After spending time with Len, however, her confidence increases and she speaks up on her own behalf, telling Charles that she will return to finishing school despite his wishes to the contrary. Len's change is very subtle: he goes from being an Outsider to an Insider, as evidenced by his move from the back seat, where he sits during the first part of the show, to the front seat, where he occupies the place next to Anne in the show's latter scenes.

Paul E. Burns as the diner owner

The biggest change of all occurs in the show's protagonist, Charles Underhill. At the beginning, he is a proud member of the community, lecturing his niece and mentioning a safety award he has earned twice before. At the end, he is presented with a choice: either follow his own strict code of conduct and, by doing so, destroy his standing in the community, or bend the rules and become a willing participant in a crime, thus preserving his reputation at the cost of knowing that it is a facade. By choosing the second option, Charles admits that he is open to accepting the sort of behavior he had earlier criticized; he also opens his heart to his niece and to Len, allowing for the possibility that a bridge can be erected to allow for some level of understanding between the generations.

Schoenfeld's script for "Hitch Hike" is a marvel and it is a wonderful demonstration of his ability to take the bare bones of a short story and expand them into a tale that contains both entertainment and sly social commentary, without being overly preachy. Once again, Paul Henreid (1908-1992) uses the camera to tell the story effectively--the half hour speeds along like Underhill's car, the shots  perfectly chosen to provide the viewer with all the information he or she needs to keep up without being needlessly showy.

John McIntire (1907-1991) is superb as Charles Underhill, giving another in a career of great performances. He began as a busy actor on radio in the 1930s and his film career started in 1947. He first appeared on TV in 1956 and was a regular face on screen until 1989, two years before his death. He was in Winchester '73 (1950) with Jimmy Stewart and plays the sheriff in Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). On television, he starred in the first season of Naked City until he got tired of working in New York City and quit. He later starred in Wagon Train from 1961 to 1965 and in The Virginian from 1967 to 1970. He was married for over 50 years to Jeanette Nolan, a great actress who was on Alfred Hitchcock Presents several times and who was one of the unseen actresses giving voice to Mrs. Bates in Psycho.

Read Morgan as the motorcycle cop

Robert Morse (1931- ) gives a memorable performance as Len, not long before he made a big splash (and won a Tony) on Broadway in 1961 as the star of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Morse had been on Broadway since 1944 and had begun appearing on big and small screens in the mid-1950s; he was also in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "Touche." Morse later appeared on Night Gallery and was a regular on TV's Mad Men as Bert Cooper from 2007-2015. He is still working today at age 87.

Only 22 years old at the time "Hitch Hike" was filmed, Suzanne Pleshette is convincing as the attractive young woman, Anne. Her acting career had just started, with roles on Broadway and TV beginning in 1957 and her first film role in 1958; this was her only appearance on the Hitchcock show. She would go on to have an important part in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), but her most famous role came as one of the stars of The Bob Newhart Show from 1972 to 1978. She continued working until 2004 and died in 2008.

In smaller roles:

• Read Morgan (1931- ) as the motorcycle cop; he was seen often in small parts, mostly on TV, from 1949 to 1994 and appeared on the Hitchcock show three times. He also showed up on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
• Paul E. Burns (1881-1967) as the owner of Henry's Diner; he made a career out of bit parts that were often uncredited and was on screen from 1930 to his death. He was seen on The Twilight Zone and in two other episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including a small part in "The Blessington Method" as the fisherman whom Dick York's character sends off the pier to his death.

"Pick-Up" has never been reprinted but is reproduced below. "Hitch Hike" is available on DVD here or may be viewed for free online here. Read the GenreSnaps take on this episode here. Thanks to Peter Enfantino for helping me search for the story that was the basis for this episode, and thanks to Jennifer Nyiri at Bowling Green State University for sending me a scan of the story!

Sources:

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

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

“Hitch Hike.” Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 5, episode 21, CBS, 21 Feb. 1960.

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

Lacy, Ed. “Pick-Up.” Mystery Digest, Jan. 1959, pp. 17–22.

Lynskey, Ed. Ed Lacy: New York City Crime Author. www.mysteryfile.com/Lacy/Profile.html.

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

Bernard C. Schoenfeld on Alfred Hitchcock Presents: An Overview and Episode Guide

Bernard C. Schoenfeld wrote 14 teleplays from Alfred Hitchcock Presents on his own and is co-credited on two others; it is not known if he worked with the other writers on those two shows or if he (or they) rewrote each other's work. His first two teleplays, "Decoy" and "Alibi Me," were adapted from radio plays, while the rest were adapted from published short stories. Schoenfeld did not write any original teleplays and none of his scripts were adapted from his own stories.

His first show came at the tail end of the first season. He wrote five episodes in season two, three in season three, five in season four, and two in season five. One of his strengths was in story structure, as evidenced by the scripts for "The Better Bargain," "The Jokester," "And the Desert Shall Blossom," and "Hitch Hike." Like Robert C. Dennis, an even more prolific contributor of scripts during the series's early years, Schoenfeld seems to have been replaced by Henry Slesar, whose contributions during the latter years of the half-hour show were extensive.


EPISODE GUIDE-BERNARD C. SCHOENFELD ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS

Episode title-"Decoy" [1.37]
Broadcast date-10 June 1956
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"A Murder of Necessity" by Richard George Pedicini
First print appearance-none; aired 4 March 1952 on radio show Suspense
Notes
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Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Alibi Me" [2.7]
Broadcast date-11 Nov. 1956
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"Alibi Me" by Therd Jefre
First print appearance-none; aired 4 January 1951 on radio show Suspense; radio play by Walter Newman
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Jonathan" [2.10]
Broadcast date-2 December 1956
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld and Stirling Silliphant
Based on-"Turmoil" by Fred Levon
First print appearance-Maclean's, October 15, 1948
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

"Alibi Me"

Episode title-"The Better Bargain" [2.11]
Broadcast date-9 December 1956
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"The Better Bargain" by Richard Deming
First print appearance-Manhunt, April 1956
Notes
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Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Vicious Circle" [2.29]
Broadcast date-14 April 1957
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"Murder Comes Easy" by Evan Hunter
First print appearance-Real, March 1953
Notes
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Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"The Night the World Ended" [2.31]
Broadcast date-28 April 1957
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"The Night the World Ended" by Fredric Brown
First print appearance-Dime Mystery, January 1945
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

"Vicious Circle"

Episode title-"Night of the Execution" [3.13]
Broadcast date-29 December 1957
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"The Day of the Execution" by Henry Slesar
First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, June 1957
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"The Percentage" [3.14]
Broadcast date-5 January 1958
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"The Percentage" by David Alexander
First print appearance-Manhunt, April 1957
Notes
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Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Listen, Listen .....!" [3.32]
Broadcast date-11 May 1958
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"Listen, Listen!" by R.E. Kendall
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, June 1947
Notes
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Available on DVD?-here

"Listen, Listen .....!"

Episode title-"The Jokester" [4.3]
Broadcast date-19 October 1958
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"The Jokester" by Robert Arthur
First print appearance-The Mysterious Traveler, March 1952
Notes
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Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"And the Desert Shall Blossom" [4.11]
Broadcast date-21 December 1958
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"And the Desert Shall Blossom" by Loren D. Good
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March 1958
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Out There--Darkness" [4.16]
Broadcast date-25 January 1959
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"Over There--Darkness" by William O'Farrell
First print appearance-Sleuth Mystery Magazine, October 1958
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

"And the Desert Shall Blossom"

Episode title-"The Right Price" [4.22]
Broadcast date-8 March 1959
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"Make Me an Offer" by Henry Slesar
First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, December 1958
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"A Night With The Boys" [4.30]
Broadcast date-10 May 1959
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"A Fist Full of Money" by Henry Slesar
First print appearance-Playboy, February 1959
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

"Specialty of the House"

Episode title-"Specialty of the House" [5.12]
Broadcast date-13 December 1959
Teleplay by-Victor Wolfson and Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"The Specialty of the House" by Stanley Ellin
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1948
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

Episode title-"Hitch Hike" [5.21]
Broadcast date-21 February 1960
Teleplay by-Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Based on-"Pick-Up" by Ed Lacy
First print appearance-Mystery Digest, January 1959
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

In two weeks: Our series on James P. Cavanagh begins with "The Hidden Thing," starring Biff McGuire and Robert H. Harris!

Special note: A podcast called "Presenting Alfred Hitchcock Presents" has begun appearing. One episode per month is examined in detail, and five episodes have appeared thus far. Here is a link to the podcast's website. I recommend giving this series a listen!

The Hitchcock Project-Bernard C. Schoenfeld Part Ten: Out There--Darkness [4.16]

by Jack Seabrook

"Over There--Darkness" was first published in the October 1958 issue of a digest called Sleuth Mystery Magazine. This was the first of only two issues of this periodical, which was published in cooperation with the Mystery Writers of America.

The story's author, William O'Farrell (1904-1962), wrote short stories and novels from 1941 to 1962. His stories appeared in the slicks from 1941 to 1947 and in the digests from 1955 to 1962. At the same time, he was busy writing novels, 15 of which were published between 1942 and 1962, two of them under the pseudonym of William Grew. Two movies were adapted from his novels and, once TV became a viable market in the 1950s, he had two stories and three novels adapted for television from his works. He wrote three teleplays himself, including "The Kind Waitress" for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In addition, the first episode of Thriller was based on one of his novels.

"Over There--Darkness" won the Edgar Award for Best Short Story in 1959 and was collected in Best Detective Stories of the Year and again in Best of the Best Detective Stories. Bernard C. Schoenfeld adapted it for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and today it is probably O'Farrell's best-known work.

"Over There--Darkness"
was first published here

The story concerns a wealthy, middle-aged woman named Miss Fox, who lives alone in a Manhattan apartment with her dog, Vanessa. "Her favorite elevator boy," handsome Eddie McMahon, walks her dog six nights a week. She has been alone since her fiancee, a military man, died in 1943, and she treasures the diamond engagement ring her gave her. One April day, Eddie appears unexpectedly at her apartment on his day off, out of uniform and out of breath after having climbed fourteen flights of stairs. He asks her to loan him $50, explaining that his girl is in a sanitarium and that he pays half of her medical bills. Miss Fox turns him away.

That night, she takes Vanessa for a walk, following the dog past the lighted area in front of her building and into the "sinister" darkness in front of a row of neighboring brownstones. She is attacked from behind and left unconscious on the sidewalk, her ring and money stolen. Police sergeant Kirby questions Miss Fox, who convinces herself that Eddie must be the thief. Summoned later that night to the police station, she denies that another young man was her assailant. The next day, she calls Eddie to her apartment and suggests that she will pay $500 for the return of her ring. Eddie does not realize that she suspects him, and later that day she tells Sergeant Kirby that Eddie was the thief. Eddie is tried, convicted, and sent to prison.

Late that fall, Sergeant Kirby tells Miss Fox that her ring was found in the room of the man whom she refused to identify at the police station. Eddie is released from prison and resumes his job. Miss Fox asks him to walk her dog, but he refuses. He no longer needs extra money; his fiance died. Miss Fox attempts to pay off her feelings of guilt by giving Eddie an envelope containing $500. That night, she heads outside to walk Vanessa. Again, a man attacks her from behind, this time killing her. When the doorman finds her corpse, she has five one-hundred dollar bills in her hand.

Bette Davis as Miss Fox

"Over There--Darkness" takes place in a specific location: West 23rd Street, in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. There are hints that Miss Fox is attracted to Eddie, but the social gulf between them is always clear and one may infer that the reason he is forced to walk up 14 flights of stairs to reach her apartment on his day off is because elevator boys are not welcome to use the elevator when they are not on duty. Eddie is an honest young man who asks Miss Fox for a loan because he thinks she is "kind." He is paying half of his girl's medical bills and works hard, so there is no reason to suspect that he is a criminal, yet Miss Fox jumps to this conclusion probably because she views him as her inferior. There is an imbalance of power between them: she is middle-aged, wealthy, and lonely, while he is young, poor, and in love. Proud and haughty, she refuses to loan him money that she surely has; she assumes that he is lying and trying to "take her in."

Miss Fox seems unreasonably fearful about walking into the darkness that lies just beyond her own building, yet her fears are justified when she is attacked and robbed. Once again, her wealth and privilege are on display when she thinks of Sergeant Kirby as "plodding." She thinks that she has solved the crime on her own by jumping to conclusions based on little evidence, and her ego will not allow her to admit that the vulgar man in custody at the police station might be her assailant, since she has already solved the crime to her own satisfaction.

James Congdon as Eddie

When Eddie is released from prison and back at work, Miss Fox's efforts to re-establish a relationship with him are all based on money. The story's conclusion suggests that he is disgusted by her gesture, since it appears that he is the one who kills her and returns her money. While satisfying in that Miss Fox seems to get what she deserves, it seems out of character for Eddie to kill her. Perhaps his year in prison has changed him, since he barely speaks to her and is described as follows: "He had changed. His smile was fixed and meaningless, and there was a glassy quality in his eyes."

This well-written and well-received short story was quickly purchased by the producers of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and adapted for television by Bernard C. Schoenfeld. The episode aired on CBS on Sunday, January 25, 1959, only a few months after the story's first publication. As is often the case, narrative and description in the story are converted to dialogue in the TV show, which opens with Miss Fox (played perfectly by Bette Davis) talking to her dog in her apartment. "Never mention age," she tells Vanessa, and she then speaks to a framed photo of her dead fiancee and also to herself. The Miss Fox of the show is not as isolated as the character in the story; this woman is going out to play bridge with friends when Eddie arrives to fulfill his dog-walking duties. She flirts with the handsome young man but the attempt at romance is clearly one-sided. She tells him to have the superintendent of the building let him in if the dog ever needs walking and she is not home; this shows that she trusts him and that he has an approved way to get into her apartment, which may be important in considering the show's conclusion, which has been changed from that of the short story.

Frank Albertson as Sergeant Kirby

Later, there is a medium close-up of Miss Fox's legs as she puts on leopard-print, high-heeled shoes. Her fashionable attire is in sharp contrast to that of the off-duty Eddie, who arrives, unshaven and in street clothes, to ask for $50. As the scene is played by Bette Davis, the viewer can infer that she will not give Eddie the money he requests because she is jealous of his girlfriend, who is only twenty years old: Miss Fox will not help out a perceived rival. As she explains her refusal to Eddie, she fingers her expensive necklace and gazes at her expensive engagement ring.

As in the story, she walks her dog at night and is attacked. Sergeant Kirby interviews her in her apartment, and events from the story are compressed when he gets a telephone call about the suspect in custody and she accompanies him back to the police station.  At the station, she denies that the man is her assailant and we see that he resembles Eddie. Eddie comes when called to her apartment and she offers to pay him to get her ring back; in a well-played exchange, she says one thing but means another and we are unable to tell if he is doing the same. Sergeant Kirby arrives and Miss Fox accuses Eddie, seeming like a spurned lover.

Almost a year later, Sergeant Kirby is clearly angry at Miss Fox when he arrives to tell her that the real thief has been caught. Miss Fox is defensive and even tries to put blame on the sergeant for arresting the wrong man. When she encounters Eddie later in the elevator and gives him the envelope containing $500, he tells her that his fiance "died while I was in prison" and the elevator doors close, shutting out Miss Fox and reinforcing the barrier between her and Eddie.

Arthur Marshall as Jerry

The final dog walk arrives and Miss Fox follows Vanessa down the same alley where she had been attacked. There is a scare as a cat jumps out and a garbage can lid falls loudly to the ground. Miss Fox is relieved, and readers of the short story expect her to be attacked, but instead she goes back into her building and up to her apartment. Inside, she is attacked and strangled by a man who at first is not seen. She falls to the floor, dead, and we see the $500 taken from the envelope and dropped on her corpse. Finally, the camera reveals that Eddie is the killer, and the episode ends on a shot of the dead Miss Fox (who appears to be played by a stand-in).

Why did Schoenfeld move the ending of the story inside her apartment? Perhaps it was done to allow for a period of quiet relief after the scare from the alley cat. Still, this ending makes even less sense than the one in the story on which it is based. Why would Eddie enter her apartment, wait for her, and kill her there? It is not only inconsistent with his personality (unless he changed a great deal while in prison), but it is also a sure way to get caught. He will have to leave her apartment and find a way down 14 flights of stairs and out of the building without being seen. I can think of no valid reason for ending the story in this way.

The show centers around Bette Davis, who gives an outstanding performance. Her Miss Fox is more vibrant and outgoing than the character in the short story, who is portrayed as afraid to leave the area in  front of her apartment building. She also is more overtly sexual in her interest in and flirtation with Eddie, as she vainly tries to deny her advancing age.

Miss Fox and Vanessa in the alley
shortly before she is murdered

The lead actors in "Out There--Darkness" create believable characters. Schoenfeld's teleplay is, with the possible exception of the ending, well-constructed, with a strong structure and engaging dialogue. The direction is solid and the pacing rapid; the lighting and shot selection are also quite good, with the shadowy scenes in the alley outside contrasting with the bright scenes in Miss Fox's apartment. Overall, this is a memorable episode.

Bette Davis (1908-1989) was one of the best and most successful actress of the classic Hollywood period. She started out on Broadway and began appearing in films in 1931, winning Academy Awards for Best Actress for her roles in Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938). She also starred in the brilliant All About Eve (1950). She began appearing sporadically in television roles in 1956 and was seen in film and on TV for the rest of her life. A website devoted to her is found here. This was her only appearance on the Hitchcock show.

Giving a strong performance as Eddie is James Congdon (1929- ), who began appearing on TV in 1949 and on film in 1951. His career on screen lasted until 1986 but does not contain a large number of  credits. He also appeared on Broadway from 1956 to 1984 and was in the original cast of The Miracle Worker in 1959. This was his only role on the Hitchcock TV show.

The role of Sergeant Kirby is played by Frank Albertson (1909-1964), a veteran character actor who appeared on film from 1923 and on TV from 1950. He was in four episodes of the Hitchcock show and also appeared on Thriller. He had a small role in Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).

Eddie, out of uniform on his day off

Finally, Jerry the doorman is played by Arthur Marshall, who had a handful of roles on TV and film from 1951 to 1964 and who was not seen otherwise on the Hitchcock TV show.

The assignment to direct Bette Davis in "Out There--Darkness" was given to Paul Henreid (1908-1982), the actor-turned-director who had co-starred with Davis in Now, Voyager (1942). He directed 29 episodes of the Hitchcock series including "The Kind Waitress," which had a teleplay by William O'Farrell.

Making his only appearance on the list of crew members in all of the ten years of the Hitchcock TV show was director of photography Ernest Haller (1896-1970), who was Bette Davis's favorite cameraman. He went to Hollywood in 1914 and became a cinematographer in 1920, later winning an Academy Award for his work on Gone With the Wind (1939). He did some TV work from 1957 to 1966, including a 1957 episode of Suspicion that starred Bette Davis, and his final credit was for the second pilot of Star Trek, "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

Read the GenreSnaps take on this episode here. The TV show may be viewed online for free here or the DVD is available here.

Sources:

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

Galactic Central, philsp.com/.

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

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

O'Farrell, William. “Over There--Darkness.” Best of the Best Detective Stories, Ed. David Cooke. NY: Dutton, 1960. pp. 250-266.

“Out There--Darkness.” Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 4, episode 16, CBS, 25 Jan. 1959.

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

In two weeks: Our series on Bernard C. Schoenfeld wraps up with a discussion of "Hitch-Hike," along with an episode guide to Schoenfeld's work for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and a summation of his contributions to the show.

Special note: A podcast called "Presenting Alfred Hitchcock Presents" has begun appearing. One episode per month is examined in detail, and five episodes have appeared thus far. Here is a link to the podcast's website. I recommend giving this series a listen!

The Hitchcock Project-Bernard C. Schoenfeld Part Nine: And the Desert Shall Blossom [4.11]

by Jack Seabrook

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."--Isaiah 35:1 (King James Version)

The prophet Isaiah wrote this passage in the eighth century B.C. when the nation of Judah was under siege by the Assyrian army; the verse refers to the time when the Lord will deliver his people from their enemies. On a smaller scale is Loren D. Good's short story, "And the Desert Shall Blossom" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March 1958), in which two old men who live in a cabin they built on the edge of the desert find a way to resist the efforts of well-meaning townsfolk to bring them in from the wilderness in order to make their final years safer and more comfortable.

William Demarest as Tom

Ben Wilson and Tom Tye are proud of their cabin and do not intend to leave. Ben remarks that they must stay until their sagging rosebush blooms at least once. A dust cloud signals that a car is approaching but it breaks down a hundred yards from the men's front door. A stranger in a striped suit asks if they have a car, which they do not, and asks if they have food, which they are glad to share. He tells Ben and Tom that he needs to get to Reno and, when they tell him that he will have to walk, he pulls a gun and threatens them, hitting Tom across the cheek with the weapon. Ben bandages Tom, who quietly takes a gun from Ben's waistband; Ben flattens and Tom shoots the stranger.

Rosco Ates as Ben

Three weeks later, Sheriff Thompson visits and the two old men tell him that the stranger walked off toward Reno. It seems he was a criminal named Tom Carmody, who was wanted for murder. Ben and Tom refuse to go with the sheriff, who thinks they should move into town to have an easier life in their old age. After the sheriff leaves, the men admire their garden, where the "rosebush now stood straight and strong, healthily green and beautiful in the clear desert air." Though it is not stated explicitly, the implication is that the rosebush sits atop Carmody's grave, where his decomposing body provides live-giving nutrients.

Author Loren D. Good (1916-1993) was born and raised on the West Coast and worked as a cowpuncher and a railroad man before serving in the Army during WWII. After the war, he had a career in newspapers, public relations, and freelance writing. He wrote a children's novel set in Mexico called Panchito (1955) but I have been unable to find any published short stories that he wrote other than "And the Desert Shall Blossom."

Ben Johnson as Jeff, the sheriff

Bernard C. Schoenfeld adapted Good's short story for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents of the same title that aired on CBS on Sunday, December 21, 1958, and the short film is a delight! Schoenfeld takes a brief tale and improves it by paying close attention to story structure and motivation. The TV play unfolds in three scenes and the writer makes key changes that strengthen the dramatic effect of the tale.

In the first scene, the sheriff rides up to the men's shack and tells them that the town council wants them to move into an old folk's home in town. Ben and Tom have been homesteading in the desert since 1892, digging for gold in a nearby mine. The sheriff tells them that to qualify as homesteaders, they must grow something on the land that they occupy. They show him their rose bush, which looks barely alive, and Tom promises that they will pick a bouquet of roses in a month. After the sheriff leaves, they agree that "What we need is a miracle." This first scene adds the sheriff as antagonist and clearly sets a goal that the duo must reach by the end of the show.

Mike Kellin as the stranger

In scene two, the criminal arrives, wearing a fancy suit and speaking with a New York accent that sets him apart from the country way of speaking used by Ben and Tom. Events unfold as they do in the story and a confrontation that at first seems to suggest that the old prospectors are as vulnerable as the sheriff says ends up demonstrating that they are more resourceful than they might first appear.

The third and final scene finds the sheriff returning with his deputy, both looking for the criminal. Ben and Tom return from the mine with their mule and we learn that three weeks have passed. Ben reminds the sheriff of their deal and they show him the rose bush, which now bursts with blooming roses. The sheriff agrees that "It's a miracle" and leaves. The last shot makes clear what has happened as the camera pulls back to show that the rose bush is thriving right in the middle of a mound that resembles a grave.

Wesley Lau as the deputy

The changes to the story that Schoenfeld made for the teleplay are small but significant. By bookending the show with visits from the sheriff, he is able to set up a preposterous claim and then demonstrate by purely visual means just how the resourceful old men made it come true. Self-sufficient even in a harsh climate, Ben and Tom resist the encroachment of the modern world, which comes both in the form of law (the sheriff) and crime (the stranger), and bend outside forces to satisfy their needs. It's best not to try to analyze the ending too much and ask how a body could decompose quickly enough to serve as fertilizer or where the old men got the water to make their rose bush thrive; instead, one must sit back and enjoy the work of a talented cast and crew that takes a slight short story and elevates it to a highly entertaining half-hour of television.

"And the Desert Shall Blossom" is directed by Arthur Hiller (1923-2016), who also directed "The Jokester," the last Schoenfeld script to air before this one. Hiller worked as a director on TV from 1954 to 1974 and in film from 1957 to 2006 and was behind the camera for 17 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The cast of this episode is especially good and the superb performances of the two leads make it very enjoyable. Starring as Tom is William Demarest (1892-1983), who served in the U.S. Army in WWI and then acted in vaudeville and on Broadway. His film career lasted from 1927 to 1976 and included appearances in eight films directed by Preston Sturges; he was on TV from 1957 to 1978 and is best remembered for playing Uncle Charley on My Three Sons from 1965 to 1972. This was his only appearance on the Hitchcock show. A website devoted to him is here.

The final shot reveals all!

Rosco Ates (1895-1962) plays Ben, gentle and friendly in contrast to Demarest's gruff Tom. Ates was a vaudeville comedian who later worked as an Air Force trainer in WWII; he was on screen from 1929 to 1961 and appeared in six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Jokester."

Giving his usual solid performance as the sheriff is Ben Johnson (1918-1996), whose biography is titled The Nicest Fellow. A stuntman turned actor, he was on screen from 1939 to 1996, often in westerns. He won an Academy Award for his role in The Last Picture Show (1971) and only appeared in this one episode of the Hitchcock show.

The story was first
published here

Mike Kellin (1922-1983) plays the stranger from New York; he served in the Navy in WWII and then attended the Yale School of Drama. He was busy on Broadway and appeared on screen from 1950 to 1983. In addition to this episode, he was in one episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

Finally, in a small role as the sheriff's deputy is Wesley Lau (1921-1984), who served in the Army Air Corps in WWII and then went to the Actors Studio. He was on screen from 1951 to 1981 and appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents three times, including "Mrs. Herman and Mrs. Fenimore."

The short story has never been reprinted as far as I can tell, and thanks are due to Peter Enfantino for providing a copy. The TV show is available on DVD here or may be viewed for free online here. It is a real treat. Read more about it on the GenreSnaps website here.

Sources:

“And the Desert Shall Blossom.” Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 4, episode 11, CBS, 21 Dec. 1958.

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

Galactic Central, philsp.com/.

Good, Loren D. “And the Desert Shall Blossom.” Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Mar. 1958, pp. 81-87.

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

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

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

In two weeks: "Out There--Darkness" starring Bette Davis!

The Hitchcock Project-Bernard C. Schoenfeld Part Eight: The Jokester [4.3]

by Jack Seabrook

"The Jokester" was the first appearance on Alfred Hitchcock Presents of a story by the prolific writer Robert Arthur (1909-1969), who had co-written the radio series, The Mysterious Traveler, from 1943 to 1952 and who had won Edgar Awards for writing radio drama in 1950 (Murder By Experts) and 1953 (The Mysterious Traveler.). Arthur edited a digest called The Mysterious Traveler that ran for five issues in 1951 and 1952, and the March 1952 issue featured his short story, "The Jokester," which ran under the pen name of Anthony Morton because Arthur also had another short story in that issue, "Sixty Grand Missing," which was a reprint.

"The Jokester" was first published here

Arthur's connection with Hitchcock had begun at least as early as 1951, when Hitchcock served as an "expert" on Murder By Experts. Arthur had been the "ghost editor" of Hitchcock's collection, Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do On TV, which was published in 1957, and someone must have changed his or her mind soon after that because "The Jokester" aired as the third episode of the fourth season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Sunday, October 19, 1958.

Arthur's short story begins as reporters play cards one night at Police Headquarters. One of them, Dave Bradley, decides to play a joke on old Pop Henderson, the night attendant at the morgue. The reporters go downstairs to the morgue and ask Pop to show them one of the corpses, suggesting that it might be that of a missing New York banker. They distract the old man and, after he thinks they've left, Bradley scares him by pretending to be a corpse that is still alive. The other reporters feel bad about playing a joke on the old man and go home. Pop tells Bradley that the desk sergeant warned him that if he falls for any more jokes he will have to retire.

Albert Salmi as Bradley

Bradley heads for a bar, where he decides to play another joke and gives a man a hot foot. Unfortunately, the man is a boxer, who punches Bradley, causing the reporter to fall and crack his neck on the brass rail. Thinking him dead, the bartender and the boxer dump his body in an alley. Bradley awakens in the morgue, slowly recovering from paralysis, but when he tells Pop Henderson that he is still alive, the old man says that he is not falling for any more jokes and locks him in the same compartment where he had earlier lain.

Similar to Louis Pollock's 1947 story "Breakdown" in that both deal with a man paralyzed and thought to be dead who ends up in a morgue, Arthur's story ends on a much more downbeat note, as the bully seems to get his just desserts. A sentence early in the tale is important: the compartments in the morgue where the corpses are kept are described in this way: "They were refrigerated, with the temperature below freezing . . ." By locking the semi-conscious, partially paralyzed Dave Bradley in a compartment where the temperature is frigid, Pop Henderson ensures that the reporter will freeze to death long before his body is taken out for an autopsy the next day. Does the old man understand the consequences of his actions? It is hard to say. He does know that Henderson is alive, since they speak to each other, but he fears that he will lose his job if he is seen to be the subject of another prank. In the artificial world of a mystery short story, Bradley the bully seems to deserve what he gets, but in reality it requires some suspension of disbelief to think that the kindly old morgue attendant would commit what amounts to murder.

Rosco Ates as Pop Henderson

Bradley's extreme physical reaction to being punched and striking his neck is explained as he lies on the morgue slab, remembering a high-school football injury that left him in bed for a month, nearly immobile. The new injury is worse, he thinks, because he hit his neck harder and "heard it crack" when he fell. Bernard C. Schoenfeld, in adapting Arthur's short story for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, made sure that the viewer had some advance warning of Bradley's propensity to injury by adding an incident in an early scene where another reporter tries to horse around with Bradley and Bradley tells him that he has a very sensitive vertebra in his neck from a high-school football injury.

Jay Jostyn and James Coburn
as Morgan and Andrews

The teleplay for "The Jokester" is carefully structured, with parallel scenes at the beginning, middle, and end showing Pop Henderson in the morgue. While the story begins with the reporters' poker game, the show begins, in true Hitchcock fashion, with an establishing shot showing the exterior of the New York Police Department. There is then a dissolve to the morgue, where Pop Henderson is shown entering and checking a body on a slab. He hears a thud on the ceiling above and there is a cut to the poker game, where it is revealed that the thud was made by a typewriter falling to the floor. These reporters are more interested in the game than in the tool of their trade; in a few quick shots, Schoenfeld has established the location of the events, the main characters, and their professions.

During the game, Bradley draws the joker card twice, and Pop Henderson comes upstairs to speak to the reporters, one of whom has just written a story for the paper about the old man. Pop explains why he needs to keep his job (he has to pay his sick wife's doctor bills) but Bradley is callous and the kind reporter leaves before the three journalists who remain head downstairs to participate in Bradley's prank. Bradley tries to give Pop a hot foot but the old man awakens too soon. They all walk down to the corpse compartments and Schoenfeld gives the viewer a direct visual clue to the situation when Pop opens one of the doors and ice cold smoke pours out when he pulls out a drawer containing a body.

Art Batanides as the sergeant

Bradley is shown to be even more cruel than he is in the short story, directly insulting Pop and coming across like a physically imposing bully. He also drinks heavily, swigging from a flask as he telephones his newspaper. The first part of the show ends with a shot that is similar to one of the show's first shots, as Pop walks out of the morgue alone. Part two opens as Bradley enters the bar in a scene that Schoenfeld has expanded and changed from the source. The reporter is quite drunk, having been to three other bars already, and continues his misbehavior by presenting the bartender with a rubber dollar bill and by putting pepper-flavored liquid in the glass of a woman sitting next to him. The woman and her sailor boyfriend replace the boxer of Arthur's story and the sailor punches Bradley out of a sense of chivalry. Mike and Millie, the sailor and his girlfriend, put Bradley's supposedly dead body in the back seat of their car in an alley behind the bar and drive off with it.

Charles Watts
as the captain

The show's final scene is also expanded. The police captain enters the morgue and tells Bradley's fellow reporters that he is ordering Pop to resign, but they make him reconsider this decision by threatening to write an unflattering story about him. Orderlies wheel in Bradley's body and soon he is left alone in the morgue with Pop. After the old man locks the reporter away in his cabinet, he walks off through the morgue, the final shot similar to the ones near the start of the show and at the end of the first half.

"The Jokester" works very well due to perfect casting, a well-structured script, great lighting and camerawork, appropriate music (except one bad cue right near the end), and solid direction. The result is an excellent short film where the scenes in the morgue and in the bar feature high-contrast lighting that creates a strong noir atmosphere. Directing this episode was Arthur Hiller (1923-2016), whose long and successful career began on TV in 1954 and lasted until 2006. In addition to being behind the camera for three episodes of Thriller, he directed 17 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Post Mortem."

Baynes Barron as the bartender

Top billing goes to Albert Salmi (1928-1990) as Bradley. Born in Brooklyn, Salmi trained at the Actors Studio and appeared on Broadway. He was a busy TV actor from 1954 to 1989 and also appeared in films, starting in 1958. Genre roles included appearances on The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery and he was on the Hitchcock show three times, including "The Dangerous People." A biography of Salmi called Spotlights and Shadows was published in 2009.

Rosco Ates (1895-1962) plays Pop Henderson; he started out as a comedian in vaudeville and his film career began early, in 1929. He was in 15 westerns from 1946 to 1948 as sidekick Soapy Jones, and his TV career began in 1951. He was in six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including the Hiller-directed "Post Mortem."

Claire Carlton as Millie

Playing Andrews, one of the reporters who participates in the prank, is James Coburn (1928-2002), and even in this small role he seems destined for stardom. Born in Nebraska, his screen career stretched from 1957 to 2002 and he was in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He was also in an episode of The Twilight Zone. Among his many great film roles was one in The Magnificent Seven (1960), but it was the spy spoof Our Man Flint (1966) that made him a star.

The other two reporters are Morgan, played by Jay Jostyn, and Dave, played by Jim Kirkwood Jr. Jay Jostyn (1905-1977) starred as Mr. District Attorney on radio and his screen career lasted from 1951 to 1971. Jim Kirkwood Jr. (1924-1989) was born to parents who were both actors, and he started acting at age 14. He was a comedian on early TV (1948 to 1951) and acted in film and on TV from 1950 to 1965, but it was as a writer that he later gained fame; a novelist and a playwright, he won a Tony in 1976 for co-writing the book for A Chorus Line. A biography called Ponies and Rainbows was published in 2011.

Jim Kirkwood Jr. as Dave

Representing the men in blue are Art Batanides as the sergeant and Charles Watts as the captain. Art Batanides (1923-2000) is a familiar face from classic TV who appeared in countless episodes from 1951 to 1985, including roles on The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Star Trek. He was in one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Charles Watts (1912-1966) was on screen from 1950 to 1965 and was seen in five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The West Warlock Time Capsule."

Finally, in the bar scene, Baynes Barron plays the bartender, Claire Carlton plays Millie, and Richard Benedict plays Mike. Baynes Barron (1917-1982) was onscreen from 1946 to 1979 and appeared in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; he was also a bartender in "Listen, Listen . . . . .!" Claire Carlton (1913-1979) was on Broadway in the '30s and '40s and on screen from 1933 to 1969. She was on Thriller and she was seen in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "And So Died Riabouchinska." Richard Benedict (1920-1984) had a career as a screen actor from 1944 to 1984, including roles in Ace in the Hole (1951) and Ocean's Eleven (1960). He was also a busy TV director from 1962 to 1982.

Richard Benedict as Mike

Robert Arthur continued to work with Hitchcock, penning a teleplay for the TV show and having two more of his stories adapted, including "The Cadaver," which also dealt with a practical joke gone wrong. He ghost-edited many short story anthologies for Hitchcock and wrote a number of books in the young adult series, The Three Investigators. For more information about him, visit this website.

Thanks to Peter Enfantino for providing a copy of Arthur's original story!

Sources:

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

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

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

“The Jokester.” Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 4, episode 3, CBS, 19 Oct. 1958.

Morton, Anthony. “The Jokester.” The Mysterious Traveler, Mar. 1952, pp. 72–79.

Stephensen-Payne, Phil. Galactic Central, philsp.com/.

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

In two weeks: And the Desert Shall Blossom, starring William Demarest!