bare•bones e-zine: Robert C. Dennis

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Thursday, July 7, 2016

The Hitchcock Project-Robert C. Dennis Part Twenty-Six: "Invitation to an Accident" [4.36], Robert C. Dennis Overview and Robert C. Dennis Episode Guide

by Jack Seabrook

The last two scripts that Robert C. Dennis wrote for Alfred Hitchcock Presents were "A True Account," where the teleplay is credited to Dennis and Fredric Brown, and "Invitation to an Accident," which aired on CBS on Sunday, June 21, 1959, as the final new episode of the fourth season of the series.

This episode was based on a story of the same title by Wade Miller that ran in the July 1955 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The tale begins as Albert Magnum, a bachelor in his forties, visits his old friend Virgilia Pond, who lives in an exclusive neighborhood in San Diego. He meets her second husband, Joseph Pond, and looks down on the man's recently-acquired fortune in comparison with the inherited fortune of her first husband, Cam Bedsole. Albert and the Ponds share drinks, small talk, and dinner, and after the meal Virgilia leads Albert outside to the rear garden, where she confesses that she is having an affair with her ex-husband. As she heads back to the house, scaffolding from an upper floor suddenly is dislodged and crashes to the ground, nearly killing her.

Albert soon comes to believe that Pond staged the accident in order to murder his unfaithful wife. He visits Virgilia again and she tells him that Joseph has a "touch of ptomaine." Albert sneaks into her garden shed and finds a box arsenic missing that had been there the week before. He concludes that Pond took poison to immunize himself before feeding a fatal dose to his wife. Albert decides to invite Joseph on a fishing trip to Mexico, planning to confront the man about Virgilia. They travel together to an empty beach and make camp, spend the day fishing, and then sit around the campfire after dark.

Albert brings up the subject of murder in a roundabout way, trying to suggest to Pond that he knows what the man is planning to do to his wife. Pond finally catches on but admits that he thinks that Virgilia's lover is Albert! The scaffolding had been meant to kill him but, when it failed, the arsenic in the coffee he just drank should do the trick.

Miller's story is very well written. Magnum underestimates Pond at every turn, thinking himself smarter and more refined that Virgilia's rough-hewn husband. Magnum believes that he was invited to be a witness to the accident that nearly killed Virgilia; in reality, though, the real accident occurs when Pond mistakes him for his wife's lover and murders him!

Gary Merrill as Joseph Pond

Wade Miller was a pseudonym for Robert Wade (1920-2012) and Bill Miller (1920-1961), a duo who began writing together as teenagers, joined the U.S. Air Force in WWII, and wrote their first novel in 1946. They wrote many novels together, including a series featuring private eye Max Thursday. Their novel, Badge of Evil (1956), was adapted as the film Touch of Evil (1958), directed by Orson Welles. They wrote over 30 novels together but only about a dozen short stories, one of which is "Invitation to an Accident." After Miller died in 1960, Wade kept writing until 1979. A handful of television episodes and movies were adapted from their work but this was their only contribution to the Hitchcock TV series.

Robert C. Dennis's script for this episode displays traits recognizable from his other work on this series: adding opening scenes to set up the story, a heightened focus on key objects, and a tendency to hammer the point home at the conclusion.

Alan Hewitt as Albert Magnum

The show opens at a party, where Albert tells Mrs. Bedsole (Cam's aunt) that Virgilia is in the garden with her ex-husband. Pond, her current husband, has been drinking all night and might get violent. Albert goes out to the garden and interrupts the lovers; when Virgilia goes back inside and speaks to Pond, he angrily grabs her wrist, demanding to know whom she has been with in the garden.

This is followed by a short scene of Virgilia driving Pond home, where he suggests inviting a friend over for dinner and she responds by saying that she will invite a "very old admirer." It is clear that Pond seeks to identify her lover and thinks that the man she invites will be the guilty party.

The following scenes follow the story closely. When Virgilia and Albert go into Joseph's garden shed workshop, Albert picks up a can labeled "Arsenic" and looks at it; the can is shown in closeup and Dennis thus foreshadows the show's climax. Later, when Albert goes back to the Pond house and checks the workshop, it is made very clear that the can of arsenic has disappeared--Albert even traces his finger over the missing spot to underline the point for the viewer. Albert visits Mrs. Bedsole and outlines his suspicions about Joseph's plans; she tells him that he must protect Virgilia. He visits the Ponds, but this time, unlike in Miller's short story, it is Pond who invites Albert on a fishing trip, not the other way around.

Highlighting the arsenic

Later, it's missing

The shot dissolves to the two men on the beach at night, sitting by the campfire. The conversation goes as it does in the story and Albert begins to sweat profusely. At the end, however, there is an additional bit of dialogue. The story ends as Pond tells Albert that he poisoned him: "Albert Magnum was no longer listening. He had rolled face downward on the sand with the first clawing agony in his belly." The TV show goes further. After Pond tells Albert what he has done, Albert tells him: "But it isn't me--it's Cam!" Pond replies: "Cam!" Albert begins to sob in pain, and Pond again exclaims, "Cam!" as the screen fades to black. In the show, unlike in the story, Pond learns right away that he has made a fatal mistake.

Albert and Joseph on the beach

Perhaps because I watched this in 2016 and not 1959, I saw a very subtle hint in this episode that Albert is a closeted gay man and that Pond, the macho man who builds iron lawn furniture "with his own hands," murders him while they are both engaged in a vacation for two alone on a remote beach. The story points out that Albert "preferred a woman to be on his arm rather than in his arms" and in the show, Virgilia tells Albert that he should have married her and then laughs at her own suggestion.

"Invitation to an Accident" is an entertaining episode with effective direction by Don Taylor (1920-1988), the actor-turned-director who starred in one episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and directed seven. The last episode he directed that I covered in this series was "Fatal Figures."

Gary Merrill (1915-1990) receives top billing as Joseph Pond. After serving in the U.S. Air Force in WWII, Merrill portrayed Batman on the Superman radio show and appeared in movies from 1943 to 1977. He was one of the stars of All About Eve (1950) and was married to his co-star, Bette Davis, from 1950 to 1960. He was on TV from 1953 to 1980 and appeared on the Hitchcock show seven times, as well as making appearances on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.

Joanna Moore as Virgilia Pond

The unfaithful wife, Virgilia Pond, is played by Joanna Moore (1934-1977), an actress whose comedic skills are only hinted at in this episode. Born Dorothy Cook, she was the mother of actress Tatum O'Neal. She had a role in Touch of Evil and was onscreen from 1956 to 1984, appearing in six episodes of the Hitchcock series. I last wrote about her in connection with the episode, "Post Mortem."

Alan Hewitt (1915-1986) plays the third member of the trio, Albert Magnum, with a light touch that stands in contrast to the performance of Gary Merrill as the gruff and blunt Pond. Hewitt had an unremarkable screen career from 1956 to 1978 and was seen on the Hitchcock show three times. He also played Detective Bill Brennan on 28 episodes of My Favorite Martian.

"Invitation to an Accident" is available on DVD here or may be viewed for free online here. Thanks to Peter Enfantino for a copy of the story.

Sources:

"Authors and Creators: Wade Miller." Authors and Creators: Wade Miller. Web. 24 June 2016.

"Galactic Central." Galactic Central. Web. 27 June 2016.

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

IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 24 June 2016.

"Invitation to an Accident." Alfred Hitchcock Presents. CBS. 21 June 1959. Television.

Miller, Wade. "Invitation to an Accident." Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine July 1955: 131-43.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 24 June 2016.

Next week: An episode guide of all of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes reviewed to date as part of The Hitchcock Project with links to all posts.

In two weeks: Our series on Bryce Walton begins with "Touché," starring Paul Douglas and Hugh Marlowe!

Gary Merrill and Joanna Moore

OVERVIEW: ROBERT C. DENNIS AND ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS

In the first four seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, from October 1955 through June 1959, Robert C. Dennis wrote or co-wrote the teleplays for 30 episodes, making him the show's most frequent writer during that period.

Dennis wrote nine teleplays in season one, two of which were based on his own short stories. From the start, he showed an ability to improve on his source, even when he wrote the source as well! He also adapted stories by such authors as Dorothy L. Sayers and Stanley Ellin, and he co-wrote one script with Victor Wolfson. Dennis's teleplays benefited from strong direction by Robert Stevens, Robert Stevenson and James Neilsen, and the shows often had strong casts.

His contributions to season two were slightly less, at six episodes, through four of the six were very strong. Added to the list of directors putting his teleplays on the small screen was Paul Henreid, and authors whose stories were adapted included Don Marquis and Thomas Burke. Some of the episodes used humor successfully, while in others it fell flat. There were good performances by the cast of "Crack of Doom" and by Barbara Cook in "A Little Sleep," and Dennis showed an ability to add scenes and update stories to make them fit with then-current themes.

Dennis's biggest contribution to the series came in season three, when he wrote the scripts for 12 of the 39 episodes shown. His ability to turn narrative into dialogue continued to be impressive, and in "Silent Witness" he took a germ of an idea from a very short story and turned it into a fascinating exploration of a man's guilty conscience. Don Taylor starred in that episode and also directed four of the episodes written by Dennis in this season. Other great directors assigned to film Dennis's scripts in this season included Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Altman. Dennis also showed an affinity for highlighting key objects in his scripts and for making subtle climaxes more apparent for viewers.

His contributions trailed off in season four, when he was only responsible for three scripts, one of which he co-wrote with Fredric Brown. These final three episodes featured strong casts, exhibited a judicious use of humor, and benefited from solid direction.

In the first four seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Robert C. Dennis wrote more scripts than anyone else. Beginning in season five, he would be replaced by the equally prolific Henry Slesar.

EPISODE GUIDE-ROBERT C. DENNIS ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS

Episode title-“Don't Come Back Alive” [1.4]

Broadcast date-23 Oct. 1955

Teleplay by-Dennis

Based on-"Don't Come Back Alive" by Dennis

First print appearance-Detective Tales, November 1945

Thursday, July 7, 2016

The Hitchcock Project-Robert C. Dennis Part Twenty-Six: "Invitation to an Accident" [4.36], Robert C. Dennis Overview and Robert C. Dennis Episode Guide

Thursday, June 23, 2016

The Hitchcock Project-Robert C. Dennis Part Twenty-Five: "Mrs. Herman and Mrs. Fenimore" [4.12]