The Hitchcock Project-Henry Slesar Part Forty-Three: "Starring the Defense" [9.7]

by Jack Seabrook

In "The Test," Henry Slesar explored the bond between father and son and showed how a father's belief in his son's innocence can stand in the way of learning the truth about a crime. In "Starring the Defense," he returns to that theme and examines it from a different angle, this time in a compelling story that merges the worlds of acting and law with family relations. This is the third of six teleplays so far that Slesar has written for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour to revolve around a jury trial, and this one is by far the most successful to date.

The story on which the teleplay is based was published in the April 1963 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and is reprinted in the 1989 collection, Death on Television. Miles Crawford, "deep in a dream of the past," is at home one evening when his old friend and law partner Sam Brody pays him a visit. Miles is an aging lawyer and former movie star. His son Tod comes home early; in his early 20s, Tod is a sullen young man who barely speaks to his father as he heads upstairs to his bedroom. Sam notices that Tod left drops of blood on the floor and Miles goes upstairs to find Tod treating a bad wound on his arm.

Tod admits to having been in a fight and the police arrive to take him away: it seems he had been in a fight with another young man named Jules Herman, who is now dead. After the police take Tod away, Miles tells Sam that he blames his own poor parenting skills for the way Tod turned out and decides that he should defend his son in court, even though he is not a criminal lawyer. He thinks that his background as lawyer, movie star and father will give him a special perspective on the case, allowing him to appeal to the jury in a way no one else could.

Richard Basehart as Miles Crawford

Miles visits criminal lawyer Edwin Rutherford for advice and then asks Tod for his blessing; Tod is grateful for the offer. Rutherford and Miles prepare for trial and focus on the question of premeditation and intent to kill. Reporters grill Miles, who becomes angry at the suggestion that his plan to defend Tod is really a stunt to pave the way for a comeback as a  movie star. The trial begins, with Miles squaring off against a skilled prosecutor named Hanley. Tod is called as the first witness and describes the fight and his history with Jules Herman. Two more witnesses are called: Rudy Trask, who provides testimony that helps Tod, and Barbara Riordan, whose testimony is damning.

Teno Pollick as Tod Crawford

Miles calls Tod back to the witness stand for a second time and Tod's testimony concludes. Miles then gives an emotional closing statement to the jury, one that is so powerful and theatrical that the observers in the courtroom break into applause at its conclusion. The next day, the judge grants permission to Hanley to show the jury a reel of film, and he plays a scene from The Guilty One, an old movie that starred Miles Crawford, in which he portrayed an attorney. Everyone is shocked to see that the speech given to the jury in the film is the same as the one Miles had given in Tod's defense the day before. Miles is mortified but asks the judge to let him show the final scene of the film, in which the jury finds the young man guilty and he is taken to be executed. As a result of seeing the final scene, the jury spares Tod's life by sending him to prison for 20 years for manslaughter.

Russell Collins as Sam Brody

The reader is left to wonder, what were Miles's true motivations for acting as Tod's lawyer? Was his decision based solely on a desire to help his son, the son whom he believed had turned out badly in large part due to poor parenting? Or was there a kernel of truth in the reporter's question about whether this was a way to start a comeback as a movie star? The story leans toward the former, though one wonders what happened to Miles after the verdict. Slesar realizes that performing is an essential skill for a successful trial lawyer, and Miles's powerful closing argument to the jury is a fusion of all that he has learned in his years in both professions, even though it is taken word for word from one of his old films. His final success in defending his son is also a synthesis of actor and lawyer; the lawyer in Miles knows that showing the film's final scene will have an emotional effect on the jury, while the actor in him understands the power of cinema to change viewers' minds.

Miles addresses the jury in Tod's defense

This was a perfect story to adapt for television due to the role that film plays in its conclusion. Slesar adapted his own tale and retained the title for the show that was aired on CBS on Friday, November 15, 1963, three weeks after Slesar's "Blood Bargain." The TV show follows the story closely, with some interesting alterations. In the initial scene, Sam looks through a scrapbook of old movie stars and encourages Miles to try to make a comeback in motion pictures, something Miles says is long behind him. Sam's comments to Miles along these lines replace the scene in the story where the reporter asks Miles if his plan to defend his son in court is part of an attempted comeback.

Rockne Tarkington as the police officer

When the police come to the house to take Tod to the station, the lead policeman is played by a black actor named Rockne Tarkington. The jury of twelve that later hears Tod's case also includes a black man and a black woman. The appearances of black actors in roles that could have been played by white actors is a sign of the times, since the Civil Rights movement was in full swing in the fall of 1963, when this program aired.

The teleplay provides more background on Miles's past and Tod's childhood. Miles tells Sam that his movie career dried up in 1943, that he and Tod's mother were divorced the year Tod was born, and that Miles quit acting when Tod was two years old. Miles studied law and began his career as an attorney when Tod was a child, and Miles's sister raised Tod from birth until age ten, when Miles took him in. This is all said in order to provide a basis for Tod's delinquency and to support Miles's claim that his bad parenting is a source of his son's problems. The theme of Tod's unfortunate childhood and Miles's guilt about it is essentially forgotten in the source story once the trial gets underway, but in the teleplay it receives more focus and underlines Miles's claim that his motive for acting as his son's lawyer is selfless rather than selfish; he wants to save his son's life, not return to the Silver Screen.

Diane Mountford as Ruthie,

Ed Rutherford's daughter/secretary

A brief scene is added to the teleplay that provides an interesting contrast with Miles's treatment of Tod as a child. When Miles visits Ed Rutherford, the criminal lawyer, Miles is greeted by Ed's young daughter, who sits at the front desk in his office and acts as his secretary. She wears glasses like an adult and tries to be very mature, but when her father does not answer his intercom she yells, "Daddy!" and he comes out to bring Miles into his office, telling Miles that his daughter is not a very good secretary. The point is subtle but clear: Rutherford has found a way to stay involved in the life of his young daughter, even while running a busy law practice, something Miles was unable to do with his own son.

S. John Launer as Ed Rutherford

Slesar's teleplay changes the timing of some events in the story. In the story, Miles has the idea to act as Tod's attorney right after the police take his son away and discusses it with Sam. In the teleplay, Miles does not come up with this suggestion until midway through his conversation with Rutherford. In the teleplay, Tod is less excited about Miles's offer to help than he is in the story; he asks Miles, "How come you're so worried about me, all of a sudden?" Tod has a fatalistic viewpoint and comments, "One way or the other, I'm in for it."

The trial in the teleplay proceeds in basically the same way as it does in the story, though in the teleplay Tod's testimony is not split into two parts. In one of Slesar's prior episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "I Saw the Whole Thing," the actors John Zaremba and Barney Phillips played the prosecuting attorney and a police lieutenant. In "Starring the Defense," they are back, but this time Phillips plays the prosecutor and Zaremba has been promoted to the role of judge!

Jean Hale as Barbara Riordan

Tod's fatalistic attitude continues in another scene that is new to the teleplay. After Barbara Riordan provides testimony that is particularly harmful, Miles and Tod have a private conversation outside the courtroom. Though Miles tells Tod that he must make Barbara out to be a liar, Tod admits that she told the truth when she said that Tod had expressed a desire to kill Jules in the past. Tod seals his fate with his own testimony on the witness stand by saying: "I was glad when I did it. I was only sorry later."

The highlight of "Starring the Defense" is, of course, Miles's passionate closing statement to the jury. Richard Basehart gives an outstanding performance as Miles and really nails this scene as he subtly recalls Jesus' exhortation to the crowd around the woman caught in adultery--"Let the man among you who has no sin be the first to cast a stone at her." The show's director, Joseph Pevney, breaks from the usual practice of showing the jurors as a group in medium shots by focusing on a few of them in individual close ups. Perhaps most impressive is the subtle difference in the performances of Richard Basehart in the present-day oration and in the one captured on film in his old movie, retitled We the Guilty for the TV version. In addition to the obvious change from the older Miles (Basehart wears old age makeup throughout the show) to the younger, the acting style is also slightly different, as Basehart's 1930s-era performance in the film is slightly more flamboyant than his speech in 1963.

John Zaremba as the judge

The biggest change from story to teleplay in "Starring the Defense" comes at the end, as the projection of the film takes place in the judge's chambers rather than in the courtroom. Instead of being shown to the jury, the film is shown to the judge and the attorneys only, in a shadowy scene where they sit together in the dark. The viewers of We the Guilty become like the TV audience, watching a performance and deciding whether to let their emotions be swayed. In the story, the jury finds Tod guilty and sentences him to 20 years in prison. The TV show is more effective, mostly due to the performance by John Zaremba as the judge. He uses carefully modulated facial expressions to show that he is struggling with his decision, and the show ends with him telling Tod that he is sentencing him to life in prison but recommending a review for parole at the earliest opportunity. Miles puts his arm around Tod's shoulders and the screen fades out, father and son together at last.

Barney Phillips as the prosecutor

Some online comments have criticized "Starring the Defense" for "ripping off" the 1938 James Cagney film, Angels With Dirty Faces. The critics miss the point. The reel of film shown at the end of "Starring the Defense" ends with a young man taken to the death chamber and complaining that he does not want to die, which is similar to the conclusion of the Cagney film. However, the point of the Cagney film's ending is that Cagney's character is (or is he?) faking his fear in order to change the opinion of the young men who idolize him There is no such subtext in "Starring the Defense," where the film is meant to evoke films like Angels With Dirty Faces in order to show an example of the kind of movies that Miles Crawford made decades earlier. The film's final scene is shown in order to have an effect on the judge, and it succeeds. Saying that Slesar's teleplay "ripped off" the Cagney film demonstrates a limited understanding of both works.

Joseph Pevney (1911-2008), the director of "Starring the Defense," began his career as an actor before becoming a director in 1950. He directed movies in the fifties, including the Lon Chaney biopic Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), then moved into TV in 1959. He directed five episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and 14 episodes of Star Trek.

Richard Basehart as Miles Crawford
addressing the jury in We the Guilty

Starring as Miles Crawford is Richard Basehart (1914-1984), who was in films from 1947 to 1979 and on TV from 1957 to 1984. He was in Fellini's La Strada (1954) as well as Being There (1979) with Peter Sellers; this was one of two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in which he was featured. He also appeared on The Twilight Zone but is best remembered as the star of the Irwin Allen series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which ran from 1964 to 1968.

Miles's friend and law partner Sam Brody is played by Russell Collins (1897-1965), a familiar character actor who was in ten episodes of the Hitchcock series, most recently Slesar's "The Right Kind of Medicine."

S. John Launer (1919-2006) plays Ed Rutherford, the criminal lawyer; he was on TV and in the movies from the mid-fifties till the late eighties. This was his only appearance on the Hitchcock show, but he may be seen in four episodes of The Twilight Zone, 33 episodes of Perry Mason, the film I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) and Hitchcock's Marnie (1964).

Teno Pollick (1929-1991) plays Tod Crawford. Pollick made 13 appearances on TV from 1961 to 1976 and did not appear in any other episodes of the Hitchcock series. Pollick was in the original Off-Broadway cast of Steambath (1970).

The brief role of Barbara Riordan, the girl over whom Tod and Jules were fighting, is played by Jean Hale (1938- ). She was 24 years old at the time and had been on TV since 1960. She appeared in one other episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour along with two episodes of Batman and Roger Corman's 1967 film, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

John Zaremba (1908-1986), this time playing the judge, was in 11 episodes of the Hitchcock series, including six written by Henry Slesar. He was most recently seen in "Final Vow."

Selmer Jackson as the chaplain in We the Guilty

Rockne Tarkington (1931- ), the black actor who plays the policeman, was on TV and in movies from the early sixties till the mid-nineties. This is his first credit and only appearance on the Hitchcock show. In 1974 he starred in Black Samson.

Selmer Jackson (1888-1971) makes a short appearance as the chaplain in the film shown to the judge at the end of the show. He was a busy character actor who started in film in 1921 and moved to TV in 1951. He was in five episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "A True Account"; "Starring the Defense" was his last credit.

Finally, Barney Phillips (1913-1982) plays the prosecutor. He was in movies from 1937 and on TV from 1950, and he was last seen in "I Saw the Whole Thing."

"Starring the Defense" is not available on DVD but may be viewed on YouTube here.

Sources:
"Galactic Central." Galactic Central. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.

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

IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.

John. The New American Bible. Iowa Falls, IA: World Bible, 1977. Print.

"Official Site for Richard Basehart." Official Site for Richard Basehart. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.

Slesar, Henry. "Starring the Defense." 1963. Death on Television: The Best of Henry Slesar's Alfred Hitchcock Stories. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1989. 194-219. Print.

"Starring the Defense." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. CBS. 15 Nov. 1963. Television.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.

*MeTV is showing The Alfred Hitchcock Hour every Saturday night/Sunday morning at 3 a.m. Eastern Time.

*Antenna TV is showing back to back episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents every night from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. Eastern time.

*In two weeks: "Behind the Locked Door," with Gloria Swanson and James MacArthur!

Star Spangled DC War Stories Part 42: November 1962

The DC War Comics 1959-1976
by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook

Russ Heath and Jack Adler

G.I. Combat 96

"The Lonesome Tank!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Russ Heath

"Flying PT-Boat!"
Story by Hank Chapman
Art by Jack Abel

"The Biggest Sitting Duck in the Navy!"
Story by Hank Chapman
Art by Jack Abel

Peter: Jeb Stuart keeps turning down offers of good luck charms from other tank crew, believing the ghost of a civil war General might be good luck enough, but Jeb begins to second guess himself when his tank is put out of action and the crew must sit out the war while others fight and die. In the end, it's that inaction that brings about action. With "The Lonesome Tank," I thought for sure we were going to get dragged down in yet another "catch-phrase hoedown" but, thankfully, Kanigher keeps the annoyance to a minimum. How is it that Jeb (the flesh and blood version) couldn't see that the enemy tank was firing through a hole in the rock until Jeb Stuart (the dead guy) pointed it out? Not much of a soldier, this one.

Heath shows the Hollywood guys how to "film" a war scene

Jack: Even though there is a "T.N.T. wind" a-blowin' in this story, it features outstanding art by Russ Heath. On three successive pages, he uses arrows to direct the reader's eye down and then to the right to make sure we follow the action properly. I'm not usually a big fan of arrows, since I think the artist should construct a comic page so that it flows naturally, but Heath pulls it off by using the first two panels to set up the bigger third panel.

"Flying PT Boat"

Peter: Garry and brother Bill are assigned PT boat duty on separate ships, both desiring glory and lots of notches on their periscopes, but only one gets to see action since Garry's crew sinks a big ship and Bill's is left holding the bag. When Bill's ship is taken away in a "flying boxcar" to run interference for an admiral, a chance encounter with enemy Zeros creates a "Flying PT-Boat" and puts Bill back in the limelight and, ostensibly, in good graces with his dad back home. Wholly cut from a "T.N.T. cliche cloth," there's nothing about this one worth recommending. Are we reaching a point where these writers really have no original ideas to lay before us?

Jack: Whenever I see two brothers at the beginning of a story, I know what's coming, and it's worse when one of them is assigned a seemingly glory-free role in the war. Chapman gives the story a bit of "T.N.T. punch" but we're seeing too many of these tales where weapons are mixed in an unusual way; here, a PT boat in the belly of a plane.

Peter: The crew of a rescue chopper can get awfully frustrated when they're constantly doing all the rescuing and not getting rescued but, sure as this is GI Combat, this chopper will be "The Biggest Sitting Duck in the Navy" by the end of five and a half pages. Sure enough, while attempting to intercept a torpedo, the copter goes down into the sea... and lands on a submarine. A few well-tossed "T.N.T. eggs" and the crew become the heroes they've always dreamed they could be! Two Russ Heath stories in one issue should send up a chorus of "hurrah"s but Hank Chapman and (to a lesser extent) Robert Kanigher do Russ no favors with their mediocre scripting.

Heath!

Jack: Heath supplies more fantastic battle scenes while Chapman's story lays some pretty big "T.N.T. eggs." Chapman is definitely my least favorite of the three men writing the DC war stories at this point.

Joe Kubert

Our Army at War 124

"Target--Sgt. Rock!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Joe Kubert

"Flattop Tank!"
Story by Hank Chapman
Art by Irv Novick

Jack: Sgt. Rock sees a footbridge across a river and realizes it looks too good to be true, so he leads a few men across the bridge to draw Nazi fire while the rest of Easy Co. crosses downstream. Nazi Major Von Strupp is impressed by Rock's maneuver and Rock tells the men of Easy Co. that no one man is worth saving when the Company's safety is at stake, even if that man is Sgt. Rock himself. Rock destroys an enemy tank and leads Easy Co. into a town where they are set upon by a sniper. While trying to destroy the enemy's machine gun nest, Rock is badly injured in a fall and captured by Von Strupp, who has his men brainwash the American sergeant into thinking he is leading the men of Easy Co. into battle when he's actually in charge of a team of Nazis attacking his own men! Bulldozer understands what Rock would want and begins to "Target--Sgt. Rock!" A shot to the helmet brings Rock back to reality, where he is able to lead the men of Easy Co. to wipe out the Nazis. The multiple points of view used by Kanigher to tell the story are unusual and Kubert's art is superb, a welcome relief from last issue's disappointment.

Peter: Great story, one of the longest we've encountered so far on our journey, but I would have preferred Bob break with tradition and play the strip out over the entire issue as it could have used the fleshing out. I thought the multiple narrative gimmick really enhanced the story (as opposed to when Kanigher uses the same gimmick in this month's Gunner, Sarge, and Pooch romp). Von Strupp makes the perfect super-villain. Clack-Clack and Blitz, we hardly knew ye! Kubert's never been better and how about that fabulous full-page pin-up (below)? Forget all that crap hanging in the Louvre; this is art!

"Target--Sgt. Rock!"

Here we go again!

Jack: Buzz bucks the family tradition of joining the Navy because he really likes tanks. He finds himself on a Pacific island, where his tank is loaded onto a plane to be flown to another island to help the Marines. The plane is knocked out of the sky by Japanese fighters and lands on a flattop ship, where the tank is ejected from the plane's belly and immediately begins firing at more enemy planes. It's a good thing, too, because kamikaze planes have wiped out the ship's defenses and all that's left are the guns on this "Flattop Tank!" When the tank runs out of ammunition it must catapult itself off the side of the ship to crush an enemy submarine. Hank Chapman's story seems to defy the laws of physics. If the plane carrying the tank landed like a pancake on the ship's deck, it's likely that the tank inside would either be squashed or trapped. And gunning the motor to spring off the side of the deck and land on the enemy sub seems like a million to one shot. By the way, Kanigher avoided any "T.N.T." in the Sgt. Rock story (except for a "TNT surprise" on the cover), but Chapman makes up for it here with "T.N.T. teeth," a "T.N.T. apple" and a "T.N.T. bat."

Peter: I have a hard time swallowing these tales where our boys might just as well be Clark Kent or Billy Batson for all the death-defying stunts they endure. And how many times are we going to see a tank falling off a cliff or into the drink and everyone survives?

Jerry Grandenetti

Our Fighting Forces 72

"The Four-Footed Spy!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Jerry Grandenetti

"The Fort That Wasn't There!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Jack Abel

Jack: Pooch has been saving Gunner and Sarge's bacon for so long on their island in the Pacific that he's getting lonely for some female companionship of the canine sort. Col. Hakawa, that practical joker, finds "The Four-Footed Spy," an attractive female dog who attracts Pooch and leads him into the hands of the enemy. Fortunately, Pooch snaps out of his reverie just in time, grabs Col. Hakawa's sword between his teeth, and heads back to base, followed by his new lady love, who will sit out the war in a POW doghouse. We have now reached absolute bottom: a story narrated by Pooch himself, where he meets his own personal Mata Hari. At one point, Pooch is injured and we see him lying on his back in a hospital bed, tended to by a pretty nurse.

Peter: Now and then, especially when I'm reading Bob Kanigher's adult scripts for Sgt. Rock, I forget these things were written for ten-year olds. Then I read tripe like "The Four-Footed Spy" and I remember what DC was really like in the 1960s: mindless pap. You could almost make an argument that Kanigher was parodying himself (Pooch sniffing the air for "a smell I almost forgot"; Kyto arf-arfing in Japanese; and my favorite innocent/lecherous bit of dialogue, "Wonder who gave her that pretty dog tag? -- Wish I could give her something pretty too!"); how could a war script get any stupider? But the track record of this series belies that hope and my handy-dandy Guide to DC War tells me we still have to snore through 22 more installments. Truly the bottom of the barrel.

It's times like this that make us wonder if we need a new hobby.

Jack: Major Simmons heads a squadron of bomber planes in which all of the crew believe that their success is due to the presence of Lucky 7, a flying fort that always goes along with them. When Lucky 7 is shot down, the men are sure that their luck has run out, so the C.O. has a similar plane painted to look just like Lucky 7. The squadron performs beautifully and only the major knows that they are pinning their hopes on "The Fort That Wasn't There!" Lucky 7 saves the day and disappears into a cloud, but is nowhere to be found when the planes return to base, since it turns out that the lookalike plane never left the ground. In that case, what do we make of Lucky 7's exploits on its final run? I've read enough mystery stories and comics that I knew darn well when there was a cloud involved that Lucky 7's impostor never left the ground. Abel's art is strong here and it's too bad Haney had to fall back on this very old tale.

Peter: Well, I liked the fact that Haney mixed it up there at the end, throwing a cup of the supernatural  into what could have ended up as just another one of those "the crew of the Lucky 7 were safe the whole time, sunning themselves on a nearby island and fixing their Hydro-Dirigible Whatsit and just waiting for their turn to jump back into action and save the day" dirges. Yep, I could have done without the obligatory "Sorry, sir, but the crew of the impostor Lucky 7 had engine trouble and never got off the ground" expository (one that was used to death in 1950s DC mystery, right, Jack?) but I'll take that minor infraction over the alternative.

"The Fort That Wasn't There!"

Ross Andru & Mike Esposito

Star Spangled War Stories 105

"The War on Dinosaur Island!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito

"Flower for a Fighter!"
Story Uncredited
Art by Jack Abel

"The Last Charge!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Jack Abel

Peter: The amazingly athletic and amnesiac Flying Boots circus trio teams up with boss Zig-Zag Zack to fight "The War on Dinosaur Island" yet again on, ostensibly, the same island they fought it on last issue. Bob Kanigher must have thought he'd won the lottery; re-writing the same story over and over and not having to answer to an editor (Kanigher himself was the DC war line editor!). I suppose it gave him more time to cook up the quality he was serving over in Our Army at War in the same way Steven Spielberg directed Schindler's List and Jurassic Park at the same time.

Just about anything can happen on Dinosaur Island

Jack: What do you say about a series with continuing characters that restarts itself every issue? The Flying Boots and Zig-Zag Zack did not make it into the DC Comics Hall of Fame. Like almost every episode in this series, the best thing about this one is the cool and colorful dinosaurs.

"Flower for a Fighter"

Peter: Captain Cook insists on wearing a fresh carnation on his bomber jacket before flying into battle. This strikes the lieutenant as a decidedly unmanly thing to do until he sees the Captain in action and all questions of virility fly through the cockpit window. One day, the Captain gives his life for the Lt. and from then on he feels obligated to fly over the Captain's crash site and drop a carnation. "Flower for a Fighter" is not a bad story at all but I wonder: did all the Enemy Ace surnames begin with Von?

Jack: This is a very good story, despite the cringe-worthy line near the beginning when the narrator thinks: "A flight leader who wears a flower can't be much of a he-man!" I love the WWI biplane aerial action. The best part of this story for me was that it avoided a cliche ending. I thought for sure the Captain was going to turn out to be alive, but instead his wrecked plane helped save our hero, who will keep dropping one flower each day on the scene where the Captain went down. Nice work.

Peter: Buddy gets booted out of WWI for being underaged and his best pal, Al, gets killed in action. Blaming himself, Buddy swears to make it up to his friend someday, somehow, somewhere. Decades later Buddy, now a drill sergeant, watches Al Jr. stride into his camp and the now-grizzled war vet vows to pump the kid up and keep him alive. For a three and a half pager, "The Last Charge" surprisingly hits all the buttons (including the one labeled "Massive Coincidence") and does so with a minimum of schmaltziness, although the climax, where Buddy is booted out of WWII for being "overaged," is pretty silly.

"The Last Charge"

Jack: It's funny that Bob Kanigher could write such junk as "The War on Dinosaur Island" and then in the same comic book pen such a good story as this. Abel's panel at the end of page one of the young soldier walking alone through No Man's Land after the battle is haunting, and the development that sees the same soldier come back in WWII and train his buddy's son is believable for some reason, possibly because it's not as far-fetched as some of the other coincidences we've seen. Even the twist ending worked for me.

In our Next Fear-Filled Issue!
The Best DC Horror Stories of 1973!
On Sale at Participating Webstands on December 15th!

Do You Dare Enter? Part Forty-One: November 1973

The DC Mystery Anthologies 1968-1976

by Peter Enfantino and
Jack Seabrook

Nick Cardy

Unexpected 152

"Death Wears Many Faces!"
Story by Carl Wessler
Art by George Tuska

"Creeping Beauty"
Story by Carl Wessler
Art by Alfredo Alcala

"The Dark Secret of the Swamp"
Story by Michael Fleisher
Art by Alex Nino

Jack: Harry is a scientist who has developed a serum that works in animals to prevent death but he can't find a human willing to try it. He meets a beauty named Angela Todd and they fall in love, but when she is nearly killed in an elevator accident he gives her the serum and she perks right up. Poor Angela seems rather accident prone, but the disasters that kill those around her have no effect on the lass. Harry decides to keep a close eye on her but when they get into a car wreck he staggers to his lab to get more serum to give her while she is taken to the hospital. Near death himself, he finally arrives at her bedside only to learn that "Death Wears Many Faces!" Angela is actually the Angel of Death and she pours out the last of the serum on the floor, allowing Harry to die himself and ensuring that the secret of the serum dies with him. Carl Wessler and George Tuska are not my idea of a Dream Team, but this is an UNEXPECTEDLY entertaining story! Angela's transition from babe to ghoul over a few panels is neat.

"Death Wears Many Faces!"

Peter: The blunt object to my head known as George Tuska lands not with a bang but an Unexpected "eh!" Aside from the laugh-out-loud image of Death with buck teeth (Tuska's trademark), the artist manages to eke out a decent illustration now and then it seems. This strip has great build-up but slips on the banana peel of its silly twist ending.

"Creeping Beauty"

Jack: Blackpool, England, 1774: Beautiful Illona is not satisfied that Edmund killed his friend Alfred in a duel for her love. When she dumps him and flirts with the next guy she meets, he grows furious and vows to destroy her "Creeping Beauty." He chases her into a cave, where she happens on a race of strange creatures that put her in a cage and comment on how ugly she is! Well, I admit I didn't see THAT coming. Paging Susan Oliver and Roddy McDowell in "People Are Alike All Over"!

Peter: That has to be the biggest WTF? ending of the year! Talk about hitting a brick wall. Did Carl Wessler have a dueling story he couldn't finish and soldered it together with that outer space twist he had no story to go with?

"The Dark Secret of the Swamp"

Jack: Escaped convict Frank Mandrill finds a house in the swamp where he can hide out. He is welcomed by the old man and woman who live there but soon begins to have questions about the strange statues outside, one of which is the image of his old prison pal, Chuck, who told him about the swamp in the first place. One night he sneaks out and observes the old couple dipping a dead tramp in quicksand to make another statue--"The Dark Secret of the Swamp." They see him and try to catch him but fall in themselves and are sucked under. That night, a terrible storm causes the house to shift off of its foundation and sink into the swamp, along with Frank, who made it as far as the roof. Later, in an antique store, a couple buys a statute of a man impaled on a weather vane and we realize that it's Frank's body, preserved in the hard quicksand. Alex Nino's art is breathtakingly good but Fleisher's story is not so hot. The strangest thing of all is the final panel, when we see the statute of Frank but it looks like he shrunk quite a bit!

Peter: How do you fish in quicksand? Interesting in that this is one of the few swamp stories that doesn't end up in already heavily-mined territory (Frank doesn't end up a troubled muck monster). It's been way too long since we've had the pleasure of Alex Nino's company. Let's hope he sticks around.

Jack: The letters column is unusually interesting this month, as one reader writes in to complain about "all the foreign artists." The editor first lists all of the American artists who are drawing for DC, then sticks up for the foreign artists, writing that it's talent that matters, not country of origin. Bravo!

Luis Dominguez

The House of Mystery 219

"The Curse of the Crocodile!"
Story by Michael Fleisher and Russell Carley
Art by Alfredo Alcala

"Pledge to Satan"
Story by Sheldon Mayer
Art by Nestor Redondo

Peter: Nazi engineer Heinrich Sturm is given orders by higher-ups that a bridge must go up over a lake in Tunisia in order for the Germans to attack a British garrison. The local Arabs warn that the structure will anger the crocodile god and refuse to work. The Nazis murder the Arabs one by one until the survivors have no choice but to give in to the demands. The bridge goes up but, eventually, the Arabs rebel and slaughter the Germans in their sleep. Only Heinrich escapes, heading to Rio. It takes decades but the Tunisian police finally track Heinrich down and chase him into the swamp. There, "The Curse of the Crocodile" finally catches up to Sturm and he's transformed into one of the scaly beasts. The new suit doesn't last long, though, as a couple of poachers come along and crack him across the skull for his scaly skin. A weird tale this one, as it begins promisingly enough but peters out midway and hits a dead end with its unsatisfying climax. No such problem with the art, however. How Alfredo had time to devote to the detail in these panels is anyone's guess. Nothing looks rushed; the backgrounds are detailed and dripping with dread and the human characters (a sore spot with Alcala) are getting more and more refined. Other than in dribs and drabs, we still have yet to see Michael Fleisher's full potential. That will change big time next issue when he and the Master team up yet again to produce what I consider to be the best horror story DC ever printed. Stay tuned.

"The Curse of the Crocodile"

Jack: Right now, I think that Fleisher is writing the best stories in the DC horror books, even if they sometimes miss the mark, as this one does. He really has the vengeance thing down pat and he understands how to build toward a horrific climax. I like that his stories tend to be longer than the usual 7-pagers--this one clocks in at 11 pages. You have whet my appetite for next issue!

Peter: In 1542, Scottish bailiff Walter Fridd knows that the gorgeous Widow Smirly is a witch and, when he confronts her with the information, she promises to teach him a spell that will spin gold from nothing. Once Fridd learns the spell, the rat turns Smirly over to the town for burning and turns his attention to the business of gold. Unfortunately for Walter, Smirly was burned at the stake before she could warn the man about possible side effects. Admiring the art of "Crocodile" and "Pledge to Satan" really hammers home just what this DC bullpen could do when it was firing on all cylinders. Redondo's visuals are fantastic and special attention must be given to the colorist as well (alas uncredited), who does a bang up job in what must have been a very difficult task, adding brightness to intricate pencils and inks. Just look at the scene below; there are several layers of color and shade distinguishing the different layers of the panel, giving the panel almost a three-dimensional feel.

"Pledge to Satan"

Jack: This was a very satisfying issue of House of Mystery, though, as usual, the art edged out the writing. I know you disagree but I prefer Nestor Redondo's art to that of Alfredo Alcala.

Jack Sparling

The House of Secrets 113

"Not So Loud--I'm Blind!"
Story by Doug Moench
Art by Mike Sekowsky and Nick Cardy

"Spawns of Satan"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Nestor Redondo

Peter: A doctor experiments on vagrants in an effort to create a being who can live in an ultra-polluted world. His rejects are dumped unceremoniously into the swamp but one subject, a blind hobo, refuses to stay dead. Now grotesquely malformed, the creature murders the doctor and his nurse and goes on a rampage through the swamp. Having heightened hearing, any loud noise throws him into a mad rage. Enter the very loud boys who are investigating the swamp.

Yet another variation on The Heap/Swamp Thing/Man-Thing story, "Not So Loud--I'm Blind" is an awful mess capped by one of the most unsatisfying non-endings we've yet encountered. I love how one of the brats thinks the solution to surviving the monster is to stand and shout at it. Why would anyone think that would help when faced with a lumbering pile of excrement? Doug Moench puts on display all the preachiness, pretentiousness, and preciousness so evident in his Marvel black and white work (now being discussed over at Marvel University). No kid, outside of one found in a Moench funny book tale, would name his cat "Gray Mouser" (after Fritz Leiber's sword and sorcery series, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser). Mike Sekowsky reminds us that not all of the DC artist bullpen is on a par with Alcala, Nino, and Redondo. Especially laughable is the panel of the doctor and nurse, ostensibly in amok panic but more likely dancing to one of Marvin Gaye's upbeat eco-tunes. Perhaps the only effective moment Sekowsky allows is the sequence when the boys fish a human skull out of the swamp. Yes, I'm grasping for bright spots in an otherwise soggy bit of landfill.

Jack: The most interesting thing about this story is the question of who drew it. The credit on page one says "Cardy & Sekowsky," yet the Grand Comics Database features a brief discussion of experts who conclude that it's more likely that Sekowsky pencilled and Cardy inked. I agree that Sekowsky's heavy black lines are toned down in most of the panels, but there are panels that are obviously Sekowsky and others that are obviously Cardy, so again I have to wonder who did what. We have seen very little interior art by Cardy in these DC horror comics, though he drew a huge number of covers, so perhaps he was pulled in at the last minute to finish the pages? Sekowsky was known for his speed, though, so it seems unlikely that they would need to pull Cardy in to finish Sekowsky's work at the deadline.

Peter: When the Bakers are attacked and killed by vampires, their five children are raised by the kindly townsfolk. Unfortunately for said kind folk, the vampires responsible were the Baker children themselves. They take their time picking off the town, one by one, until their eldest warns that the village may soon be on to them if they don't change their modus operandi. The five bury their coffins on a nearby hill and climb into a boat to hide in a local cave but the boat overturns and the children sink to the bottom of the icy lake. The frozen water proves to be a sleep-inducer and the kids stay in hibernation until the thaw comes. Once they drag themselves from the lake, they must trek to their coffins pronto or fall victim to the rising sun. Alas, the town has built a concrete playground above the burial ground and marked it with a memorial, ironically to the five Bakers, whom the town considered drowned. The rising sun leaves only ashes.

Here's another instance where I am perplexed and have to give a slight thumbs-up to if only for the nastiness of the whole thing. I like that we're almost thrust into the middle of a story when "Spawns of Satan" (a really dumb title, by the way) opens. The parents have already been dispatched some time before and our first glimpse at the Bakers is of five bloodthirsty  vampires. The concept, obviously derived from  Children of the Damned, is a creepy one that would be further investigated in films like Who Can Kill a Child? (1976) and fiction such as Stephen King's "Children of the Corn." The atmosphere, the viciousness of the children (they really dig being vampires), and the downbeat ending all add up to a worthy read. There are several holes in the story (How did the kids become vampires in the first place? Why did warm water suddenly revive them at the bottom of the lake?) but push them to the side and enjoy "Spawns of Satan" for what it is: a really well-illustrated horror story.

Jack: "Spawns of Satan" will probably make my top ten for 1973. The story is interesting and doesn't just have just one twist--the paved playground--but two: the memorial to the vampire kids! Between this story and "Pledge to Satan" in this month's House of Mystery, I think Nestor Redondo is the closest thing we have to Neal Adams at this point in our journey.

"Spawns of Satan"

Nick Cardy

The Witching Hour 36

"When You Wed a Witch!"
Story by Carl Wessler
Art by Romy Gamboa

"Death Held the Goblet"
Story by Leo Dorfman
Art by ER Cruz

"Any Two Can Die"
Story by George Kashdan
Art by Lee Elias

Jack: When Tod Oliver met Maura Hogan, he thought she was just an adorable redhead, but when they fell in love and he proposed marriage, she admitted that she was training to be a witch. No problem, said Tod, I have a secret, too! After they tie the knot, Maura's mother arrives and Tod learns that it's not all fun and games "When You Wed a Witch." She pushes Maura to use her witchcraft to get Tod to help around the house. But when she pushes too far, Maura turns on Mama and makes her take a fall. Surprise! Maura hasn't any powers at all and Tod's secret was that he's a warlock. Mama is sent packing and the two witches settle down happily in front of the TV. I really enjoyed this story, possibly because I read it after reading this month's issue of Ghosts, which is anything but enjoyable.

A typical evening at the Seabrook home

Peter: This is one of those stories that should be a page and a half instead of seven. There's no reason for Tod to hide his secret from Maura. If anything, it would have attracted her even more, so the only reason it takes so long for the truth to be told is so we'll experience the twist (which isn't all that startling). Romy Gamboa's art is pretty bad, with no dynamic or detail.

Jack: Marcello the Mighty Magician is practicing a water escape but it goes horribly wrong when his young assistant Helga makes sure he drowns. She takes over his act and becomes famous in her own right but, on the anniversary of his death, she debuts her new TV show and it features her magic goblet illusion. She did not know beforehand that "Death Held the Goblet," for from it she pulls various items that Marcello was wearing when he died. She snaps and confesses the murder, and from then on the only tricks she performs are in her tortured mind. A mildly interesting script is enhanced with extremely nice art by Cruz, though in one panel Helga looks like a guy.

Tell me that's not a guy holding the saw!

Peter: An atmospheric opening gives way to blandness and familiarity. It's just not a captivating story and Helga's screeching confession is particularly lame.

Jack: A dying old man has invited five people to his mansion to play a game for a great prize, but the participants soon realize that, in this game, "Any Two Can Die." One man is shot to death by another, but there is no escape because the house is booby-trapped. Mr. Platt, a gambler, tries to fix the game so he can win, but when it ends he discovers that his reward is to be locked in a room with the dying old man. Platt must play every board game in the room before he can escape but he rightly estimates that this will take the rest of his life. And the key to the locked door? It's casually tossed aside by the young couple who did not win as they exit the mansion. There's a cool story in here somewhere and I enjoyed Lee Elias's art, though he draws Mordred the witch as if she has Marty Feldman eyes.

A typical evening at the Enfantino home

Peter: The art of Lee Elias is so ugly that it's hard to concentrate on the story, I know, so I'll let you in on a little secret: the script is awful too.

Luis Dominguez

Weird Mystery Tales 8

"Final Take!"
Story by Michael Pellowsky and Robert Kanigher
Art by Tony deZuniga

"Portrait of Terror"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Bernard Baily

"An Evil Pair"
Story by John Albano
Art by Ernesto Patricio

Peter: A horror film director is tired of phony monsters on his set and orders his assistant to get him more realistic creatures. The assistant obliges by taking his director to an alleged haunted house where he is greeted by an assortment of ghoulies and ghosties. Not impressed, the director pulls at faces and hair, only to find the monsters are real and his assistant is their ringleader. "Final Take" has been done several times under different titles (which begs the question: "why would Mike Pellowsky receive a "Story Idea" credit for a cliche?) and once again illustrates the fact that Bob Kanigher should have stuck to war comics. The art by deZuniga is nice to look at but resorts to photo-realism a little too much (our first shot of the director is obviously derived from a still of Bela Lugosi) for my tastes.

"Final Take"

Jack: It's a shame deZuniga's beautiful art was wasted on this one-note story. I can imagine the pitch from Pellowsky: "OK, there's this TV director who's really mean, and he treats his actors badly, so his assistant hire real monsters and they kill him!" Once again, I realize that I could have been a comic book writer.

Peter: An artist can draw a subject and then bring it to life which leads to massive jealousy issues with his shrewish wife. When she orders him to erase his latest pretty creation, he decides he's had enough and erases her instead. "Portrait of Terror" is a rarity among the DC mystery stories of 1973: a really well-written tale with horrible art. Bailey's sketchy, cartoony style (which reminds me of Howard Chaykin's on a bad day) almost screeches at the reader with its annoying amateurishness. If you can get past that, however, you'll find a sly, funny tale with a complete surprise at its finale (at least, I was completely surprised).

"Portrait of Terror"

Jack: I wasn't. I knew by page two that Myra was going to be erased at the end. Bernard Baily was a great comic artist in the Golden Age but by 1973 it looks like his best work was behind him. Like Jerry Grandenetti, he seems to have gone in the wrong direction as time went on, because the art in this story is just plain bad. The only saving grace comes in the last few panels, when just Myra's head and then her mouth are left.

"An Evil Pair"

Peter: In the Old West, Victor and Vincent, truly "An Evil Pair," sell brown sugar and water as a cure-all to folks too ignorant to know better. Riding through a new town, they happen upon Miss Morby parceling out "magic water" to the sick and dying. Unlike their wacky water, this potion does seem to work. Sensing a gold mine, the pair plan to uncover the truth behind Miss Morby's healing powers. Victor tells the young lady that her magic should be spread out through the land so that others can be healed and that he's just the man to help. Naively, the lady agrees and shows Victor to the spring that holds the water. The con man strangles Morby and then heads back to tell Vincent the good news. A sudden case of the extreme greedies envelops Victor and he murders his partner, but not before suffering a mortal wound himself. Knowing he must get back to the spring pronto, he heads out of town but meets up with two well-intentioned men who take him back to Miss Morby's office, where Victor will get the attention he deserves. I liked this one quite a bit in both art and story. The two "V"s quickly accelerate from snake oil salesmen to murderers but the switch doesn't come off forced as it does in a lot of these stories. These guys really are bad dudes.

Jack: For once, I thought the story was better than the art. The twist in the tail was ironic and surprising without having to be ghoulish. I like the Old West setting and, though there were points in the story where I thought I knew where it was going, it kept moving in a different direction than I expected, right up to the end. Nice work! I wasn't very impressed with Patricio's art but it was better than Baily's in the story just before it.

Nick Cardy

Ghosts 20

"The Haunting Hussar of West Point"
Story by Leo Dorfman
Art by Sam Glanzman

"The Howl of the Black Phantom"
Story Uncredited
Art by Frank Redondo

"The Skulls of Pak Island"
Story Uncredited
Art by Ken Barr

"Specter in the Snow"
Story Uncredited
Art by John Calnan

Seems logical!

Jack: Who is "The Haunting Hussar of West Point," you may ask? The librarian knows! It is probably the ghost of Istvan Coltrin, an Austrian captain who was visiting West Point many years ago. He fell in love with a woman and her boyfriend killed him in a duel. Now, his ghost haunts Room 4714, so the school has declared it off limits. I love the theory that it was a pre-football game prank! That makes a lot of sense.

Peter: This is more like one of those one-page "True Life Ghosts" items you'd have found in the back of Scholastic Magazine when you were a kid. Not so much a story as an idea illustrated with just about the crudest excuse for art we've yet seen. Seriously, work like this from a professional like Glanzman is hard to figure out.

The native's reaction to a tape recorder.

Jack: If you ever visit Kenya, stay away from the swamp or you might hear "The Howl of the Black Phantom." Mark tried to make a recording of it for his old teacher but his friend M'buro was killed in the process when his foot got caught in a poisoned leopard trap. Mark was next to go when he was run over by a truck. Finally, his teacher listened to the howl on tape and ended up the victim of an accidental gunshot wound. I think that the lesson here is to stay far away from Kenyan swamps.

Peter: Professor Strasser looks like a DC funny book editor. This is the easiest kind of story to write. There are no explanations given for the phenomenon; we're not even told what the beast is or where the sound comes from.

Jack: It's 1943 and U.S. soldiers are fleeing from the Japanese on a Pacific island when they come across a ruined house with "The Skulls of Pak Island" guarding the front steps. The soldiers hide and, when the enemy approaches, phantoms scare them off. It seems that the skulls were all that was left of a couple of English settlers who were eaten by local cannibals. It's nice to see that Japanese-American relations haven't progressed much since the DC war comics of the early 1960s.


Peter: Nice Ken Barr art distinguishes the first installment of "Tales of the Haunted and the Damned!"  The series within a series will only last four issues on an erratic schedule perhaps because editor Murray Boltinoff realized that all Ghosts stories are about the haunted and the damned! At least we know from "Pak Island" that the spirits were on the side of the Allies in WWII.

Jack: Barbara and Lee Dickerson are on their honeymoon in the Alps and all Lee wants to do is ski. Barbara keeps seeing a "Specter in the Snow" and worries that her new hubby is in danger. She should have been more careful, because the specter was really warning her--on her first time out in the snow, she falls off the ski lift and is strangled to death when her scarf gets caught on another lift chair. See? I always knew skiing was dangerous.

Peter: So was Barbara Dickinson killed by a phantom spirit or was it a freak accident that tied her scarf around that pole? Hmmm. Gotta love that 1970s sensibility voiced by Lee when Barbara promises to obey her husband's wishes: "That's my girl! If you follow that line of thought, and know who the boss is, our marriage is bound to succeed!" Odd panel of Barbara looking into that bowl of water; either Barbara's got the neck of a giraffe or she's just taken her head off.

Jack Sparling

Secrets of Sinister House 15

"The Claws of the Harpy"
Story by Michael Fleisher and Russell Carley
Art by Jack Sparling

"Hunger"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Romy Gamboa

"Mr. Reilly the Derelict!"
Story by John Albano
Art by Jess Jodloman

Jack: When a large eagle attacks and kills a man who is out boating one day, Bruce finds himself promoted to vice president of the ad agency, now that his rival is dead. At home, his wife Janice spends her time training her large eagle to kill small birds of prey. Is Janice responsible for her husband's promotion by way of "The Claws of the Harpy?" She is certainly a shrew, pushing poor Bruce to move up the corporate ladder, something that seems even easier to do when the president of the company is killed on the golf course by a large eagle. The unlucky golfer managed to tear a bell from around the eagle's leg and, when Janice hears this, she suspects that her beloved pet is a killer. To her horror, mild-mannered Bruce has been using the bird to further his own ends, and to make sure she doesn't tell the police he strangles her to death. That night, he hears a commotion in the aviary and goes to investigate. Days later, the police find his body hanging in the giant cage, stripped of flesh by the birds, who have built a nest in one of the hips! Zowie! That last panel made the whole story for me. The funniest line had to be Bruce's: "Whew! I always thought the advertising business was difficult! But digging this grave is the hardest work I ever did in my life!" This, after murdering his wife!

"The Claws of the Harpy"

Peter: That's a real cool EC-inspired final panel so it's too bad there's nothing interesting to work up to that image. How the heck did Bruce train his wife's harpy eagle to kill on command? And how did the bird know whom to kill? Fleisher was probably inspired by the old Bela Lugosi horror flick, The Devil Bat (1940), wherein a scientist trains a giant bat to kill his enemies. In that entertaining flick, we learn how the bat homes in on its prey. No such explanation is given here. And about that climax: who is Bruce talking to when he says "No! Please! I didn't mean it! Stay back!" Is it the ghost of his wife? The eagle? And where's the harpy in the end? I need answers, Mike!

"Hunger"

Jack: Pity the poor vampire, stuck in a lonely cemetery with police guarding the perimeter. He's consumed with "Hunger!" How tasty the new caretaker and his daughter look! But what did they mean when they said they have protection against vampires? Oh, well--time to strike! Uh oh, they're vampires too! And two against one is not good odds. Looks like they'll get dinner instead of you! Sheesh! Vampires don't have blood--everyone knows that. Why would two vampires move into a cemetery just to snack on another vampire? The cops look so much tastier.

Peter: Can a vampire drink another vampire's blood? Interesting concept even if the story is lacking.

Jack: Charlie's face has been horribly disfigured ever since he performed heroically in a fire. His son's wife Peggy treats him like "Mr. Reilly the Derelict" and can't stand to have him around the house. After he is robbed and beaten in an alley one night, he develops severe headaches and finds that his wishes come true. He sees a boy about the fall from a great height and uses his wish to save him, but when he goes home Peggy still treats him badly. How depressing! A decent story with decent art but couldn't we have a better ending?

"Mr. Reilly the Derelict"

Peter: I'm a sucker for stories like this even when they don't make much sense (Why is Mr. Reilly so sure his "gift" is gone? Can't he just sit on his bed and wait for another bout of pain and then make his wish?). Warren used to publish little morality tales like "Mr. Reilly the Derelict" that triumphed over sappiness and presented rays of hope even amidst the crowds of monsters and maniacs. I'm starting to really warm to John Albano as a writer.

Mike Kaluta

Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion 13

"The Man Who Waxed--And Waned!"
Story by Michael Fleisher and Russell Carley
Art by Alfredo Alcala

"The Eavesdropper"
Story Uncredited
Art by Gil Kane and Wally Wood

Peter: It's a job gone wrong for hit man Brock Marsden when he takes out some competition but gets ventilated in the process. Escaping, he passes out on a country road and is nursed back to health by a wacky old crone who takes a shine to Brock. Little does he know, the old gal is a practicing witch who loves to torture enemies in her basement with the help of her wax voodoo dolls. When Brock picks up on what's been going on under his nose (and feet), he tells the witch he wants the secret so he can take care of some old business, she refuses and Marsden dumps her in a vat of boiling wax. Afraid the police may find what's he's done (and, besides the place gives him the creeps!), he hoofs it, the basement in flames. Unfortunately for Brock, he only makes it to the airport before he spontaneously combusts. The old woman had made a Brock Marsden doll. "The Man Who Waxed--And Waned!" is nothing startling in the story department but the presentation is nice and that's one killer final panel (below)!

Jack: Until I got to the last panel, I was going to write about my confusion as to why the old woman was killing random people in horrible ways. But the last panel confused the heck out of me. Why did Brock turn into a giant penis at the end of the story? And how did DC ever get this one past the Comics Code Authority? The old woman did appear to have an unseemly interest in her houseguest, but turning him into a wax weenie is going a bit far, don't you think? "My Lord" indeed. Kaluta's cover is stunning and its Golden Age/Simon & Kirby vibe makes me wish he'd been involved in the story inside!

Peter: Womanizer Frank Grogan falls in love with neighbor, Pythia, but the relationship can't go anywhere until the girl leaves her husband. Frank develops an obsession for the girl and can't seem to think of anything but winning her love. One night, Frank thinks he hears Pythia's husband beating her so he breaks their door down, only to find the man dead, the victim of a giant snake. With her husband barely cold in the ground, Pythia agrees to marry Frank and the two settle down to (what Frank thinks is) a wild wedding night. Wild isn't the word Frank's thinking of, though, when he discovers that Pythia is the snake that killed her husband and now she'll have Frank to do her bidding.  With a name like Pythia (Python? Get it?) and a suspicious speech impediment ("Ssssave me! Ressscue me!"), where else could this silly story end up? Why does this snake-girl have to marry to find victims? I wonder if inker Wally Wood (one of my favorite artists) is responsible for the worst art I've ever seen from the usually reliable Gil Kane. My teachers taught me in high school math that adding two positives always equal a positive but "The Eavesdropper" proves that theory incorrect.

Frank Grogan comes to the same realization many men do after marriage

Jack: You're not kidding. This story was awful! Little wonder that the writer remains anonymous. I thought Gil Kane was just doing Marvel work at this point so I wonder if he dashed this off a few years before and they pulled it out and gave it to Wood to ink.


Peter: The first issue of Black Magic debuted this month on the stands carrying the slightly misleading label "A New Simon, Kirby Special." True, it was a new title but it was stuffed with reprints of old Jack Kirby/Joe Simon horror stories from the original comic of the same title, published by Prize (50 issues, Nov 1950-Dec 1961) . The reprint lasted nine issues through May 1975.

Jack: For some reason, this cover stuck in my brain and has never left in the past 40+ years. The giant head is just so memorable! I really liked Black Magic at the time and bought at least the first seven issues, judging from a quick look at the covers online. Back in those days, it was exciting to be able to buy comics that reprinted stories from the '40s and '50s, since they were so hard to come by any other way.

Peter: Limited Collectors Edition #C-23 was the fourth LCE (after Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, SHAZAM! and Tarzan of the Apes--bizarre that neither of DC's iconic heroes kicked off the prestigious new format) and included seven stories from the first four years of the revamped House of Mystery. The stories were: "The House of Gargoyles" (from #175), "The Secret of the Egyptian Cat" (#186), "The Widow's Walk" (#179), "His Name is... Kane" (#180), "The Devil's Doorway" (#182), "The Poster Plague!" (#202) and "Nightmare" (#186). Was this the "best that HoM offered" in that first couple dozen issues? Well, according to my notes, I awarded five of the tales four stars when we originally reviewed them so it's pretty close to perfect.

Jack: That's a darn good sampling. "The Poster Plague!" and "Nightmare" were two of the best of the stories we've read so far.

Coming in our next Nazi-infested issue!
On Sale December 8th!