The Hitchcock Project-Lou Rambeau Part Two-Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans [8.28]--OUR 300TH EPISODE!!!

by Jack Seabrook

Lou Rambeau's second and last teleplay for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour was "Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans," a disappointing adaptation of Encounter with Evil, a 1961 novel by Amber Dean.

As the book begins, Dave and Roberta Landis are driving home from a Memorial Day weekend vacation in Minneapolis late Sunday night when they get lost somewhere in Ontario and stop off around two a.m. at Cate's Cafe for pie and coffee. Their 15-year-old daughter Lauren, who was sleeping in the back seat of their white Buick, joins them for a moment before walking back out to the parking lot and unintentionally crawling into the back seat of the wrong car.

The Landis family have accidentally stumbled upon a car theft scheme, where stolen cars are driven across the border into Canada and the drivers meet late at night at the cafe. Lauren is discovered in the back seat of the car at the garage where the cars are processed; Dave and Roberta drive off thinking that she is in the back seat of their car and must return to the small town of Lennox to search for their daughter when they discover she is missing.

Lauren escapes and meets Pete Tanner, a high school senior, who takes her back to his house, but she is soon taken again by the car thieves, who also catch Pete when he comes after her. Lauren and Pete are drugged and left in a house that is set on fire by the crooks to cover their tracks and eliminate the young witnesses.

Dave and Roberta search frantically for their daughter, stymied by the town's crooked policeman. Eventually, Canadian police are tipped off to the car thieves and capture the crooks at the garage. Pete saves Lauren from the fire and the Landis family is reunited.

Encounter with Evil is a short novel where the events mostly take place in and around a small Canadian town in the course of 24 hours. The action moves back and forth among characters and locations and there is little suspense; the climax, where Pete rescues Lauren from the burning house, is described after the fact rather than shown. Dave and Roberta are detectives of a sort, faced with the mysterious disappearance of their daughter and forced to investigate what happened and solve the puzzle.

Amber Dean (1902-1985) wrote 17 mystery novels between 1944 and 1973. This was the only time one of her books was adapted for film or TV. Her papers are at the University of Rochester.

The TV version aired on CBS on April 19, 1963, and was directed by Alan Crosland, Jr. Right away, it's clear that there has been a major change to the story, since the family station wagon drives through the night and passes a sign reading "Slawson, Arizona, Pop. 1204." The location of events has been moved from the Canadian border to the Mexican border! The Saunders family (as they have been renamed) pull up at Cates Cafe, which a sign tells us is "open all nite," changing another plot point from the novel, where the cafe supposedly closes well before 2 a.m.

Dave and Roberta speak with British accents and desire "'a spot of tea'"--instead of hailing from upstate New York, as in the book, they are British tourists driving across the U.S. with their 17-year-old daughter on a sightseeing trip. The visit to Cates Cafe is streamlined from the novel, since there is no group of men meeting in the back room and Rose, the waitress, is a minor character. Outside the cafe, a similar station wagon pulls up and parks between the Saunders car and the door to the cafe, making it clear why Lauren sleepily climbs into the wrong vehicle.

She awakens in a garage in Dos Cucharos, Mexico, a town about 50 miles from Slawson. The first of three fistfights in the episode breaks out between Al, whose car Lauren mistakenly slept in; Grosse, a fat man who is part of the car theft ring; and Gato, the mechanic at the garage. Unlike the novel, where Lauren is treated kindly by the mechanic before she is driven to Rose's house and questioned, in the TV version Grosse grabs a tire iron and kills Al with a blow to the head. Lauren is seen sneaking out of the garage and the first act ends with Gato calling cafe owner Vince Cates to tell him about the murder and Vince instructing Gato to "'get that girl!'"

Michael Wilding as David Saunders

In the book, when Dave and Roberta return to the cafe, they are told that it was not even open at the time they had been there and that they must have the wrong place. There is no such confusion in the TV show, since the cafe is open all night. At the police station, Dave sees a map on the wall and immediately identifies Dos Cucharos as a possible destination for Lauren. In Mexico, the young woman wanders alone and is confronted by frightening strangers; as a pretty, 17-year-old blonde, she also attracts the attention of a pair of young men. As Grosse and Gato search for Lauren in the town, a kind woman brings her into her restaurant and serves her food, yet the crooks soon find her and are about to take her away when the two young men who had approached her on the street enter and the second fistfight of the episode occurs. Lauren escapes during the melee and ducks into a church, where she evades her pursuers. Her parents arrive in the Mexican town in the morning and, after an unsatisfactory visit to the police station, drive back to Slawson, just missing Lauren as she comes out of the church.

In act three, Dave and Roberta stop at the border crossing and give the guard a photo of Lauren so that he can watch out for her. In the book, Lauren meets Pete at a bus stop where he is waiting for the bus to high school. In the TV show, she is walking alone on a dirt road and hides in the brush when Grosse and Gato drive by. Pete then drives by in a jeep and Lauren flags him down. He agrees to drive her back to Slawson and stops the jeep so she can clean herself up. There is a closeup of her adjusting her hair barrette, a detail that will be important later. In an attempt to fool the border guard, Pete tries to teach the young British woman how to speak like an American; the actress playing Lauren was American and was putting on a British accent for the role, so she had to pretend to be a British girl trying to speak like an American!

Anna Lee as Roberta Saunders

At the border stop, Lauren's speech attracts the interest of the guard, who disappears into his booth. Pete drives off before the guard emerges, holding Lauren's photo! Pete and Lauren arrive in Slawson and visit the dishonest policeman, who accuses the young woman of making up her story about witnessing a murder and takes them to the cafe, where Grosse and Cato force them into the back room. In the struggle, Lauren's hair comes loose. In the novel, gangsters are in charge of the car theft ring; they have been eliminated from the TV show, as have the Canadian police who break up the ring. There is no confrontation at the garage in the TV show, nor do the crooks try to kill Pete and Lauren by leaving them asleep in Rose's house and setting it on fire.

Instead, the final scenes take place in the cafe, where Vince interrogates Pete and slaps him when he doesn't cooperate. Vince suggests staging a fatal jeep accident involving the two young people. In the last act, Dave and Roberta are at a motel in Slawson when they receive a call from the border guard informing them that he saw Lauren with Pete. They drive to Pete's home and meet Mel, his father, who accompanies them to Cates Cafe. Vince lets the trio in while Grosse watches from the back room with gun in hand. Vince denies having seen Pete and Lauren, but Roberta notices Lauren's barrette on the cafe floor and realizes the owner is lying. She shows Dave, who hauls off and punches Vince, leading to the third and last fistfight of the episode, a melee in which Mel disarms Grosse. The young people are rescued and Roberta embraces Lauren.

The last scene finds Lauren bidding farewell to Pete and inviting him to visit her in England next summer.

"Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans" is a poor adaptation of a fairly interesting novel; the TV version is streamlined and ridden with cliches, featuring a plodding script and pedestrian direction. Katherine Crawford, as Lauren, is the star of the show and does her best with the role; Michael Wilding and Anna Lee, as her parents, seem miscast. The three fistfights seem like trite ways to solve dramatic problems, and having Dave take a swing at Vince near the end of the show appears to be out of character.

Katherine Crawford as Lauren Saunders

Alan Crosland, Jr. (1918-2001), the director, started out as a film editor, working on features from 1944 to 1954 and on TV from 1955 to 1957, then began directing episodic television in 1956. He directed 16 half-hours and three hours of the Hitchcock series, including "The Woman Who Wanted to Live," as well as episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. Crosland directed a handful of movies, but his main focus was on TV, and he directed his last show in 1986. "Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans" was the last episode he directed for the Hitchcock show.

Receiving top billing as David Saunders is English actor Michael Wilding (1912-1979), who was on stage, film, and TV from the early 1930s to the early 1970s. He appeared in two Hitchcock films, Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950), but this was his only role on the Hitchcock TV show.

Anna Lee (1913-2004) plays his wife Roberta. Born Joan Boniface Winnifrith in England, she was on stage, film, and TV from the early 1930s through 2003, including a regular role on the soap opera, General Hospital, from 1979 to 2003. She appeared in Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! (1943) and Val Lewton's Bedlam (1946), but this was her only role on the Hitchcock TV show. From 1934 to 1944 she was married to Robert Stevenson, who later directed episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. One wonders if Michael Wilding was available for this episode and the script was revised to make the Saunders family British.

Randy Boone as Pete Tanner

Lauren is played by Katherine Crawford (1944- ) and this episode was her first TV credit as well as her only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show. The daughter of TV writer Roy Huggins, she went on to appear almost exclusively on TV until 1976; her final role was as a regular on the short-lived series, Gemini Man.

Randy Boone (1942- ) plays Pete; a folk singer turned actor, he was on screen from 1962 to 1987. This was his only role on the Hitchcock show, but he was a regular on three TV series: It's a Man's World (1962-1963), The Virginian (1964-1966), and Cimarron Strip (1967-1968). He was also seen on The Twilight Zone and The Night Stalker.

In smaller roles:

• James Anderson (1921-1969) as Vince Cates; also known as Kyle James, he was on screen from 1941 to 1970 and had a role in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

James Anderson

• Jesse Jacobs (1922-1998) as Grosse; he served in the Army in WWII and was involved in theater as both actor and teacher. He made a handful of TV appearances between 1959 and 1986 and was also in "The Big Score" on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Jesse Jacobs

• Eve McVeagh (1919-1997) as Rose Cates, the waitress; she acted on Broadway and on radio and had a screen career from 1946 to 1987. She was on The Twilight Zone and Thriller and she appeared in six episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Gloating Place."

Eve McVeagh

• Russ Conway (1913-2009) as Henderson, the border guard; born Clarence Russell Zink in Canada, he made numerous appearances on screen from 1947 to 1977 and also appeared on Thriller.

Russ Conway

• Kreg Martin as Al, who is killed by Grosse; in a short TV career from 1962-1963 he was seen on The Twilight Zone and in seven episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Maria."

Kreg Martin

• Jose de Vega (1934-1990) as Gato, the mechanic; a dancer, choreographer, and actor, he was on screen from 1961 to 1987 and had a role in West Side Story (1961).

Jose de Vega

• Frank Albertson (1909-1964) as Tom Batterman, the corrupt Slawson policeman; on screen from 1923 to 1964, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and appeared in four episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Out There--Darkness." He was also on Thriller and played Sam Wainwright in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). He had small parts in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and Psycho (1960).

Frank Albertson

• Karl Lukas (1919-1995) as Mel Tanner; born Karol Louis Lukasiak, he was on screen from 1951 to 1991 and had roles on Batman, Night Gallery, and The Odd Couple. He had begun his career on Broadway in the 1940s and was a semi-regular on The Phil Silvers Show (1955-1958). He was in five episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Bang! You're Dead."

Karl Lukas

Watch "Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans" online here. Red the novel here.

Sources:

Dean, Amber. Encounter with Evil. Roslyn, NY: Detective Book Club, 1961.

"Dean, Amber." Gadetection / Dean, Amber, http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930339/Dean%2C%20Amber.

The FICTIONMAGS Index, http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm.

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

IMDb, IMDb.com, https://www.imdb.com/. 

"Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 8, episode 28, CBS, 19 April 1963. 

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

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "John Brown's Body" here!

In two weeks: Our brief series on Talmage Powell begins with a look at "The Kiss-Off," starring Rip Torn!