"Appointment at Eleven" is a classic episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that features the only teleplay that Evan Hunter wrote for the series. Based on a short story called "11 O'clock Bulletin" by Robert Turner that was published in the February 1955 issue of Bluebook, Hunter's script succeeds in turning a mostly internal monologue into a dialogue-filled and action-packed episode.
The short story begins as Davie, an 18-year-old man, lies in bed in his room in his family's New York City apartment, worried about something that will happen tonight. His mother makes dinner and he looks out of the window and sees a girl looking at him from a window across the street. He yells at the girl and then tells his mother that he's not hungry and leaves.
Davie walks to the subway entrance and takes an express train downtown to Times Square, conscious of the oppressive summer heat. He sees a clock that reads 8:32 p.m., enters a bar filled with servicemen, and buys himself a few drinks; a clock shows that it's now 9:30 and he realizes that the event he's concerned about is only 90 minutes away. He tries to pick a fight with a big Navy man but the sailor is patient and doesn't take the bait. After seeing a woman who reminds him of his mother, Davie leaves and walks to Eighth Avenue, where he enters an Irish bar and has more drinks.
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| "11 O'clock Bulletin" was first published here |
A TV is playing and someone tells everyone to quiet down and listen to the eleven o'clock news. Davie yells for someone to turn off the set and ends up throwing a glass through the picture tube. He gets into a fight with a big Irishman and men converge on him, beating him badly and breaking his arm. Davie awakens in an ambulance, asks for the time, and learns that it's now 11:20 p.m. He realizes that his father was electrocuted 17 minutes ago and recalls that the man ran off with another woman five years before, leaving Davie and his mother to fend for themselves. When his father caught the woman with another man, he killed her, and tonight he was executed for his crime. Davie tells himself that he's not crying for his father, but rather from the pain in his arm, and when he tries to get up, he is held down and given a shot that knocks him out.
In a postscript to the story, author Robert Turner wrote that he often wondered about the people who loved someone who is executed and how horrible it must be for them, a topic he'd never seen discussed. The original title of the story was "Ricochet," since "an execution indirectly hits others than the actual victim."
"11 O'clock Bulletin" is narrated in the first person by Davie, an 18-year-old man who writes in the voice of a young man who is the product of a broken home. He refers to his mother as "the old lady" and she calls him "Davie," as if he were still a child. The whole story revolves around time and its relentless march from 7:30 p.m. until just after 11 p.m. It opens in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, where kids play stickball in the street and people lean out of apartment windows in the summer heat; in the days before widespread air conditioning, windows were left open for ventilation that provided little relief.
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| Clint Kimbrough as Davie |
Davie knows that his mother wanted to see a movie with him, a "nice dopey musical that wouldn't have any crime stuff in it," but he leaves anyway and walks to the IRT station at 181st Street. He sees a clock at Times Square that reads 8:32 and is angry at himself for checking; he wants to know but also dreads knowing the time. At the first bar, the clock reads 9:30 and he tries but fails to pick a fight. He observes a "blowzy old blonde hustler" kissing a drunk and she begins to remind him of his mother; the story's concluding revelation also suggests comparison with the woman with whom his father ran off and later killed.
More comparisons show what's on Davie's mind: Eighth Avenue looks like "a dirty, beat-up old floozy walking beside a pretty young showgirl..." when set against the glitz of Times Square. In the second bar, Davie sees a TV show about "a dumb blonde and her roommate"--another blonde. Eleven o'clock arrives and he yells for the TV to be turned off; when no one responds he smashes it, still trying to avoid the inevitable. He finally succeeds in goading someone into beating him, which suggests that Davie thinks he deserves punishment. The final revelation is conveyed matter-of-factly and he recalls an incident when he was a boy that made his father seem heroic and stoic. "That's what he'd looked like tonight when they did that to him, I knew," Davie thinks, proud of his father in spite of everything. He insists to himself that he's not crying for his father, but the reader senses the truth--Davie is still a little boy inside, unable to understand any of his father's actions, from deserting his family to committing murder.
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| Norma Crane as the blonde in the bar |
"11 O'clock Bulletin" is a powerful story of a young man in an urban environment who lacks the emotional tools to process a catastrophic event. Producer Joan Harrison chose wisely when she selected Evan Hunter to adapt the story for TV, since Hunter had a reputation as a writer of stories dealing with troubled urban youth.
The TV version sets the scene right away in the first shot, which shows Davie lying in bed, bathed in sweat, his wristwatch clearly visible; time will be an important theme of the story. Tossing and turning, he wakes with a scream; outside his bedroom window is a brick wall, a view that is even more claustrophobic and depressing than that of the short story. Davie's mother speaks to him from the kitchen and next to her on the wall hangs a large crucifix, adding a religious aspect to the tale and suggesting that Davie is Catholic and thus familiar with the concepts of guilt and sin.
Davie looks at his watch and sees that it's past 7:30; the curtains covering his closet are crisscrossed with shadowy bars, as if his room is a jail cell. There is also a clock displayed prominently on his dresser, making him unable to avoid constant awareness of the time. He picks up a pocketknife and fingers the blade, projecting subtle menace and misleading the viewer into thinking Davie may act violently. He takes off his shirt and we see that he wears a religious medal around his neck; he fingers it as he remarks to his mother about his father leaving, a detail that is introduced much earlier in the TV show than it is in the short story, where it is not revealed until the end. As Davie leaves, his mother stands in front of a framed print on the wall that depicts young Jesus teaching in the temple; like Davie, he is a boy among adults. Davie leaves and the camera pulls back to show the crucifix on the wall again. In adapting the story for the small screen, Evan Hunter has turned internal monologue into dialogue. In the first scene, the dialogue is between Davie and his mother, and Hunter adds religious imagery that gives new meaning to Davie's suffering.
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| Clu Gulager as the sailor |
The second scene takes place in a bar and begins with a close up of the wooden surface of the bar, where Davie's finger traces crosses in liquid that looks like blood. A blonde woman, older than Davie, sits next to him at the bar, trying to engage him in conversation. He tells her, "'I don't like blondes,'" establishing a dislike that is only hinted at in the short story, where he repeatedly notices blondes but never expresses an opinion about them. Davie claims that he is celebrating and says that "'At 11 o'clock tonight I am gonna be born,'" a statement that could be interpreted as presaging a religious rebirth of sorts. The woman compliments his wristwatch, bringing the focus back to time again, and he tells her that his father gave it to him when he was fourteen years old. Davie impulsively grabs the woman and kisses her, then reveals that he is only seventeen and thus too young to be served drinks in a bar. She asks what will happen at eleven but he refuses to tell her.
Four sailors enter the bar and, when the woman asks Davie why he doesn't like blondes, he tells a story of coming home at age twelve to find his father with a blonde. Davie explains that his father was a piano player who worked nights and frittered away what little money he earned. His father never explained why he had been with a woman other than his wife, and young Davie was devastated. The man left his wife and son two weeks later without saying goodbye to Davie. Davie reacts angrily when the woman in the bar asks what else his father did.
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| Sean McClory as the Irishman |
The third scene begins as one of the sailors, who smokes a cigar (as did Davie's father), intervenes when Davie is arguing with the woman, and he and Davie go outside to fight. As in the short story, the sailor defuses the situation. Hunter invents another new series of incidents here, as the sailor asks Davie to take a walk with him and they go to a soda shop and talk. There is a nice shot of Davie's face next to a mirror, the two faces representing his duality as he is torn between feelings of love and hate for his father. The sailor expresses anger at one of his shipmates, but Davie insists that his own anger is real. The two men look at themselves in a funhouse mirror and their bodies are distorted; Davie tells the sailor that "'Tonight, somebody dies,'" and there is a break for commercial that leaves the viewer wondering what he means.
The second act begins as the sailor misunderstands Davie's remark, thinking that he means to kill someone and trying to talk him out of it. The shot of Davie fingering his pocketknife in his bedroom, early in the show, suggests that the sailor's suspicion could be correct. "'I hate him,'" says Davie, "'when he's dead I am gonna be so happy...'" This ends the scene with the sailor. By this point, Hunter's teleplay has provided small clues as to the show's denouement without giving it away. Everywhere Davie goes, he is reminded of his father and of the relentless march of time toward the fatal hour of eleven; he tries to resist but he keeps seeing familiar things. Davie is a boy on the verge of manhood who is struggling to suppress painful childhood memories and become an adult; for some reason, he thinks that when his father is electrocuted, he will finally be free of his haunted memories and be born again.
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| Amy Douglass as Davie's mother |
After a brief encounter with a shoeshine boy, where Davie comments that "'There's enough time'" and sits down for a shine, as if preparing for a birthday or a funeral, the show's final scene begins as he enters the Irish bar. He sees a piano against the wall and is reminded of his father's profession. The bartender calls him "'sonny'" and asks to see his draft card as a form of identification to demonstrate that he is old enough to be served. A clock on the bar mirror reads 10:45. A bar patron with an Irish brogue tells the bartender to serve Davie, who then sits down at the man's table. Davie reveals that he is of Irish heritage, that his father came from Dublin, and that his surname is Logan, details omitted from the short story. A man starts to play the piano and Davie rushes over to stop him, surprised to see that the man is not his father.
The clock reads 10:58 and the Irishman talks to Davie like a father figure. Davie announces that his father is Johnny Logan and, just then, a TV news announcer reads a bulletin, saying that John Logan, the "'so-called love-nest slayer'" who killed his blonde girlfriend, was electrocuted at eleven. The announcer adds that Logan was calm and asked to see a priest, which brings the story back to the religious imagery seen in the early scenes. Davie smashes the TV screen and climbs up onto the bar, where he is pulled down by the Irishman. Lying face down on the bar, Davie looks at his watch and tearfully kisses the gift from his long-lost father. The last shot shows Davie lying on his back on the bar, his arms outstretched in a Christ-like pose. At long last, Davie the child has died and Davie the man has been born.
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| Michael J. Pollard as the shoeshine boy |
"Appointment at Eleven" is an excellent adaptation of Robert Turner's short story that turns narration into dialogue, parcels out clues rather than revealing everything at the end, and adds religious symbolism that gives additional depth and meaning to Davie's struggle. The actors are all utterly convincing and Clint Kimbrough gives a wrenching performance as Davie. Robert Steven's direction is also strong, keeping the show moving at a rapid clip and including shots that give subtle messages about the main character's faith and struggle.
Evan Hunter (1926-2005), who wrote the teleplay, was born Salvatore Lombino, but changed his name to Evan Hunter in 1952. He also began using the pen name Ed McBain in 1956. Hunter was working as an editor at the Scott Meredith agency in 1951 when he sold his first short story. His 1954 novel, The Blackboard Jungle, was made into a hit film in 1955, and he began writing the long series of novels about the 87th Precinct under the McBain name the following year. He wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock’s film, The Birds (1963), and was named a Grand Master by the MWA in 1986. "Appointment at Eleven" was the only episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents for which Hunter wrote the teleplay; two others, "Number Twenty-Two" and "Vicious Circle," were based on his short stories.
Robert Turner (1915-1980), the short story's author, was a prolific contributor to the pulps and the digests from 1939 until his death. He also wrote for comic books in the 1940s and several of his stories were adapted for TV in the 1950s, including one other for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Hooked."
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| Joseph Sullivan as George, the bartender |
"Appointment at Eleven" was one of the 49 episodes of the Hitchcock series that Robert Stevens (1920-1989) directed; he won an Emmy for "The Glass Eye."
Clint Kimbrough (1933-1996), who plays Davie Logan, was born Louis Lacy Clinton Kimbrough and served in the signal corps in Korea. He trained at the Actors Studio and appeared on screen from 1958 to 1975 and on Broadway from 1961 to 1965. This was his only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show.
The blonde in the bar is played by Norma Crane (1928-1973), who was born Norma Zuckerman and whose screen career ran from 1951 to 1974. She was in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Equalizer," and she also appeared on Thriller. Like Clint Kimbrough, she trained at the Actors Studio. Her most visible role was as Golde in the 1971 film version of Fiddler on the Roof. She died of cancer at age 44.
Amy Douglass (1902-1980) plays Davie's mother; she was on screen from 1950 to 1977 and also appeared on Thriller. This was her only role on the Hitchcock TV show.
Finally, Joseph Sullivan (1916-1980) plays George, the Irish bartender. He was on screen from 1945 to 1980 and this was his only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show.
Read the short story here. Read the GenreSnaps review here. Watch the Alfred Hitchcock Presents version here or buy the DVD here.
Sources:
"Appointment at Eleven." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 5, episode 3, CBS, 11 October 1959.
The FICTIONMAGS Index, www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm.
Galactic Central, www.philsp.com/.
Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.
IBDB, www.ibdb.com.
IMDb, www.imdb.com.
Turner, Robert. "Author's Postscript." A Choice of Murders. Ed. Dorothy Salisbury Davis. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958, p. 27.
Turner, Robert. "11 O'clock Bulletin." A Choice of Murders. Ed. Dorothy Salisbury Davis. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958, pp. 16-27.
Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.
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