"Don't Look Behind You" is based on the 1944 novel, Don't Look Behind You! by Samuel Rogers (1894-1985), a WWI veteran who taught French at the University of Wisconsin from 1920 to 1960. He wrote six mainstream novels between 1927 and 1942 and, after a bout of writer's block, he wrote three crime novels in the mid-1940s: Don't Look Behind You! (1944), You'll Be Sorry! (1945), and You Leave Me Cold! (1946).
Don't Look Behind You! is set in the summer of 1943, when a young nurse's aide named Daphne Gray walks alone through the woods along an empty road near the college town of Woodside and ends up at the home of Dr. Terry Macfarlane, where a party is being held. Also at the party are Paul and Wanda Hatfield, Edwin Voigt, and Dave Fulton. Daphne's fiancé Harold soon arrives. Daphne thought that she heard someone else in the woods on her walk and she is nervous because the murdered body of another young woman had been found recently. The partygoers, a mix of college professors, their wives, and hospital staff, discuss the murder. Dave, a handsome, unmarried biologist, admits that he arranged to meet Daphne at the party after seeing her on campus.
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| First edition |
On their walk home, Harold and Daphne hear a scream and find a young woman who has been stabbed in the arm. Daphne stops the bleeding and they go home after the police arrive. Daphne visits the woman the next day at the hospital and learns that a man jumped her and she fought him off. In the week that follows, Daphne begins seeing Dave regularly while having dinner with Harold each evening. One night, she is frightened when someone tries to climb a tree outside her bedroom window.
Harold finds a napkin from the Macfarlanes' party in the woods and deduces that the man who committed the attack must have been at the party. He acts as an amateur detective and decides that the way to catch the killer is to use Daphne as bait. He begins to suspect Edwin, a brooding pianist and, two weeks after the first party, another get-together at Terry's home ends with Harold sending Daphne alone through the woods after dark. Edwin suddenly appears beside her and is caught as the killer and sent to an asylum.
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| 1950 paperback reprint |
Despite Edwin's capture, Harold tells Daphne that someone else may have been affected by recent events, so danger may remain. Daphne grows closer to Dave and realizes she no longer loves Harold; meanwhile, Harold grows more and more troubled. Eventually, Harold takes Daphne to dinner and she considers telling him that she is breaking their engagement. He takes her to Science Hall on campus, where he traps her and tells her that he knows she loves Dave and that he is going to kill her. She runs and is rescued by Dave, Terry, and Paul, who had begun to suspect that Harold was losing his mind.
Anthony Boucher noted "some fine chilling moments and a uniquely brilliant psychological plot" in Don't Look Behind You! in which the fictional town of Woodside is based on the real city of Madison, Wisconsin, where the University of Wisconsin is located. Science Hall, where the climax of the novel occurs, is a real place and Rogers drew inspiration for the book from it. Today the novel seems dated, but it is a brisk and entertaining read.
Barré Lyndon was assigned to adapt the novel for television. Barré Lyndon (1896-1972) was the pseudonym of Alfred Edgar, who wrote the screenplays for several good films, including the Laird Cregar vehicles The Lodger (1944) and Hangover Square (1945) and George Pal’s The War of the Worlds (1953). He penned three episodes of Thriller, including the Bloch adaptation, "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," as well as two Hitchcock hours; "The Sign of Satan" was the other.
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| Jeffrey Hunter as Harold |
The TV version of "Don't Look Behind You" (the novel's exclamation point is omitted) is the first episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour to be aired that was based on a novel and it premiered on CBS on Thursday, September 27, 1962, as the second episode of the hour-long series. It is the first of many examples of the difficulty in adapting a book to an hour-long TV time slot, a practice that the producers of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour relied on less and less as the series went on.
The opening scene effectively dramatizes Daphne's frightening walk through the woods on the way to the party, an event which had already taken place when the novel opens. Daphne is dressed in a bride-like white dress, with white gloves and a white shawl completing the illusion. It quickly becomes apparent that the events have been updated from 1943 to 1962 and, at the party, dialogue reveals that Daphne is not a nurse's aide but rather a student in medical school. Vera Miles, who plays Daphne, was thirty-two years old at the time of filming and thus about a decade older than the character in the book. Harold is played by the extremely handsome actor, Jeffrey Hunter, who was thirty-five years old, while Dave is played by thirty-two year old Dick Sargent, who does not share Hunter's matinee-idol looks. In the book, Dave is very handsome and Harold grows jealous of him; in the TV version, Harold's jealousy seems to be driven by Daphne's habit of paying attention to (or attracting attention from) other men.
The events at the party are similar to those in the novel, though their order is shuffled around a bit for dramatic effect. The TV show omits any mention of Harold's childhood, which had been a factor in the novel that seemed to influence his descent into madness; instead, once the party ends, Harold and Daphne set out through the woods, hear the young woman scream, and find her, wounded. This discovery ends the first act on a note of heightened action.
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| Vera Miles as Daphne |
The second act focuses on Harold and Daphne, omitting Daphne's nightmare and streamlining her developing relationship with Dave. Harold visits Daphne and tells her that he found a napkin from the Macfarlanes' house in the woods; he has a lot of dialogue and Lyndon's script allows him to explain the reasons for his growing interest in the case. After Harold asks Daphne to act as a decoy, there is another effective scene where she wakes up at night and hears a noise outside her window. The viewer sees a black-gloved hand reaching up the wall outside and, after Daphne frightens off the intruder, she sees a man leap down and run away. She immediately telephones Harold and agrees to act as a decoy. This ends the first half of the show on another heightened dramatic moment.
The third act skips most of the central section of the novel and jumps right to the night where Daphne will walk through the woods again as bait for the killer. She and Harold leave the Macfarlanes' house and set off along the path; once again, Daphne is alone in the woods, dressed in white. Suspense builds as the viewer sees the shoes of the man following her before Edwin is revealed. He admits that it was he who followed her through the woods in the first scene and the attack is more straightforward than in the novel, as Edwin prepares a cord behind his back and attempts to strangle Daphne with it. She runs, he chases her, and Harold suddenly appears with a flashlight and a gun, shooting and wounding Edwin. Subsequent events are foreshadowed by a shot of Harold staring at the cord and the knife.
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| Dick Sargent as Dave |
Later, at Edwin's apartment, Harold continues to show his jealousy of Dave, even though much of the novel's depiction of the deepening relationship between Dave and Daphne has been deleted. Instead, Lyndon's script increases the focus on Harold and his gradual unraveling. Act three ends with him visiting Edwin in the asylum, where he bends down close to the bedridden patient, who lies silent, staring into space. Harold asks: "'Tell me, that time with the girl in the wood, when Daphne and I interrupted you, that was all for nothing, wasn't it? We came too soon and you began it wrong; you tried to take the life without the ceremonial, so the compulsion stayed with you, then you had to try again with Daphne.'" Harold tells Edwin that he'll come again and Edwin replies, "'I know you will. I'm looking forward to it."
Up to this point, "Don't Look Behind You" has been a reasonably entertaining show, compressing the events of the novel into a series of scenes highlighted by a few scares. When Harold speaks to Edwin about "ceremonial" and "compulsion," however, the episode starts to lose its way as Lyndon attempts to inject language and themes of abnormal psychology and mystical rites into the narrative. At the start of the final act, Harold and Daphne are together, but he is starting to look insane, his hair growing more unkempt and his facial expressions highlighted by lighting that makes him look unhinged. The theme of jealousy continues, as Harold expresses his envy of Dave, and Dave joins Harold in spouting psychobabble to Daphne as he tells her that Edwin was "'yielding to an urge; such men worship dark and nameless gods--they act out the fantasies that obsess their unbalanced minds.'" This sort of dialogue comes out of nowhere and suggests that teleplay writer Barré Lyndon was trying to take the story in a Lovecraftian direction.
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| Alf Kjellin as Edwin |
The climax of the show takes place at the college. Harold does not take Daphne out to dinner and then to Science Hall, as in the book. Instead, he is seen alone in his office, handling a cord and knife (the same ones used by Edwin in his failed attack on Daphne?) with reverence before placing them carefully in a desk drawer. Daphne joins him and he pours wine for them both, calling this a special occasion. Daphne assures Harold that she has no feelings for Dave, which is a big change from the novel, where she falls in love with Dave and plans to break off her engagement to Harold. In the TV version, jealousy drives Harold insane and he acts on his feelings by trying to fit them into some sort of strange ceremony.
Harold opens the desk drawer and tells Daphne that she will be a "'final sacrifice'"; he takes out the knife and the cord and tells her that "'pain is only a secret name for pleasure.'" One can only wonder how TV audiences in 1962 reacted to this rather transgressive statement! Harold continues, adding that there can be "'no complete feeling of love unless the victim dies.'" Daphne runs into the lab next door and Harold pursues her slowly, walking almost like the Frankenstein monster at one point, holding the cord pulled taut between his hands. Dave arrives at the last minute and he and Harold struggle before Harold falls to the floor, unconscious.
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| Abraham Sofaer as Dr. Macfarlane |
The TV show ends differently than the novel. In the book, Dave visits Daphne and explains what happened and it's clear that they will marry soon, before he must report for active duty. In the TV version, the last scene occurs at the asylum, where we see Harold in a strait jacket, struggling against two guards who shove him into a room. Dave spouts more nonsense as he tells Daphne, "'He really caught this contagion, this spirit of killing, from Edwin; a strange and ancient illusion that by blood sacrifice you can reach a more intense communion. Jealousy unbalanced his mind.'" But the show's final lines are spoken by Edwin, who is in a nearby room: "'Harold is here. I knew he would be. I've been looking forward to it.'"
The last shot of Edwin, clearly insane but speaking calmly, recalls the last shot of Psycho, where Norman Bates is also captive and insane and speaks in a similar way. In adapting Don't Look Behind You! from the novel to the small screen, Barré Lyndon chose to focus on the book's moments of heightened suspense and to omit much of the character development, surely due to the limited time available. One of the book's biggest problems lies in the characters' motivations. It's never clear why Edwin killed one woman, stabbed another, and tried to kill Daphne. In fact, while reading the novel, I was not convinced that Edwin was the guilty party, though no one else is shown to be a suspect. Even worse is the conclusion, when Harold suddenly becomes a copycat killer for no clear reason. Lyndon must have understood that more motivation was needed for the TV version and he chose to focus on Harold's jealousy of Dave, even though it is misplaced.
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| Harold is looking mad! |
The biggest problem with the TV version of "Don't Look Behind You" is the nonsensical dialogue in the later scenes about dark rites and rituals. The teleplay doesn't lay a strong foundation for this and it seems to come out of nowhere; it's one thing for Harold to spout it, since he's going insane, but it's another for Dave to make these remarks, since he's depicted as normal. The result is an unsatisfying episode that has a few highlights--the walks through the woods, the hand creeping up the side of the building, the final scene in the office and the lab--but that doesn't hold together as an overall story where characters act in a way that makes sense. Director John Brahm's camera is unusually mobile, especially in some of the early scenes, and Vera Miles gives a good performance as Daphne, but Jeffrey Hunter is not credible as Harold and the music by Lyn Murray fails to create or maintain much suspense. One wonders what Bernard Herrmann might have done with the score for this episode.
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| Edwin in the final shot. |
Born Henry Herman McKinnies Jr., Jeffrey Hunter (1926-1969) had a successful career in film and on TV from 1950 to 1969, when he died following an accident. He is best known for his role in The Searchers (1956), for playing Jesus in King of Kings (1961), and for starring in the pilot episode of Star Trek. This was his only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Vera Miles (1929- ) was born Vera Ralston, and she was Miss Kansas in 1948. Miles was seen in three episodes of the Hitchcock TV series, including "Revenge," the very first episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and "Death Scene." Hitchcock first saw her in a small role in For Men Only, a 1951 film directed by Paul Henreid. Patrick McGilligan writes that "during the making of 'Revenge' Hitchcock grew so excited about Miles that he signed her to a five-year contract." She then starred in his 1956 film The Wrong Man as a character who becomes depressed and requires hospitalization after her husband, played by Henry Fonda, is wrongfully accused of robbery. She was supposed to star in Vertigo but when she got pregnant, she was replaced by Kim Novak. She later had an important supporting role in Psycho (1960) and she also appeared in two classic John Ford films: The Searchers (1956), with Jeffrey Hunter, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Her TV and film career included roles on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits and she remained a busy actress into the mid-1990s.
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| The hand outside Daphne's window. |
It's tempting to view the male characters' obsession with Daphne in "Don't Look Behind You" through the lens of Hitchcock's oft-discussed obsession with Miles and other blonde actresses; surprisingly, Miles sports dark hair in this episode.
Dick Sargent (1930-1994) was born Richard Cox and appeared on screen from 1954 to 1993. This was his only role on the Hitchcock TV show. He was best known as the second Darrin Stephens on the popular TV series, Bewitched; he replaced Dick York and co-starred on the show from 1969 to 1972.
Alf Kjellin (1920-1988) plays Edwin. He was born in Sweden and started out in the movies in 1937 as an actor. He began acting on TV in 1952 and continued until 1979. He started directing films in 1955 and worked as a director on American television from 1961 to 1985, concurrent with his acting work. As an actor, he appeared in the 1966 film adaptation of Jack Finney's Assault on a Queen and in "Don't Look Behind You." As a director, he was at the helm for one episode of the half-hour Hitchcock series ("Coming Home") and eleven episodes of the hour series.
Finally, Abraham Sofaer (1896-1988) plays Dr. Macfarlane; he was on screen from 1931 to 1974 and appeared in three episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Changing Heart." He was also on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, and Night Gallery.
Watch "Don't Look Behind You" online here. The DVD is not available in the U.S.
Sources:
"Don't Look Behind You." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 1, episode 2, CBS, 27 September 1962.
Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.
IMDb, www.imdb.com.
Rogers, Samuel. Don't Look Behind You. Wildside Press, 2018. [1944.]
Tramp, The Passing. “Carnival of Death, Part Two: The Life of Samuel Rogers, 1894-1985.” The Passing Tramp, thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2018/12/carnival-of-death-2-life-of-samuel.html.
Tramp, The Passing. “Reprint of the Year--Carnival of Death, Part One: You’ll Be Sorry! (1945) and You Leave Me Cold! (1946) by Samuel Rogers.” The Passing Tramp, thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2018/12/reprint-if-year-youll-be-sorry-1945-and.html.
Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.
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