The Hitchcock Project-Apex by John T. Kelley [7.24]

by Jack Seabrook

"For the female of the species is more deadly than the male."

--Rudyard Kipling, "The Female of the Species" (1911)

Kipling's assertion is supported by the events of "Apex," which aired on NBC on Tuesday, March 20, 1962, and which was based on the short story of the same title by James Workman, which was published in the March 1958 issue of The London Mystery Selection.

The short story begins with a brief scene in which Margo Cromer and Claude Bunsen express their love for each other and mutually promise to commit murder to eliminate the only impediment to their union. Later, Claude's wife Clara visits Margo and wonders where her husband has been. Margo is beautiful, Claude is handsome, and Clara is dowdy. Margo begins to make tea in the kitchen while conversing with Clara, who remains in the living room, when Margo spontaneously decides to switch from tea to coffee and empties a bottle of poison into Clara's cup. As Clara continues to express her concerns regarding Claude's whereabouts, Margo serves the poisoned drink.

Clara sips her coffee and tells Margo that she has discovered that Claude has another woman. After Margo washes out the cups and disposes of the empty bottle of poison, Clara begins to show signs of illness. Margo follows Clara back to her apartment, where, at Clara's request, she pretends to telephone a doctor while Clara quickly declines and dies. Margo rolls the sofa, bearing Clara's corpse, into the bedroom and closes the door. After a short visit to her own apartment, Margo returns to Clara's flat to make sure that everything is in order.

"Apex" was first
published here

There is a knock at the door and a stranger addresses Margo as Mrs. Bunsen; in order to avoid difficult questions, Margo says that she is Mrs. Bunsen. The man pushes his way in and throws her to the side so that she hits her head. He removes a picture from the wall, opens a safe, and removes jewels, papers, and money. Confirming that he has received payment, he tells Margo, thinking that she is Clara, that her husband is tired of her and hired him to kill her. As the stranger advances toward Margo, she realizes that Claude arranged to have his wife killed.

The key to "Apex" is found in the story's first, brief paragraphs, where Margo tells Claude, "'And if somebody has to die so I can get you, then they'll die.'" He gazes at her beautiful face and replies, "'If anybody has to do any murdering, it'll be me.'"  Unfortunately, Margo "wasn't listening to what he said. She was busy making her own plans." Most of the rest of the story concerns Clara's visit to Margo's apartment, where the women chat and Margo makes a spur of the moment decision to poison Clara. The women are contrasted and represent the stereotypical older, dowdy wife and the younger, beautiful lover. The final twist occurs because Margo outsmarts herself; by agreeing that she is Clara when questioned by the stranger, she seals her own fate.

"Apex" is defined as "the highest point or most successful part of something"; perhaps both Margo and Claude reach the apex of their plan to be together by arranging for Clara's death--unfortunately, their lack of communication has fatal consequences for both women.

Patricia Breslin as Margo

James Workman (1912-2001) who wrote the short story, was born in Scotland, grew up in England, and spent three years working as a policeman in London before moving to South Africa, where he worked in radio. He later moved to Australia, where he was both a stage actor and a radio writer. He wrote many novels between 1958 and 1968 and his works were adapted for TV from 1958 to 1978. He published short stories from 1958 to 1963, mostly writing as James Dark.

The TV version of "Apex" expands the character of Claude and adds several short scenes to highlight his double life and to underline the contrast between Margo and Clara. In the first scene, Claude and Margo appear to be a married couple, happily discussing home decor until he leaves, seemingly to go to the office. He exits Margo's apartment and pauses outside to light a cigarette before letting himself into another apartment across the courtyard. This is his home with Clara and it becomes clear to the viewer that he is leading a double life, with his wife and his lover conveniently located close to each other. In contrast to the young, pretty Margo, Clara is much older and less attractive; she questions Claude, asking if he is seeing another woman, and he lies as he toys with a golf club, foreshadowing the final scene.

In the next scene, Margo is fixing Clara's hair before a mirror in Margo's apartment, suggesting that she is making money as a hair stylist in contrast to the wealthy older woman. Clara tells Margo that she suspects Claude of seeing another woman, not realizing that the other woman is Margo. The two women have been neighbors for over a year and Clara reveals that she owns the company of which Claude is president. There is a dissolve to a shot of Claude and Margo kissing and she tells him that his wife suspects him of infidelity. Since a divorce would cost him everything, he promises to "'do it tonight,'" presumably referring to the murder of his wife.

That night, Claude sneaks into the apartment he shares with Clara, takes a large knife from the kitchen drawer, and quietly enters the bedroom, where his shadow passes over Clara's sleeping form, like the Angel of Death passing over the Israelites. Claude raises the knife to strike but realizes that he cannot go through with the murder. Back at Margo's apartment, he explains that he could not kill Clara and remarks that he will hire someone to commit the murder. Margo volunteers to do it herself but he resists and says that he will arrange it, but she says that if she leaves it to him, it may never get done.

The next day, Margo telephones Clara, who is lying, fully dressed, on her bed, worn out after a bad night's sleep. Margo offers to come over and make tea for Clara and, before she leaves, she takes a bottle of poison from a paper bag. Apparently not trusting Claude to get the job done, Margo has decided to take matters into her own hands. At Clara's apartment, Claude's wife tells Margo once again that she is concerned about her husband's whereabouts. Certain that he has another woman, she reports that he left his office at 10 a.m. and is not at his club.

In the kitchen, Margo prepares a cup of tea that is heavily laced with poison. Clara surprises her in the process and relates a nightmare that she had the night before in which Claude was trying to kill her; she does not know that it was no dream. Just then, Claude telephones and soon Clara is again lying on her bed, relieved to have learned that her husband is at the golf club. Margo serves her the deadly cup of tea and Clara remarks on how bitter it tastes. Margo encourages her to finish it, which she does, leading to sudden stomach pains. Clara asks Margo to call the doctor and Margo pretends to do so as Clara dies.

Mark Miller as Claude

After Margo washes out the teacup and returns it to the kitchen cabinet, she presses Clara's fingerprints onto the bottle of poison and places the bottle on Clara's nightstand in order to stage the scene as a suicide. Margo is walking to the front door when the doorbell rings. A man identifying himself as George Weeks calls from outside, addressing Margo as Mrs. Shorum (Clara's surname was Bunsen in the short story but it has been changed to Shorum for the TV show). He enters and tells Margo that her husband sent him to pick up an envelope from the desk. He tells her that he's a caddy at the golf club and picks up the same club that Claude had been playing with in the earlier scene. Margo finds the envelope in Claude's desk drawer and hands it to Weeks, who looks inside and confirms that it contains $2000. He admits that Claude paid him to kill his wife before lifting the golf club over his head and bludgeoning Margo.

In "Apex," is the female deadlier than the male? Comparing Margo and Claude, it would appear so, since he is unable to go through with the murder of his wife while she has no difficulty committing the crime. The wealthy, privileged Claude must hire someone from a lower socio-economic class to do the deed, and George Weeks tells Margo that, despite two years of college, the best job he could get was as a caddy. Much like many young American men of today, George is frustrated that the life he envisioned for himself has not worked out and he is willing to commit a violent act for money. In retrospect, Claude's telephone call to Clara set up the final scene, since Weeks tells Margo that Claude had called and said to expect him to come to pick up the envelope. Margo was unaware of the contents of that telephone call and finds herself in a no-win situation at the end, having just murdered Clara and knowing that if she admitted her true identity to the young man, she would be suspected of the killing. One could interpret George's use of a golf club to murder Margo as subtle social criticism, using a symbol of wealth to kill a woman who had earlier described herself as poor. "Apex" pits young against old and rich against poor in a contest that has no winners.

The teleplay was written by John T. Kelley (1921-1972), who wrote for TV from 1951 to 1971 and whose few movie credits include some dialogue for Planet of the Apes (1968). This was one of two scripts he wrote for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Vivienne Segal as Clara

Patricia Breslin (1931-2011) portrays Margo as a cold, calculating woman, unlike the roles for which she is best remembered. She acted mostly on TV from 1950 to 1969 and was in five episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "O Youth and Beauty!" She was a regular on a series called The People's Choice (1955-1958) and on Peyton Place (1964-1965); she also made appearances on The Twilight Zone and Thriller. She was in a handful of films, including Homicidal (1961) and I Saw What You Did (1965), and she left acting in 1969 and married Art Modell, owner of the Cleveland Browns football team. She spent the rest of her life engaged in philanthropy.

Clara is played by Vivienne Segal (1897-1992), who began singing opera at age 15 and performed in the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1920s. She was often featured in Broadway shows from 1915 to 1953 and appeared in seven films from 1930 to 1934. She made four TV appearances between 1951 and 1966, two of which were on Alfred Hitchcock Presents; the other is "Hooked," where she also plays the older wife. She was married to Hubbell Robinson, who was an executive at CBS from 1947 to 1959 before leaving to produce TV shows, including Thriller.

George Kane as George Weeks

Mark Miller (1924-2022) plays Claude in his only role on the Hitchcock TV show. Born Claude Herbert Miller Jr., he acted mostly on TV from 1957 to 1982 and was a regular on two series, Guestward, Ho (1960-1961) and Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965-1967) He was in one episode of  The Twilight Zone.

Finally, George Kane (1926-2006) plays George Weeks; he was on TV from 1951 to 1964 and appeared in one film, the adaptation of David Goodis's The Burglar (1957). He was on Thriller twice and he was in two other episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Cop for a Day."

"Apex" is directed by Alan Crosland, Jr. (1918-2001), who 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.

Watch "Apex" online here.

Sources:

"Apex." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 7, episode 24, NBC, 20 March 1962.

The FICTIONMAGS Index, www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/0start.htm.

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

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

Stephensen-Payne, Phil. Galactic Central, www.philsp.com.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Workman, James. "Apex." The London Mystery Selection no. 36, March 1958, pp. 89-95.

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