The Hitchcock Project-Make My Death Bed by Babs Deal [6.37]

by Jack Seabrook

"Make My Death Bed" was adapted from the short story of the same name by Babs Deal that was first published in the April 1960 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

The story begins as Bob Hudson, the coroner in Bellefonte, Alabama, is awoken at two a.m. by a telephone call. His wife Della answers and tells him that Ken Taylor shot and killed Bishop Darby. As they drive through the fog, Della is certain that Elise Taylor was the cause of the murder. Bish, as he was nicknamed, had been staying at the Taylors' home while his wife Jackie was spending the summer with her children at her parents' house.

"Make My Death Bed"
was first published here

The Darbys were a young couple who had moved south from New England; Bish, who looked like a Greek god, liked to sing folk songs and accompany himself on the guitar. Before long, he and his wife had joined the local clubs and his wife Jackie became best friends with Elise Taylor, the most beautiful woman in town. Bob and Della arrive at the Taylor house, where they meet the sheriff and find Bish "sprawled across the hearth," wearing only a T-shirt and shorts. Elise sits at the table, drinking coffee. She blames herself for seducing her best friend's husband and feels sorry for Jackie.

Elise begins to look pale and remarks that she feels odd. She explains that her husband came home early from a J.C. meeting due to the fog, surprised her and Bish together, and shot Bish. Della recalls taking Jackie to the train station earlier in the summer and being concerned about leaving her husband home in the presence of Elise. Elise drinks more coffee and Bob telephones Jackie, with Della on the extension. Elise reminds Della of the old folk song, "Barbara Allen," that Bish used to sing; the lyrics include: "Sweet William died for me today; I'll die for him tomorrow."

Diana van der Vlis as Elise

On the telephone, Bob tells Jackie that her husband is dead and she asks if she should turn herself over to the authorities where she is or come home to be arrested. Surprised to hear that Bish was shot, she tells Bob that he should do something about the saccharin. Della rushes to Elise, who is breathing shallowly; she tells Bob to call the doctor and examines the bottle of saccharin pills, one or two of which have poisoned Elise, who is dead by the time the doctor arrives.

In his brief introduction to "Make My Death Bed" in the collection Best Detective Stories of the Year, 16th Annual Collection, Brett Halliday wrote that "It is beautifully told, with a lovely sockeroo for its climax." Deal builds tension slowly throughout the story and plants clues to its surprise ending along the way by subtly showing Elise's decline and her excessive coffee drinking. Saccharin, which turns out to be deadly in this instance, was first produced in 1879 but gained popularity in the 1960s as a diet aid. In the story, the fact that Bish was dieting is mentioned offhandedly by Jackie as she prepares to leave on vacation; the revelation that Elise has been poisoned by the artificial sweetener that Jackie left for her husband comes as a complete surprise.

James Best as Bish

"Barbara Allen," which Elise tells Della is a "'song Bish used to sing'" and which she then sings herself, was an old ballad that was known at least as far back as the seventeenth century. In it, a dying man calls his lover to his side but she is indifferent to his suffering; after he dies, she feels guilt and repents before dying herself. The song became popular during the folk music revival that had begun in the 1940s and that was peaking by the late 1950s and early 1960s, when "Make My Death Bed" was published; the Everly Brothers released a version in 1958 and Joan Baez released another one in 1961.

The short story is set in a suburb in 1960, following a decade that saw more and more people moving out of cities to new, affluent communities. The bleak suburban lifestyle is contrasted with the passionate affair between the story's doomed lovers; one housewife unintentionally kills her husband's lover after having meant to kill her unfaithful husband.

The Deal family in 1960

"Make My Death Bed" is the first story by Babs Deal (1929-2004) to be published, according to the FictionMags Index. Born and raised in Alabama, she wrote short stories until 1967 but was best known as a novelist, writing books from 1959 to 1978. Other than this single episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the only other adaptation of one of her works was a 1979 TV movie that was adapted from one of her novels. From 1952 to 1975, she was married to Borden Deal, who was also a writer, and whose short story, "A Bottle of Wine," had been adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1957. According to a biography of the writer John D. MacDonald, the MacDonalds and the Deals became friends after the Deals moved to Florida in 1964; MacDonald later wrote to Borden Deal that Babs Deal had made sexual advances to him, a situation that suggests parallels to the relationship between Bish and Elise in "Make My Death Bed." There is a photograph online, dated February 1960, of Babs Deal and her children looking on as Borden Deal strums an acoustic guitar; perhaps he was entertaining them with a rendition of "Barbara Allen."

A mysterious writer named Henry A. Cogge is credited with adapting "Make My Death Bed" for television; I have been unable to find anything at all about Cogge and he has no other credits. The writer of the Wikipedia entry on Babs Deal writes that she adapted her own story for TV, but this is unlikely, since she has no other TV or film credits and this was her first published short story. Babs Deal's papers are at the University of Alabama and Boston University, but the online details of their contents provide no clues as to whether Henry Cogge is a pen name for Babs Deal.

Jocelyn Brando as Della

As often happens with short stories adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, past events that are described in the short story are rearranged and shown in sequence in the TV version. The show begins with a New Year's Eve party at the Taylor house, where Elise gets close to Bish, who plays guitar and sings part of "Barbara Allen." Jackie and Ken watch their spouses flirt with each other and Ken remarks that Bish "'seems to be quite a salesman.'" At midnight, Ken breaks up Bish and Elise and all of the couples kiss and wish each other a happy new year. This initial scene quickly establishes the characters and their relationships.

In the scene that follows, Bish and Ken play darts in Ken's living room as their wives look on; Elise and Bish leave together, ostensibly to get cigarettes, but Ken quickly notices that the cigarette case is full. Dialogue between Ken and Jackie establishes that the Taylors helped the Darbys get established in town and there is unspoken tension due to the obvious infidelity.

The third scene shows Jackie packing for summer vacation and chatting with Elise. Jackie asks her friend to keep an eye on Bish and to make sure he sticks to his diet, including using saccharin to sweeten his coffee; the scene ends with Jackie giving an ominous look as Elise departs. This is followed by another scene in the Taylors' living room, where Bish sings more of "Barbara Allen" to Elise. Ken is at the Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting and Bob and Della are sitting on the sofa, watching Elise and Bish. Elise asks Bish for the bottle of saccharin pills, having promised Jackie to keep him on his diet; Bob and Della leave to drive home in the fog. Bish and Elise are left alone and are soon kissing.

Biff Elliot as Bob

The next scene is the one that opens the short story, as the telephone awakens Bob and Della and she tells him that "'Ken Taylor just shot and killed Bish Darby.'" This statement ends the first half of the show. The short story's car ride from the Hudson house to the Taylor house is deleted; in the story, much of the background on the characters' relationships is provided during this ride, but in the TV show it is conveyed directly in the first four scenes.

The second half opens as Bob and Della arrive at the scene of the crime, where they find Bish dead and fully clothed. Elise says that she can't drink coffee without sugar and uses saccharin pills from the bottle she had taken from Bish earlier that evening. For the rest of the show, the dialogue and events follow those of the short story closely. While the story has two medical characters--Bob Hudson, the coroner, and Dr. Clifton, who is at the scene of the crime, leaves, and is called back in the end--the TV show conflates them and Bob is the only doctor.

There is an effective close-up on Jackie's face as she speaks on the phone and is unsurprised to hear that her husband is dead; this choice by the director underscores the importance of her lack of reaction. To make sure that the viewers get the point, Jackie tells Bob, "'The saccharin that I left for Bish? It was poisoned.'" This direct explanation is absent from the short story, where the message is delivered more subtly. When Bob hangs up and rushes to Elise, his foot knocks over Bish's guitar, reminding the viewer of the dead man and his role in the proceedings, and the camera slowly zooms in on Elise, who is lying on the sofa, her eyes closed. The shot freezes on her and Bob's voice is heard in voice over saying, "'She's dead.'" The show ends with an abrupt fade to black.

While the short story moves inexorably from start to finish, filling in details about the characters and their relationships along the way, the TV version plods from one scene to another without creating much suspense. The most effective moments occur during the telephone call between Bob and Jackie, but there has not been enough character development to make the viewers care very much about the people on screen.

Joe Flynn as Ken

"Make My Death Bed" is the last episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to be broadcast that was directed by Arthur Hiller (1923-2016). Born in Canada, he had a long career as a director, from 1954 to 2006, starting out in TV and ending up in film. He was president of the Director's Guild of America from 1989 to 1993 and directed 17 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Disappearing Trick." He also directed three episodes of Thriller and the classic comedy, The In-Laws (1979).

Diana van der Vlis (1935-2001) gets top billing as Elise. She was born in Toronto and had roles on TV and film from 1954 to 1989, including a starring role on the soap opera, Where the Heart Is, from 1969 to 1973. She also played recurring roles on another soap, Ryan's Hope, between 1975 and 1989. She appeared in Roger Corman's X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963). This was her only role on the Hitchcock TV show.

Co-starring as Bish Darby is James Best (1926-2015). Born Jewel Jules Franklin Guy, he acted in movies and on TV from 1950 to 2013 and readers will recall him as Jeff Myrtlebank in the Twilight Zone episode “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank”; he also appeared in three other episodes of the Hitchcock TV show, including "The Jar." From 1979 to 1985, Best played Sheriff Roscoe Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard. He wrote an autobiography called Best in Hollywood and there is a website about him here.

Madeleine Sherwood as Jackie

Jocelyn Brando (1919-2005), Marlon's older sister, plays Della Hudson. Trained at the Actors Studio, she was on stage from 1942 and on screen from 1945 to 1983. She was in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) as well as two episodes of Thriller and four episodes of the Hitchcock show, most notably "The Jar."

Her husband Bob is played by Biff Elliot (1923-2012), who was born Leon Shalek and who served in World War Two. He was on screen from 1950 to 1986 and played Mike Hammer in I, the Jury (1953). He was also on Star Trek and he was seen in five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Day of the Bullet." A website is devoted to him here.

Joe Flynn (1924-1974) plays Ken Taylor, who married the wrong woman. He started his career as a ventriloquist and a radio performer before appearing in numerous films and TV shows between 1948 and 1977, including The Twilight Zone, Batman, and Night Gallery. He was a regular on McHale's Navy from 1962 to 1966.

Finally, Jackie Darby is played by Madeleine Sherwood (1922-2016), who played supporting roles on Broadway in the 1950s and was an original cast member of the plays, The Crucible (1953), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). Her TV and film career spanned the years from 1952 to 1993 and she is most familiar for her regular role on The Flying Nun (1967-1970).

"Make My Death Bed" aired on NBC on Tuesday, June 27, 1961. Watch this episode online here or order the DVD here. Read the short story online here.

Sources:

"Babs H(odges) Deal." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2004. Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000023978/CA?u=lawr69060&sid=bookmark-CA&xid=a2a0047b. Accessed 26 Dec. 2024.

Deal, Babs. "Make My Death Bed." Best Detective Stories of the Year, 16th Annual Collection, Dutton, New York, 1961, pp. 39–52.

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

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

IBDB, www.ibdb.com/.

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

Limited, Alamy. “Borden Deal, Novelist, Plays Guitar, as His Wife, Babs, and Children Sit by His Side Boy Is Named Brett. Older Daughter Is Named Ashley. Younger Daughter Is Named Shane. (AP Photo Stock Photo.” Alamy, www.alamy.com/borden-deal-novelist-plays-guitar-as-his-wife-babs-and-children-sit-by-his-side-boy-is-named-brett-older-daughter-is-named-ashley-younger-daughter-is-named-shane-ap-photo-image526221613.html. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.

"Madeleine Sherwood, Staple in Tennessee Williams Plays and Films, Dies at 93." Playbill, playbill.com/article/madeleine-sherwood-staple-in-tennessee-williams-plays-and-films-dies-at-93.

"Make My Death Bed." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 6, episode 37, NBC, 27 June 1961.

"The Red Hot Typewriter." Google Books, Google, www.google.com/books/edition/The_Red_Hot_Typewriter/6muNo0ykt54C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=red%2Bhot%2Btypewriter&printsec=frontcover.

Scott, Steve. Profile: John D McDonald, thetrapofsolidgold.blogspot.com/2015/12/profile-john-d-mcdonald.html.

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

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "Martha Mason, Movie Star" here!

In two weeks: "The Motive," starring Skip Homeier!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 128: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 113

July 1956 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales 48

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Deserted Lighthouse" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★1/2

"The Man Who Stole a Skyscraper" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"The Man in Space!" (a: Bill Walton) ★★1/2

"I've Got to Hide!" (a: Mort Meskin) ★

"Medicine Man!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Last of Mister Grimm" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

An international criminal seeks to elude the famous Inspector Dumont by hiding out in a deserted lighthouse, a structure rumored to be haunted. It's not haunted but it is populated by other-dimensional beings. They offer sanctuary to the fugitive and he happily agrees, considering another dimension to be off limits to the stubborn Dumont. Alas, it turns out Dumont is from that dimension as well. On go the shackles! "The Deserted Lighthouse" has some good elements (the obstinate Dumont and the creepy atmosphere swirling around the lighthouse) but those are wasted by the inclusion of yet another dimensional travel plot twist. Visiting other dimensions is right up there with time machines for most over-used plot device in mid-1950s Atlas.

A skyscraper disappears and the only clues the police have is that a man with a scar and a tape measure (!) were seen near the building the day before. When the cops catch up to the man, he explains he's from another world and he was merely borrowing the skyscraper. The police don't buy his fantastic story so they send a head-shrinker into the stranger's cell and the doc uses fancy measures: he tells the guy that he's broken Earth law and he must now replace the building with one from the man's planet. Sure enough, the next day there's a really weird building hovering over the hole where once stood the proud skyscraper. "The Man Who Stole a Skyscraper" is bottom-of-the-barrel drivel in both script and art departments. The only panel that made me smile was when one of the witnesses mentioned the alien's tape measure. I wonder if it was bought at a nearby hardware store or if he brought it with him from Mars. And if the building disappeared, what happened to the people inside?

It's been a long eight years for Don Arlen, creator and pilot of Earth's first space station, but now it's time for him to head home, where his beloved wife is waiting for him. Now, finally, another man has been trained to fill in for Arlen and he's mere days from returning home to her. Then, disaster strikes in the form of a runaway meteor, a giant dirt clod that collides with the ship and risks the lives of everyone on board. Don must space walk outside the ship to fix the damage or no one will return to Earth. Don does what he must but, after the crisis is averted, he decides he really must stay aboard for a bit longer. A really enjoyable space oater, "The Man in Space!" has the feel of a SF strip written in the '40s rather than the '50s. The climax, where he delivers the bad news to his sweetie, only for her to tell him she'll do more damage to him than the meteor if she doesn't let her take the next shuttle up, is a rare happy ending that left me smiling rather than rolling my eyes.

In the nauseatingly predictable "I've Got to Hide," power plant worker Mitch accidentally blacks out a whole block of the city and heads underground to hide from the authorities. There he finds a race of weirdos who all have red 'F's on their forehead (for "fugitive"). Mitch scorns their offer of sanctuary and returns to the surface world for the requisite happy ending (the blackout wasn't his fault after all!).

"Medicine Man!" Harry Tinker thinks he's found the miracle cure-all that will make him millions but it's not to be. The formula he was given turns out to be a fake, given to him by... well, we're never told who the guy is but he disappears into thin air in the climax. Time/space continuum? Time machine? Extra-dimensional soda vendor? 

In the finale, "The Last of Mister Grimm," Henry Grimm is a tyrant to his adopted nephew, going so far as to take away an antique mirror the boy finds in their new house. The mirror turns out to be the gateway to another dimension, but when Grimm investigates, he becomes trapped there forever. The joke's on Henry and alone else who forked over a dime for this sub-par Atlas funny book!-Peter

Uncanny Tales 45

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Hand!" (a: George Roussos) ★1/2

"The Men with Green Blood" (a: Herb Familton) ★★

"Inside the Pit!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★★

"The Cure!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★1/2

"An Hour to Live!" (a: Bill Benulis) ★★

"Behind the Wall!" (a: Gene Colan) ★

Whitey admires Barlow, the best thief in the business, and has heard rumors that the man's prowess is due to the gloves he wears. One day, while following Barlow, Whitey manages to make off with the left glove. Knowing he'll look like a fool wearing only one glove (although decades later, someone took that idea and ran with it...), 

Whitey stops in at a thrift store and steals a white right-hand glove, unaware it once belonged to a minister. Later, while cracking a safe, he discovers his right hand refuses to partake in the illegal affair. No big deal to Whitey, and neither is the fact that he can't get either glove off his hand. But it does become a problem later when the thief sleepwalks and the "good" hand writes a confession to the police! I wondered why the "bad" hand didn't try to stop his counterpart from ratting them out. In the pre-code days, an axe would have solved the problem. George Roussos does his best imitation of lower-tier Colan but, otherwise, "The Hand!" is snoozeville.

Brilliant physician Mark Crewe has stumbled across an anomaly... two dying men have been brought to him for operations; both had green blood! After doing a little detective work, Crewe discovers the men are a part of a minority race known as "mutants" who only discover their "special abilities" at the age of forty. Soon after, Crewe realizes he's one of "The Men with Green Blood"! Early Marvel mutant concepts are intriguing but we're never told what special abilities these guys have, other than a "strange developing powers" mention. 

Some things never change and, in our distant but maybe close future, Fred Graham gets really tired of his wife Edna's nagging. Sure, he once exhibited initiative but that was years ago and he's comfortable in his job down at the power plant. Later that day, an accident at the plant bombards Fred with trillions of radioactive particles and reboots his energy. Suddenly, he's got the stamina and power of a twenty-year-old. 

But, alas, the blast also damaged his psyche and, before too long, Fred is telling his foreman that he'll be blasting the city with radioactivity unless he's paid a princely sum. Luckily, Edna is home from the mall and she hoofs it to the power plant, just in time to talk her hubby out of destroying life as we know it. Like "The Men with Green Blood," "Inside the Pit!" has some superhero ideas packed in its short length. The climax is sappy as hell but just do what I did and imagine an alternate universe where Fred pushes Edna into the fiery pit and goes through with his brilliant plan of destruction.

In "The Cure," two scientists build a time travel machine to go back to the dawn of man to wipe out flu viruses. The experiment works but there are repercussions.

Brilliant scientist Eliot Crabbe is given only months to live, so he does what any egghead would do in his position: he builds a time machine so that he can travel to the future and beat the odds. Unfortunately for Eliot he lands just as the last rocket is transporting the human race to another planet; Earth has run out of oxygen. "An Hour to Live!" is not a bad little SF yarn; it's certainly better than most of its company this issue, but Crabbe's logic muddled my brain. Why would his frail body be energized by leaping into the future? It's the same body.

Historian Noel Taylor hates the Great Wall of China so much he wishes he could go back in time and prevent its erection. Somehow (it's not really explained), Noel gets his wish and faces off with the emperor who oversaw the building. Having a hissy fit, Noel grabs a crate of gunpowder, fashions a bomb, and blows the wall to kingdom come. This, as all Atlas readers know, changes the future drastically. The plot device in "Behind the Wall!" is just about the most dim-witted we've stumbled upon during this journey. There's no explanation given for Noel's trip back in time. Not even the standard time machine. Some of Atlas's best artists (among them, Gene Colan) were being wasted on this crud.-Peter

World of Fantasy 2

Cover by Joe Maneely

"Inside the Tunnel" (a: Al Williamson)★★1/2

"It Stands in the Snow" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★1/2

"If...!" (a: Jay Scott Pike?)★★

"Midnight on the Mountain!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"A Cry for Help!" (a: Kurt Schaffenberger)★★

"One Night!" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel)★★

A modern-day submarine crew plans to test out Jules Verne's imaginary blueprints for going to the bottom of the sea! They travel a thousand miles and descend to the ocean floor, where they exit the sub and their heavy-duty suits protect them from the pressure of the depths. The crew encounter a giant octopus and take refuge in a cave, which leads them "Inside the Tunnel," where they find an open area with bright light. They meet undersea fish men, whose leader hands over an object wrapped in oilskin. Back inside the sub, they unwrap the package to find a copy of Verne's book!

Wessler's script is predictable, as usual, and the point of it is that the sub crew assume Verne did not have personal experience when he wrote his novel; the surprise ending suggests that he did. The story is of lesser importance than Al Williamson's art, which is some of the best we've seen in an Atlas comic in some time. It's a shame he didn't do more and it's a shame that Atlas didn't feature the work of more former EC greats.

A pair of explorers named Gregory and Oxnard trudge through the snow at the South Pole, looking for a rumored gigantic ice creature. Certain that "It Stands in the Snow," they follow giant footprints and climb a snowy mountain but find nothing. They are unaware that the previously-undiscovered mountain on which they stand is none other than the giant ice creature!

This story runs just three pages and I wonder if that was the plan, since the final panel that reveals the giant ice creature is turned horizontally at the bottom of the last page! Did Brodsky draw it as a full-page panel only to have the editor shrink it and rotate it?

Frank Roland sees a pretty girl standing under a streetlamp but doesn't have the nerve to speak to her. "If...!" he had gone up to her, he would have started a relationship that would have led to a marriage proposal. The only problem would have been the fact that she was from the planet Mercury and reverted to her original appearance every night between midnight and dawn. Frank would have backed out of the marriage just as she and her family were speeding off with him on a rocket ship to the first planet from the sun. After the woman gets in a taxi, having not been spoken to by Frank, he takes the bus home, where his sister introduces him to Lola!

The GCD suggests that the art is by Jay Scott Pike and it's got that slightly wooden, Golden Age look to it. Unfortunately, the title reminded me of the classic EC war story of the same title and this pales in comparison.

As he walks along a mountain, hunting unsuccessfully for uranium, Chris Corbin mopes around and thinks of what a failure he is and how he doesn't deserve his girlfriend, Helen. He falls off the mountain and awakens in a hospital, only to find that he can't move his legs. The doctor says that there's nothing wrong with him and his paralysis is psychosomatic, but that doesn't help. Chris is taken back to his mountain shack, where Helen soon shows up to care for him.

Chris gets frustrated and throws his Geiger counter on the floor. Suddenly, a huge, powerful man calling himself Torga appears in the shack, having traveled from the future along a time passage triggered by Chris's Geiger counter, which interacted with Torga's time machine. Torga is a master criminal on the run from the police; he grabs Helen and that's all it takes for Chris to overcome his paralysis. He leaps from his wheelchair and throws the Geiger counter at Torga, who disappears. The machine broke in the melee and eliminated the time passage. Helen and Chris rejoice at his recovery.

Who in the world was "Midnight on the Mountain!" written for? There can't have been many kids in 1956 who were scanning the comic book racks looking for a heartwarming story about a failure who suffers psychosomatic paralysis and overcomes it by his love for his gal! The art by Stallman equals the writing in poor quality.

Professor George Mason is so wrapped up in his scientific experiments that he can't be bothered with his wife and kids. He decides to build a team of unfeeling robots who can work all the time with no distractions and he soon moves to a remote house where his experiments can continue uninterrupted. Years pass and the house where he works begins to fall apart. One day a beam crashes down on George, pinning him to the floor, but the robots work on, ignoring "A Cry for Help!" Eventually, George's son shows up and rescues him. The lad is now a grown man who tells George that he stopped by for a visit because it's Father's Day! George leaves the house with his son, finally knowing the meaning of love.

The story is pretty bad and the ending is sappy, as are the endings of most Atlas stories at this point, but the art by Kurt Schaffenberger is quite nice. He has a clean line and can draw an effective panel such as the one I've reproduced here.

A cranky old Earthman named Pete is visiting Antares with other Earthmen. He complains that his life back home stinks in comparison to the great life people lead on this planet. After a man bumps into him on the street, Pete punches the man and is sentenced to death, since violence is not tolerated. He is told that he can have anything his heart desires during the "One Night!" he has left to live, but instead, Pete appeals to his captain and is released. On the way back to Earth, the captain wonders why Pete chose to return to Earth rather than spending his final night in the lap of luxury. What Pete didn't realize is that one night on Antares equals 93 Earth years!

My expectations are so low at this point that I laughed out loud at the end of this story, even though we've read this twist before. The art by Forgione and Abel is solid, as usual, and at least this four-pager didn't end with Pete learning a lesson and everyone holding hands.-Jack

Next Week...
Could This Be the Most Iconic
Batman Cover of the 1960s?