The Hitchcock Project-Albert E. Lewin and Burt Styler, Part Two-Craig's Will [5.23]

by Jack Seabrook

Anthology shows in the early days of TV would sometimes feature episodes that were not necessarily in sync with what viewers were expecting. "Craig's Will" is such an entry in Alfred Hitchcock Presents--it's about as close to a half-hour situation comedy as the series would ever show. It's not surprising that the teleplay is by Burt Styler and Albert Lewin; after all, the duo made their name writing humor.

"Craig's Will" aired on March 6, 1960, and the credits say that the teleplay is based on a story by Valerie Dyke. Despite exhaustive research, I have been unable to locate any such published story or, for that matter, anything else by Valerie Dyke.

This photo of Valerie
Dyke was published
in 1942.

Valerie Dyke was born Ruth Valerie Edmonds in Toronto in 1915. She grew up in Canada but moved to New York City and modeled for a few years before marrying Collier Young, a Hollywood writer who would go on to be a notable TV producer. The wedding was a social event; one of the groomsmen was Nelson Rockefeller. The couple planned to live in Beverly Hills. They were divorced in 1946 and Valerie went on to marry Kenneth Dyke, a brigadier general and an ad executive at NBC. Valerie Dyke was married to two prominent men, both of whom worked in the entertainment industry, and it is possible that she had an idea for a story that was the germ of the episode that became "Craig's Will." Mrs. Dyke died in 1965.

"Craig's Will" opens and closes in a psychiatrist's office, as a beautiful woman named Judy tells her story to the doctor. In the opening sequence, only her legs are shown as she reclines on the couch. In voiceover narration that will come and go throughout the episode, she explains to the doctor that she set her sights on Wilbur Craig, the only millionaire in Craigsville, and when he died, she transferred her focus to his son, Thomas Craig, whom she describes as "'not bad looking, not too smart, but best of all, unmarried.'"

Dick Van Dyke as Thomas Craig

A lawyer reads Craig's will and, to everyone's surprise, he leaves most of his fortune to his dog, Casper, and only one dollar to his son, Thomas, who is allowed free room and board at the mansion and who will inherit what's left when the dog dies. When Thomas visits Judy at her apartment and breaks the news, her thoughts turn immediately to murder and she uses baby talk and plenty of passionate kisses and caresses to convince her boyfriend that he must kill the dog.

Craig buys a hunting rifle and takes Casper out to the woods, intending to shoot him, but his plan is foiled when another hunter appears. Even after the hunter leaves, Thomas cannot bring himself to kill the friendly dog. Judy's charms no longer work on Thomas, so she goes to the office of a private investigator, Vincent Noonan, who is at first reluctant when she tells him his assignment. "'It would be a snap if you wanted me to follow this dog or rough him up or maybe get some pictures of him in a motel,'" says Vincent, but when Judy offers him $1000 (plus expenses), he quickly agrees.

Stella Stevens as Judy

Judy brings Noonan to the Craig mansion and introduces him as her cousin, who plans to stay awhile. He ponders how to kill the dog and make it look like an accident and, after seeing that the butler gives the dog a steak every night for dinner, the private eye takes ant poison from the kitchen cabinet and applies a liberal dose to a steak that he finds in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, Loomis is served the same steak for dinner that evening and barely survives.

Finally, the private detective takes Casper out in a rowboat, intending to drown the dog and explaining to his canine passenger that "'it's strictly business.'" Loomis stands up in the boat, lifts the oar as if to strike the dog, and the scene dissolves back to the mansion, where Noonan soon turns up with Casper, explaining that "'that dog saved my life.'" As Judy loudly chides Noonan and says that she'll kill Casper herself, Thomas Craig walks in and hears her, and the jig is up. Judy's baby talk no longer works on her fiancé and the show ends back where it began, with her telling her story to the psychiatrist in his office. Judy admits that the only solution is "'to become a dog and marry Casper;'" she lets out a few barks and the screen fades to black.

Paul Stewart as Vincent Noonan

"Craig's Will" is a black comedy, but it doesn't work nearly as well as Lewin and Styler's previous teleplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Cheap is Cheap," in large part because of the dog at the center of the story. There are too many shots of Casper looking cute and, unlike the wife in the prior episode, who is killed at the end without her killer being punished, it was too much to expect viewers to accept the murder of a dog. Instead, the writers present a series of failed attempts at canine homicide, ending with the architect of the plan giving in and deciding that if she can't beat the dog, she must join him.

This episode aired in early March 1960, so it probably was filmed in early January of that year. Stella Stevens, the star of "Craig's Will," who narrates the show and manipulates the men around her to try to get what she wants, was the Playmate of the Month for January 1960 in Playboy magazine, and she uses her allure in front of the camera in this TV show to great effect. Yet she is not just a pretty face, since she portrays Judy as an intelligent, calculating woman who knows how to change her approach to a man to achieve her ends. At one moment she is using baby talk on Thomas Craig and kissing him passionately to overcome his aversion to killing Casper; at another, she is offering cold, hard cash to Vincent Noonan to persuade him to accomplish the same goal.

Harry Tyler as Sam Loomis

Dick Van Dyke plays Thomas Craig, and his character is not very different from the character he would soon play on The Dick Van Dyke Show to great success. The actor was unknown when this episode was filmed and aired, but only five weeks after it premiered on CBS, Van Dyke opened on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie, the show that would make him a star and for which he would win a Tony Award.

Paul Stewart steals the show in "Craig's Will" as Noonan, the ethically shady private investigator who is eventually won over by Casper. He strikes the perfect note between drama and comedy, seeming like a character out of film noir who doesn't realize he's in a comic situation. Without Stewart's deadpan performance, the episode would be much less enjoyable.

Joseph Holland as the lawyer

In the end, "Craig's Will" is a below average episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. There are some funny moments and it's tightly plotted with a solid structure; the cast is good and there's not a poor performance in the half hour. But the writers' inability to go through with Judy's plan to kill Casper dooms the show, and the weak ending is a letdown.

This is the only episode of the series to be directed by Gene Reynolds (1923-2020), who was born Eugene Reynolds Blumenthal. He started out as a child actor in films in 1934 and continued acting in film and on TV until 1967. He began directing TV shows in 1957 and later had success as a TV writer and producer. Among the shows he directed were My Three Sons, Hogan's Heroes, M*A*S*H, and Lou Grant; he also produced M*A*S*H and Lou Grant in the '70s and '80s. Along the way he won six Emmy Awards and became president of the Director's Guild, a position he held from 1993 to 1997.

Almira Sessions as Martha Henderson

Dick Van Dyke (1925- ) started out on TV and starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 to 1966, fitting in an important role in Mary Poppins in 1964. He went on to a long career on screen that included another successful TV series, Diagnosis Murder (1993-2001). In addition to his Tony for Bye Bye Birdie, he won four Emmy Awards and is in the Television Hall of Fame.

Stella Stevens (1938-2023) was born Estelle Eggleston and was on screen from 1959 to 2010. "Craig's Will" was her first TV appearance. Among her many films was The Poseidon Adventure (1972).

Maurice Manson

Paul Stewart (1908-1986) was born Paul Sternberg and used his gravelly voice to good advantage on radio from the 1930s to the 1950s. A member of the Mercury Theatre, he was in Orson Welles's radio production of "The War of the Worlds" and appeared on screen from 1937 to 1985, including films such as Citizen Kane (41) and Kiss Me Deadly (55).

"Craig's Will" was the only time any of its three stars appeared on the Hitchcock TV series.

In smaller roles:

• Harry Tyler (1888-1961) as Sam Loomis, the butler; he has hundreds of credits and always seems to have played bit parts; he started out in film in 1929 and worked steadily up to his death. He had minor roles in 11 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; "Craig's Will" was his last.
• Joseph Holland (1910-1994) as the lawyer who reads the will; he was a member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre and appeared on stage, radio, and TV from 1934 to 1961.
• Almira Sessions (1888-1974) as Martha Henderson, the housekeeper who receives a small inheritance; her first stage role was in 1909 and regular appearances on radio followed. She appeared in numerous films and TV shows from 1932 to 1972, including Night Gallery and one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "The Dusty Drawer."

Stephen Roberts

• Maurice Manson (1913-2002) as the hunter with the thick glasses; he was on screen from 1948 to 1982 and can be seen in five episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "I Saw the Whole Thing."
• Stephen Roberts (1917-1999) as the psychiatrist; he was on film and TV from 1943 to 1986 and appeared in one episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "An Unlocked Window."
• Casper the dog was played by Red, who appeared on various TV shows from 1960 to 1966; "Craig's Will" was his first role. He also had a recurring role on Get Smart as Agent K-13/Fang.

Red as Casper

Watch "Craig's Will" online here or order the DVD here. Read the GenreSnaps review of this episode here. Thanks to Art Lortie for helping track down Valerie Dyke!

Sources:

Bird, David. "Kenneth R. Dyke Is Dead at 81; Helped to Democratize Japanese; Pressed for Freedom of Speech Returned to Service in 1942." The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Jan. 1980, www.nytimes.com/1980/01/18/archives/kenneth-r-dyke-is-dead-at-81-helped-to-democratize-japanese-pressed.html. 

"Collier Young and Ruth Valerie Edmonds." Who’s Dated Who?, www.whosdatedwho.com/dating/collier-young-and-ruth-valerie-edmonds#google_vignette. 

"Craig's Will." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 5, episode 23, CBS, 6 March 1960.

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

"Gene Reynolds." Television Academy Interviews, 6 July 2023, interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/gene-reynolds. 

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

IBDB, www.ibdb.com. 

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

RUSC Old Time Radio, www.rusc.com.

"Ruth Valerie (Edmonds) Dyke." WikiTree, 25 June 2020, www.wikitree.com/wiki/Edmonds-

712#:~:text=Valerie%20was%20the%20wife%20of,and%20Georgiana%20Elizabeth%20Miriam%20Sweeny. 

"Toronto Girl Is Wedded to Writer of Hollywood." The Toronto Daily Star, 8 Mar. 1938. 

"Wedding in Chapel for Ruth Edmonds." New York Times, 9 Mar. 1938, p. 26.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "I Killed the Count," part one here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Craig's Will" here!

In two weeks: "The Cheyney Vase," starring Patricia Collinge and Darren McGavin!

The Hitchcock Project-Albert E. Lewin and Burt Styler, Part One-Cheap is Cheap [4.26]

by Jack Seabrook

Albert E. Lewin and Burt Styler wrote the teleplays for two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Cheap is Cheap" and "Craig's Will," both of which explore the lighter side of murder.

Albert E. Lewin (1916-1996) was an animation artist at the Disney studio in the late 1930s and early 1940s, working on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Fantasia (1940), and Pinocchio (1940). He also wrote gags for radio comedians including Bob Hope and Jack Benny. He began writing for the movies in 1949 and for TV in 1955. Among his many TV scripts are episodes of My Favorite Martian and The Odd Couple. His papers are archived at UCLA.

Burt Styler (1925-2011) served in the infantry in WWII and began writing for radio after the war, teaming up with Albert E. Lewin. He placed one short story in a pulp magazine in 1949 and wrote gags, movies, and TV shows with his partner until they split in 1966. Styler went on the write for The Carol Burnett Show and won an Emmy for a 1972 episode of All in the Family. Styler and Lewin wrote at least one episode of The Dennis Day Show in 1954.

* * *

In an interview, Burt Styler said that he and Lewin had a story idea for Markham, a private eye series starring Ray Milland that ran from 1959 to 1960. The idea was thought to be too strange for that show, so the producer called Joan Harrison, who was producing Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and she gave the go-ahead for the duo to write the script. Styler added that it was written for Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester, but the show was filmed starring Dennis Day and Alice Backes.

Dennis Day as Alexander Gifford

"Cheap is Cheap" is a superb example of the macabre humor that usually was found in Hitchcock's remarks before and after each episode of the TV show, an extension of the sort of humor displayed in his film, The Trouble with Harry (1955). Yet there is no happy ending in this episode, and the consistency among the characters, who each behave the same way from start to finish and never change, makes it a delight.

The show begins as Alexander Gifford, played by Dennis Day, trudges up the stairs to his apartment and laments in voiceover that he did not get a Christmas bonus. The first sign of his extraordinary cheapness is that he does not lament his inability to splurge or to buy presents; instead, he laments the fact that he cannot earn interest by putting the money in a bank! There is a sight gag where Gifford picks up a newspaper that is in front of the door to an apartment and looks at it; only when he refolds it and puts it back in place does it become apparent that he is reading his neighbor's paper, since he walks across the hall to his own apartment!

Alice Backes as Jennifer

A viewer watching "Cheap is Cheap" in spring 1959 would be primed for humor, since Day was known as a singer and sidekick on The Jack Benny Show, a comedy. Unlike that show, whose star had a persona of being extremely cheap, in this episode, Day plays the cheap one. He enters his apartment and chides his wife, Jennifer, for turning on a three-way light bulb all the way; she appears unhappy and tired of his penny-pinching antics. The apartment itself is no frills and resembles the one inhabited by Ralph and Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners, with an icebox and a kitchen table rather than a modern refrigerator and a separate dining room.

Throughout the episode, cheerful music sets the tone, in contrast with the events depicted. It is this contrast that makes the episode succeed as black comedy. Alexander is distressed to see a present on the kitchen table, and he's even more concerned to see a steak on his wife's dinner plate. She explains that when she was dusting in the back of the bedroom closet, she found bankbooks that he had hidden, showing over $33,000 saved in six different banks. To his horror, Jennifer is determined to live like other people. When he makes a weak attempt to forbid this, she announces that she will get a divorce. Once again, Gifford's reaction is unexpected yet consistent with his extreme cheapness; in voiceover, he is concerned about the cost of divorce in a community property state, not with the loss of his beloved spouse. When Jennifer suggests that she would rather not live at all if she can't live the way she wants to, he immediately thinks of murder, once again in voiceover.

There is a dissolve to a scene showing Alexander at a drugstore, where he examines a spinner rack of paperbacks and selects one titled The Bashful Killer, which features a fake cover that can be seen in a few other episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He is certain that he cannot commit murder himself, so Alexander vows to find someone else to do the job.

Another dissolve leads to a closeup of the scowling face of Monk McGinnis, a prisoner in the county jail. Alexander meets with Monk and matter-of-factly asks for the name of a colleague to help have someone "'bumped off'"--according to newspaper reports, Monk was a member of "'Crime, Inc.'" The mix of naivete and forthrightness in Gifford's approach to hiring someone to kill his wife is very funny, and Dennis Day makes the actions believable by performing them with a straight face. Monk, on the other hand is shocked (or at least he pretends to be shocked) by the request, loses his temper, and storms out of the interview room. Alexander is nonplussed.

Frank Richards as Monk McGinnis

Back at home, he sees that Jennifer has purchased a new hat and dress. Absentmindedly, he saves the string that has been tied around the package. There is a knock at the door and Alexander opens it to find someone who casually identifies himself as a hit man sent by Monk, who must have been more receptive to Alexander's request than he seemed at the time. Alexander and the unnamed hit man meet later on a park bench for one of the best scenes in the episode. As they begin to discuss the cost of murder for hire, a cop on the beat strolls by and the hit man immediately begins to speak gibberish until the policeman is out of earshot.

The hit man tells Alexander that "'five bills'" includes murder and disposal of the corpse. Alexander is pleased by the price and counts out five one-dollar bills, but when the crook clarifies that the price is $500, Alexander is shocked. The hit man is quite understanding and admits, "'I'm a family man with expenses myself.'" He suggests that Alexander do the job himself and, in what may be the only time a character on Alfred Hitchcock Presents refers to an event from another episode of the series, mentions a TV show he saw where a "'cute dame...clobbered her old man over the head with a frozen leg of lamb.'" Of course he's referring to the classic episode, "Lamb to the Slaughter," which had aired a year before, on April 13, 1958. Alexander, remaining true to form, shoots down this suggestion with his reply, "'at 59 cents a pound?'"

The hit man takes out a little notebook and draws a diagram of how to blow up a car, but Alexander thinks this would be too costly as well. Finally, the hit man suggests poison and recommends that Alexander visit his friend Arthur, who will sell him poison without keeping a record of the transaction.

As great as the scene on the park bench is, it may be topped by the scene that follows in the laboratory of the poisoner. With bubbling beakers all around, Arthur resembles a mad scientist and, though he is at first reticent about talking to Alexander, once the visitor reveals that he is there to buy poison to murder his wife, Arthur perks up and pulls out a scrapbook with newspaper clippings of what seem like accidental deaths but what are really examples of his skilled work with poison. All seems to be going well until he tells Alexander the price of a bottle of "'L'amour de Nightshade'"--$600! Alexander exits as fast as he can.

Fred Essler as Arthur

Home again, Alexander sees a front page story (in the neighbor's newspaper, of course) about food poisoning at a picnic and gets an idea. In a scene where the only dialogue comes in Alexander's voiceover, he visits a biologist, who is not among the criminals Alexander has been visiting and, while the man's back is turned, Alexander pilfers a sample of botulism toxin by dipping his fountain pen into a test tube and filling it up with the poisonous liquid!

Back at home, Jennifer--dressed in a new outfit and very happy--leaves, at which point her husband emerges, takes a ham out of the refrigerator, and draws a big, black X on it with his poisoned pen. Later, at dinner, his wife has eaten the ham; Alexander says he was not hungry. That evening, while getting ready for bed, Jennifer collapses to the floor, poisoned by the contaminated ham. Alexander is visibly delighted. The next day, after Alexander gets home from work, a doctor makes a house call and emerges from the bedroom to tell Alexander that Jennifer is very ill. The doctor takes what's left of the ham to have it tested for botulism and, after he leaves, Alexander watches as his wife writhes in pain in bed. He ensures that she does not recover by smothering her with a throw pillow that bears the slogan, "Home Sweet Home."

Gage Clarke as the doctor

Next day, the doctor again visits and fills out the death certificate. Alexander is unhappy at the prospect of a costly funeral but, in the show's final shot, he is seen emerging from the front door of a medical school, where he has just sold his wife's corpse for $75!

There are moments in "Cheap is Cheap" where director Bretaigne Windust achieves a noir look, such as the shot early on when Alexander is looking into the living room light and criticizing Jennifer for turning on all three filaments. The first view of Monk's face in jail and the nighttime conversation on the park bench also feature noir lighting, though these shots contrast with the humorous conversations taking place.

Alexander is utterly consistent throughout the episode, viewing everything that happens through a lens of cost and waste. His wife seems like a reasonable person, yet to Alexander, her behavior is unacceptable and he is justified in seeking her demise. To him, marriage is far less important than money and he thinks of murder as "'the only sensible solution.'" Alexander completely fails to understand how his actions appear, so he matter-of-factly approaches Monk and asks for help planning his wife's murder.

Jack Lambert as the hit man

Of all of the criminals whom Alexander encounters, the hit man is perhaps most like him. He arrives at the apartment door like a door-to-door salesman, only what he's selling is murder for hire. On the park bench he tells Alexander that "'we depend on a volume business'" and he is nonplussed by his potential customer's cheapness; instead, he is quite understanding and they engage in a civil discussion. Arthur, the mad scientist, laughs hysterically after he reads each headline about death from his scrapbook aloud; once again, murder is treated lightly. Only when a price is quoted does Alexander decide that Arthur is a "'dangerous maniac.'" In the end, Alexander never seems psychotic, despite his murderous behavior: everything he does is perfectly in line with his love of money above all else. The humor in "Cheap is Cheap" is similar to that which Hitchcock usually engages in during his comments before and after each episode. Most satisfying of all is that Alexander never changes, never sees the error of his ways, never gets a comeuppance. He lives in a world where murdering one's profligate wife is completely understandable and not deserving of punishment.

"Cheap is Cheap" is one of two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents directed by Bretaigne Windust (1906-1960). Born in Paris, his family escaped to London during World War One and returned to Paris after the war. His parents divorced in 1920 and he and his mother moved to America, where he became a successful Broadway director, staging plays from the mid-thirties to the late fifties. He moved to Hollywood in 1947 and directed films from 1948 to 1952 and television shows from 1957 to 1960. He directed one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "The Avon Emeralds."

Dennis Day (1916-1988), who stars as Alexander, was born Owen McNulty and began appearing on the radio in 1939. He served in the Navy in WWII and was a regular singer on Jack Benny's show on radio and TV until Benny's death in 1964. Day continued to appear on screen until 1981 and this was his only role on the Hitchcock TV show. "Cheap is Cheap" aired two hours after The Jack Benny Show on CBS's Sunday night lineup.

Alice Backes (1923-2007) plays Jennifer; after serving as a WAVE during WWII, she worked in radio and then in film from 1948 to 1978. Her busy TV career lasted from 1952 to 1997 and included roles on Thriller, The Night Stalker, and six episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Jar."

In smaller roles:

• Fred Essler (1895-1973) as Arthur, the mad scientist who sells poison; born Fritz Essler in Vienna, he appeared on screen from 1943 to 1966 and this was his only role on the Hitchcock show.
• Jack Lambert (1920-2002) as the hit man on the park bench; he started on Broadway and then went to Hollywood, where he played many tough guys in a screen career that lasted from 1942 to 1970. He was on Thriller and appeared in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Better Bargain."
• Gage Clarke (1900-1964) as the doctor; he was on Broadway from the late 1920s and his screen career lasted from 1949 to 1964. Clarke was on The Twilight Zone and Thriller and he appeared in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Right Kind of Medicine."
• Frank Richards (1909-1992) as Monk McGinnis, the prisoner; he served in WWII and appeared on radio; his screen career lasted from 1940 to 1984. He was on The Twilight Zone and one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "The Baby-Blue Expression."

"Cheap is Cheap" aired on CBS on Sunday, April 5, 1959. Watch it online here or order the DVD here. Read the GenreSnaps review of this episode here.

This cover shows up in other episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. See "Breakdown" (where the book is called Wolf Woman Strikes),  "Nightmare in 4-D," (Night of Horror) and "Insomnia." (The Bashful Killer).

Sources:

"Burt Styler." Burt Styler Oral History, www.classictvhistory.com/OralHistories/burt_styler.html.

"Cheap is Cheap." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 4, episode 26, CBS, 5 April 1959.

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

"Finding Aid for the Albert Lewin Papers PASC.0314." Online Archive of California, oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6k40398f/entire_text/.

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

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "I Killed the Count, part one" here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Cheap is Cheap" here!

In two weeks: our short series on Albert E. Lewin and Burt Styler concludes with a look at "Craig's Will," starring Dick van Dyke and Stella Stevens!