The Hitchcock Project-Arthur A. Ross Part Seven: Wally the Beard [10.19] and Wrapup

by Jack Seabrook

Walter Mills is a 25-year old London bookkeeper who is frustrated by his routine, unexciting life. One day, he surprises himself by buying a stylish suit and hat, then adding a fake beard from a costume shop to the ensemble. Having always though of his weak chin as a defect that kept him friendless, Mills finds a new sense of self-confidence in disguise and visits a neighborhood pub, where he pretends to be a Navy man and attracts attention from the other patrons. Pretty Noreen Harper is particularly taken with him, though her companion, a rough character named Curly, is less impressed.

"The Chinless Wonder"
was first published here

Calling himself Phillip Marshall, Walter fools his landlady, Mrs. Jones, and quits his job, living off money he has embezzled from his employer bit by bit, enjoying keeping company with wealthy Noreen, and moving to a new neighborhood. He buys a small boat to impress his new girlfriend, though he cuts his arm while working on the pleasure craft and some blood is spilled, staining both the boat and his bag. Noreen takes him home to bandage his wound and the two spend a romantic afternoon together. Returning to his new boat, Walter is confronted by Curly, who recognizes him as Wally Mills, "'the chinless wonder of Corson Street,'" and threatens to expose him. To buy Curly's silence, Walter agrees to help hide a sack of stolen goods by dropping it into the Thames River right where his new boat is moored.

The next morning, Walter's troubles multiply when his former landlady attempts to collect back rent that he owed to her when he moved out suddenly. She visits the new room that Walter has rented as Phillip Marshall and she and his new landlady inspect it, finding Walter's possessions and a bag with bloodstains on it. When Walter returns later that day, the police are waiting for him. Noreen sent a message by Curly that she has gone to visit a sick aunt in Brighton, and Inspector Marples asks Walter about the bloodstained bag. Walter takes the police to his boat and explains how he cut himself, mentioning the moorings in passing.

Larry Blyden as Walter Mills

The next morning, the police confront Marshall with the news that the bloodstains match the Army records of Walter Mills, and they are about to arrest Phillip for murder when he peels off his beard and reveals his true identity. Inspector Marples is angry but, just as Walter is about to leave, another policeman arrives to announce that a dead body has been found. The police retrieved Curly's sack from the river and inside it they found the body of Noreen's husband. Walter realizes that she and Curly have played him for a fool.

"The Chinless Wonder" is a light, entertaining story with an unexpected ending. The author, Stanley Abbott (1906-1976), wrote a handful of short stories in the 1950s and early 1960s (The FictionMags Index lists a total of eight), and three were adapted for television: one on General Electric Theater in 1958 and two on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1965. "The Chinless Wonder" was renamed "Wally the Beard" after a nickname Curly calls Walter Mills at one point in the story, and the television version improves on the short story.

Kathie Browne as Noreen

Bernard Herrmann wrote the score for this episode, and a theme for woodwinds and strings plays over the opening credits. The setting has been moved from London to an unspecified location in the United States and the show begins in Walter's office, where his fiance of six weeks, a young woman named Lucy, breaks off their engagement, calling him "'a very ordinary man'" and adding that he is "'dullsville'" and "'ordinaryville.'" Balding and bespectacled, Walter looks older than the 25-year-old character of the short story; in fact, Larry Blyden, who plays the part, was 39 at the time of filming and the character later refers to himself as a "'mature man.'" Walter visits a wig shop and an enthusiastic and engaging salesman convinces him to purchase a toupee and false goatee.

We next see Walter in a bar, with his new look in place, where he meets Noreen and Curly. In these early scenes it quickly becomes apparent that Arthur A. Ross has taken the narrative passages of the short story and converted them into sparkling dialogue that is delivered flawlessly by the actors, from Larry Blyden and Kathie Browne (as Noreen) down to the bit players, such as Dave Willock, who plays the wig salesman. The telefilm is also aided immeasurably by Bernard Herrmann's score, which provides unobtrusive music that fits each scene perfectly.

Katherine Squire as Mrs. Adams

Walter, as Phillip, returns home to the rooming house where he resides and is confronted by his landlady, renamed Mrs. Adams. The scene is cleverly staged to demonstrate a shift in the balance of power brought on by Walter's new self-confidence: the camera is positioned to look up at him, now that he is in charge of the relationship, and it looks down at Mrs. Adams, who is now in a subordinate position. She refers to Walter as a "'weasel,'" but Phillip defends his alter-ego in a stirring testimonial. Alone in his room, Walter leans out the window and laughs with delight, exclaiming "'I'm new! I'm free! I'm a new, free man!'" However, his reverie is interrupted when he sees Curly looking up at him from the street below.

The next day, Walter is again himself, sans hairpieces, when Mrs. Adams bursts in, looking for Phillip Marshall and carrying a note for the man from Curly. As Phillip, Walter visits a new rooming house, where the landlady, Mrs. Jones, is quite taken by his appearance and treats him like a man of distinction. As in many other episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, unmarried people live together in rooming houses, living spaces that were soon to become scarce as the postwar housing boom took hold.

George Mitchell as Keefer

Walter/Phillip calls Noreen and arranges to see her, then visits a marina and purchases a boat from a man named Keefer. There is a nice bit of business between Phillip and Keefer where Phillip admits he knows little about sailing and enlists Keefer's aid in convincing Noreen otherwise. Bernard Herrmann's score hits playful, nautical notes here, supporting the light, seafaring tone of the scene. Phillip cuts his thumb trying to set up the boat and the scene dissolves to Noreen's apartment as she bandages his wound. In this scene, especially, Kathie Browne (as Noreen) is photographed with glamorous, classic Hollywood lighting as the musical score takes a romantic turn. She confesses to having a husband, "'almost an ex-husband,'" and praises Phillip's "'interesting'" beard, calling him a "'mystery.'" The score supports the dramatic tone of the scene and the music swells as Phillip and Noreen kiss.

Berkeley Harris as Curly

Phillip leaves Noreen's apartment on another emotional high, only to be brought low again by a confrontation with Curly, who wants his help in hiding stolen loot. To protect his secret, Walter agrees to the deal and he and Curly take the boat out and sink the bag. Meanwhile, the new landlady, Mrs. Jones, answers an ad from the old landlady, Mrs. Adams, and the two gossip about their tenants and inspect Phillip's room. Phillip comes home to find the landladies and Lieutenant Johnson in his room, and the scene that follows mixes humor and suspense; Phillip is suspected of foul play while his answers to the policeman's questions grow increasingly awkward and Mrs. Adams is shown in reaction shots.

Lee Bergere as Lt. Johnson

When pressed to prove his innocence, Phillip peels off his hairpieces to reveal the truth; once again, Herrmann's score lends gravity to the scene as well as pathos: one feels sorry for Walter, whose ruse has led to suspicion of criminal activity. Up to this point, the teleplay has followed the events of the story closely, but here Ross inserts a new scene, in which Walter visits Noreen and confesses the truth to her. Noreen accepts him as he is and, when he tells her about having hidden Curly's loot, she tells him to cut it loose so it cannot be traced to him.

In the show's final scene, Walter heads out on his boat at night to cut the bag loose from the moorings, only to have a police boat arrive. Back at the marina, the bag of loot is opened to reveal the corpse of Noreen's husband, and Walter realizes he has been had. The small changes Ross makes to the end of the show make the conclusion more exciting and suspenseful, a fitting finish to a strong episode.

Dave Willock as the wig salesman

"Wally the Beard" improves on "The Chinless Wonder," with a good script, crackling dialogue, fast-paced direction, evocative music, and top-notch acting. The theme of doubling is important. Walter's life changes when he takes on the role of Phillip, but the choices he makes along the way to preserve the ruse end up with him getting in trouble with the law. Noreen is playing a double role as well, but it is so subtle as to be nearly invisible. She must know Walter is putting her on right from the start, yet she is utterly convincing in her love for him, right up to the end. By putting on a toupee and false beard, Walter assumes the part of a Man of Distinction, that vague essence of male cool that permeated the 1950s and 1960s and was immortalized in the song, "Big Spender" from Sweet Charity (1966). The Man of Distinction is irresistible to women, drives a fast car or boat, and dresses and grooms himself with care. For Walter Mills, this seems easy at first, but what he fails to realize is that he is not really fooling anyone; instead, con artists and criminals target him as their patsy and his landladies end up calling the police when they suspect him of murder.

Elizabeth Harrower as Mrs. Jones

"Wally the Beard" is the only episode of the Hitchcock series to be directed by James H. Brown (1930-2011), who worked for years as an assistant director or production manager, including on 18 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1958 to 1961 and two more of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He also worked as Hitchcock's assistant director on The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964) and directed for television from 1961 to 1974. In an interview, Brown later remarked that most of his directorial jobs arose when someone else dropped out. He went on to work as an associate producer, production manager (including nine episodes in the first season of The Odd Couple), and director of TV commercials. He admitted that he preferred the steady work of an assistant to the insecurity of a director.

Leslie Perkins as Lucy, Walter's fiance

Larry Blyden (1925-1975) carries the show as Walter Mills. Born Ivan Lawrence Blieden, he served in the Marines in WWII and began his acting career on Broadway in 1948. He acted mostly on TV from 1950 until his death, only appearing in three films in that period. He was on Thriller and two classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, though this was his only appearance on the Hitchcock show. He won a Tony Award in 1972 for his role in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and died in 1975 in a car accident.

The duplicitous Noreen is played by Kathie Browne (1930-2003), who was born Jacqueline Katherine Browne and who was married to Darren McGavin from 1969 until her death. She appeared on screen from 1955 to 1980, mostly on TV, and was seen on an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Bed of Roses"), Star Trek, and The Night Stalker.

John Indrisano as the bartender

Mrs. Adams, Walter's first landlady, is played perfectly by Katherine Squire (1903-1995), who was on Broadway from 1927 to 1959 and on screen from 1949 to 1989. She was in five episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "Man from the South," where she plays the scolding wife of Peter Lorre's character, and she was seen on Thriller and The Twilight Zone. Later in her career, she was a regular on the soap opera, The Doctors (1970-1975).

Squire's husband, George Mitchell (1905-1972), often appeared with her, and in "Wally the Beard" he plays Keefer, the experienced sailor at the marina who is exasperated by the antics of Walter Mills. Mitchell was on Broadway from 1942 to 1970 and on screen from 1935 to 1971. He was on the Hitchcock show four times, including "Forty Detectives Later," and he was also seen on Thriller and The Twilight Zone.

In smaller roles:

• Berkeley Harris (1933-1984) as Curly; he was on screen from 1952 to 1981, mainly on TV, and this was one of his two appearances on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
• Lee Bergere (1918-2007) as Lieutenant Johnson; he was on Broadway from 1936 to 1972 and on screen from 1954 to 1989. He makes the most of his role as the policeman and his scenes manage the difficult balance of humor and suspense.
• Dave Willock (1909-1990) as the wig salesman; he started out in vaudeville in 1931 and played many small parts on screen from 1937 to 1975. He acted on radio in the '30s and '40s and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was in one other episode of the Hitchcock show and he was also on The Twilight Zone. He, too, makes the most of a small role, enlivening his single scene and interacting well with Larry Blyden.
• Elizabeth Harrower (1918-2003) as the second landlady, Mrs. Jones; she started on radio in the '30s and was on screen from 1949 to 1974. This was one of two Hitchcock episodes in which  she appeared. She was also on The Twilight Zone and Batman. After she stopped acting, she became a prolific writer for soap operas in the '70s and '80s.
• Leslie Perkins plays Walter's fiance in the show's first scene; she had a brief screen career from 1963 to 1970 and was also seen on Batman. This was her only appearance on the Hitchcock show.
• Blink and you'll miss John Indrisano (1905-1968), who plays the bartender in the scene where Walter meets Noreen. He was a professional boxer from 1924 to 1934, then a boxing referee from 1934 to 1949. He trained many film actors for boxing scenes and played bit parts on film and television from 1933 to 1968. He was on Batman three times and he was also on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "The Throwback," where he utilizes his boxing skills.

Watch "Wally the Beard" for free online here. Thanks to Peter Enfantino for providing a copy of the short story!

Sources:

Abbott, Stanley. “The Chinless Wonder.” Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Jan. 1965, pp. 61–71.

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

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

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/.

“Obituary: James H. Brown (1930-2011).” The Classic TV History Blog, 20 Sept. 2011, classictvhistory.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/obituary-james-h-brown-1930-2011/.

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

“Wally the Beard.” The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 10, episode 19, NBC, 1 Mar. 1965.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, www.wikipedia.org/.

Arthur A. Ross on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: An Overview and Episode Guide

Arthur A. Ross wrote the teleplays for eight episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, all of which were broadcast between January 1964 and March 1965. One of the episodes, "The Evil of Adelaide Winters," was based on a radio play by Ross; the rest were based on stories written by others.

Ross's five scripts for season nine demonstrate a skill at mixing comedy and suspense and often explore the relationships between men and women, especially in the context of marriage. "Three Wives Too Many" is a brilliant expansion of a short story in which Ross expands the role of the murderous wife. "The Evil of Adelaide Winters" is faithful to the radio play of the same title and makes good use of the visual medium. "Anyone for Murder?" veers off into new territory from the short story on which it is based, mixing murder with black humor in an examination of marriage that is more interesting and amusing than its source. "Ten Minutes from Now" removes the elements of humor that were found in the short story and suffers as a result, while "Who Needs an Enemy?" is another black comedy that explores the relationships between men and women.

The three scripts by Ross that were produced for season ten include "Triumph," a rare episode that lacks humor but benefits from lyrical writing and a superb reworking of the short story's narrative structure. This hauntingly beautiful episode once again explores the relationships among married couples. "Thanatos Palace Hotel" is Ross's second failure, a script that expands Western elements from the source to its detriment and loses the element of surprise. Ross's final script, for "Wally the Beard," is perhaps his most humorous of all and succeeds in adhering to the short story's plot structure while improving on its narrative.

In all, the eight shows scripted by Arthur A. Ross constitute a fine addition to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, often displaying the black humor for which the show's host was so well known.


EPISODE GUIDE-ARTHUR A. ROSS ON THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR

Episode title-"Three Wives Too Many" [9.12]
Broadcast date-3 January 1964
Teleplay by-Arthur A. Ross
Based on "Three Wives Too Many" by Kenneth Fearing
First print appearance-Michael Shayne Mystery Magazine, September 1956
Notes
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Episode title-"The Evil of Adelaide Winters" [9.16]
Broadcast date-7 February 1964
Teleplay by-Arthur A. Ross
Based on "The Evil of Adelaide Winters," a radio play by Arthur A, Ross
First print appearance-none; first radio broadcast on Suspense, 10 September 1951
Notes
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"The Evil of Adelaide Winters"

Episode title-"Anyone for Murder?" [9.20]
Broadcast date-13 March 1964
Teleplay by-Arthur A. Ross
Based on "Anyone for Murder?" by Jack Ritchie
First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January 1964
Notes
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Episode title-"Ten Minutes from Now" [9.26]
Broadcast date-1 May 1964
Teleplay by-Arthur A. Ross
Based on "Ten Minutes from Now" by Jack Ritchie
First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, October 1963
Notes
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"Anyone for Murder?"

Episode title-"Who Needs an Enemy?" [9.28]
Broadcast date-15 May 1964
Teleplay by-Arthur A. Ross
Based on "Goodbye Charlie" by Henry Slesar
First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January 1964
Notes
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Episode title-"Triumph" [10.9]
Broadcast date-14 December 1964
Teleplay by-Arthur A. Ross
Based on "Murder in Szechwan" by Robert Branson
First print appearance-Collier's, 9 October 1948
Notes
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Available on DVD?-no

"Triumph"

Episode title-"Thanatos Palace Hotel" [10.15]
Broadcast date-1 February 1965
Teleplay by-Arthur A. Ross
Based on "Thanatos Palace Hotel" by Andre Maurois
First print appearance-Candide, 16 December 1937
Notes
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Episode title-"Wally the Beard" [10.19]
Broadcast date-1 March 1965
Teleplay by-Arthur A. Ross
Based on "The Chinless Wonder" by Stanley Abbott
First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January 1965
Notes
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Available on DVD?-no

In two weeks: Our series on Bill S. Ballinger begins with "Dry Run," starring Walter Matthau and Robert Vaughn!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn's entertaining discussion of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "Never Again," on the Good Evening podcast here!

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma's incisive podcast about the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "A Bullet for Baldwin," here!

The Hitchcock Project-Arthur A. Ross Part Six: Thanatos Palace Hotel [10.15]

by Jack Seabrook

French author Andre Maurois (1885-1967) was born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog. He joined the French Army during WWI and published his first book in 1918. He went on to write many books and stories under the pseudonym Andre Maurois and he was elected to the Academie francaise in 1938 before serving in the French Army once again during WWII. He legally changed his name to Andre Maurois in 1947, choosing to be known officially by the name under which he had become famous.

One of the places his writing was published was the Parisian literary newspaper Candide, which was published on a weekly basis between 1924 and 1944. A story by Maurois entitled "Thanatos Palace Hotel" was published on the paper's front page in the issue dated December 16, 1937. It appears that the story was first published in English in the February 1952 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine as "Suicide Hotel"; the editor's note in the digest credits Ernest Rubin of Arlington, Virginia, with bringing the story to their attention and "supplying the original text."

As the story begins, Jean Monnier, a young, French stockbroker working in New York City, is upset to learn that a stock in which he invested heavily has sustained significant losses. His troubles mount when he goes home and his wife leaves him. He receives a letter from the Thanatos Palace Hotel in New Mexico, whose director, Henry Boerstecher, writes that they offer to satisfy their customer's desire to commit suicide at a reasonable rate and without pain or difficulty. He even promises to "eliminate all moral responsibility" for those "who would be troubled by legitimate religious scruples" by using an "ingenious method." The service costs but $300.

"Thanatos Palace Hotel"
was first published here

Monnier takes the long train trip to Deeming, New Mexico, on the border with Mexico, and checks into the hotel. He fills out some forms and meets Boerstecher, the manager, who explains that the hotel's location in the lawless borderlands prevents any problem with the authorities. Monnier mentions that he was "'brought up in the church'" and Boerstecher assures him that there will be "'no question of suicide...'"

That evening, at dinner, Monnier is seated next to Clara Kirby-Shaw, a pretty young woman who shares the sad tale that brought her to the same hotel. She encourages him to look on the bright side and, the next morning, he thinks: "How great to be alive!" They spend a happy day together and, by its end, they are "locked in each other's arms." That evening, Monnier tells Boerstecher that he has changed his mind about wanting to die and plans to leave the next day with Clara.

Boerstecher agrees to refund part of the $300 fee and, as soon as Monnier leaves his office, orders his subordinate to "'supply the gas'" to Monnier's room later that night. Clara arrives and accepts compliments on a "'job well done,'" along with $20. She leaves the office and Boerstecher "crossed a name from his ledger."

In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the personification of death so, in the short story by Maurois, the Thanatos Palace Hotel is a place of lies and murder, masquerading as a place that fulfills the desires of those in despair. Another French writer, Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote that Hell is other people, and in "Thanatos Palace Hotel" one can find ample evidence to support that premise. Boerstecher, the hotel manager, plays God, replacing the god that Monnier claims to believe in with a more vengeful god, one who plays with the guest's emotions before having him killed.

Clara Kirby-Shaw may be cruelest of all, though, since she pretends to fall in love with a despairing man for a fee and she seems to do this repeatedly as part of her job. It seems clear that the loss of a woman (his wife) was what drove Monnier to thoughts of suicide, and it is the promise of new love with Clara that restores his sense of hope. This illusion of love turns out to be worth only twenty dollars in the end. The story's conclusion is bleak; Monnier is happy because he believes in a falsehood and will now be killed at his peak moment of happiness. Boerstecher does not seem to think he is committing an evil act, however, and believes that the murder of Monnier is simply a matter of providing a service that was bought and paid for. Monnier's religious misgivings require special handling by the hotel manager, who takes steps to ensure that his client will not die thinking that he is committing suicide.

Angie Dickinson as Ariane Shaw

In his book on Andre Maurois, Jack Kolbert calls "Thanatos Palace Hotel" "one of his most powerful works ... a ludicrous tale situated in a strangely convincing setting ..."  Arthur A. Ross adapted the short story for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and the episode was broadcast on NBC on Monday, February 1, 1965. To anyone familiar with the short story, the TV show contains many surprises.

It begins as the camera pans up the side of a tall city building; a sign on the ground level appears to say "Securities," which is consistent with the story's beginning in a New York City office dealing in stocks. A man stands on a ledge high above the street with a crowd observing from below; we see one well-dressed man in particular looking up attentively. The distraught man on the ledge jumps and is saved by a safety net held by firemen. The well-dressed man looks on as the jumper is taken away in an ambulance. The entire sequence is staged without dialogue and establishes the main character as suicidal, suggesting financial ruin as the cause and introducing the mysterious observer. This replaces the first scene of the short story, where Monnier learns of his misfortune while at the office. There is no indication that he has a wife, so the loss of love is not presented as a motivating factor for his attempt at suicide.

In the next scene, we learn that the jumper's name is Robert Manners, and he sits alone in his suburban home, looking out the window plaintively. The well-dressed man from the crowd lets himself into Manners's house and identifies himself as J. Smith of the Thanatos Palace Hotel. He makes the sales pitch for the hotel in person and this scene replaces the letter from the hotel manager that is featured in the story. Manners is unreceptive and doubts Smith's sincerity; the price for the hotel's service has risen since the story was written in the 1930s and now stands at $1000. Bartlett Robinson plays Smith and is wonderfully smooth as he makes his pitch; Steven Hill as Manners underplays his role here and throughout the episode, seeming mired in depression.

Steven Hill as Robert Manners

We next see Manners arrive at the hotel by car as three men dressed in black ride alongside the vehicle on horseback. Their black cowboy outfits and the suspenseful music on the soundtrack suggest that they are menacing figures, but no comparable characters appear in the short story. The hotel itself is nondescript and resembles a motel in the American Southwest. Manners immediately sees a beautiful woman sitting outside, paining a picture; romantic music plays on the soundtrack and there is a sense that she will be his love interest.

Borchter introduces himself as the hotel's general manager and he, like the riders, is dressed in Western wear. The detailed scene-setting in the short story is replaced by visual clues to the hotel's location, though no specific town or state is ever mentioned. Also gone is the story's discussion of Monnier's religious scruples; here, Manners is reassured by Borchter that he will be killed in his sleep and that he will be able to sleep once he is relaxed.

The scene shifts to Manners and the beautiful woman, Ariane Shaw, at dinner together in the hotel. The music is romantic and there is a white tablecloth and candles, so it is immediately apparent that the two are being set up to become romantically involved with each other. Manners asks Shaw whose chair he has taken and they discuss the process followed at the hotel. She has been there six months and admits that she is among several guests who have extended their stay by working in exchange for room and board. This is a major change from the short story, since Manners realizes immediately that Shaw is an employee and that he is not her first boyfriend at the hotel. The surprise ending of the story is no longer possible, forcing Arthur A. Ross to take the events in a much different direction.

Barry Atwater as Borchter

Manners argues that Shaw must not want to die because she has been at the hotel for six months. After he departs, Shaw tells Borchter that Manners will "'be ready in three days at the most'" and asks him, "'Have I ever failed you before?'" She appears to be scared of the manager, who is presented as a menacing figure.

Later, Manners and Shaw walk away from the hotel together but are prevented from going too far by the black-garbed riders, who demand a pass to allow the couple to walk in the hills that surround the compound. Physical escape is prevented and Manners tells Shaw that they are prisoners. Manners probes Shaw, asking if she is "'the one they've sent to kill me,'" but she denies it, insisting that she has played that role before but he is different. She tells Manners that "'You could be my will to live.'" In the TV show, as opposed to the short story, Manners and the viewer know that Shaw is a hotel employee whose job is to be a companion to men awaiting death; the mystery in the TV version comes from the question of whether she will help Shaw escape or ensure his demise.

Borchter meets with Shaw and says he cannot wait too long for Manners to die. Shaw denies a personal attachment to the new guest and says that she needs another day. Borchter insists that he has never forced anyone to do anything. Shaw mentions that Manners likes horseback riding and Borchter writes her a pass to explore the nearby hills, noting that Manners's room is reserved for another guest the day after tomorrow.

Manners and Shaw use their pass and ride on horseback into the hills. Borchter sends the riders out after them. Meanwhile, Shaw and Manners dismount and she makes a speech about how she has bought more time for herself by agreeing to be a companion to many men. She tells Manners that he is the first man to bring her happiness. They ride off again, not knowing that the riders are in pursuit. The episode drags a bit here, as suspenseful music is used to try to enliven what appear to be filler shots of people riding around on horseback. Ostensibly, Manners plans to escape, but this never seems likely, since he and Shaw are outnumbered and stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Bartlett Robinson as J. Smith

Shaw tells Manners that no one can escape because, if they did, they would publicize what happens at the Thanatos Palace Hotel and threaten its survival. She says that Borchter may try to kill him that night with lethal gas piped through the vents in his bedroom. The scene then shifts to Manners being examined by a doctor for pain in his rib area from when he wheeled his horse. The doctor puts wide strips of tape over his ribs and prescribes a sedative. That night, Manners is alone in his room and uses the tape to cover the air vents in the baseboard. He pretends to swallow the sedative when a nurse brings it to him.

Next morning, a maid strips the sheets from the bed and Borchter enters and removes the tape from the vents. He tells Manners that he did not need to cover them: "'If you'd let me know you were so unresolved, I would never have given the instructions,'" says the hotel manager. Unlike Boerstecher, the manager's counterpart in the short story, whose actions are always consistent, Borchter in the TV version is duplicitous: he presents one face to the guests while working behind the scenes to ensure turnover.

Manners approaches Shaw with a new escape plan, asking her to gather the other guests who have been there a long time so they can all pretend to go on a picnic and then overpower the guards. After Shaw speaks to some of the other guests, there is a cut to a group of hotel residents heading off on horseback with Borchter's approval. The group reaches a clearing and they all dismount. Manners is shocked to learn that no one else wants to escape the Thanatos Palace Hotel: Shaw claims that she could not tell anyone the real reason he wanted them to come along. Manners confronts the group and the other guests are angry at him. They still want to die and are outraged that he would presume otherwise. He appeals to Shaw to escape with him, when suddenly a noose is thrown around his neck and he is hoisted up over a tree limb by a guard on horseback. Borchter rides up and tells Shaw that this is what Manners really wanted. We see the lower legs and feet of the hanged man as the rest of the people depart on horseback; at the start of the episode, our first view of Manners was also of his lower legs, as he stood on the building ledge about to jump.

The end of Robert Manners!

In adapting the short story for the small screen, Arthur A. Ross expands it greatly while still keeping the basic framework intact. The story seems too slight to justify the hour length, however, and some scenes feel like filler, while the decision to remove the short story's surprise ending and replace it with the question of whether Shaw is sincere when she tells Manners that she sees him differently than the others is less effective than the unexpected betrayal at the end of the original story. The number of scenes involving horses suggests that the TV version was crafted to capitalize on the popularity of Westerns at the time, but it seems somewhat forced in the context of this story.

"Thanatos Palace Hotel" was directed by Laslo Benedek (1905-1992), the Hungarian-born director who also directed "The Evil of Adelaide Winters," which also featured a teleplay by Arthur A. Ross. Benedek started his film career in Germany in the late 1920s but fled when the Nazis took over in the early 1930s and eventually made his way to Hollywood. He worked his way up through the ranks and was a director from 1944 to 1977, moving into TV in 1953. His films included Death of a Salesman (1951) and The Wild One (1953), and he directed episodes of Thriller and The Outer Limits. Later in life, he taught in college film programs.

Starring as Ariane Shaw is Angie Dickinson (1931- ), whose fame meant that she received top billing over the main character. Born Angeline Brown, she acted in film and on TV from 1954 to 2009 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This is one of two Alfred Hitchcock Hours in which she appeared. She was featured in Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo (1959) and she starred in the TV series Police Woman from 1974 to 1978.

Steven Hill (1922-2016) plays Robert Manners. Born Solomon Krakovsky (or Berg), he was trained at the Actors Studio and was on screen from 1949 to 2000. He was in two other episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Enough Rope for Two," and starred in the first season of Mission: Impossible (1966-1967). He is best-remembered today for his starring role on the TV series Law and Order from 1990 to 2000. In "Thanatos Palace Hotel," Hill underplays his role and never shows a change in personality, unlike the character in the short story who goes from depressed to happy. Presumably, Hill's character is trying to conceal his real emotions from Borchter, but the decision to play his scenes in a monotone, staring off into space, removes any passion the character might have had. He never seems like a man who has decided to cherish life enough to attempt escape.

Is this Henry Willis, famous stuntman?

More successful is Barry Atwater (1918-1978), here credited as G.B. Atwater, who plays Borchter as a menacing figure. Born Garrett Atwater, he was on screen from 1954 to 1978 and appeared in all of the major science fiction and fantasy shows, including The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, and Night Gallery. He was seen on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour twice. His most memorable role is that of the vampire in the TV movie, The Night Stalker (1972).

Bartlett Robinson (1912-1986) is memorable in his brief appearance as Mr. J. Smith. He was on radio from the 1930s and was one of the voices of Perry Mason; he started acting on TV in 1949 and on film in 1956. He did a large amount of TV work until 1982 and was seen on Thriller, The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits. He made 11 appearances on the Hitchcock show, including "Bad Actor."

The rest of the cast is made up of bit players who do not make much of an impression in the episode. Most notable is Henry Willis (1921-1994), billed as First Cowboy, who was a busy stuntman in Hollywood for decades, mostly in Westerns. I suspect he does much of the riding in this episode and he probably doubles for Steven Hill in the first scene, when Manners falls from the tall office building and lands in the fireman's net.

Though The Alfred Hitchcock Hour was the first to dramatize "Thanatos Palace Hotel," it was far from the last. An Internet search reveals the following other adaptations:

• a 1969 West German version called "Palace Hotel," running 70 minutes
• a 1973 French TV movie running 60 minutes
• another French TV version that aired November 14, 1979, on Cinema 16
• a 1985 Mexican version called "Thanatos" that ran 17 minutes
• a 2006 version from the former Soviet republic of Georgia that ran 37 minutes
• either one or two Australian versions that are listed as "in production"; one may run 16 minutes and one may be called Last Chance Hotel

Quite a long life for a short story from a French weekly newspaper in 1937!

Read the original French version here or read an English translation here, and watch the Hitchcock version online here. Thanks to Peter Enfantino for providing a scan of the editor's note from EQMM!

Sources:

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

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/.

Kolbert, Jack. The Worlds of André Maurois. Susquehanna University Press, 1985.

Maurois, Andre. “Thanatos Palace Hotel.” Great Short Tales of Mystery and Terror, Reader's Digest Association, 1982, pp. 346–359.

Maurois, Andre. “Thanatos-Palace Hotel.” Candide, 16 Dec. 1937.

Queen, Ellery. “Editor's Note (Suicide Hotel).” Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Feb. 1952.

“Thanatos Palace Hotel.” The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 10, episode 15, NBC, 1 Feb. 1965.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, www.wikipedia.org/.

In two weeks: Our series on Arthur A. Ross comes to an end with "Wally the Beard," starring Larry Blyden!

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma's latest Hitchcock podcast as he reviews the first-season episode, "The Cheney Vase" here!

The Hitchcock Project-Arthur A. Ross Part Five: Triumph [10.9]

by Jack Seabrook

"Triumph" is based on a short story called "Murder in Szechwan," written by Robert Branson and first published in the October 9, 1948 issue of Collier's. The story is told by an unnamed narrator who explains that he traveled to the northern Szechwan town of Hsingping to see a geologist named Hank Tyler, who was prospecting for oil. As he arrives, the narrator sees a man sitting by a grave at the edge of the river; the man is Reverend Sprague, a young Christian missionary, who tells the narrator that his wife died of cholera nearly a year ago. Sprague adds that he wishes that Mrs. Fitzgibbons, the wife of another missionary, were dead and in Hell.

Later, Hank Tyler explains what happened between the Spragues and the Fitzgibbonses. Sprague's wife was young and beautiful, but she died in the cholera epidemic that broke out about six months after she and her husband arrived in Hsingping in 1946. Sprague was away when she died and by the time he got back, she had been buried and the Fitzgibbonses had left.

Tyler tells the narrator that everyone suspects Mrs. Fitzgibbons of having murdered Mrs. Sprague with a hatchet. Reverend and Mrs. Fitzgibbons never returned, leaving Sprague alone to mourn his dead wife. Fitzgibbons had been "'a big jovial Englishman of about fifty,'" according to Tyler, and his wife was "'waspish in both size and disposition.'" She had a phobia about filth and always masked her face in veils that hung from a bonnet whenever she left the mission compound. "'Her only traces of plumage,'" said Tyler, "'were her hair, which was a vivid carroty red, and a string of blue glass beads...'"

Soon after the Spragues arrived, Mrs. Fitzgibbons grew jealous and the wives began to feud. None of the servants saw Mrs. Sprague the day she died, and everyone thinks that Mrs. Fitzgibbons murdered Mrs. Sprague and covered up her crime by claiming that the woman had died of cholera. The corpse was nailed into a coffin and rapidly buried before anyone saw it. The Fitzgibbonses took off right away and never returned. A servant later found a roll of bloodstained bedclothes and a hatchet, but no one told Reverend Sprague.

"Murder in Szechwan" was first published here

A year later, the narrator receives a letter from Hank Tyler, who writes that Reverend Sprague contracted pneumonia in a flood and died. The river also flooded the cemetery, where Mrs. Sprague's coffin was unearthed and the lid battered off. Inside, they found "'some red hair and a string of blue beads...'"

"Murder in Szechwan" is a compact tale with a shocking ending. The key to the author's deception is the bonnet and veils worn by Mrs. Fitzgibbons; they hide her face and allow Mrs. Sprague to impersonate her and escape after murdering her. Reverend Sprague dies without learning the truth: his wife is alive and ran off with Reverend Fitzgibbons, and it was Mrs. Fitzgibbons's body in the grave by which he sat and mourned. The story of two couples is told by an oil prospector to an unnamed narrator, who then relates it to the reader, who is thus three levels removed from the actual events.

In the front of that issue of Collier's, there is a brief biography of the story's author:

"Robert Branson, a fiction newcomer to Collier's with the exciting Murder in Szechwan (sneeze, then yawn) . . . is 25, single, a Battle Creek Michigander. After graduating from Williams College, Branson served 27 months in India and China as a U.S.A.A.F. cryptographer. He was a staff sergeant. After the war, he inspected Latin America, paying special attention to bullfights for travel articles. Running out of money in Barranquilla, Branson worked his way for a time as fireman on a Standard Oil tanker, then returned to his Alma Mater as an English instructor. Last winter he decided to give the Orient a replay and went out to Manila for the United Press. Now he's back in Hyderabad as Bureau Manager."

Despite all of this information, I have been unable to find anything else out about Robert Branson. His short story was reprinted several times over the years, retitled either "The Red-Headed Murderess" or "A String of Blue Beads," but Branson does not seem to have published any more fiction and his fate is unknown.

Ed Begley as Brother Fitzgbbons

"Murder in Szechwan" was adapted by Arthur A. Ross for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and broadcast on NBC on Monday, December 14, 1964. The show itself is a triumph, with a lyrical script, great acting, fine photography, and an original musical score by Lyn Murray that has echoes of the Far East.

In adapting the story for television, Ross does a superb job of turning narrative into dialogue and action, removing the characters of the narrator and Hank Tyler and focusing instead on the events as they occur rather than having characters relate them after they happened.

As the show opens, Brother Thomas Fitzgibbons and his wife Mary wait by the side of the river for the boat to arrive that will bring Brother John Sprague and his wife Lucy. Mary wears a hat and a veil that completely covers her face. After the Spragues arrive and are taken to the medical clinic run by Thomas and Mary, we learn that Mary despises insects, which explains the veil. From the start, Mary casts jealous looks at Lucy; Mary is jumpy and agitated while Lucy is calm and confident. The first sign of Lucy's dissatisfaction comes in an exchange with Mary:

Mary (referring to John): "'He must be a good man. A very good human being.'"
Lucy: "'Perhaps too good.'"

That night, Thomas trims his mustache in front of a mirror and Mary criticizes his vanity. From her bed, she tells him "'I have loved you,'" and he stops what he is doing, taking this as an invitation, yet when he pulls back the mosquito netting from her bed she stops him, saying "'I don't know if I still do.'" His libido was inflamed by Lucy's arrival but his approach to his own wife is blocked. Mary tells Thomas that she suspects that the missionary society sent the Spragues to test their fitness to continue running the medical mission. He lets it slip that Lucy told him she does not like it there and Mary pounces, trying to cover up her jealousy by saying that she wants to protect him and his reputation. Mary tells Thomas that he is a fraud who would not hold up to scrutiny; instead of welcoming him into her bed, she emasculates him.

Jeanette Nolan as Mary

In the scene that follows, Lucy swims in the river like a carefree nymph. Thomas looks out a window and sees her, yelling at her to get out of the "'dangerous'" water and then ogling her in her bathing suit. Later, the two couples share dinner and Mary discusses the dangers that lurk in the area. They discuss local customs and fears but John is steadfast in his insistence that people are the same everywhere and share "'an overwhelming, abiding goodness.'" Mary comments that "'My husband and I have never had an argument,'" to which Lucy replies, "'Neither have we.'" The subtext is important here: one senses that Mary's comment is a lie, intended to jab Thomas and present a false front to the Spragues, while Lucy's is true yet subtly conveys disappointment in a lack of passion in her marriage to John.

John asks if he can accompany Mary to go marketing; Lucy offers to stay behind and Thomas is delighted. They begin to see native patients and she demonstrates her competence as a nurse while he is gruff and bossy. Mary rushes back into the mission just before she leaves with John and angrily tells Thomas that Lucy will see that he cannot handle patients without Mary at his side. Once again, Mary insists to her husband that the missionary society lied to them by concealing the fact that Lucy trained as a nurse. Mary continues to try to manipulate Thomas, framing her jealousy of Lucy as an attempt to protect their position and standing as medical missionaries.

Another day dawns and Mary announces that cholera has reached the northern villages. She tells Thomas that he can take supplies to those villages and she will stay behind. Lucy tells Thomas that he is too tired to go and Thomas suggests asking John to go in his place. John instantly agrees, glad to be of service and eager to help the sick villagers. Lucy confronts him as he is about to leave in the jeep, asking him if he would stay if she asked him to. He questions why she tests him and she replies, "'I want you to do whatever you want to do,'" yet she seems to want him to stay. He misses the implication and drives off. From behind her veil, Mary again confronts Lucy and Thomas intervenes.

Tom Simcox as Brother Sprague

That night, Lucy sits alone and ventures outside as Thomas and Mary sit in their bedroom, reading. There is a shout from outside and natives bring in a man whose leg has been mangled by a jungle cat. Mary bars Lucy from the treatment room and takes over the situation, telling Thomas that he is not qualified. He gazes out the window and sees Lucy walking alone. Mary brusquely orders Thomas to prepare instruments and wash the patient's wound; she is the doctor now and he is her assistant. After they are finished with the patient, Thomas says that they should ask the missionary society to send someone to take over. Mary tells him that the society sent the Spragues for that purpose and that the clinic, the only thing they have created together, is something she will not let go.

Thomas finishes cleaning up and walks outside, where he finds Lucy sitting in a boat on the river. She laments that her "'husband sees only the good in humankind--only the good.'" Lucy invites Thomas to take her for a rowboat ride and he complies; they ride and talk in the moonlight. She calls her husband "'a wonderful man'" whom she likes, respects, and honors: he is selfless toward her and she admits that "'I could never be equal to such a love.'" Thomas tells her that "'we enslave each other with our dispassionate loves, more than our passionate ones.'" Lucy seduces Thomas with her words and her looks and by the end of the ride he is telling her that, if he were her husband, he would praise her beauty and treat her as a woman. The implication is that Lucy is a creature of the world who is unhappy at being treated as a goddess by her husband.

This scene in particular is a highlight of "Triumph," with great writing, acting, camerawork, and music all working together to create a haunting mood.

Thomas returns home and tries to slip inside quietly, only to find Mary awake, watching, and angry. There is another great scene between husband and wife here, in which Mary is jealous and Thomas calm, understanding her at last: "'You hate her because she's young,'" he tells her. This is the last straw for Mary: later that night she awakens from sleep and checks to see if Thomas is sleeping. She takes a scalpel from her drawer where she had hidden it beneath a comb (hiding an instrument of violence beneath a tool of vanity). Thomas opens his eyes when she leaves the room, showing that he was awake the whole time. Mary creeps to Lucy's room and enters; there is a scream and Thomas bursts in. We see a figure fall on the bed and Thomas drops to his knees in prayer.

Maggie Pierce as Lucy

In the next scene, it is daytime and we see ashes and what remains of a fire outside. John returns from tending to the sick villagers in the north and Ramna, an Indian servant, tells him that Lucy died of cholera the previous day. John is suddenly overcome with emotion, rushing around and finding his wife's bed empty and the Fitzgibbonses gone. Ramna tells him that they left after Thomas buried Lucy's body in an unknown spot in the jungle. He explains that Lucy suddenly took ill and died and that the ashes smoldering on the ground outside the mission are all that remains of her bedding. Jarwahl, another servant, questions Ramna and quickly realizes that Lucy did not die of cholera.

Inside, John stares at his wife's photograph, distraught. He comes back outside and presses Ramna for details until it comes out that something other than death from cholera happened. John forces Ramna to take him deep into the jungle to find Lucy's grave. They locate it and John sends the servants away, using his bare hands to clear away the mound of dirt that covers the coffin. He pries the lid open and looks inside, covering his face in horror at what he sees, something not revealed to the viewer.

John takes Ramna in the jeep and drives to the airport, where he learns that no one has left in several days. He drives to the river landing to wait for Brother Fitzgibbons and Mary, who are coming by boat, since John was away with the jeep when they fled. John takes out his revolver and loads it with bullets, telling Ramna that "'Vengeance is a kind of justice ... biblical law ... triumph of good over evil.'" A boat approaches, carrying Thomas and a veiled woman. John calls out to Thomas and shoots the man as he stands up in the boat. Thomas and the woman fall out of the boat and John shoots the woman as well as she flounders in the water. He wades out to her body, turns it over, and we see that it is Lucy rather than Mary; John touches her face gently, having known the truth since he opened the coffin, and lets her fall back into the water as the show comes to an end. One recalls Thomas's warning to Lucy earlier in the episode that the water was a place of danger, a cautionary statement that proves true in a way he never expected: the danger came from supposedly civilized man, not from the jungle.

Than Wyenn as Ramna

"Triumph" is a hauntingly beautiful hour of television whose title can be interpreted a number of ways. John Sprague mentions the triumph of good over evil as he discusses the nature of vengeance, reflecting an Old Testament view of justice that replaces the more forgiving view he displayed prior to his wife's betrayal. Each of the main characters may be said to have a triumph of one sort or another: Thomas triumphs by exchanging his old, bitter wife for the young, beautiful Lucy; Mary triumphs over her husband in their relationship at the missionary medical clinic; Lucy triumphs over her own disappointment in her marriage by running off with Thomas. Yet, by the end, none of them has triumphed and all their lives are in shambles.

The location, so carefully depicted in the short story as Hsingping in Szechwan, is unclear in the TV show. The two servants, Ramna and Jarwahl, are Indian, suggesting that the story takes place in an Indian jungle. The patients who come to the clinic appear vaguely Asian, though more Filipino than Chinese. Lyn Murray's score strikes decidedly Chinese notes. Fortunately, the vagueness of the setting does not distract from the power of the story.

Branson's short story uses colors in an important way, telling us that Mrs. Fitzgibbons has red hair and wears blue beads and then using those two colorful items to identify her as the corpse in the coffin. In a black and white TV show, this storytelling trick is unavailable, so Arthur Ross has to use other methods to keep the truth from the viewer until the very end, when the camera focuses on Lucy's beautiful face and we realize what has happened.

Ross's script dramatizes the events of the short story and greatly expands upon them, using the characters to explore the psychology of two married couples. Thomas lusts after the newly arrived young woman, while his wife berates him for his incompetence and vainly tries to hold on to their place in the world. John is so good and unselfish that he is blind to his wife's unhappiness, while she realizes that he is a better person than she and targets the older man in her plan to escape a situation she finds unbearable.

Tony Scott as Jarwahl

Harvey Hart (1928-1989), the show's director, tells the story clearly and creates a mood that is at once romantic and stifling, the heat and humidity of the jungle hanging over the characters, trapping them in their unhappy situations. A Canadian by birth, Hart worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Company from 1952 to 1963 before moving to the U.S. and working in Hollywood. He directed, mostly for TV, from 1949 to 1989 and this was one of five episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour where he was behind the camera. Another was the classic episode, "Death Scene."

Starring as Brother Thomas Fitzgibbons is Ed Begley (1901-1970), who was on Broadway starting in his teens before working in radio, film, and television. He was on screen from 1946 to 1970 and appeared in classic films such as Patterns (1956) and Twelve Angry Men (1957). In 1963, he won an Academy Award for his role in the film version of the Tennessee Williams play, Sweet Bird of Youth (1962). "Triumph" was his only appearance on the Hitchcock series.

Able to go toe to toe with Begley is Jeanette Nolan (1911-1998) as his wife, Mary. She started out on stage and was a busy radio actress in the 1930s and 1940s. She appeared in films from 1948 to 1998 and on TV from 1953 to 1990. Among her many film roles were parts in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) and Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), as one of the actresses voicing Mrs. Bates; she was also on classic TV shows such as Thriller, The Twilight Zone, and Night Gallery. This was one of her five appearances on the Hitchcock show, including "Coming Home," and in "Triumph" her magnificent voice is used effectively, especially in the scenes where she berates her husband or speaks from behind her veil.

Gorgeous Maggie Pierce (1931-2010) embodies the part of Lucy Sprague, a woman who was called "luscious" in the short story. She had a short career on TV and film from 1959 to 1967, appearing in three episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Faith of Aaron Menefee." She was a regular on the TV series, My Mother, the Car (1966-1967), and appears to have given up her career in 1967 to marry the wealthy Jerome Minskoff who, among other things, had a Broadway theater named after his family.

Tom Simcox (1937- ) plays Brother John Sprague, going from saintly in the first half of the show to distraught in the second. His work was mostly on television from 1962 to 1991 and he also appeared in The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode, "Night Fever," as a handsome criminal who manipulates a lonely nurse.

In smaller roles:

• Than Wyenn (1919-2015) as Ramna; he often played Indians in a screen career that lasted from 1949 to 1985 and included three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, as well as appearances on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, and Night Gallery.
• Tony Scott (1922-2004) as Jarwahl; he had a handful of credits from 1961 to 1987 and this was his only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show.

Read "Murder in Szechwan" online here. Unfortunately, "Triumph" is not currently available on U.S. DVD or online, but when it runs on television I recommend trying to catch it.

Sources:

Branson, Robert. “Murder in Szechwan.” Collier's, 9 Oct. 1948, pp. 29, 40.

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

Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen - The Private Lives and Times of Some of the Most Glamorous Actresses and Starlets of the Forties, Fifties and Sixties., www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen. com.

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

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/.

Shane, Ted. “The Week's Work.” Collier's, 9 Oct. 1948, p. 10.

“Triumph.” The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 10, episode 9, NBC, 14 Dec. 1964.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, www.wikipedia.org/.

In two weeks: Thanatos Palace Hotel, starring Angie Dickinson!