The Hitchcock Project-Harold Swanton Part Two: Portrait of Jocelyn [1.28] (Revised)

by Jack Seabrook

Harold Swanton's second teleplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents was "The Long Shot," which was based on his own radio play and discussed here.

His third and last teleplay during the first season (and his last until season five) was "Portrait of Jocelyn," based on an original teleplay by Edgar Marvin (1920-2005). Born in Brooklyn, Marvin won a MacDowell Fellowship in 1951 and worked at the MacDowell Colony, presumably honing his writing. He wrote scripts for radio and television from 1949 to 1956 and then changed careers to become an advertising copywriter and a creative director. A 1962 issue of Broadcasting reports that he won an award for an Autolite commercial. He later wrote a short book about movie star Norma Talmadge in 1978.

Philip Abbott as Mark Halliday

The credits for "Portrait of Jocelyn" state that the teleplay is by Harold Swanton, based on a story by Edgar Marvin; the story in question was actually Marvin's teleplay for "Portrait of Constance," an episode of the TV series Suspense that aired on March 24, 1953.

Three years later, on April 8, 1956, "Portrait of Jocelyn" aired on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It begins with Mark and Debbie Halliday on their first wedding anniversary as they visit an art gallery at closing time and persuade the clerk to bring out a painting that Mark had ordered as a present for his bride. To their surprise, the painting has been replaced by a portrait of a woman who strongly resembles Mark's first wife, Jocelyn. She disappeared five years before, as Mark reminds her brother Jeff, who notices that the painting has a date from three years ago and lets slip that he received a letter two years ago from Jocelyn, who was in Switzerland at the time. Jeff tells Mark that his first wife never loved him and found another man.

Nancy Gates as Debbie Halliday

At home, Debbie has placed the portrait on the mantel to symbolize the way that Jocelyn has cast a shadow over their marriage. Jeff telephones to suggest that he and Mark visit a man named Clymer, who painted the portrait. Debbie fears that Jocelyn may be alive and living in Shell Harbor, where the painter is located, so Mark decides that they will go to the town to investigate. Mark visits a real estate agent, who rents him the only cottage he has available, which happens to be the same one where Mark was living five years ago when Jocelyn disappeared.

Mark and Debbie go to the cottage, where all of the furniture is still covered. Debbie finds a vase full of fresh flowers of the type that were Jocelyn's favorite and she finds the woman's raincoat and scarf hanging in the closet. Debbie's insecurity grows as she compares herself unfavorably to the beauty who had been her husband's first wife; Mark uncovers a plaster bust of Jocelyn. Arthur Clymer, the painter, visits the Hallidays to reclaim the bust, which he says he sculpted a couple of months ago, using his wife Jocelyn as a model. He also takes her raincoat and scarf.

John Baragrey as Clymer/Iverson

Alone, Mark pays a visit to Clymer, who is drinking and who knows that Mark came looking for Jocelyn. Clymer pretends to call her to come down from upstairs before admitting that she has not been around recently. Mark presses Clymer and the painter says that Jocelyn is dead. Mark grows increasingly angry until Clymer takes him outside and says that Jocelyn's grave is near the cliff. Clymer tells a tale about the night he killed Jocelyn at his cottage, but Mark tells him that the details are right but the culprit is wrong: Mark killed his wife!

Mark attacks Clymer and they struggle until Jeff appears, holding a gun to Mark's head. Jeff and Clymer "'had to resort to psychology'" to force Mark to confess to what they thought had occurred; Clymer is really homicide detective Iverson, who set everything up to catch Mark. Jocelyn's body was discovered a month before, after a landslide. Mark is handcuffed and he is relieved that Debbie never knew about the plot or his guilt, remarking with sadness that "'there never could be anybody like Jocelyn.'"

Raymond Bailey as Jeff

In "Premonition," a man investigates his father's death only to learn that he is responsible; he has been in a hospital yet takes on the guise of a musician who has been studying abroad. In "The Long Shot," one man kills another and steals his identity, hoping to collect an inheritance, only to discover that the man he killed was also an impostor and a murderer. In "Portrait of Jocelyn," a policeman impersonates an artist in order to force a confession out of a man who murdered his wife. Swanton's first three teleplays for Alfred Hitchcock Presents succeed in keeping the various false identities hidden until the climax, when the truth is revealed and the killers stand unmasked.

The real victim in "Portrait of Jocelyn" is Debbie, Mark's second wife. Married to her husband for a year, she has terrible insecurity because she compares herself to his beautiful first wife. The strange events that lead to Mark's confession only increase her worry and, at the end, she remains married to a murderer yet uninvolved in the plot to unmask him.

Putting the wine bottle close to the camera
makes it look artificially large.

The plot itself depends on anticipating Mark's behavior, and his obsession with his first wife can only be explained by a desire to keep the truth from Debbie. All along, Mark knows that Jocelyn is dead and that he killed her, yet were he to fail to react appropriately to the sudden appearance of her portrait, her bust, and her clothes, he might arouse suspicion. Detective Iverson's plan, carried out with the knowledge and assistance of Jeff (and perhaps, to some extent, the men at the art gallery and the real estate office), is a complex one that only has a slim chance of success, but the psychological pressure that is exerted on Mark succeeds in eliciting the truth.

A rare process shot

Olan Soule

"Portrait of Jocelyn" is an entertaining mystery, well-directed by Robert Stevens (1920-1989), who was at the helm for 49 episodes of the Hitchcock series. Three particular shots show the Stevens style: there is a shot in the Hallidays' apartment when they are having dinner where a wine bottle appears oversized by being placed in the foreground; there is a nice process shot inside Clymer's cottage showing the cliffs and the ocean outside the window; and there is a tricky bit of work that depends on the confines of the television screen to be effective, when Mark and Arthur are struggling on the ground and, suddenly, a hand holding a gun appears from offscreen to point the weapon at Mark's head. In reality, it would be obvious that Jeff was coming up beside the men, but the rectangle of the TV screen allows the director to exclude the third person's body until he is ready to include only his hand with the gun, adding to the suddenness and surprise.

Comparing Harold Swanton's "Portrait of Jocelyn" to Edgar Marvin's "Portrait of Constance" on Suspense demonstrates just how much Swanton's efforts to revise the teleplay improved it. Instead of the couple visiting the art gallery and bringing home an unexpected painting, the original version opens with Burt Hastings, the counterpart of Mark Halliday, being assigned to investigate the death of Constance Manners, a woman who disappeared. Burt works for the Higgens Detective Agency and had been in love with Constance before he married Sally (Debbie in Swanton's version). The character of Jeff is not in the original teleplay, Burt was not married to Constance, and the missing woman was Sally's best friend and rival. In revising the script, Swanton changed the characters' motivations to make them more organic; instead of being told to go to the resort town to investigate Clymer, Halliday decides to do so on his own after finding the portrait.

The conclusion of "Portrait of Constance," with
(left to right) Hugh Reilly as Burt, Murvyn Vye as Clymer,
and Ann Rutherford as Sally

In Marvin's teleplay, there is no portrait--the case is reopened due to new evidence coming to light. There is a long scene at the rental office where Burt questions the eccentric woman proprietor (Doro Merande in her usual, eccentric performance style) and her hard-of-hearing co-worker, with little success. The bust that is discovered in the cabin is the titular "Portrait of Constance"--perhaps "Constance's Bust" was not deemed an acceptable title. Burt makes two visits to Clymer's cabin, with a return to Sally in between, and she is a more important character in Marvin's script. In fact, Ann Rutherford, as Sally, gets top billing.

Outside the cabin, Burt and Clymer struggle at the edge of a rocky cliff and Burt confesses to having murdered Constance. Since the character of Jeff does not exist in this version, it is instead Sally who appears on the scene to break the spell of the struggle and hear Burt's shocking confession. Swanton's script treats Mark's wife more kindly, with the confessed killer's final words expressing relief that his spouse did not know about his crime or the elaborate plan to catch him. Marvin gives Sally no such relief--she is present for her husband's revelation, having already been humiliated by his earlier admission that he is still in love with Constance.

"Portrait of Constance" is a weak episode of Suspense with a poorly-constructed original script by Marvin. In "Portrait of Jocelyn," Harold Swanton took the germ of an idea and the basic outline and cured many of its problems by inventing new characters and scenes and by making the improbable series of events much more credible.

Harry Tyler

In "Portrait of Jocelyn," Philip Abbott (1924-1998) gives an effective performance as Mark Halliday, His screen career lasted from 1951 to 1999, mostly on television, and this was his only appearance on the Hitchcock show. He was seen twice each on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, but his most lasting role was as co-star of the series, The F.B.I., which ran from 1965 to 1974.

Playing his wife Debbie is Nancy Gates (1926-2019); she appeared on film starting in 1942 and on TV starting in 1952. She also appeared on radio in the forties and fifties, and her screen career ended in 1969. This was one of her two appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The most entertaining performance in the episode is that of John Baragrey (1918-1975) as Arthur Clymer, who is later revealed to be Detective Iverson. He was in films from 1942 to 1972 but made most of his appearances on television between 1947 and 1967. He was also heard on radio and seen on the Broadway stage. In addition to two appearances on Thriller, he was in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "One for the Road."

The supporting players:

• Raymond Bailey (1904-1980) as Jeff; he was on screen from 1939 to 1975 and he was seen in Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) and in eleven episodes of the Hitchcock TV series, including "Breakdown." He was on The Twilight Zone three times but is best remembered as Mr. Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971).
• Olan Soule (1909-1994) as the art gallery clerk; he had a long career on radio, stage, television, and film, appearing in eight episodes of the Hitchcock TV show, including "The Faith of Aaron Menefee," He was on The Twilight Zone twice and he was the voice of Batman in many TV cartoons.
• Harry Tyler (1888-1961) as the real estate man; he was on screen from 1929 to 1961 and often played small roles like this one; he was in eleven episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Premonition."

Watch "Portrait of Jocelyn" for free online here or buy the DVD here. Watch "Portrait of Constance" here.

Thanks to Al Sjoerdsma for discovering the original source of this story (listen to his podcast about "Portrait of Jocelyn" here). Comparing the Suspense version with the Alfred Hitchcock Presents version demonstrates just how far suspenseful TV shows progressed in the three years between airings!

Sources:

"The Cream of the TV Commercial Crop." World Radio History, 23 Apr. 1962, worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/62-OCR/1962-04-23-BC-OCR-Page-0042.pdf.

"Edgar Marvin (1920-2005) - Find A Grave Memorial." Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/36086357/edgar-marvin.

"Edgar Marvin - Artist." MacDowell Colony, www.macdowellcolony.org/artists/edgar-marvin.

"Edgar Marvin: Radio Star: Old Time Radio Downloads." Edgar Marvin | Radio Star | Old Time Radio Downloads, www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/actors/edgar-marvin.

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/.

"Portrait of Constance." Suspense, season 5, episode 23, CBS, 24 March 1953.

"Portrait of Jocelyn." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 1, episode 28, CBS, 8 Apr. 1956.

Sjoerdsma, Al. "Presenting Alfred Hitchcock Presents #28 - Portrait of Jocelyn." Ann Arbor District Library, 14 December 2020, https://aadl.org/ahp28.

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

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Portrait of Jocelyn" on their podcast here.

Read The Pie Lady's take on "Portrait of Jocelyn" here.

In two weeks: "Coyote Moon," starring Macdonald Carey and Edgar Buchanan!

The Hitchcock Project-Harold Swanton Part Nine: Body in the Barn [9.32] and Wrapup

by Jack Seabrook

"Body in the Barn," a short story by Margaret Manners, was first published in the February 1945 issue of Argosy. It was selected for the 1946 collection of Best Detective Stories of the Year, and in 1960, when the collection, Best of the Best Detective Stories, was published, it was chosen to represent 1945 due to its "unique" nature, featuring "characterization and plot with a difference."

The story is narrated by Bessie Carnby, an old, bedridden woman, who writes an "account of evil" that she plans to conceal among a pile of recipes for discovery after her death. She recalls not liking Bill and Evelyn Raymond when they bought neighboring High Hollow Farm with Evelyn's money, and Bessie made things difficult for the Raymonds from the start in the community of East Huntley. Bill had "an eye for the girls," and would smile at Camilla, Bessie's niece, who was usually away teaching in a girls' school. One spring, a local man named Ephraim Judge fell and his body was carried away in the river, never to be found. In addition, the Raymonds had an ongoing boundary dispute with Bessie and, one day, she overheard them arguing and she heard Evelyn say that someday she would kill Bill.

"Body in the Barn" was first published here

The next day, Evelyn told Bessie that Bill had gone away suddenly. When he did not return that week or the next, Bessie asked around town and learned that he did not leave by train from the local station, nor had any letters been received from him. She confronted Evelyn, who suggested that he could have walked to a station 15 miles away and recalled that he said he would not write right away. The day after that, the sheriff and his men visited the Raymond house, carrying shovels, after they received a letter claiming that Bill's body was buried somewhere on the farm.

The sheriff asked Bessie where she thought a body might be buried and her suggestion to look under the floor of the barn led to the discovery of a man's body. The clothes and face had been eaten away by quicklime, but a metal matchbox belonging to Bill and a button torn off of one of Evelyn's jackets caused the body to be identified as that of the missing Bill Raymond. Evelyn insisted that he had gone off alone to try to make something of himself without relying on her money, but her story was not believed and she was accused of murder and tried. During the trial, it came out that the letter to the sheriff was written on a piece of Bessie Carnby's stationery and that the words of the letter had been cut out of old detective magazines she had stored in her woodshed. The letter was found in a cave that was hard to reach.

Evelyn was convicted and hanged for murdering her husband. That fall, Bill Raymond returned to East Huntley, to everyone's surprise, saying that he had joined the Merchant Marine and confirming the story that his late wife had told. Bessie told him what happened to Evelyn and the townsfolk started to suspect Bessie of orchestrating the events, accusing her of sending the letter to the sheriff and recalling a quarrel that she had had with Ephraim Judge the day he disappeared. It turned out that the body under the barn floor was that of Judge, whose corpse was thought to have been washed away in the river.

Lillian Gish as Bessie Carnby

Bessie's niece Camilla came home and Bill Raymond began to defend Bessie in town, causing Camilla to turn to him and eventually to marry him. Bessie alone knew that she was not responsible for sending the letter to the sheriff or for putting Judge's body under the barn floor, so she deduced that it must have been an elaborate plot by Bill to get rid of his wife. Bessie, confined to bed and an outcast in town, cooked up a plan of her own and carried it out to perfection. She hoarded morphine tablets, which she took for pain, and wrote a letter to the sheriff accusing Bill of planning to kill her because she knew the truth. She planned to have Bill give her a glass with her heart medicine and she would slip in a fatal dose of morphine when he was not looking. He would be accused of poisoning her and hanged for murder, just like his wife.

The story ends with a final note from the county attorney's report, stating that the manuscript was found long after Bessie's death and that Bill had been convicted of her murder. The manuscript was found by Camilla in a collection of recipes.

"Body in the Barn" is an excellent story that shows how even an old, bedridden woman whom no one listens to can solve a murder and see to it that justice is done. Bessie is a complex, often unlikable character and the author plays with reader sympathies, controlling our emotions and suspicions about who is guilty of what right up to the very end, when the truth is revealed.

Maggie McNamara as Camilla

Margaret Manners Lippmann (1914?-1974), author of "Body in the Barn," mainly wrote short stories, though she also seems to have written poetry and had one novel published, a 1961 paperback original tie-in with the TV soap opera, Love of Life. She wrote under the name Margaret Manners and her husband, Albert Lippmann, was a professor of French at New York University and Princeton University. The FictionMags Index lists short stories by Manners published from 1943 to 1961, and five of her stories were adapted for television, four of which were for the Hitchcock show.

Harold Swanton adapted "Body in the Barn" for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. It was scheduled to air on CBS on Friday, November 22, 1963 but, since President Kennedy was shot that day and all scheduled TV shows were postponed, this episode premiered the following week, on November 29, 1963. Swanton meets the challenge of dramatizing a story that is mostly narration by adding new characters and by making some significant changes while still keeping all of the main points of the plot intact.

The short story begins as Bessie introduces herself and sets the scene by explaining the genesis of her dislike for her neighbors. The TV show opens after Bessie's death, as workmen are cleaning out her house. An antique dealer and his young assistant supervise the process, cataloging the antiques in her parlor. The young man drops a glass vase and it shatters; the camera reveals a handwritten letter that had been concealed in the vase, and voiceover narration by Bessie begins as she reads the letter aloud. In the story, she had concealed her confession among recipes, while on TV Harold Swanton uses the more dramatic incident of a vase shattering to reveal the hidden missive.

There is a dissolve to Bessie hurrying along a footpath as her voice is heard on the soundtrack. She promises "'to bring to the light of day the two lies that together make a truth,'" and her statement foreshadows later events. Her niece Camilla meets her and the neighbors, renamed Henry and Samantha Wilkins, accompany Sheriff Turnbull as he examines the cliff from which Ephraim Judge fell the evening before. Dialogue quickly establishes the characters' personalities and relationships, then Bessie nearly collapses from the exertion of rushing up the path, so Henry lifts her in his arms to carry her home, accompanied by Camilla, who is much more present in the TV show than she is in the short story.

Peter Lind Hayes as Henry Wilkins

Henry turns on the charm and begins to ingratiate himself with Bessie, bringing in firewood and building a fire to warm her bedroom. A major new character is added in Dr. Sam Adamson, who verbally spars with his elderly patient. Swanton makes sure to introduce Bessie's bottle of applejack brandy that she keeps hidden behind her pillow; the viewer will be reminded of this bottle again so that it is familiar when she uses it at the end of the show to commit suicide and frame Henry for murder. Scenes follow with Camilla and Henry having tea together downstairs and Samantha and Henry fighting at home, demonstrating that Henry's marriage is not a happy one and that he has an alternative in Bessie's niece, who is away for most of the short story. Samantha reads from a newspaper article about her quarrel with Bessie and the article quotes Frost's poem, "Mending Wall," whose lines about walls and neighbors are particularly appropriate for this situation.

An additional character is introduced in Nora, maid to the Wilkins; she will have a couple of specific functions regarding the plot as the TV show unfolds. Bessie invites Henry to supper, but when he tells Samantha, they argue. At suppertime, Camilla sets the table while Bessie watches out her bedroom window with a pair of binoculars as Samantha goes back and forth to her barn. Camilla mentions to Bessie that Henry told her he had once tried to leave his wife and that she tried to kill him; Camilla thus plants the seed of this thought in Bessie's mind, something that will become important later in the show. Camilla and Bessie go next door to invite Samantha to join Henry at their home for supper, but Samantha announces that Henry has left suddenly. "'What do you suppose she was doing in the barn?'" asks Camilla, further introducing suspicion into Bessie's mind.

Kent Smith as Dr. Adamson

Ten days later, Dr. Adamson visits Bessie and gives her a bottle of pills to treat her worsening, chronic pain, thus introducing another element that will be used in her suicide. He checks behind her pillow and the bottle of applejack is again shown, reminding us that it is there so that it will not be a surprise when Bessie turns to it at the end. The character of Nora comes into play now, as Bessie and Camilla question her about Henry's disappearance under the guise of wanting to hire her to do some cleaning. Nora reveals that Henry left without packing any belongings but denies that Samantha killed him. Bessie and Camilla visit the sheriff, who also denies that Samantha killed Henry, despite the circumstantial evidence presented by Bessie. Once again, Camilla asks Bessie what Samantha was doing by the barn the night Henry disappeared.

After a visit to Samantha turns adversarial, the show departs significantly from the short story as Bessie herself ventures out under cover of darkness to inspect the barn with a flashlight. She has deteriorated from the first scene, where she was shown hurrying along a footpath up a hill, and now she walks with a cane. There is a moment of suspense as a barking dog causes Samantha to open her window, but Bessie makes it inside the barn and snoops around. There is a dissolve to the next day, when Bessie leads the sheriff and his men into the barn, where Dr. Adamson has examined the body found under the floor and determined it to be that of Henry. His wedding ring is on the right finger and in his hand he clutches a button that is shown to be missing from Samantha's vest.

Patricia Cutts as Samantha Wilkins

Samantha explains the circumstances behind Henry's departure, but she is not believed, and there is a fadeout, followed by a fade in to Bessie sitting in her parlor. Swanton deletes the sequence from the short story about the trial and about the finding of the letter in the cave that directed the sheriff to look in the barn. Instead, an egg in a basket indicates that it is Easter (or thereabouts), and Bessie falls asleep in her chair as a bulletin comes over the radio to announce that Samantha has been executed. A shadowy figure enters the house through the front door and the camera focuses on his shoes as Henry tiptoes in and surprises Bessie with a bottle of brandy; she is shocked to see him alive and asks, on suddenly awakening, "'What are you?'" as if he is a ghost.

Henry has been resurrected on Easter after his wife, an innocent woman, was put to death. He asks Bessie where Camilla is and says he wants to surprise her. He walks to his home and enters; we see the back of a woman vacuuming the rug and assume it is Nora, the maid, but when Henry taps her shoulder and she turns we see that it is Camilla, who reacts with a big smile, says "'Henry!'" with delight, throws her arms around him, and gives him a lingering kiss. At this moment, it becomes clear that Camilla and Henry planned the whole thing together and that she is complicit in causing Samantha's death. This is a significant departure from the story, where Bessie's niece is not present for most of the events and only becomes close to Henry after his wife dies.

Josie Lloyd as Nora

Dr. Adamson measures out more pills for Bessie and they both express feelings of being responsible for Samantha's death. Bessie washes down a pill with a drink from her bottle of applejack, associating the two items that will cause her death. She lies in bed and in her mind hears snippets of dialogue from Henry and Camilla that will allow her to piece together what really happened. In subsequent scenes, Henry removes the fence that led to Ephraim Judge's death, Bessie tells Camilla to send him away when he visits, and Camilla announces her plans to marry the widower. Sheriff Turnbull visits Bessie and again refuses to believe her, even though she tells him that Henry is planning to kill her with her own morphine pills. Bessie is now carrying out a plan of her own to frame Henry, much as Henry earlier successfully framed his wife.

Finally, Bessie lies in bed, near the point of death. She finishes writing the confessional letter and hides it in a vase on her night table. She puts a handful of pills in her bottle of applejack, wipes her own fingerprints off the bottle and a glass, and summons Henry, who unknowingly seals his fate by pouring her a drink and handing her the glass. There is a dissolve and the scene is back in the present, with a closeup of the letter that lies on the floor of Bessie's parlor, having fallen there when the young man dropped the glass vase and it shattered. Bessie explains in voiceover what she has done and the young man notices the letter and picks it up. Camilla, wearing black, is taken to a hearse, to attend Henry's funeral. "'He didn't kill her, he didn't! They hanged an innocent man!'" she says and, in part, she is correct: Henry did not intend to kill Bessie, but he was far from innocent. The show ends with the assumption that the letter will be read and that this will reveal the truth of the events surrounding the deaths of Samantha, Bessie, and Henry.

Doodles Weaver
as Gregg

Harold Swanton's teleplay for "Body in the Barn" follows the short story's plot but turns narrative into dialogue and introduces important new characters while greatly increasing the role of Camilla. Bessie is much more active, hurrying to the scene of Ephraim Judge's fatal fall and inspecting the barn at night by herself. Swanton's choices serve to create additional suspense and to provide rising action right before each act ends. The tension is increased by an original score by Bernard Herrmann, whose strings and woodwinds underscore the scene in the barn when Bessie is looking for the body.

Joseph Newman (1909-2006) directs this episode skillfully, keeping the story moving along swiftly and using closeups to display characters' emotions. He started out in Hollywood as an assistant director in 1932 and became a director of shorts in 1938 and of features in 1942. He served in World War Two and came back to continue directing feature films, including This Island Earth (1955). He directed for television from 1960 to 1965, including four episodes of The Twilight Zone and ten episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He directed the suspense classic, "An Unlocked Window."

Starring as Bessie Carnby is Lillian Gish (1893-1993), one of the twentieth century's greatest actors. A child actress on stage, she starred in films from 1912 to 1933, including D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), returned to the stage in the 1930s and 1940s, then to film in the 1940s. She appeared on TV from 1949 to 1986 and on film until 1987, including a great role in Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter (1955). This was her only appearance on the Hitchcock show. A website is devoted to her here.

Maggie McNamara (1928-1978) plays Camilla (pronounced by Bessie as rhyming with Pamela). A teen fashion model, McNamara was on screen from 1953 to 1964 and this was her last role. She also appeared on The Twilight Zone. Her life later took a tragic turn and she committed suicide at age 49.

Kelly Thorsden as Sheriff Turnbull

The treacherous Henry is played by Peter Lind Hayes (1915-1998), who was born Joseph Conrad Lind. He was in vaudeville from age six and on screen from 1933 to 1987. He also served in the Air Force during World War Two. He often performed with his wife, Mary Healy. He appeared on The Outer Limits as well as in this single episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

Kent Smith (1907-1985) plays Dr. Adamson. Smith was on stage from the late 1920s and on screen from 1936 to 1978, including starring roles in Val Lewton's Cat People (1942) and The Curse of the Cat People (1944). He was on the Hitchcock show four times, including "A True Account," as well as The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, and The Night Stalker. He also played a doctor on Peyton Place from 1964 to 1966.

Samantha Wilkins is played by Patricia Cutts (1926-1974), who was born in London and who was on screen from 1946 to 1974. She was in two episodes of the Hitchcock series. Like Maggie McNamara, she ended her life by suicide.

In smaller roles:

• Josie Lloyd (1940- ) as Nora, the maid; Norman Lloyd's daughter, she was on TV from 1959 to 1967 and appeared in six episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Graduating Class." She was also on The Twilight Zone.
• Doodles Weaver (1911-1983) as Gregg, who takes Camilla out to the car at the end; born Winstead Weaver, he was on radio in the 1930s and 1940s and later joined Spike Jones's band. He contributed to early issues of Mad magazine and was on screen from 1936 to 1981. He had a small role in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). He is the third member of this unfortunate cast to die by suicide.
• Kelly Thorsden (1917-1978) as Sheriff Turnbull; born Sherman Thorsden, he was on screen from 1956 to 1977 and also played a sheriff on the "Final Performance" episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

"Body in the Barn" is not available on U.S. DVD but may be viewed for free online here.

Sources:

"Body in the Barn." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 9, episode 8, CBS, 29 Nov. 1963. 

Cooke, David C. "Introduction." Best of the Best Detective Stories, E.P. Dutton, 1960, pp. ix-xi. 

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/. 

Manners, Margaret. "Body in the Barn." Best of the Best Detective Stories, E.P. Dutton, 1960, pp. 15–32. 

"MARGARET MANNERS." The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Oct. 1974, www.nytimes.com/1974/10/24/archives/margaret-manners.html. 

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

*  *  *  *  *

Harold Swanton on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: An Overview and Episode Guide

Harold Swanton wrote eleven teleplays for the Hitchcock TV series, ranging from the second episode broadcast in 1955 ("Premonition") to an hour-length episode in the ninth season ("Body in the Barn"). All of his scripts demonstrate a mastery of plotting and structure; he was a professional writer, equally adept at suspense and comedy.

In season one, "Premonition" is an original teleplay and a short film noir. "The Long Shot" is based on Swanton's radio play of the same name and features John Williams and a great twist ending. "Portrait of Jocelyn" is based on an unpublished story and is the third episode in a row that Swanton wrote in which a main character conceals his true identity.

Swanton then wrote nothing for Alfred Hitchcock Presents for three and a half years, returning in season five with three more scripts. He updated "Coyote Moon" from the World War Two setting of the short story on which it is based and the result was a highly entertaining half hour. His first real comedy episode came with "Anniversary Gift," adapted from a short story by John Collier and made even funnier in the transition to TV. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" improves on Ambrose Bierce's original short story, adding new elements that increase the tale's haunting quality and adding the character of an enslaved man who guides the main character home. Swanton's adaptation turns a shocking tale into a mournful lament.

For season six, Swanton's two scripts were less successful. "Summer Shade" is a light tale involving witchcraft and, while Swanton relocates the events to Salem, Mass., the episode has an uneven tone. Even less successful is "Museum Piece," an odd episode about revenge that does not quite work on TV.

Season seven saw Swanton write "Bang! You're Dead," which is directed by Hitchcock. On the surface, it is a suspenseful show about gun control and children, but underneath it is a subversive commentary on America's history of race relations, colonialism, and the then-current obsession with TV westerns. His final half-hour episode is another comedy, "The Twelve Hour Caper," in which Swanton makes changes to the short story he adapted that reduce the tale's effectiveness.

He returned for one final episode in season nine, the second year of hour-long shows; "Body in the Barn" is an exciting episode where Swanton's teleplay is faithful to the plot of the short story while expanding it by adding characters and increasing dialog and action.

EPISODE GUIDE-HAROLD SWANTON ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR

Episode title-"Premonition" [1.2]
Broadcast date-9 October 1955
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Original teleplay
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"The Long Shot" [1.9]
Broadcast date-27 November 1955
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on "The Long Shot" by Harold Swanton
First appearance-Suspense (radio show), 31 January 1946
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"Portrait of Jocelyn" [1.28]
Broadcast date-8 April 1956
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on an unpublished story by Edgar Marvin
First print appearance-none
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"Coyote Moon" [5.4]
Broadcast date-18 October 1959
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on "Coyote Moon" by Kenneth Perkins
First print appearance-Colliers, 15 August 1942
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"Anniversary Gift" [5.6]
Broadcast date-1 November 1959
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on "Anniversary Gift" by John Collier
First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 1959
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" [5.13]
Broadcast date-20 December 1959
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce
First print appearance-San Francisco Examiner, 13 July 1890

Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"Summer Shade" [6.15]
Broadcast date-10 January 1961
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on "Summer Evil" by Nora H. Caplan
First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, October 1960
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"Museum Piece" [6.25]
Broadcast date-4 April 1961
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on an unidentified story by William C. Morrison
First print appearance-unknown
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"Bang! You're Dead" [7.2]
Broadcast date-17 October 1961
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on an unidentified story by Margery Vosper
First print appearance-unknown
Notes
Watch episode-not available
Available on DVD?-no

Episode title-"The Twelve Hour Caper" [7.34]
Broadcast date-29 May 1962
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on "The Twelve-Hour Caper" by Mike Marmer
First print appearance-Cosmopolitan, May 1961
Notes
Watch episode-not available
Available on DVD?-no

Episode title-"Body in the Barn" [9.8]
Broadcast date-29 November 1963
Teleplay by-Harold Swanton
Based on "Body in the Barn" by Margaret Manners
First print appearance-Argosy, February 1945
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

*  *  *  *  *

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In two weeks: our series on Alfred Hayes begins with "A Piece of the Action" starring Gig Young and Martha Hyer!

The Hitchcock Project-Harold Swanton Part Eight: The Twelve Hour Caper [7.34]

by Jack Seabrook

Mike Marmer's short story, "The Twelve-Hour Caper," was first published in the May 1961 issue of Cosmopolitan. It was adapted by Harold Swanton for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and broadcast on NBC on Tuesday, May 29, 1962. The story begins as Herbert Wiggam leaves for work one morning, promising his mother that he'll see her that evening at seven o'clock. The dull details of his trip to work at a Wall Street brokerage are brightened by the knowledge that he plans to steal half a million dollars that day.

A bond transfer is scheduled for that afternoon and Herbert begins to set his plan in motion, forging receipts and meeting two crooks named Louie and Muggsy at lunchtime to explain his plan. The twosome will enter the office right before closing time and take the bonds by force, then drop them in the wastebasket next to Herbert's desk, where Herbert will be able to remove them without being suspected. Everything goes smoothly until a police lieutenant nearly kicks over Herbert's wastebasket, exposing the bonds to view. Herbert manages to cover them up but, unexpectedly, the office cleaning woman empties the garbage while Herbert is examining the scene of the crime with the policeman.

"The Twelve-Hour Caper"
was first published here

Once the lieutenant leaves, Herbert takes a taxi to the airport, where he meets his mother at the gate. Both wait to board a plane to Rio de Janeiro, and she seems happy to have finished her last day of work as the cleaning lady at Herbert's office.

"The Twelve-Hour Caper" is a delightful short story, tightly plotted, where the author succeeds in misdirecting the reader right up to the last page. Comedy and suspense mix, with the reader identifying with Herbert and rooting for him to succeed in his crime. When the cleaning woman empties his garbage can, we are disappointed, but the final revelation of her identity is a welcome surprise that makes the reader look back over the story to confirm that it was fairly clued. The title refers to the time between Herbert's goodbye to his mother in the morning and their reunion at the airport that evening.

In the TV version of "The Twelve Hour Caper," Harold Swanton removes the entire first part of the short story, in which Herbert is introduced as a 40-year-old man who still lives with his mother. Gone is the exchange where he says he will see her at seven o'clock, which seems like one thing and later turns out to be another. Gone, too are Herbert's thoughts about his plan to steal the money and his knowledge that he won't be returning home. By removing all of this, Swanton removes much of what makes the surprise ending so effective.

Dick York as Herbert Wiggam

Instead of being senior man at the office, as he is in the story, Herbert is an assistant cashier, as is shown by a sign on his desk. As the show opens, he sits at his desk in the office, perusing travel brochures about Rio de Janeiro. When Herbert's older co-worker, Frisbee, arrives, he asks Herbert about his mother, something he will do again later in the episode. Swanton uses these exchanges to replace the first scene and keep the idea of Herbert's mother alive in the viewer's mind, but the repeated mentions of an absent character seem out of place. There is a bit of comedy as a co-worker named Lowe flirts with Miss Pomfritt, the secretary, who rebuffs his advances.

Herbert's boss, Mr. Tupper, arrives and expresses concern to Herbert about the danger of taking delivery of such a large sum in bonds late on a Friday afternoon. There is then a scene between Frisbee and Wiggam in which Frisbee tells Wiggam that Tupper will tell him today that Herbert will not get Frisbee's job when he retires. There is no comparable incident in the short story, and this was likely added by Swanton to give Herbert a motive for theft. Another co-worker named Westbrook arrives at the office late and immediately starts teasing Herbert, who is reading another travel brochure about Rio. Westbrook asks mockingly if Herbert plans to travel there with his mother, inadvertently foreshadowing what will be revealed at the close of the episode.

Sarah Marshall as Miss Pomfritt

As Frisbee predicted, Tupper calls Herbert into his office and informs him that Westbrook, his wife's favorite nephew, has been selected to replace Frisbee. As Herbert leaves the office, masking his disappointment, Tupper asks him if he's "'ready for those bonds,'" to which Herbert replies, with a small smile, "'I certainly am, Sir.'" Throughout the episode, the dialogue has one meaning on the surface but another hidden underneath; here, Tupper asks if Wiggam is ready to handle the transaction, while Wiggam's reply really means that he is prepared to commit theft. Herbert then tells Frisbee that Tupper said: "'He had his eye on me, that I'm going places;'" once again, Herbert's words mean something different to himself than they do to his listener.

Wendell Holmes as Tupper

Herbert immediately picks up his phone and calls to set up his lunch meeting with the two crooks, In the TV show, it is implied that being passed over for promotion is the final straw that leads Herbert to decide to go through with the robbery. There is a dissolve to a scene in a city park, where Herbert sits at a picnic table with a chessboard and is quickly joined by the two criminals. In the short story, Herbert explains the plan to the men verbally. In the TV show, it is laid out in a clever visual way by use of the chessboard, on which Herbert has drawn a diagram of the office. He uses chess pieces to represent the people involved: Tupper is the king, Miss Pomfritt is the queen, and Herbert is a knight. All the others in the office are represented by pawns. Herbert finishes explaining his plan and the next scene occurs back in the office, late that afternoon.

Frisbee leaves for the day, again asking Herbert about his mother, making sure the viewer has not forgotten about her. Lowe makes another failed play for Miss Pomfritt. Herbert pops pill after pill as the bonds are late in arriving and Tupper nearly cancels the whole thing. The bonds finally arrive and Herbert takes delivery. From then on, everything goes according to plan. Miss Pomfritt disappears to do her makeup, the crooks knock out Tupper and lightly tap Herbert, and the bonds are deposited in the wastebasket. The scene is played comedically, with music to match, but it succeeds in advancing the plot and follows the short story closely.

Gage Clarke as Frisbee

Suspense builds as the lieutenant's foot nearly causes the wastebasket to topple over; again, as with the earlier dialogue, what appears to be going on to the other characters and what the viewer knows is going on in Herbert's head are two very different things. As is so often the case on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the viewer is rooting for Herbert to get away with his crime and fears that something will go wrong. In the TV show, the wastebasket actually does topple over, leading Herbert to set it right and then blow his nose a couple of times to give himself an excuse to deposit quite a few tissues on top of the bonds.

Unfortunately, this is where the TV adaptation goes wrong and fails to match the conclusion of the short story. In the story, Wiggam is pulled into Tupper's office to reenact the crime and he hears the cleaning woman outside, emptying wastebaskets. He can't see what's happening and we suspect the worst. Only when he emerges from Tupper's office does he discover that the wastebasket is empty and the cleaning woman is leaving. In the TV show, the cleaning woman does not enter until Herbert has emerged from Tupper's office. He sees her come in and watches as she empties the wastebaskets. The bonds are clearly visible as she dumps the contents of the wastebasket, the music is humorous, and the expression on Herbert's face is one of distress, but having him watch the process is less satisfying than having him hear it and wonder what is going on.

Charles Carlson as Westbrook

The cleaning woman leaves the office and there is a dissolve to the airport departure gate, where Herbert stands in line. In the short story, he is stuck at the office for another half hour and is said to feel "mild shock" when he leaves. He catches a taxi and rushes to the airport, where it's the last call for the flight to Rio. It begins to dawn on the reader that Herbert's concern about being stuck in the office had more to do with potentially missing his flight than with losing the bonds. In the TV show, his ticket is stamped and he walks around the corner to encounter his mother, whose back is to the camera. "'Ready, mother?'" he says, and she replies, "'Yes, dear,'" as she turns and reveals herself to be the cleaning woman. There is a sting of music and the episode ends as they walk, arm in arm, down the corridor to board the plane.

Ned Wever as Lt. Hargis

The twist ending of the short story works brilliantly; the ending of the TV show is less surprising and thus less effective. Harold Swanton's adaptation plays up the comedy in the situation but fails to maintain the suspense and, by removing the initial scenes with Herbert saying goodbye to his mother and going to work, the story's careful structure is damaged irreparably. The TV show remains entertaining, but the end fails and it is not as strong as Marmer's short story. The adaptation clocks in at just under twenty minutes, requiring an extended credit sequence to make up the show's running time. There are also careless errors in the show, such as Tupper calling Wiggins "'William'" at one point and Herbert referring to the events displayed on the chessboard as showing the office layout at "'ten minutes to four on almost any Friday morning.'" The show has the feeling of one that was put together quickly near the end of the last season of the half-hour series' seven-year run.

Kreg Martin and Tom Bellin
as Webster and Brand, the crooks

Mike Marmer (1925-2002), who wrote the story, was born Merrill Marmer and had a three-decade career as a TV writer, working with such comedy legends as Milton Berle, Ernie Kovacs, Steve Allen, and the Smothers Brothers. He also wrote for sitcoms, including Get Smart. He won an Emmy Award in 1972 for being one of the writers on the famous Gone with the Wind parody on The Carol Burnett Show. The FictionMags Index lists four short stories published under his name, between 1954 and 1962, and this was the only episode of the Hitchcock show to which he contributed.

Dick York (1928-1992) stars as Herbert. York was born in Indiana and his screen career lasted from 1953 to 1984. Plagued by terrible back pain caused by an injury sustained on the set of a film, he nevertheless appeared in seven episodes of the Hitchcock show, as well as being on The Twilight Zone and Thriller. York's most famous role, however, was as Darrin Stevens on Bewitched, the popular situation comedy where he co-starred with Elizabeth Montgomery from 1964 to 1969, when he quit the show due to his back problems. The character of Herbert is similar to that of Darrin Stevens.

Andy Romano

Oddly enough, Sarah Marshall (1933-2014) receives co-star billing on the title card with Dick York, even though her role as Miss Pomfritt is relatively minor. The daughter of the great British actor Herbert Marshall, who himself appeared on the Hitchcock show, she was born in London, England, and appeared on Broadway in the 1950s. Her screen career ran from 1954 to 1995 and included appearances on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, and Star Trek. She was on the Hitchcock show three times.

Playing the officious boss, Mr. Tupper, is Wendell Holmes (1914-1962), who started out in radio in the 1930s and had a screen career that was mostly on television from 1955 to 1962. He appeared in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Not the Running Type." His last role to air was in "The Twelve Hour Caper," which premiered 11 days after his death on May 18, 1962.

Gage Clarke (1900-1964) plays Frisbee, the head cashier who is a month away from retirement. He was on Broadway from the late 1920s and his screen career lasted from 1949 to 1964. He was on The Twilight Zone and Thriller and he appeared in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Right Kind of Medicine."

In smaller roles:

• Charles Carlson (1930-2013) as Westbrook, Tupper's wife's nephew who is promoted over Herbert; he was on TV from 1960-1967 and appeared in five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Where Beauty Lies."
• Ned Wever (1899-1984) as Lt. Hargis; he was on Broadway in the '20s and '30s, on the radio, and then on screen from 1955 to 1968. He was on three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Night the World Ended."
• Kreg Martin as Webster, one of the crooks; in a short TV career from 1962-1963 he was seen on The Twilight Zone and in seven episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Maria."
• Tom Bellin (1934-2011) as Brand, the other crook; he was on TV from 1962 to 2010 and appeared in three episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Big Kick." The opposite of Wendell Holmes, "The Twelve Hour Caper" was Bellin's first role to air.
• Andy Romano (1941- ) as the second cop; he was on screen from 1961 to 2003, including an appearance on Batman and parts in eight episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Black Curtain."
• Bob Reiner (1933-2013) as the airport clerk; he was on TV from 1962-1965 and appeared in nine episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Thanatos Palace Hotel."

Bob Reiner

• Lillian O'Malley (1892-1976) as Herbert's mother; she had a long career playing bit parts from 1936 to 1964; she was on The Twilight Zone, five episodes of Thriller, and ten episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Revenge," the premiere.

Lillian O'Malley

• Ernest Losso (1934- ) as the messenger who brings the bonds; this is one of his three credits as a TV actor; he went on to be a TV director and producer from 1970-86.

Ernest Losso

• Don Durant (1932-2005) as Lowe, who keeps hitting on Miss Pomfritt; he was on TV from 1955 to 1963 and starred in a series called Johnny Ringo (1959-60).

Don Durant

John Newland (1917-2000) directed "The Twelve Hour Caper," which was one of four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that he directed, all in 1962. He had a long and interesting career, starting out in vaudeville as a teen, then acting from 1947 to 1964 and directing for television from 1954 to 1983. He is best remembered as the director and host of One Step Beyond (1959-61), but he also directed the famous episode of Bus Stop called "I Kiss Your Shadow," as well as four episodes of Thriller, and episodes of Star Trek and Night Gallery. Toward the end of his career, he hosted Next Step Beyond (1978-79) and directed 18 of its 25 episodes.

"The Twelve Hour Caper" is not currently available on US DVD or online.

Sources:

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/. 

Marmer, Mike. "The Twelve-Hour Caper." Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Month of Mystery, Random House, 1969, pp. 116–125. 

"The Twelve Hour Caper." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 7, episode 34, NBC, 29 May 1962. 

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

In two weeks: Our series on Harold Swanton concludes with "Body in the Barn," starring Lillian Gish!