The Hitchcock Project-Kathleen Hite Part Three: The Morning of the Bride [4.19] and wrapup

by Jack Seabrook

Kathleen Hite's third and final teleplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents was "The Morning of the Bride," based on a short story of the same title by Neil S. Boardman that was published in the June 1957 issue of Harper's Magazine.

In the story, a woman meets a man during the Second World War, while he's in the city on furlough. He is six years older than she and says he lives in the country with his widowed mother. The man and woman date for 13 years without getting married. He claims that his mother depends on him and he can't leave her. The woman never meets the mother and the years pass, until she finally quits her job, gets a marriage license, and issues an ultimatum: marry me tonight or not at all!

He agrees and they are wed. They spend the night at his house, where he cautions his wife to be quiet so as not to disturb his mother. In the morning, he slips out of the house quietly and his bride stands by the window watching him walk out of sight. She goes to his mother's room and knocks on the door, entering when there is no reply. She finds the room clean and furnished but empty. In a desk drawer she discovers an envelope containing sympathy cards received after her husband's mother died twelve years before, in 1945. She hears her husband return and he enters as she drops the envelope to the floor.

"The Morning of the Bride" is told in flashback, narrated by the wife, and no character names are given. It begins as she awakens in the morning and watches her husband leave. She then describes their past and the events leading up to the wedding. The story concludes with her entering the mother's room and discovering her husband's secret. The reader never learns the reason why the husband lied to his wife for a dozen years, nor is it revealed what happens when she confronts him with the truth. The surprise ending must have appealed to the producers of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, since the story was soon adapted for TV, airing on CBS on Sunday, February 15, 1959.

"The Morning of the Bride"
was first published here

Hite's teleplay does a great job of opening up the story, which is almost entirely narrative. She gives the characters names and uses a structure that alternates between short scenes in the present and longer scenes in the past, going back and forth until near the end of the show, when flashback scenes follow each other until the story returns to the present for a conclusion more disturbing than the one in the short story.

The show opens with a scene with no dialogue, where visual clues set the stage for what follows: a closeup of a bridal bouquet; a shot of Helen asleep in bed, wearing her wedding ring; she wakes up, finds her husband gone, picks up the bouquet and admires both it and her new ring before getting out of bed. Without any narration, it's clear that it's the morning after her wedding day.

Her husband Philip is seen outside as she gazes out the window; the first suggestion of his boyishness is provided when he is shown playing with a dog. Helen puts on a robe, looks at herself in the mirror, and picks up a framed photo of her mother-in-law from her husband's dresser. The first words of the show are heard in voiceover, and all of the subsequent dialogue in the present will be in voiceover until the final scene. "'I hope you like me,'" Helen thinks as she looks at the photo before she steps into the hallway, and there is a point of view shot of a door that is clearly meant to be the door to her mother-in-law's room. In voiceover, Helen says that they will meet for the first time today and comments that she's been waiting nearly five years; perhaps Hite thought that the 13-year courtship in the short story was too long to be believed.

Barbara Bel Geddes as Helen

The screen goes blurry to indicate that a flashback is beginning, and the first flashback scene finds Helen setting a table for three in her apartment, expecting Philip and his mother to come for dinner. Her roommate Pat enters and encourages her; Helen is nervous about meeting Philip's mother and, when he arrives alone and in uniform, he explains that his mother couldn't come and that he just received his orders and is leaving for Korea tonight. Context clues later in the show clarify that the wedding took place in 1956, so nearly five years before would be right in the middle of the Korean War, not the WWII of the short story.

For the first of many times, Philip makes an excuse to prevent Helen from visiting his mother while he is away, telling her that Mother is going up to Boston to stay with his aunt while he's gone. The actress playing Helen is six years older than the actor playing Philip, so the ages in the short story have been reversed for the TV show; instead of Helen being younger than her beau, she is older, and this increases her anxiety and underlines his boyishness. After Philip leaves his girlfriend with only a kiss on the forehead, Pat returns to the room and comforts Helen, who reveals that she has only known Philip for four months and that she did not have a family of her own while growing up and never knew love. This helps to explain her naivete and her willingness to stay with Philip and to believe his increasingly outlandish lies about his mother.

The flashback ends and the scene returns to the present, with Helen in the hall and more voiceover as she recalls Philip's return from the Korean War. The screen goes blurry again and the second flashback shows Helen and Philip sitting on a park bench together. Once again, he acts like a boy, saying that "'I feel like a kid with a good report card. I want my head patted.'" Helen accepts the role of surrogate mother, unaware of the truth regarding his real mother. Philip explains that he works for a publishing house run by a man who is a long-time friend of his mother's; he adds that, for years, the boss would not publish a book "'unless Mother read it first.'" The missing Mrs. Pryor is a domineering woman whom her son reveres. Philip continues to perpetuate the illusion that his mother is alive, telling Helen that the woman is proud of her decision to go to night school. However, when Helen pushes Philip to tell his mother that they plan to wed, he is visibly uncomfortable and says that he wants to wait a couple more months.

Don Dubbins as Philip

The alternating scenes in present and past continue with a return to Helen in her room, looking at Mother's photo and speaking in voiceover as she recalls taking the train last Spring to Philip's house to pay an unannounced visit to his mother while he was at work. The next flashback shows Helen arriving at the gates to a mansion by taxi; she goes through the gates and sees a woman emerge from the front door in the distance. Helen yells at her, calling her Mrs. Pryor, causing the woman to pause and respond that there's no one home before she scurries away. Helen is left confused and upset.

After another brief scene in the present, with more voiceover as Helen looks at Mother's photo, another flashback follows; soon after her unsuccessful visit to his house, Helen had dinner with Philip. The time of the flashbacks has slowly been moving closer to the present throughout the show, and with this scene the pattern of flashbacks alternating with short scenes in the present is interrupted. At dinner, Philip presents Helen with a gift from Mother: a copy of David Copperfield, a book about a boy's journey from childhood to maturity, a journey that Helen will soon learn was interrupted for Philip. Helen tells him about her attempt to visit his mother and he ties himself in knots trying to explain it away, finally claiming that the woman Helen saw must have been Mrs. Beasley, the housecleaner, who said the house was empty because Mother was out for a drive with friends.

Pat Hitchcock as Pat

After Philip tells Helen that Mother has a weak heart and he must guard her from shocks, a scene follows back at Helen's apartment, where Pat tries to point out some of the problems with Philip's relationship with his mother. In this episode, Pat represents the viewer and her straightforward, optimistic approach to life contrasts with the agonized path taken by Helen. Pat tells Helen to insist that Philip marry her right away or she'll leave him and, in the next scene, Helen does just that over dinner. They have been together nearly five years and, ignoring his excuses, she gets up and walks away, forcing him to chase her and propose immediate marriage.

There is a cut to them entering his mansion later that night, after the wedding; Philip, still happy to be dominated by a woman, tells Helen, "'After all, you're the boss now,'" suggesting that she will take the place of his mother. He tells Helen that Mother is asleep and Helen says she can wait until morning to meet her. There is a dissolve back to the present for the last time, as Helen puts down the photo and a tracking shot follows her down the hall toward Mother's door. She knocks and enters to find an empty room. Unlike the short story, where she snoops in the desk drawer, in the TV show Helen opens the drapes and a breeze through the open window disturbs papers on the desk. Helen rushes over to keep them from blowing off and finds a copy of a newspaper obituary reporting the death of Mary Pryor on June 2, 1949. The camera focuses on the date so the viewer can't miss it, and the effect is even worse than it was in the short story, where Helen had met Philip before his mother's death.

Helen Conrad as
Mrs. Beasley

In the TV show, Mother had been dead for two years before Helen met Philip, which makes his duplicity even worse. Helen is understandably confused and looks around the room, touching a dress laid out on the bed. Philip suddenly appears in the doorway and it is clear that the story is about to be taken further than it was on the printed page; the short story ends with Helen dropping the envelope as Philip stands in the doorway, "a queer smile on his face." On TV, she speaks to him, saying "'I don't understand. She's been dead for seven years...'" (for the first time the viewer realizes that the present is 1956, not 1959, the date the show aired). Philip walks past her, opens the closet, takes a shawl from a shelf, walks over to a chair, and says, "'You never remember to keep warm, Mother! You'll get another chill if I don't watch over you every minute!'" He looks down at Mother tenderly, then his gaze shifts to Helen with a look on his face that is both insane and challenging, as if daring her to break the spell. There is a cut to Helen, who says "'Oh no!'" as the realization of her husband's insanity dawns on her.

Is the "morning" of the episode's title a homophone for "mourning"? The last scene certainly gives Helen reason to mourn her innocence and her love for Philip. What happens next? There is no indication that Philip is violent or that Helen is any danger, but the look on his face is unhinged. Online comments about this episode have noted parallels to Psycho, which was released less than two years after this episode aired. Like Norman Bates, Philip Pryor is obsessed with his mother and pretends that she is alive long after she's dead. Unlike Norman, Philip does not keep her corpse in the basement, nor does he dress up like her, assume her identity, or murder anyone.

Mother sure looks like Patricia Collinge!

"The Morning of the Bride" is an effective episode, carefully structured by writer Kathleen Hite with alternating scenes in the present and the past until the timelines converge at the end. Adding the character of Pat gives the viewer someone to identify with and adding many scenes with dialogue and location changes serves to keep interest high. Hite also uses subtle clues along the way to portray Philip as an immature boy, making the final revelation more believable. Most difficult is the character of Helen, who seems to accept Philips's excuses and lies for far too long. Hite solves this problem by compressing the length of their relationship and by making Philip a particularly charming man right up until the final scene. "The Morning of the Bride" is a surprisingly good episode that improves on the short story it adapts and adds a depiction of chilling insanity in its final scene.

Neil S. Boardman (1907-1974), who wrote the short story, was a librarian at Indiana University from 1948 to 1973, writing short stories from 1948 to 1959, two novels, various nonfiction articles, and a book.

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

Philip's last look at Helen is unhinged.

Barbara Bel Geddes (1922-2005) stars as Helen. She started as a stage actress in 1941, moving into film in 1947 and TV in 1950. In addition to a key role in Vertigo, she appeared in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Lamb to the Slaughter," and she later starred in the television series Dallas from 1978 to 1990, winning an Emmy in 1980. A website devoted to her career may be found here.

Both boyish and chilling, Don Dubbins (1928-1991) plays Philip. His screen career lasted from 1953 to 1991, with many TV roles, including an appearance on The Twilight Zone. This was his only role on the Hitchcock series.

Patricia Hitchcock (1928-2021), the master's daughter, plays Pat. She began her career on TV in 1949 and she began appearing in films in 1950. She was in three of her father's films and appeared in ten episodes of the half-hour TV show, including "The Older Sister," "The Glass Eye," and Robert Bloch's "The Cuckoo Clock." She had a handful of other TV and movie roles over the years.

Seen from a distance as the housekeeper, Mrs. Beasley, is Helen Conrad, in her first screen role. She had a brief career on TV from 1959 to 1962.

Read the GenreSnaps take on this episode here. Read the short story for free online here. Watch the episode here or order the DVD here.

Sources:

Boardman, Neil S. "The Morning of the Bride." Harper's Magazine, June 1957, pp. 41–45. 

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

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

IMDb, IMDb.com, https://www.imdb.com/.

Indiana University Bloomington Faculty Council Minutes - Document View, https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/bfc/view?docId=B13-1975.

"The Morning of the Bride." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 4, episode 19, CBS, 15 Feb. 1959.

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

*  *  *  *  *

Kathleen Hite on Alfred Hitchcock Presents: An Overview and Episode Guide

Kathleen Hite wrote three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that aired over ten months, between April 1958 and February 1959. All three were based on short stories that had been published in 1957.

Her first teleplay, "Disappearing Trick," was directed by Arthur Hiller and features a strong female character. The TV version improves on the short story. Her second, "Tea Time," focuses on two women and is also better than the story on which it was based. Finally, "The Morning of the Bride" centers on a woman who narrates the show. This episode, too, is better than the short story version.

Kathleen Hite wrote three very good teleplays for Alfred Hitchcock Presents in less than a year and then no more. She joined other women writing teleplays in this period for producer Joan Harrison: Rose Kohn, Sarett Rudley, Marian Cockrell, and Kathleen Hite together wrote ten episodes for the series during the third and fourth seasons combined. It's too bad that Hite did not write more!

                                                                               *  *  *  *  *

EPISODE GUIDE-KATHLEEN HITE ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS

Episode title-"Disappearing Trick" [3.27]
Broadcast date-6 April 1958
Teleplay by-Kathleen Hite
Based on "Disappearing Trick" by Victor Canning

First print appearance-Argosy, September 1957
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"Tea Time" [4.10]
Broadcast date-14 December 1958
Teleplay by-Kathleen Hite
Based on "Two for Tea" by Margaret Manners

First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, May 1957
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"The Morning of the Bride" [4.19]
Broadcast date-15 February 1959
Teleplay by-Kathleen Hite
Based on "The Morning of the Bride" by Neil S. Boardman

First print appearance-Harper's Magazine, June 1957
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "Alibi Me" here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Post Mortem" here!

In two weeks: Wait...David Goodis wrote an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour? And it was based on a paperback original novel by Henry Kane? Find out more about "An Out for Oscar" right here!

The Hitchcock Project-Kathleen Hite Part Two: Tea Time [4.10]

 by Jack Seabrook

Tea for two and two for tea...

Oh, can't you see how happy life would be?

from "Tea for Two," lyrics by Irving Caesar, 1924

The two women who share tea in "Two for Tea" by Margaret Manners do not spend any happy time together, nor do their lives end happily. The story begins as Iris Teleton, wife of Oliver Teleton, meets Blanche Herbert for tea at the Blenheim. Iris knows that Blanche is her husband's lover and is surprised to see that her rival is not younger than herself. Over tea and cakes, Blanche suggests that Iris grant Oliver a divorce, but Iris refuses. Blanche threatens to reveal Iris's affair with Robert Cressant, a man Iris loved before she married Oliver. He did not have much money, but Iris continued to see him for months after her wedding, and Blanche produces and reads from a love letter that Iris wrote. Blanche threatens to show the letter to Oliver and Iris decides that she must kill Blanche.

"Two for Tea" was first
published in the May 1957
 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's
Mystery Magazine

Iris agrees to the divorce and then follows Blanche, offering to take some jewels from a safe deposit box so that Oliver will not keep them. Iris offers to give some of the jewels to Blanche in exchange for the letter and they agree to meet in the park. After buying a sharp knife, Iris meets Blanche and they walk to a remote spot, where Iris stabs her rival in the back and kills her. Iris takes the letter from Blanche's bag, along with money to make it look like a robbery, and returns home to the apartment she shares with Oliver.

Alone in her room, Iris discovers that the letter is a copy, not the original. Hoping to find the original letter, Iris decides to look for a key to Blanche's apartment among her husband's things and overhears him talking on the phone to another mistress, revealing that he paid Blanche to ask Iris to divorce him. Iris tells Oliver that she will agree to a divorce and confesses to murdering Blanche. He orders her to bring him the money, the knife, and the letter, explaining the ease with which the police will track her down and prove her guilt. Oliver suggests that she go to the police; instead, Iris takes an overdose of sleeping pills and commits suicide.

Margaret Leighton as Iris

Kathleen Hite adapted "Two for Tea" as "Tea Time" for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the show was broadcast on CBS on Sunday, December 14, 1958. The teleplay makes major changes to the story and, with strong direction by Robert Stevens and solid acting by Margaret Leighton as Iris, this episode is a fine entry in the series.

While the short story seems to take place near Oxford, England, where Blenheim Palace is located, the TV show opens with an establishing shot of the fountain in front of New York City's Plaza Hotel. There is a dissolve to the tea room inside the hotel, and an orchestral version of "The Anniversary Waltz" plays in the background, an ironic choice in light of the events about to transpire. The camera moves slowly from table to table, establishing the location as one frequented by wealthy, happy patrons. Blanche arrives and the maitre d' leads her to a table where Iris awaits. The TV version thus eliminates the story's opening passage, in which Iris dresses and says goodbye to Oliver, travels to the tea room, thinks of her former lover, and is disappointed at arriving first. Hite chooses to move directly to the meeting between the two women and to establish the background through subsequent dialogue.

Marsha Hunt as Blanche

Both women wear fur accessories and look well cared for; Iris sports a fur wrap and a large string of pearls and uses a long cigarette holder. Iris's reaction to Blanche is similar but less coarse; in the story, she thinks that Blanche is "Not blonde and busty with long legs and lashes," while in the teleplay, Iris says, "'I've always imagined Oliver taking up with someone...younger, someone a bit...fluffier, if you know what I mean.'" In both story and teleplay, Blanche criticizes Iris for not allowing Oliver to continue to enjoy "a 'real' marriage," which seems to be code for sex. Iris exudes the confidence of a wealthy, comfortable woman at first, while Blanche is cold and direct.

In the story, they remain seated at the table for the second part of the conversation, when Blanche confronts Iris with the letter. In the show, they get up and leave the table before exiting the dining room and sitting together on a sofa in a hallway. Blanche makes no effort to conceal the letter from Iris, taking it out of an envelope and reading from it aloud while Iris sits next to her. If the letter is clearly a copy, Iris should notice, but she does not. Iris nervously takes a cigarette out of her purse and smokes it without a holder this time.

Murray Matheson as Oliver

At this point, the show diverges from the story. Blanche agrees to give Iris 24 hours to consider her proposal. Iris does not follow Blanche and there is no murder in the park. Instead, Iris goes home and, when she enters the foyer, the camera is placed at the top of a staircase looking down on the large, tiled entranceway. The black and white checkerboard floor suggests that the small figure of Iris is a pawn in her husband's chess game. Oliver greets her and offers her a drink, and Iris pathetically suggests that they go on a cruise together, trying to salvage their marriage, but Oliver responds that he is too busy. She brings up their honeymoon cruise to Hawaii but he is unmoved and leaves her alone, suddenly deciding to go to the club to play bridge.

Next morning, Iris snips a button off of the cuff of one of Oliver's coats (did Hite read "The Goldfish Button," which was published less than a year before this episode aired and which featured a similar incident?) before he leaves for work. Iris telephones Blanche while taking jewelry out of her jewelry box and invites herself to her rival's apartment that afternoon. As she puts a piece of jewelry in her purse, a gun is glimpsed inside the bag. Later, as Iris approaches Blanche's apartment building, there is a closeup of a workman using a noisy jackhammer on the street outside. Upstairs, Iris enters Blanche's apartment and the noise of the jackhammer can still be heard. The tasteful, modern furnishings in Blanche's apartment contrast with the elaborate, ornate furnishings of Oliver's home.

Angela Austin

The women discuss Oliver and Iris offers to trade expensive pieces of jewelry for the letter, while the noise of the jackhammer repeatedly interrupts their conversation. Blanche shows great interest in the pieces of jewelry, studying them and assessing their value at $74,000 altogether. She demands $100,000 and tears the letter in half, giving Iris half and offering her the other half when she pays an additional $26,000. Suddenly, Iris pulls a gun from her purse, an all-too-common method of solving a plot conundrum on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The murder is done tastefully and cleverly; there is a shot of Iris pointing the gun at Blanche, followed by a cut to two men using loud jackhammers, followed by a cut to a shot of Blanche lying dead on the floor, with no evidence of a gunshot wound. Iris takes the other half of the letter and places Oliver's coat button in Blanche's hand before leaving, attempting to frame her husband for murder.

Instead of going home, as she does in the story, Iris goes to Oliver's office, where she puts the gun in his coat pocket before she hears him speaking to a private detective on the phone. The show's final scene occurs here, with Oliver glimpsed through a partly open door and Iris listening from the waiting room. She hears him learn from the private eye that Iris went to Blanche's apartment and he reveals that the letter was a copy. In the story, she found the letter herself and saw that it was not the original. Unlike the story, where Oliver speaks with the private detective in person and then calls his lover on the telephone, in the show he hangs up with the private eye and speaks with his lover, who is present in his office.

Fritz Feld

Iris's expressions as she hears the truth tell us all we need to know about her thoughts. Oliver tells his lover, "'Hurry along, now! You promised to cook my dinner tonight!'" The woman emerges from the office and she is young, blonde, and gorgeous, just what Iris had expected Blanche to be. The woman says hello and saunters past Iris, who slumps down in disappointment. With this, the episode ends, without a confrontation with Oliver and without Iris committing suicide. Hite's teleplay is excellent, removing some of the story's more far-fetched and melodramatic incidents and making the sequence of events more credible. Robert Stevens's direction is also excellent, using a mobile camera and a variety of shot types, pulling the viewer's eye to important plot points with closeups and dollies. The acting is strong as well, especially Margaret Leighton as Iris, who shows the woman's journey from being a confident, rich wife to a woman who knows that her marriage is over and she will probably go to jail. The artifice she uses to protect herself is stripped away piece by piece; she starts out behind a fur wrap and uses a cigarette lighter but, by the final scene, there is no wrap and no holder and she looks worn out and defeated.

A viewer of "Tea Time" would be justified in thinking that, in the world of wealthy denizens of New York City in 1958, men ruled the world. Oliver is a rich, successful cad who uses one lover to rid himself of his wife, all while enjoying a younger woman whom he expects to go home and make him dinner! Oliver's position in society and his wealth allow him to treat women in this way. Iris is driven to murder and ends up doomed; Blanche is killed; and the blonde's future does not look very bright, though she is oblivious to that fact.

George Navarro

"Tea Time" was directed by Robert Stevens (1920-1989), who worked in television from 1948 to 1987 and directed 44 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and five episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He won an Emmy for "The Glass Eye." He also directed 105 episodes of Suspense in the early 1950s.

Margaret Leighton (1922-1976) had a career on stage and on film that began in 1938 and she won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in her career. She began appearing in TV shows in 1951, won an Emmy Award in 1971, and worked up until her premature death. She had a role in Hitchcock's Under Capricorn (1949) and was also in one episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "Where the Woodbine Twineth."

Looking suave and cool as Blanche, Marsha Hunt (1917- ) holds her own with the formidable Ms. Leighton. Hunt began modeling in the 1930s and had a long career on screen from 1935 to 2008, despite being blacklisted in the 1950s. She also appeared on episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, and she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Still living at age 104, she is the oldest member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In smaller roles:

• Murray Matheson (1912-1985) plays Oliver; born in Australia, he had a long career on screen from 1945 to 1983. He was seen on Thriller, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and The Night Stalker, and he appeared in four episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Murder Case."
• George Navarro plays the waiter at the tea room; he played bit parts on screen from 1944 to 1961 and also appeared in "The Diplomatic Corpse."
• Angela Austin plays Oliver's young, blonde mistress; she had a brief screen career from 1957 to 1963.
• Fritz Feld (1900-1993) plays the maitre d' at the tea room; born in Berlin, he appeared in German films starting in 1917 and in Hollywood films starting in 1928. He played countless waiters and maitre d's and appeared on Batman, The Night Stalker, and The Odd Couple.

Watch "Tea Time" online here or order the DVD here. Read the GenreSnaps review here.

The author of the short story, "Two for Tea," Margaret Manners Lippmann (1914?-1974),  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, including "The Last Dark Step."

Sources:

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

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

IMDb.com. IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/.

Manners, Margaret. "Two for Tea." The Lethal Sex. Ed. John D. MacDonald. NY: Mystery Writers of America, 2018. [1959.]     pp. 50-71.

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

"Tea Time." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 4, episode 10, CBS, 14 Dec. 1958.

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

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "Alibi Me" here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Tea Time" here!

In two weeks: Our coverage of Kathleen Hite concludes with "The Morning of the Bride," starring Barbara Bel Geddes!

The Hitchcock Project-Kathleen Hite Part One: Disappearing Trick [3.27]

by Jack Seabrook

Kathleen Hite (1917-1989) was born in Kansas, the daughter of a cattleman, and after graduating from college she went to work for a radio station in Wichita. By 1943 she had moved to Los Angeles, where she was hired as a secretary for CBS Radio. Within a year, she had become the first female staff writer at the network and, when TV began to replace radio in the early 1950s, she began writing teleplays. Hite wrote for TV from 1954 to 1982, including three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 42 episodes of Gunsmoke (she also wrote for Gunsmoke when it was on the radio), and 25 episodes of The Waltons.

Kathleen Hite

Hite does not seem to have written any short stories, novels, or film scripts; instead, she concentrated on radio and TV. Her work for Gunsmoke and The Waltons has garnered some attention online; there is a collection of her radio and TV scripts at her alma mater, Wichita State University, and there is a website devoted to her here.

*   *   *   *   *

Kathleen Hite's first teleplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents was "Disappearing Trick," which aired on CBS on Sunday, April 6, 1958. The script was based on a short story of the same name by Victor Canning that had been published in the September 1957 issue of the British digest Argosy; it was reprinted in the 2010 collection of Canning's stories called Crime and Detection. A comparison of the short story with the TV show demonstrates that Hite made changes to improve the tale.

"Disappearing Trick"
was first published here

Walter Richmond, the protagonist of the short story, works in a London bookie's office and prefers to spend his free time playing tennis. He recalls the prior May when he was going to Brighton for the weekend. His boss asked him to check on Herbert Gild, a client who had not placed a bet in three months. When Richmond visited Gild's seafront apartment, his wife, a pretty woman named Laura, answered the door and showed an immediate interest in Walter, but all he could think about was tennis. Laura explained that her husband drowned in a boating accident six months ago, leaving her with little money. Walter visited a pub and wondered what became of all of the cash that Herbert had won at gambling.

Looking through old newspapers, Walter discovered that Herbert's body was never found. The next morning, he began to suspect that Gild faked his own death in order to get away from his wife. Walter decided to look for him, blackmail him, and use the money to focus on tennis instead of work. His plan to pump Laura for information was set in motion when she approached him in the bar of the hotel where he was staying. Walter turned on the charm and, when they went for a drive, they shared a kiss. He spent the next five weekends at Brighton with Laura, learning all he could about her missing husband.

Robert Horton as Walter

At the start of week six, Laura visited Walter in London and mentioned that Herbert loved cricket. Walter attended a big match and soon spotted Herbert, who had dyed his hair black and grown a bushy mustache. Walter found out where Herbert lived and pretended to be an insurance salesman when he paid a call on Herbert, quickly confronting the man with the knowledge of his true identity. Herbert offered to pay him off and Walter accepted 5000 pounds. He left and walked to his car, where he found Laura waiting for him, claiming that she wanted Herbert's money and Walter's company; she knew that Walter was up to something and followed him.

Walter and Laura returned to Brighton together to find Herbert waiting for them with a gun. When Walter tried to overpower him, Herbert shot him in the shoulder. They tussled and Laura hit Herbert over the head with a heavy glass ashtray. Walter and Laura left Herbert, wounded but alive, and drove off along the coast. Walter passed out  from his wound and woke up in the car alone--Laura had absconded with the 5000 pounds he got from Herbert, leaving Walter with no money, no woman, and an injured shoulder that ended his tennis career.

Betsy von Furstenberg as Laura

"Disappearing Trick" is an odd story that features a man who lives to play tennis. A beautiful woman and 5000 pounds are only means to an end, and that end is the game he adores. Ironically, his attempts at seduction and blackmail serve to destroy his ability to do what he loves.

When she adapted Canning's short story for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kathleen Hite moved the location of the events from England to Southern California and removed any references to cricket. She also streamlined the ending and toned down the focus on Walter's love for tennis, which is mainly conveyed to the reader in the short story through his narration. The first scene of the TV show has Walter arriving at the booking agency; people take bets by phone and there is mention of Santa Anita, a racetrack near Los Angeles, so the location is set right away. In addition to a briefcase, Walter carries a tennis racket, which he twirls so the viewer doesn't miss it.

Perry Lopez as Julio

Walter takes a bet by phone and then has an exchange with another booking agent who asks how he "'made out with those rich ladies over at the club.'" The themes of the episode have been established quickly: betting on horses, tennis, and Walter's penchant for women; he replies that "'I've got a lot of charm.'" Walter's boss, Regis, assigns him a weekend job ("'between sets'" is added sarcastically to underline Walter's interest in tennis) to locate Herbert Gild, who lives in La Jolla, about two hours down the coast near San Diego. Herbert stopped calling in three months ago and Regis wants to get him "'back on our books.'"

Raymond Bailey as Herbert

Herbert is said to live in the "'best apartment hotel in La Jolla,'" and there is a dissolve to the exterior of the hotel, which is actually the swanky Hotel Coronado, about 20 miles south of La Jolla. Walter is invited into Laura's apartment and, despite her husband's death, she is coy and flirtatious. A photo of Herbert shows that he was much older than his wife. Instead of staying put in the town where Laura lives, as he does in the short story, Walter returns to the booking agency for another chat with his boss. He reviews Gild's betting records and confirms that he placed his last bet three months ago, which conflicts with Laura's statement that he has been dead for six months. This dichotomy is present in the short story but it is not highlighted; Hite adds the scene between Walter and Regis to make sure that the viewer (and Walter) understands the importance of the dates. Walter visits a newspaper archive and, after confirming Gild's death in a back issue of the newspaper, Walter learns from the archivist that his body was never found.

Frank Albertson as Regis

There is no discussion of a plan to find and blackmail Herbert. Instead, Walter visits Laura again and, before long, they are embracing and kissing. They discuss money and it is clear that they both want it and what it buys. Laura is open about having married Herbert for his money, and Walter suggests that he faked his own death to get away from his unfaithful wife. They play tennis together and kiss again; Laura tells Walter that she wants to go away with him and the next shot is taken from a car as it approaches the Mexican border. In the following shot, a Mexican bookie and friend of Walter's named Julio is introduced as Walter asks if he knows Herbert. Walter tells Julio about the discrepancy in dates between Herbert's death and his last bet, again highlighting this critical piece of evidence for the viewer.

Percy Helton

Back in La Jolla at Laura's apartment, Walter surreptitiously takes the photograph of Herbert from its frame. In the next scene, Walter is back in Tijuana, alone this time. He visits Herbert, whose appearance is changed only by a toupee. There is a nice, subtle touch in this scene when Herbert offers Walter a glass of sherry. Earlier in the show, when Laura first met Walter, she had disparaged her late husband, remarking that he "'looked like sherry'"--a dull drink compared to the whiskey favored by Walter. Herbert gives Walter $10,000 in cash to leave him alone and Walter walks out to find Laura waiting in his car, as in the story.

Thomas Wild

One flaw in the short story is corrected here: rather than have Herbert drive faster than Walter and beat him back to Laura's apartment, in the TV show, Walter's car gets a flat tire on the way and he has to change it. When he and Laura get back to her apartment and are confronted by Herbert holding a gun, he tells them that he passed them while Walter was fixing the flat. As in the story, Walter tussles with Herbert and is shot in the shoulder, but Laura does not add to her husband's pain by hitting him with an ashtray. They do not drive off together. Instead, there is a dissolve to a scene where Walter is being tended to in a doctor's office. The nurse goes out to the waiting room to get Laura but she is gone; the nurse brings Walter's jacket to him and he checks his pocket to find the money gone. The doctor underlines the irony of the situation with the final line of dialogue, telling Walter that his shoulder will always be stiff, which is fine "'unless you happen to be a tennis player.'" In one short scene, Walter loses his lover, his money, and his passion.

Dorothea Lord

The TV version of "Disappearing Trick" works better than the short story, mainly because there is not such an effort to focus on how Walter loves tennis above all else. In the TV show, he is a tennis player, but he is also a ladies' man and he is not above blackmail. The irony at the end of the story is that he will never play tennis again; the irony at the end of the TV show is more complex.

Victor Canning (1911-1986) was a prolific British writer whose many short stories and novels were published between the early 1930s and the 1980s. He served in the British Army in WWII and is best remembered among fans of Alfred Hitchcock for his novel, The Rainbird Pattern (1972), which was adapted as Family Plot (1976). Other films and TV shows were adapted from his works beginning in 1950, but "Disappearing Trick" was the only one for the Hitchcock TV series. Canning's papers are at the University of Wyoming and there is an extensive website about him here.

The show is directed by Arthur Hiller (1923-2016). Born in Canada, Hiller had a long career as a director, from 1954 to 2006, starting out in TV and ending up in film. He was president of the Director's Guild of America from 1989 to 1993 and directed 17 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Forty Detectives Later." He also directed three episodes of Thriller and the classic comedy, The In-Laws (1979).

Joe Conley

Robert Horton (1924-2016) stars as Walter Richmond. He had been active in film since 1945, but from 1952 to 1989, he was a busy TV actor, co-starring in Wagon Train (1957-1962) and then starring on the short-lived series, A Man Called Shenandoah (1965-1966). A website devoted to his career is here. This was one of seven episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in which he was featured, including "Crack of Doom," and after his television career ended he spent many years on stage.

Making the first of two appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents is Betsy von Furstenberg (1931-2015), playing Laura Gild. She was born Countess Elizabeth Caroline Maria Agatha Felicitas Therese von Furstenberg-Herdringer in Germany and she moved to New York City as a child to study ballet. A teen model, she acted on Broadway from 1951 to 1976 and on screen, mostly on TV, from 1951 to 1983. She also appeared in "The Diamond Necklace."

In smaller roles:

• Perry Lopez (1929-2008) as Julio, the Tijuana bookie; he was onscreen from 1954 to 1994 and he was seen in Chinatown (1974) and its sequel, The Two Jakes (1990).
• Raymond Bailey (1904-1980) as Herbert Gild; a busy character actor, he is best remembered as Mr. Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies; he was on the Hitchcock show 11 times and had a small role in Vertigo (1958).
• Frank Albertson (1909-1964) as Regis, Walter's boss; on screen from 1923 to 1964, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and he appeared in four episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Out There--Darkness."  He was also on Thriller and he played Sam Wainwright in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). He had small parts in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and Psycho (1960).
• Percy Helton (1894-1971) as the man in the newspaper archive; he was in vaudeville from age two and served in the Army in World War One. He damaged his voice permanently while yelling in a stage play and thus had a distinctively squeaky way of talking for much of his career. He was on screen from 1915 to 1978 and appeared in seven episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Creeper"; he was also in the classic episode of Bus Stop, "I Kiss Your Shadow," as well as on The Twilight Zone and Batman.
• Thomas Wild (1916-2005) as the doctor in the final scene; also known as Thomas Wilde, he had a brief career on screen from 1952 to 1959 and also appeared in "Lamb to the Slaughter."
• Dorothea Lord (1920-2000) as the nurse in the final scene; she had a short career on TV, from 1958 to 1962, but managed to appear in seven episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "No Pain."
• Joe Conley (1928-2013) as Walter's colleague in the booking agency whom he chats with in the opening scene; he was on screen from 1950 to 2001 and had a regular part on The Waltons from 1972 to 1981.

Watch "Disappearing Trick" online here or buy the DVD here. Read the GenreSnaps take on this episode here.

Sources:

Canning, Victor. "Disappearing Trick." Argosy, September 1957, pp. 7-18.

"Disappearing Trick." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 3, episode 27, CBS, 6 Apr. 1958.

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

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

Higgins, John. Victor Canning Home Page, http://canning.marlodge.net/.

IMDb.com. IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/.

Kathleenhite.com. http://www.kathleenhite.com/. 

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

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

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "Toby" here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Apex" here!

In two weeks: Our coverage of Kathleen Hite continues with "Tea Time," starring Margaret Leighton and Marsha Hunt!

ALERT! WATCH THIS SPOT SATURDAY FOR A SPECIAL POST ABOUT WRITER WILLIAM FAY!!