The Hitchcock Project-William D. Gordon Part Three: You'll Be the Death of Me [9.4] and Wrapup

by Jack Seabrook

"You'll Be the Death of Me" was adapted by William D. Gordon from "The Goldfish Button," a short story by Anthony Gilbert that was first published in the February 1958 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. While the story is a lovely, haunting tale that evokes the shadows that gather in the evening in the English countryside, the television version is a surprisingly effective piece of socio-political criticism that takes the story's basic elements in a new direction.

The story begins when Mary Arthur finds a button in the pocket of her husband Dendy's coat; the button is big and bright blue with a goldfish design carved on it. Mary and Dendy live together in a remote cottage in the country. The night before, Dendy had come home late after working overtime at the factory. Mary felt guilty that they argued and that he left for work in the morning before she awoke, but discovering the button turns her guilt to anger at the thought that he had been with another woman the evening before and that the button was torn from her clothing. Her terrier, Rags, causes her to spill a can of milk and so she heads out with dog and milk can to the dairy, where she learns of a murder the prior night; Bette Rose, who frequented The Blackbird, a local inn where men went to drink and play darts, was killed. She wore a bright blue coat that had big blue buttons with fish on them.

"The Goldfish Button"
was first published here

Mary thinks that she must rush home and discard the button in order to protect her husband from suspicion. Refusing an escort across the lonely moor at night, she snaps Rags's chain on his collar and heads home. When she takes an ill-advised shortcut, the dog gets caught in a thorny patch and she has to crawl under a bush to set him free. Mary arrives home to find Dendy waiting for her; she mentions the murder and asks about the button, which he claims he found on the ground and brought her as a gift. He explains that Bette Rose was strangled with her own scarf, and he found the button near the corpse.

Dendy suggests giving the button to the police but Mary tells him to throw it away, so he is not suspected of murder. Still, he insists on going to the police and she insists on going with him. They leave Rags at home and take the same shortcut that Mary had taken earlier. Suddenly, Mary asks Dendy why he failed to tell the police sergeant about the button when he was questioned that morning. Dendy distracts Mary and, when she turns, he grabs her scarf and strangles her, leaving her body on the ground in the dark for the police to find the next morning, another victim of the murderer. On his way home, he throws the button in a nest of briars. At home, Dendy recalls losing his temper and strangling Bette Rose the night before; when he came home tonight and saw the button, he knew he would have to kill Mary as well. Rags runs out the door and, later, Dendy puts the dog's chain in his pocket and sets off for the dairy to get more milk.

Robert Loggia as Driver Arthur

An hour later, a doctor is driving by when he hears a dog barking. He investigates and finds Mary's dead body. He and his companion drive to the dairy to find a telephone and call the police, bringing the dog with them. At the dairy, Mrs. Jones recognizes Rags, assumes the corpse is that of Mary, and calls the police, who arrive right before Dendy walks in. He asks if his wife is there, claiming that she was not home when he returned from the factory. Dendy takes Rags's chain from his pocket to hook onto the dog's collar and Ruby, Mrs. Jones's daughter, realizes that Mary had the chain when she left earlier. The fact that Dendy has it now proves that he is lying about not having encountered his wife. Dendy is hanged for murder, and it is noted that his jesting remark to the dog--"'You'll Be the Death of Me'"--was prescient.

"The Goldfish Button" is a haunting story that evokes the wild English countryside in its depiction of rough folk and casual murder. It seems particularly well-suited for adaptation onto film, especially in the scenes where Mary walks through the countryside alone at night.

Pilar Seurat as Mickey Arthur

The story's author, Anthony Gilbert, was a pseudonym of Lucy Beatrice Malleson (1899-1973), an English woman who wrote over 60 crime novels, many of which feature a lawyer named Anthony Cook. She also wrote radio plays and short stories and was active from 1935 until her death. Several films and TV shows were adapted from her stories and books; in addition to "You'll be the Death of Me," the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "A True Account," was adapted from one of her short stories.

"The Goldfish Button" was collected in the 1959 book, The Lethal Sex, under the title, "You'll Be the Death of Me," and it was under this new title that it aired on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour on CBS on Friday, October 18, 1963, with a teleplay by William D. Gordon.

Sondra Kerr as Ruby McCleod

The TV show moves the story from the English countryside to the rural south in the United States and the events unfold in linear fashion so, after an establishing shot, we see a bus pull up in front of The Blackbird Tavern and a handful of men disembark and enter the premises. Among them is Bob Arthur, known as "Driver" because he drives the bus (and for other reasons that will be revealed soon). The men chat with Bette Rose at the bar and a new character is added in the person of a silent woman who lurks outside the tavern, peering in through the window. This character later turns out to be Ruby, who is mute and who is described as simple-minded.

Carmen Phillips as Bette Rose

Dialogue between Driver and a character named Tompy Dill reveals that Driver has brought home a wife from "'the Orient,'" presumably a war bride, whom no one has seen since she arrived at the station because Driver keeps her at his remote house. Bette Rose remarks that Driver's nickname comes from his reputation of being "'always in the driver's seat, whether it's cars or women.'" She taunts Driver and follows this by telling Ruby, who is outside the window looking in, to go away. Bette Rose is uncomfortable with Ruby's attention and thinks she looks like "'she's waiting for something,'" a remark that foreshadows later events. Bette Rose has been replaced by Driver's new bride and resents her change in status. Driver relents and dances with her briefly before heading home.

On his way home, Driver stops and lies down by a lake, where he is discovered by Bette Rose. The spot has meaning to her as a place where they used to spend time together, but Driver tells her that "'I'm a married man, now, Bette Rose. Can't you get that through your head?'" When Bette Rose threatens to tell Driver's wife about their past romance, he loses his temper and throttles her with her own scarf, though he says he did not mean to kill her.

G.B. Atwater as Gar Newton

The scene then switches to the inside of Driver's home, where his wife, a young Asian woman, is alone with the dog and afraid because thunder and lightning are raging outside and her husband is late coming home from work. William D. Gordon's choice to make Driver's wife an Asian war bride is wholly unexpected and suggests that something more is going on in this adaptation than a simple translation of the story from page to screen. The show aired in 1963, a year before the U.S. sent combat troops to Vietnam, so one must assume that the wife, whose name is Mickey, is supposed to be Korean, though the Korean War had been over for a decade or so when this episode aired. Her fear at being left alone in a storm (the thunder could be reminiscent of the sounds of war from her home country and Dendy refers to the noise of the storm as "'the Lord's artillery'") takes on additional meaning due to the fact that she is a foreign woman who has been brought to an unfamiliar country and spirited off to a remote cabin, where she never sees anyone but her husband. Even her name--Mickey--is an American nickname clearly chosen to replace her real name.

Hal Smith as Tompy Dill

In a tender moment, Driver tells Mickey, "'I'd do anything in the world to keep you from getting hurt;'" one could read the relationship between Driver and Mickey as a metaphor for the United States' involvement in the Korean War, where white soldiers like Driver flew halfway across the globe in an effort to protect people like Mickey. At bedtime, Mickey hangs up Driver's coat and finds the button, which is the event that begins the short story. She goes to bed without expressing concern and, the next day, she speaks to her dog and reassures herself that her husband loves her, but just to make sure she puts on a pretty dress and brushes her long hair.

Mickey is frightened once again when a man lets himself in without knocking; it is Garfield Newton, the local policeman. Another thunderstorm rages outside and Newton explains that Bette Rose was strangled the night before by the lake that is not much more than a thousand yards from Driver's cottage. Newton interrogates Mickey and establishes that she did not see anyone but Driver in the area the previous night. After the policeman leaves, Mickey spills the milk and leaves to go to the dairy; unlike the story, where her walk is lonely and frightening, in the TV show she meets Ruby along the way and shows kindness to another lonely soul by letting the woman hold the dog's leash and walk with her.

Charles Seel
as Dr. Chalmont

Mickey already knows about the murder of Bette Rose from the policeman's visit, so the only new information she learns at the dairy is that men were attracted to Bette Rose, that her killer was strong and mean, and that "'he tore the button right off her coat.'" She says nothing but it is clear that she immediately suspects her husband of murder. Surprised to find Driver waiting for her when she arrives home, Mickey is even more surprised when he confronts her with the button. They discuss Newton's visit and Mickey says he did not ask about the button, though Driver thinks he could have seen it. Driver gives the same flimsy explanation for finding the button that he does in the short story and the pair leave the cabin together, ostensibly to take the button to the police.

Instead of asking Driver why he did not tell the police about the button, Mickey asks how he could have seen it on the ground the night before when there was no moonlight. Driver decides to toss the button on the ground near where he found it the night before, certain that Newton would suspect him of murder if he were to turn in the button. Her husband's actions convince Mickey that he killed Bette Rose and Driver, growing increasingly angry, picks up his wife and places her on the ground.

This particular shot seems to underline the subtext of the show.

The scene suddenly becomes uncomfortable to watch as the former American soldier, who seemed like a savior to the Asian woman, turns violent, revealing his true nature. Driver confesses, explaining that he did not mean to kill Bette Rose and insisting that the murder was done to protect Mickey. The psychotic ex-soldier suddenly seems to represent the American war effort in Korea, intending to protect the people of that country but instead inflicting mass casualties upon them. "'You gotta stand by me,'" he says, "'I'm all you got. I'm all you got in the world.'" Mickey tells Driver that she cannot stay with him because he killed Bette Rose. Crying that "'They'll hang me,'" Driver advances on his wife, a big, strong man towering over a petite woman. The camera looks up at Driver from Mickey's perspective and he looks menacing; the reverse shot of her cowering against the side of a mound of dirt, surrounded by leaves, is terrible to see. "'I did it for you,'" Driver pleads, "'Don't you understand that? I did it for you!'" He sounds like an American apologist explaining the rationale for the invasion of the Korean peninsula.

 

Driver strangles Mickey and leaves her body in the woods. There is no doctor to happen by and find her body, as in the short story; instead, Driver returns to his empty house, seemingly distraught. Gar Newton arrives to question Driver, who claims he's worried about Mickey, since she was not home when he returned from work. Together, they go to the dairy and, soon enough, Mickey's corpse is found. Back at the dairy, everyone sympathizes with Driver and Newton confesses that he was wrong for suspecting driver of the murder of Bette Rose. Driver is about to get away with two murders when he takes the dog's chain from his pocket. Rose notices and, instead of accusing him verbally, she does what she had done earlier in the episode: she writes her words on a chalkboard, sealing the killer's fate. Having the mute girl express herself in this way is an effective visual expression that is more dramatic than simple speech.

Norman Leavitt
as Kyle Sawyer

"You'll Be the Death of Me" succeeds on the surface as a story of love and murder, yet it is also subtle and subversive in the way it critiques America's participation in the Korean War and the relations between white, male soldiers and their war brides. As with many other episodes of the Hitchcock TV show, men treat women with casual brutality; in fact, the only safe space for the female of the species is the dairy, which appears to be run by women.

The show is directed by Robert Douglas (1909-1999), who powerfully translates Gordon's words into pictures. Born Robert Douglas Finlayson, this Englishman was both an actor and a director on stage, film, and TV from 1927 to 1982. He flew in WWII as a Royal Navy pilot and had three distinct roles during the course of the Hitchcock TV series: he acted in two half-hour episodes (including the Hitchcock-directed "Arthur"), he directed four hour episodes (including "Behind the Locked Door"), and he produced eight episodes of the hour-long series, including the four he directed.

Kathleen Freeman as Mrs. McCleod

This episode benefits greatly from an original score by the great Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975), who scored seven films for Hitchcock from 1955 to 1964 and who wrote original scores for 17 episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour's last two seasons. (More information about Herrmann may be found here).

Robert Loggia (1930-2015) stars as Driver Arthur. Trained at the Actors Studio, he appeared on screen from 1951 to 2019, including starring in a spy series, T.H.E. Cat, during the 1966-1967 TV season. Loggia was featured in four episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Money."

Perfectly cast as Mickey Arthur is Pilar Seurat (1938-2001), who was born Rita Hernandez in the Philippines. She began her career as a dancer and appeared mostly on TV from 1959 to 1972, including an episode of Star Trek. This was her only appearance on the Hitchcock show.

The murder of Mickey.

In supporting roles:

• Sondra Kerr (1936- ) makes the most of a small, non-speaking role as Ruby McCleod; she has been on screen since 1962. Born Sondra Orans, she was known as Sondra Kerr from 1961 to 1966. She was married to actor Robert Blake from 1961 to 1983 and now goes by Sondra Kerr Blake.
• G.B. Atwater (1918-1978) is suitably serious as Gar Newton, the policeman; known better as Barry Atwater, he was on screen from 1954 to 1978 and also appeared on "Thanatos Palace Hotel" on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Atwater played roles on The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, and Night Gallery, and he played the vampire in the TV movie, The Night Stalker (1972).
• Carmen Phillips (1937-2002) plays the thankless role of Bette Rose; on screen from 1958 to 1969, she had a bit part in Marnie (1964) and appears in five episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Motive," which was her first credit.
• Hal Smith (1916-1994) as Tompy Dill, who sits at the bar at The Blackbird Tavern; he was in the Air Force in WWII and played many roles on screen from 1946 to 1994. Best known as Otis the Drunk on The Andy Griffith Show, he also did quite a bit of voice work in animated films and TV shows, including the role of Owl in the Winnie the Pooh shorts.
• Charles Seel (1897-1980) plays Dr. Chalmont in the final scene at the dairy; he had a long career in vaudeville, on Broadway, and on the radio, and he was on screen from 1938 to 1976. In addition to roles on The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Night Gallery, he made four appearances on the Hitchcock show, including "Return of Verge Likens."
• Norman Leavitt (1913-2005) as Kyle Sawyer, who lights a cigarette for Bette Rose in The Blackbird; he was on screen from 1946 to 1978 and appeared in seven episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "One More Mile to Go."
• Kathleen Freeman (1919-2001) as Mrs. McCleod, Ruby's mother, who runs the dairy; she started out as a child in vaudeville, had a long screen career that lasted from 1948 to 2003, and did extensive work as a voice actress. She appeared on Batman and The Night Stalker, and she was on one other episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

Watch "You'll be the Death of Me" online here. Thanks to Peter Enfantino for providing a copy of "The Goldfish Button'!

Sources:

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

Gilbert, Anthony. "The Goldfish Button." Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Feb. 1958, 27-39.

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

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

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

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

"You'll Be the Death of Me." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 9, episode 4, CBS, 18 Oct. 1963. 

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William D. Gordon on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: An Overview and Episode Guide

The six episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour with teleplays either written or co-written by William D. Gordon aired between December 1962 and January 1964. Two were co-written with Alfred Hayes, one with Alec Coppel, and one with Charles Beaumont; it is speculative to try to ascertain who did what on each of those episodes. Two of the six shows were credited to Gordon alone.

"Bonfire," written with Hayes, takes a short story without a crime and transforms it into a TV show with three murders; the episode features a superb performance by Peter Falk. In "The Lonely Hours," Gordon adapts an Edgar-winning novel about an exhausted young mother and the woman who tries to steal her baby. This disturbing look at women and mothers is unusual in that it has an all-female cast. "The Long Silence," an outstanding episode written with Beaumont, improves on its source, a serialized novel, and examines a woman so traumatized that she is left bedridden and unable to speak.

"The Dark Pool," written with Coppel, deals with a mother who accidentally lets her own baby drown and who is blackmailed by a woman pretending to be the child's birth mother. "You'll Be the Death of Me" makes significant changes to its source, turning a mystery story into an allegory of the U.S. involvement in the Korean War and showing a man's casual brutality toward women. Finally, "Beyond the Sea of Death," written with Hayes, portrays a heartbroken woman who kills her older female companion after being shown that the man she loved and thought dead is alive and faithless.

These six episodes demonstrate sensitivity with stories involving female characters and domestic situations; "The Lonely Hours" and "You'll Be the Death of Me" are especially concerned with the plight of married women.

EPISODE GUIDE-WILLIAM D. GORDON ON THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR

Episode title-"Bonfire" [8.13]
Broadcast date-13 December 1962
Teleplay by-Alfred Hayes and William D. Gordon
Based on "The Wheelbarrow" by V.S. Pritchett

First print appearance-The New Yorker, 16 July 1960
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

Episode title-"The Lonely Hours" [8.23]
Broadcast date-8 March 1963
Teleplay by-William D. Gordon
Based on The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin

First print appearance-1958 novel
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-yes

Episode title-"The Long Silence" [8.25]
Broadcast date-22 March 1963
Teleplay by-William D. Gordon and Charles Beaumont
Based on Composition for Four Hands by Hilda Lawrence

First print appearance-Good Housekeeping, April and May 1947
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

Episode title-"The Dark Pool" [8.29]
Broadcast date-3 May 1963
Teleplay by-William D. Gordon and Alec Coppel
Based on unpublished story by Alec Coppel

First print appearance-none
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

Episode title-"You'll Be the Death of Me" [9.4]
Broadcast date-18 October 1963
Teleplay by-William D. Gordon
Based on "The Goldfish Button" by Anthony Gilbert

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, February 1958
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

Episode title-"Beyond the Sea of Death" [9.14]
Broadcast date-24 January 1964
Teleplay by-Alfred Hayes and William D. Gordon
Based on "Beyond the Sea of Death" by Miriam Allen deFord

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1949
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

In two weeks: Our coverage of Lewis Davidson begins with "See the Monkey Dance," starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Roddy McDowall!

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma and Jack Seabrook discuss the first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents here!

The Hitchcock Project-William D. Gordon Part Two: The Dark Pool [8.29]

by Jack Seabrook

After his teleplay for "The Lonely Hours," a domestic drama involving mothers and babies that features an all-female cast, William D. Gordon co-wrote the teleplay for "The Long Silence," another domestic drama where the main characters were all women and where the central figure was confined to her home and unable to speak. His next teleplay for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour was "The Dark Pool," whose teleplay is credited to Gordon and Alec Coppel, based on a story by Coppel. I have been unable to find any published story that could have served as the basis for this episode, so it is reasonable to assume that the "story" was either a story idea or an original teleplay by Coppel that was revised by Gordon.

Coppel was also credited as the author of the story on which the 1957 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Diplomatic Corpse" was based; like that earlier half-hour, "The Dark Pool" is set in Southern California and features Mexican and Anglo characters.

Lois Nettleton as Diane Castillejo

This episode opens with a tragic scene, where Diane Castillejo, a wealthy young woman, returns from horseback riding to find her toddler son, Victor, in his playpen, which has been placed next to the family's large swimming pool. The child is being watched by his nanny, an older woman named Andrina Gibbs (known as Nanny); a servant named Pedro Sanchez stands nearby, cleaning the pool. Diane asks Pedro to fix her a vodka tonic and, after Pedro and Nanny exchange worried looks, Diane amends her request by telling her servant to "'make it a light one.'" Pedro brings Diane the drink and he and Nanny both leave Diane alone with her son. The telephone rings inside the house and Diane goes to answer it, drink in hand, leaving the child unattended. Suspense is created right away as the viewer wonders if this choice will be a bad one.

Anthony George as Victor Castillejo

Diane answers the phone and speaks to her husband, Victor, who is calling from the back seat of a car in nearby San Diego. He is with Larry Hawthorn, an attorney, and he has just returned from a business trip. After hanging up, Victor tells Larry that Diane has not had a drink since they adopted the baby. Diane goes back outside and sees the playpen empty--the implication is that the baby climbed out of the playpen, fell in the pool, and drowned.

Suspense is created by alternating shots between Diane talking to her husband and the baby bouncing in his playpen. Diane tells the first of a series of lies when she assures her husband that she no longer drinks, even while she is holding a drink in her hand. The first scene thus establishes that Diane is an alcoholic and that her son's death may be a consequence of her addiction, though she appears not to be drunk, just careless. Why was the playpen positioned right next to the pool? Why did Diane suddenly want a drink, and why did Pedro and Nanny allow her to have it and leave her alone with the baby if they both knew that she was an alcoholic who had promised to stop drinking and who had not had a drink since adopting the baby? These questions are never answered.

Madlyn Rhue as Consuela Sandino

The coroner holds an inquest regarding the baby's death and the lies begin to multiply as Nanny testifies that she, not Diane, left the baby alone. Larry says that the telephone call lasted only a minute and the coroner rules that the death was accidental. It seems that Nanny had cared for Diane as a child and continues to protect her. At home, Victor asks Diane to dismiss Nanny, but when Diane goes upstairs she finds Nanny packing her suitcase, having anticipated Victor's decision. Nanny dissuades Diane from telling Victor the truth about the accident, reminding her that she promised to stop drinking and convincing her that admitting the truth to Victor would make him doubt her from then on. Nanny suggests that the tragedy of the child's death will help Diane quit drinking, foolishly thinking that Diane can conquer her addiction through willpower and encouraging her to continue the pattern of deception.

After Nanny departs, a young woman named Consuela Sandino arrives at Diane's home, claiming to be the child's birth mother. She knows the truth about the accident and, when Victor returns home, she tells him that she and Diane are old friends and that Diane has asked her to stay for the weekend. She later tells Diane that Pedro told her about the accident and about Diane's promise not to drink, so when Diane again resolves to tell her husband the truth, Consuela and Pedro point out the pitfalls (as Nanny did) and Diane offers to pay Consuela for her silence. Pedro later suggests to Consuela that they take the money and leave, yet she has her sights set on a bigger prize, hoping to replace Diane as Victor's wife.

David White as Larry Hawthorn

Soon, Victor arrives home to find Diane drinking at the bar. She expresses remorse and assures him that she can control herself; he is leaving on another business trip and tells Diane that he has asked Consuela to stay with her, believing that the women are old friends and that Consuela's presence will be beneficial. Victor's judgment is poor--he leaves his alcoholic wife at home after she has been drinking and while she is still reeling from a tragic loss.

Diane wakes at night to the sound of a baby crying. Unable to find the source of the noise, she is distraught. The next day, she is drinking again; the next night, the crying returns and we see that Pedro and Consuela are torturing Diane by using a hidden tape player. Diane turns to alcohol again to self-medicate and Victor returns from his trip early to find that his wife has been drinking to excess. She begs her husband not to leave again and insists that she heard a baby crying. The incidents with the tape player are not resolved later in the episode and neither Victor nor Diane ever discover what was causing her to hear a baby cry. Perhaps it would have worked better to leave the baby's cries unexplained, as if they came from Diane's tortured imagination.

Eugene Iglesias as Pedro Sanchez

Victor demonstrates his complete lack of understanding of his wife's condition when he announces that he plans to have a dinner party to host a senator and several other guests. He understands that Diane is able to control her drinking when he is at home, but his work constantly pulls him away, so he suggests that she see a psychiatrist. Diane sees Consuela approach Victor by the pool and fears that they may become intimate, so she immediately takes a drink. That evening's dinner party is a disaster, as Diane gets very drunk and makes a scene before breaking down and apologizing. The next day, Victor attempts to talk his wife into spending a few weeks at a sanitarium, but she insists on trying to conquer her problems at home, without help. An alcoholic who drinks to steady her nerves and bury her fears, Diane is unlikely to succeed.

Diane visits the orphanage where she adopted the baby and speaks to Sister Marie Therese, asking if she can adopt another baby right away. Apparently, Diane thinks that replacing her dead child will help improve her mood and aid in controlling her urge to drink. Fortunately, the nun tells her that a long period of investigation is necessary before an adoption can be carried out but, after Diane confesses to the nun about her lie regarding the accident, Sister Marie Therese reveals to Diane that the baby's mother died in childbirth, so Consuela cannot be the boy's birth mother. Diane now realizes that Consuela is a liar as well as a blackmailer, so she is finally ready to tell her husband the truth. This suggests that her reticence up to this point was in part due to sympathy and guilt regarding Consuela's alleged loss. Diane's motives for deceiving her husband and others are complex.

Doris Lloyd as Nanny Gibbs

Back at home, Diane "gathers the suspects," as in a murder mystery, summoning Consuela and Pedro to a confrontation for Victor's benefit. She tells Victor the truth about her part in the baby's death and Pedro turns on Consuela, despite her urging him to lie about how many drinks Diane had had before her son died. Pedro chooses the path of honesty over the wishes of Consuela, who is revealed to be the true villain of the piece. Victor sends the duo away immediately and Diane tells him that she will now consent to going to a sanitarium. She finally takes responsibility for her actions and, though she tells Victor to get a divorce, he confesses his own shame and understands that it was he who caused her to fear telling him what really happened. The mystery is solved and the lovers are reunited, set free by the truth, at least for the moment.

"The Dark Pool" is neither a condensed novel not an expanded short story and, perhaps because of that, it seems to be just the right length. The show is well paced and flows quickly from beginning to end, with a generous use of close ups to help display the characters' emotions. The "dark pool" of the title refers more to Diane's inner turmoil than to the actual swimming pool in which the baby drowns, which is bathed in sunlight.

John Zaremba as the coroner

The show is directed by Jack Smight (1925-2003), whose four episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour all deal with women and domestic problems. This was his last episode for the series and all of the shows he directed aired in 1963. The prior one was "The Lonely Hours," which was also written by William D. Gordon. Smight directed for television from 1949 to 1986 and for film from 1964 to 1989. Among his many films were Harper (1966) and Midway (1976); he also directed four episodes of The Twilight Zone and won an Emmy for directing in 1959.

Alec Coppel (1907-1972), who is credited with the story and co-credited with the teleplay, was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1907. He moved to England in 1927 and his first play was produced in 1935. In 1937, he had a hit on the London stage with I Killed the Count, which was later adapted for the only multi-episode story of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, airing over a three-week span in March 1957. The play had been performed in the U.S. on Broadway in 1942, though Coppel returned to Australia during WWII. He continued to write plays, as well as novels and screenplays. Moving to Hollywood in 1954, Coppel wrote teleplays and screenplays, including some uncredited rewrites on Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1954), and he worked closely with Hitchcock on the script for Vertigo (1958). Coppel continued to write novels, screenplays, teleplays, stage plays, and radio plays for another 15 years until his death in 1972.

Isobel Elsom as Sister Marie Therese

Starring as Diane is Lois Nettleton (1927-2008), who was Miss Chicago in 1948 and who went on that year to be a semi-finalist in the Miss America pageant. She trained at the Actors Studio and began acting on radio that same year and on Broadway the next year; her film and TV career lasted from 1957 to 2006. This was the only Hitchcock TV show in which she appeared; she was also seen on The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery.

Anthony George (1921-2005) receives second billing as her husband, Victor. Born Ottavio Gabriel George, he served in WWII and was in films from 1950 to 1957 and on TV from 1951 to 1988. He was a semi-regular on Dark Shadows in 1967, on Search for Tomorrow (1970-1975), and on One Life to Live (1978-1984). He also appeared in one episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Flight to the East."

Consuela is played by Madlyn Rhue (1935-2003), who was born Madeline Roche and who took her stage name from the film, 13 Rue Madeleine (1947). She was a dancer at New York's Copacabana night club when she was just 17 years old and her film and TV career lasted from 1958 to 1996. Rhue was seen on Star Trek and The Night Stalker and she was a regular on Days of Our Lives from 1982 to 1984. This was the only time she appeared on the Hitchcock show.

In smaller roles:

• David White (1916-1990) as Larry Hawthorn, the lawyer in the back of the car with Victor; he was a Marine in WWII and appeared on Broadway starting in 1949. He was on screen from 1949 to 1989 and appeared in many television shows. He was in four episodes of the Hitchcock series (including "Dry Run") and two of The Twilight Zone, but he is best remembered for his supporting role as Larry Tate on Bewitched (1964-1972).
• Eugene Iglesias (1926- ) as Pedro Sanchez; born Eugene Iglesias Carrillo in Puerto Rico, he was on screen from 1951 to 1970.
• Doris Lloyd (1891-1968) as Andrina "Nanny" Gibbs; born in Liverpool, she started out in Vaudeville in 1916 and appeared in over 150 films from 1920 to 1967, including Phantom Lady (1944). She was in four episodes of Thriller and nine episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Schartz-Metterklume Method," where she also played a character called "Nanny."
• John Zaremba (1908-1986) as the coroner; he started out as a journalist at the Chicago Tribune before becoming an actor. He was in movies from 1950 and on TV from 1954, including regular roles on I Led Three Lives (1953-1956) and The Time Tunnel (1966-1967). He appeared on The Twilight Zone and Batman and he was on the Hitchcock show eleven times, including "The Kind Waitress."
• Isobel Elsom (1893-1981) as Sister Marie Therese; born Isobel Reed in England, she was a veteran of stage, film, and TV who appeared onscreen from 1915 to 1964, including roles in 1947 in Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux and Hitchcock's The Paradine Case. She was on TV from 1950 to 1965 and appeared five times on the Hitchcock show, including "Back for Christmas" and "Final Vow," where she also plays a nun.
• Walter Woolf King (1899-1984) as Senator Hayes; he started out on Broadway in 1919, worked in radio, and was seen in many movies and TV shows from 1930 to 1977, including A Night at the Opera (1935), Swiss Miss (1938), and Go West (1940). He was in five episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "Our Cook's a Treasure."

Walter Woolf King

• Eva Novak (1898-1988) as Mrs. Hayes, the senator's wife; she was on screen from 1917 to 1966 and played Tom Mix's love interest in ten westerns. Many of her later roles were uncredited.

Eva Novak

• Bess Flowers (1898-1984) as Mrs. Pradanos, a guest at the ill-fated dinner party; nicknamed the Queen of the Extras, she played hundreds of uncredited parts on screen from 1923 to 1964, including bit parts in seven films directed by Hitchcock and small roles in six episodes of the Hitchcock TV show.

Bess Flowers

• Paul Bradley (1901-1999) as Emilio Pradanos, her husband; he was a stand-in for George Sanders and he also appeared in many films in uncredited roles. His screen career lasted from 1935 to 1990 and he appeared on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, Batman, and six episodes of the Hitchcock TV show.

Paul Bradley

"The Dark Pool" aired on CBS on Friday, May 3, 1963; watch it for free online here.

Sources:

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

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

"The Dark Pool." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 8, episode 29, CBS, 3 May. 1963.

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

In two weeks: Our coverage of William D. Gordon concludes with "You'll Be the Death of Me," starring Robert Loggia!

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma and Jack Seabrook discuss the first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Sybilla" here!

The Hitchcock Project-William D. Gordon Part One: The Lonely Hours [8.23]

by Jack Seabrook

William Douglas Gordon (1918-1991) earned a degree in theatrical arts from UCLA, began writing for radio in 1936, and directed some very early TV shows starting in 1939. He served as an infantry officer in WWII and then joined the Los Angeles Repertory Company after the war. He began acting in TV shows in 1958 and continued acting until 1986; he was seen in 13 episodes of Riverboat in 1959 and he also appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone and one episode of Thriller.

In addition to acting, Gordon began writing for TV in 1960, scripting numerous shows until 1981, including Thriller, The Fugitive, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He also served as story editor or story consultant for several series, including The Fugitive. Gordon directed a couple of TV shows and produced 32 episodes of The Fugitive and 47 episodes of Twelve O'Clock High.

Gordon wrote or co-wrote six teleplays for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; the first was "Bonfire," which is credited to him and Alfred Hayes. That episode is discussed here. His second teleplay was "The Lonely Hours," based on a novel called The Hours Before Dawn.

*   *   *

Celia Fremlin's novel, The Hours Before Dawn, tells the story of Louise Henderson, a young mother with three children: eight-year-old Margery, seven-year-old Harriet, and Michael, a baby boy who cries incessantly every night and keeps her from sleeping. Louise and her husband Mark rent an upstairs room to a new tenant, a fortyish schoolteacher named Vera Brandon. After she moves in, she takes an interest in the baby and engages Mark in conversation about the Greek myth of Medea; Mark feels like he's met her somewhere before.

One afternoon, Louise's mother visits and wants to collect some books that had been left in Vera's room. Thinking that Vera is out for the day, Louise enters her room only to find the tenant sitting quietly by the window. Late one evening, Louise hears Michael crying for his feeding. She also hears someone walking upstairs and thinks one of her daughters is out of bed, but when she goes upstairs they are fast asleep. Later that night, Vera awakens to Michael crying again. She takes him to the scullery to feed and quiet him so that Mark and Vera will not be disturbed. Her exhaustion continues to mount and she oversleeps in the morning; she has to rush the girls to school and her neighbors complain about her baby's crying.

Mark comes home unexpectedly for lunch and suggests going to the movies. Louise balks at his suggestion that they ask Vera to babysit, so they ask Mrs. Hooper, who brings her son Tony along. At the movies, Mark and Louise run into Beatrice and Humphrey; Beatrice asks if Vera Brandon got in touch with them, since she had asked Humphrey for Louise's address when they met at a work function. Louise wonders why Vera asked about them before answering their ad for a boarder. She returns home to find Mrs. Hooper gone and Tony watching the baby. He tells her that Vera is a spy and says that he saw her looking through papers in Louise and Mark's desk. He recalls that she once came to his house and looked through the desk there as well.

Nancy Kelly as Vera Brandon

Louise decides to make inquiries about Vera, who says that she is going to Oxford for the day to give a talk. Vera departs loudly but Louise later begins to suspect that she never left the house and is once again sitting quietly in her room. Hoping to enlist Beatrice's aid in investigating Vera, Louise invites her and Humphrey to dinner. Humphrey can't recall if Vera had asked him for Louise or Mark's address; Vera returns home and denies it. Louise feels confused and exhausted. Waking again at two a.m. to feed the baby, she puts him in his pram and walks the streets until she sits down on a park bench. She falls asleep and awakens near dawn to find baby and pram gone.

Louise goes to the police station, only to discover that baby and pram are safe at home. Later that day, Louise finds out that her daughters have been copying passages from Vera's diary, which they call a Spy Book; Vera keeps it hidden in a cupboard but the girls can reach it from the attic through a hole in the ceiling. Louise reads the passages that the girls have copied and finds two addresses. She telephones one and speaks to Frances Palmer, who says she did know Vera and agrees to meet.

Gena Rowlands as Louise Henderson

Mrs. Palmer's house is immaculate and she displays none of the signs of exhaustion that have become so familiar to Louise. She recalls Vera turning up one day last fall, claiming to be answering an ad for a housekeeper although none had been placed. That evening, Frances thought she glimpsed Vera standing in the shadows of her bedroom. Frances ran for her husband, but when they returned to the room, it was empty. Frances suspects that Vera is a criminal. Louise visits the other address from the diary and meets a poor woman with five children; the woman can't recall if she ever met Vera. Louise returns home to find that Mark is upstairs talking with the tenant. Beatrice telephones to tell Louise that she has learned that there was some sort of scandal involving Vera at school the prior summer.

One evening, Louise and Mark take the children to the fair. Mark disappears into the crowd and Louise goes on a ride with the girls, leaving Michael sitting alone in his pram. When the ride ends, Michael and his pram have again disappeared. After frantically searching for the child, Louise goes home, certain that Mark has him. However, Mark is home without the baby, who is soon located at the Lost Children tent at the fair.

After the excitement dies down, Louie looks up the myth of Medea, who murdered her children in a fit of jealousy. Louise resolves to read Vera's diary, so she crawls into the attic and retrieves it from its hiding place in the cupboard. Louise reads that Vera became pregnant by a fellow teacher, whose negative reaction caused Vera to become consumed with her secret pregnancy. Tragedy struck when the baby was born prematurely and died. Vera refused to accept what had happened to her son, whom she named Michael, and soon she became convinced that the baby had been stolen by another mother. In the months that followed, Vera tracked down the babies of other women in the same hospital ward, finally settling on Louise's son as her own stolen child. Vera hates Louise and plans to take the baby soon.

Joyce van Patten as Grace Thorpe

Time gets away from Louise, who suddenly senses that Vera is in the room below her. Louise rushes downstairs to her baby's room and finds him safe. She goes to bed and awakens at two a.m. to hear him crying. She takes the baby to the scullery to feed him and falls asleep, awakening with a start to realize that someone has left the gas on at the stove. Vera confronts her; she has drugged Mark and intends to hold Louise down until she perishes from gas poisoning. Suddenly, there is an explosion--the pilot light ignited the gas. Louise and Mark rescue the children and make their way outside to safety; Vera appears in the attic window, struggling with a bundle of bedclothes before falling backward into the flames.

The truth comes out about Vera and life returns to normal for Louise, who has a faint hope that her baby may begin to sleep through the night.

The Hours Before Dawn was published in 1958 and deservedly won the Edgar Award for best mystery novel of the year. It is a cleverly-plotted, well-written story that is told from the perspective of an exhausted young mother. Louise is the story's detective, gradually piecing together the mystery of Vera Brandon. Vera is both villain and tragic figure, a woman whose despair at losing her baby drives her to obsession and attempted murder. The novel is filled with characters who offer opinions and make judgments about the right and wrong ways to raise a child. Louise is a detailed portrait of a woman nearly driven mad by fatigue, a condition seemingly invisible to those around her. Clues are planted throughout the novel as to Vera's motives and goal; the fiery conclusion recalls the end of Mrs. Danvers in Hitchcock's Rebecca.

The novel is available to read online here.

*   *   *

Alice Backes as the policewoman

Celia Fremlin Goller (1914-2009) was born in England and educated at Oxford. She worked as a researcher for the Mass Observation Project, a group of observers and voluntary writers who studied the lives of ordinary people in Britain beginning in 1937. Fremlin's first book, published in 1939, was The Seven Chars of Chelsea, about the lives of charwomen in London. The Hours Before Dawn was her first novel, published in 1958, and she said that she wrote the book at night after pushing her own baby around London and losing sleep. The experience led her to imagine a book about parental sleeplessness and The Hours Before Dawn was the result.

Fremlin went on to write more than a dozen novels in the ensuing decades and she had over two dozen short stories published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine between 1967 and 1999; some of her stories were collected in two books. Several of her works were adapted for television, including five German TV films made between 1986 and 1997.

*   *   *

The Hours Before Dawn was first adapted for TV as a live broadcast on the U.S. Steel Hour. The show aired on September 23, 1959, and starred Colleen Dewhurst as Vera, Mark Richman as Mark, Teresa Wright as Louise, and Jack Carter as another character. Philip Lewis wrote the teleplay. This live broadcast appears to be lost.

The second TV adaptation of Fremlin's novel was titled "The Lonely Hours" and aired on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour on CBS on Friday, March 8, 1963. William D. Gordon wrote the teleplay.

The third TV adaptation of The Hours Before Dawn aired on German TV on March 24, 1997, with a teleplay by Wolf Gremm. The German title, "Die Stunden vor dem Morgengraun," translates into English as "The Hours Before Dawn."

*   *   *

Baby Lonnie is the
only male cast member.

The first thing that becomes apparent when watching "The Lonely Hours" is that the central concern of the novel, parental sleeplessness, has been jettisoned. Louise Henderson may be at home with her children, but she looks perfect: in the first scene, she is fixing something in the kitchen and wears a sleeveless dress and high heels. Her hair is flawless. The second surprise comes when the telephone rings and it's her husband calling long distance. He is away on a business trip and will be gone for another week, which means that Mark, a major character in the novel, is absent from the TV show. In fact, as the show unfolds, there are no male characters at all, other than the uncredited little boy who plays Louise's son and a couple of men who pass by on the street. In crafting a show with an all-female cast, Gordon makes an interesting choice that serves to set the events of the story completely in the world of women. According to The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion, the idea of telling the story with an all-female cast originated with Joan Harrison.

Vera appears at the door and the children admit her while Louise is still on the phone; the visitor walks in and immediately begins to rearrange the environment by turning off a record player before she sees Lonnie, the baby boy who will be the object of her obsession. Louise greets her and asks if they've met before; Vera denies it and says she is there about renting a room. Louise remarks that they had been thinking about taking on a boarder and Vera explains that someone at the university must have mentioned it. After a quick look at the room, Vera agrees to rent it for $30 a month.

Willa Pearl Curtis as Katie

In the scene that follows, Vera pulls up in front of a different house and carries a bassinet wrapped in blankets into an apartment that she is renting under the name of Mrs. J.A. Williams. (We may only see women in "The Lonely Hours," but they are still known by their husbands' names!) It seems clear that the bassinet does not contain a real baby and, when the landlady, Miss McGuinness, knocks on the door, Vera seems apprehensive. She pretends that the baby, whom she calls Michael, is sleeping, and she accepts a toy that the landlady brings that came in the mail. Miss McGuiness is surprised to learn that Vera plans to stay at least another month, and Vera lies and says that she and the baby will be staying with a friend from college for a few days. Vera puts the toy next to the bassinet and the baby is revealed to be a doll.

In contrast to the novel, the early scenes of "The Lonely Hours" make it clear to the viewer that Vera is, at the very least, deranged, and perhaps dangerous. She lies to Louise about how she learned that a room was for rent, she lies to the landlady about her plans, and she carries around a doll to make it look like she has a baby. In the novel, Louise only begins to suspect that there is something wrong with Vera gradually, and for much of the book the reader is uncertain as to just what is going on. This is not the case in the TV show.

Juanita Moore as Mrs. McFarland

Back at the Henderson house, Louise chats with her friend Grace, who takes the place of the novel's Beatrice. Vera arrives, suitcase in hand and, in a telling moment, explains the topic of her doctoral dissertation to Grace, who looks on blankly and then turns and invites Louise to a "'fashion tea.'" Vera is portrayed as a slightly older, educated woman, who does not fit in among the vapid suburban housewives. Vera happily agrees to babysit Lonnie and goes upstairs alone but, instead of going into her own room, she enters the baby's room, calls the baby "'Michael,'" and tells him, "'It's all right... I'm here now... I'll never leave you.'"

In the morning, at breakfast, Louise's daughters discuss their belief that Vera is "'a spy... a secret, atomic spy,'" but this remark is passed off as childish fun because Vera is standing next to the table and gives the girls a knowing look. Louise leaves to take the girls to school and attend the fashion tea, and Vera is left alone with baby Lonnie, whom she immediately picks up and calls Michael. Vera drives the baby to her other home and this time there is no need to cover him with blankets, since he has transformed from doll to human. Miss McGuinness remarks that the baby is "'just the image of you,'" to Vera's delight. Inside her apartment, Vera takes the baby into the nursery that she has prepared for him. She is gentle and loving with the boy, making her actions all the more pathetic and frightening.

Jackie Russell as Sandra Mathews

That afternoon, Louise returns to a quiet house, and the camera looks up at her from below to increase the unease she feels as she calls for her children. The viewer suspects that Vera has taken Lonnie away for good, but this is not the case--Louise runs upstairs and finds her son resting quietly under Vera's supervision. Louise is slightly uncomfortable when she finds a new toy in Lonnie's crib and Vera admits that she bought it for him. At night, Louise is reading in bed when she hears Lonnie crying. She goes to his room to find Vera holding him and walking back and forth, trying to comfort him. Louise gives Vera a quick lesson in parenting and Vera is not happy.

Eventually, Louise begins to suspect Vera after the girls again insist that she's a spy and reveal that she has a little book in her room with men's names in it, including that of Louise's husband. Louise now has Katie, a black woman, watching the baby, presumably because she no longer trusts Vera, and Vera overhears that Mark will be home in a couple of days. However, after going out for several hours, Louise returns home to find that Katie has allowed Vera to take Lonnie out shopping with her. Vera is upset, explaining that she hired Katie because she did not trust Vera alone with the baby, but when Vera returns with the baby and a gift for Louise, Louise appears to reconsider her distrust of her boarder.

Mary Adams

Louise sneaks into Vera's room and looks at her little black book, tearing out a page that has the addresses of three men, including Mark. This takes the place of the novel's scenes where the children copy passages from Vera's diary and Louise begins to grow concerned when she suspects Vera is writing about Mark. Louise visits Sandra Mathews, a gum-chewing young mother who recalls that Vera came when her baby was three months old to try to sign him to a modeling contract. Coincidentally, both baby boys are seven months old, but Robbie--Sandra's child--is blond. Louise visits the wife of the second man on the list, but this mother--whose son is also seven months old--is black. This woman remarks that she had her son at St. Dominic's Hospital, which is where Louise gave birth.

Louise visits the hospital, where she asks a nun if she remembers Vera Brandon, but the nun recalls that Vera's  name was Williams (the name she uses at her other residence). The nun looks up Vera's file and recalls that "'Her husband had deserted her and her baby died. Poor little thing was premature.'" At home that evening, Louise speaks to Mark on the phone and explains that she wants Vera to leave. Vera surprises Louise by telling her that she has decided to move out the next day and, when Louise goes into the kitchen to fix Vera a cup of coffee, Vera drugs Louise's cup. Instead of the violent climax of the novel, where Vera tries to murder Louise with gas, in the TV version she merely drugs Louise so that she can take the baby and leave. What follows is an extended monologue by Vera, as Louise lies on the couch in a drugged stupor.

Jesslyn Fax as Miss McGuinness

Louise explains that she thinks the baby is really hers and tells Louise all of the details that Louise reads in Vera's diary in the novel. The effect of having Vera explain everything to a groggy Louise is less suspenseful and dramatically awkward. It is also less of a surprise, since by this point in the TV show the viewer has figured out most of what happened. Unlike the novel, where events happen very fast from the revelation of the diary to the attempted murder and the fire, the TV version has Louise awaken the next morning. She rushes to her baby's room and finds him gone.

Louise calls the police to report the kidnapping and Grace comes over to calm her friend. Louise's daughter puts on a coat that Vera left behind and the girls find a piece of paper in the pocket that is the rent receipt given to Vera by her landlady in an earlier scene--a piece of paper that has Vera's real name and address. Louise calls the police with the information and goes to Vera's apartment, where Vera patiently explains that "'Michael is not your baby.'" The two women civilly argue about who is the baby's real mother until a policewoman arrives and convinces Vera that she needs to go to the hospital to confirm that the baby is really hers.

Sally Smith as Marjorie Henderson

The commotion wakes the baby and, when Vera picks him up, he is fussy and she is unable to quiet him. The scene suggests that, since Vera is not really the baby's mother, she is incapable of taking care of him. She loses her temper and yells at the child, at which point the policewoman takes him and hands him to Louise. Vera blames the baby's discomfort on the fact that he has been with Louise since birth and, while Louise comforts Lonnie, there is a shot of the creepy baby doll sitting in a playpen.

Louise emerges from the nursery holding the doll wrapped in a blanket and tells Vera that "'He's quiet now,'" at which point Vera confidently takes the doll in her arms, certain that she is able to care for it properly. Fantasy has replaced reality for this tragic figure, who is better able to act as parent to an inanimate object than to a human baby. Vera walks toward the door of her apartment, accompanied by the policewoman, and Louise returns to the nursery, where she picks up her son and holds him in her arms as the screen fades to black.

Jennifer Gillespie
as Celia Thorpe

William D. Gordon's adaptation of The Hours Before Dawn is disturbing because of the portrait it paints of women and mothers in 1963. Unlike Celia Fremlin's book, which is a mystery with a violent ending, "The Lonely Hours" is much more sedate and, in the end, troubling. Vera Brandon is never violent and always seems to have the best interests of the baby at heart. Louise Henderson goes back and forth between being suspicious of Vera and patient with her, but her final act of handing Vera the doll in place of the baby is unsettling. Has Vera snapped? Does she now think the doll is a real child? There is no way of knowing. What is certain, however, is that the final scenes of "The Lonely Hours" take the story in a different direction than the novel's conclusion and make Vera's fate less certain.

*   *   *

"The Lonely Hours"" is directed by Jack Smight (1925-2003), who directed for television from 1949 to 1986 and for film from 1964 to 1989. Among his many films were Harper (1966) and Midway (1976); he also directed four episodes of The Twilight Zone and four of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, including "What Really Happened." He won an Emmy for directing in 1959.

Annette Ferra as Harriett Henderson

Top billing goes to Nancy Kelly (1921-1995), who plays Vera. A child actress and model from the age of one, she appeared in films as a girl from 1926 to 1929 and then as a teenager and adult from 1938 to 1956. She worked in television from 1950 to 1963 and then again from 1974 to 1977. Kelly starred on Broadway in The Bad Seed, for which she won a Tony Award. She reprised the role in the 1956 film of the same name and was nominated for an Academy Award.  The actress appeared in one episode of Thriller (with a teleplay by William D. Gordon); "The Lonely Hours" is the only episode of the Hitchcock show in which she appeared.

Gena Rowlands (1930- ) plays Louise and gives her usual strong performance. Rowlands was on screen from 1954 to 2017, often working with her husband, John Cassavetes, and she was given an honorary Academy Award in 2015. She also won three Emmy Awards and appeared in four episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "Murder Case" with Cassavetes.

In supporting roles:

• Joyce van Patten (1934- ) as Louise's friend, Grace; she was a busy actress on TV from 1946 to 2018 and she also appeared in many films. Her TV roles included parts on The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and The Odd Couple.
• Alice Backes (1923-2007) as the policewoman; after serving as a WAVE during WWII, she worked in radio and then in film from 1948 to 1978. Her busy TV career lasted from 1952 to 1997 and included roles on Thriller, The Night Stalker, and six episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Jar."
• Willa Pearl Curtis (1896-1970) as Katie, who lets Vera take the baby shopping while Louise is out; her screen career lasted from 1938 to 1964 and this was the only episode of the Hitchcock show on which she appeared.
• Juanita Moore (1914-2014) as Mrs. McFarland, the second woman whom Louise visits after seeing her husband's name and number in Vera's little black book; she had a six-decade career on screen from 1939 to 2001 and is best remembered for co-starring in Douglas Sirk's remake of Imitation of Life (1959). She was also in four episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "Where the Woodbine Twineth."
• Jackie Russell as Sandra Mathews, the blonde, gum-chewing young mother whom Louise visits first; her screen career lasted from 1951 to 1987 and included many TV appearances, including episodes of Thriller and The Night Stalker, as well as "Run for Doom" on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
• Mary Adams (1910-1973) as the nun at St. Dominic's Hospital; she was on screen from 1948 to 1971 and also appeared on The Twilight Zone.
• Jesslyn Fax (1893-1975) as Miss McGuinness, Vera's landlady; she was on screen from 1950 to 1969 and had small parts in Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) and North By Northwest (1959), as well as on five episodes of the Hitchcock TV show, including "Coming. Mama" She was also on Batman.
• Sally Smith (1954- ) as Marjorie, Louise's older daughter; her screen career consisted of appearances on six TV episodes between 1961 and 1966, including the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "A Crime for Mothers."
• Jennifer Gillespie (1954- ) as Celia, Grace's daughter; she appeared in 19 TV episodes between 1961 and 1964 and this was her only role on the Hitchcock show.
• Annette Ferra (1955- ) as Harriett, Louise's younger daughter; this was her first screen role in an acting career that lasted until 1975; she now works as a casting director under the name Chris Gilmore.

Watch "The Lonely Hours" online here.

 

Sources:

"Celia Fremlin Goller." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, 2009, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000037808/CA?u=lawr69060&sid=bookmarkCA&xid=6183281f.

"Celia Fremlin Saw the Impoverished Disappointment in 1950s London." The Oldie, https://www.theoldie.co.uk/article/celia-fremlin-saw-the-impoverished-disappointment-in-1950s-london.

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

Fremlin, Celia. The Hours Before Dawn. Dover, 2017.

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

"History of Mass Observation." Home, http://www.massobs.org.uk/about/history-of-mo.

"The Hours before Dawn." Goodreads, Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/249870.The_Hours_Before_Dawn.

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

"The Lonely Hours." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 8, episode 23, CBS, 8 Mar. 1963.

Price, Leah. "B-Sides: Celia Fremlin's 'The Hours before Dawn.'" Public Books, 21 July 2020, https://www.publicbooks.org/pb-staff-favorites-2017-b-sides-celia-fremlins-hours-dawn/.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Feb. 2021, https://www.wikipedia.org/.

"William D. Gordon (1918-1991) - Find a Grave..." Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103756888/william-d-gordon.

In two weeks: Our coverage of William Gordon continues with "The Dark Pool," starring Lois Nettleton!

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma and Jack Seabrook discuss the first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Sybilla" here!