John Collier on TV Part Six-Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Maria"

by Jack Seabrook

John Collier's first teleplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents was "Maria," which was broadcast on Tuesday, October 24, 1961, on NBC, during the seventh and final season of the half-hour series. It was based on "Jizzle," by John Wyndham, which was first published under the pseudonym of John Benyon in the January 8, 1949 issue of Collier's magazine.


The short story begins as Ted Torbey, "member of the circus and a seller of patent medicine" (in other words, a con man living on the fringes of society), awakens with a sore head one morning to see that he bought a monkey for ten pounds the night before. His lover Rosie is not pleased by the prospect of sharing their quarters with an animal. According to Ted, the monkey is named Jizzle, his interpretation of Gisele, the name given to her by the man who sold her. Ted shows Rosie why Jizzle is so valuable; he decides to change his act to take advantage of the monkey's talent.

Days later, he previews his new act for the other circus folk: wearing a bright yellow dress and a blue beret and sitting on a table next to an easel, Jizzle quickly sketches a picture of Ted. Rosie is unhappy at having to dress like Jizzle in the act, but the monkey is a hit, producing sketch after sketch of circus performers. Jizzle becomes the third occupant of Ted's trailer, much to the chagrin of Rosie. Jizzle is popular with the public but Rosie thinks that the sketches of her are unflattering and that Jizzle is "watching and spying" on her, "watching and snickering."


Jizzle takes to sitting on Ted's shoulder and Rosie spends more time away from his trailer. Ted's sudden success blinds him to the resentment that grows between Jizzle and Rosie. Six weeks later, Ted confronts Rosie with Jizzle's latest sketch, which shows Rosie in a compromising position with El Magnifico, the lion tamer; Ted throws her out as Jizzle snickers. The next day, Rosie and El Magnifico are gone and Ted begins to "hate the sight of Jizzle." After a week, he turns Jizzle's act over to George Haythorpe of the rifle range and goes back to his patent medicine act.

Al Moore's illustration from Collier's

After a month of loneliness for Ted, George knocks on Ted's trailer door and confronts him with Jizzle's latest sketch, which shows Ted paying amorous attention to George's wife, Muriel. "George lifted the rifle. On his shoulder Jizzle snickered."

Wyndham's "Jizzle" is a fantasy, where a monkey can not only draw sketches from life but also is malicious and can manipulate the people around it with its drawings. Wyndham revised the story and it was next published in the February 1952 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction under the name John Wyndham. It was collected in The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction: 2 (1953), then again in Jizzle (1954), a collection of Wyndham's stories, and finally in Tales of Gooseflesh and Laughter (1956), another collection of Wyndham's short fiction.


Born John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Benyon Harris in 1903, the author published short stories in the pulps beginning in 1931 under the names John Benyon or John Benyon Harris, but it was not until the novel The Day of the Triffids was published in 1951 that he became a well-known science fiction writer. He also wrote The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), filmed as Village of the Damned (1960), as well as many other short stories and novels. He died in 1969.

Ted shows Maria's talents to his fellow
circus performers as Carol looks on

When the producers of Alfred Hitchcock Presents chose to adapt "Jizzle" for television, who better to write the teleplay than John Collier, who had seen five of his own stories adapted for the show by other writers and who had penned the novel His Monkey Wife (1930), a fantasy in which the protagonist marries Emily, a civilized and literate chimpanzee?

The televised version, retitled "Maria," is very different from the story. When we get our first look at the monkey, it is obviously a small actor in a mask and monkey suit; the monkey sketches a picture of Carol (Rosie has been renamed) on the inner wall of Leo's trailer (Ted has been renamed as well) and, when Carol rubs away the drawing, the monkey cries "vandalism!" in a high-pitched voice. To the surprise of Leo and Carol, who are married (this being a 1961 TV show), the monkey removes its rubber mask to reveal that it is a tiny woman. Introducing herself as Amelia Maria Trovatore, the Spanish-accented woman has a doll's face and gazes adoringly at Leo, winking at him in a suggestive manner.

Norman Lloyd as Leo

This big change in the story was suggested by Alfred Hitchcock himself, according to Norman Lloyd, who was both the show's associate producer and its star, portraying Leo. In a video interview from 2000, he explained that he and producer Joan Harrison would present synopses of stories that they liked to Hitchcock, who would pick the ones that would go into production. Lloyd recalled that Hitchcock suggested that they change the story of "Maria" to replace the real monkey with a woman in a monkey suit who would fall in love with her owner.


As a result, Maria can never remove more than her mask, since Leo fears that another member of the circus might enter his trailer unannounced and see that his act is a fraud. The friction between Carol and Maria thus finds a basis in jealousy between two women rather than between a human and a chimp. The fantasy element of the short story has been removed and replaced by an unhappy marriage, a theme with which John Collier was very familiar. The teleplay follows other adaptations of stories by Collier in removing some of the subtlety of the print source: Leo explains that Maria can only draw what she sees, which sets up later scenes where men believe that her sketches depict actual events.

Nita Talbot as Carol

Another change in the story occurs near the end, when Leo learns that Carol did not cheat on him with El Magnifico, since the lion tamer had been rushed to the hospital with appendicitis at the time. He confronts Maria, who brazenly admits her deceit, happy to be alone with him at last. Benny, a cowboy with the circus who replaces George from the story, walks in and sees Maria partially out of her costume; he buys her act anyway, and returns at the end to shoot and kill Leo.


In one scene near the end, we see an actual monkey scampering about as we hear Maria's voice on the soundtrack; Lloyd later said that they used a chimp named Joe but never clarified the rationale for having a real chimp in a couple of shots.

The real chimp who pops up in a couple of shots.

Norman Lloyd (1914- ) is still living. he was a major contributor to Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, acting, directing or producing many episodes. Nita Talbot (1930- ) plays Carol, and was active on TV and in the movies from the late 1940s through the late 1990s. She appeared in one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and she was also featured in "The Werewolf" on Kolchak: The Night Stalker.


Boris Sagal (1923-1981) directed this episode, one of three he did for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also directed two episodes of The Twilight Zone and the 1971 feature, The Omega Man. His daughter Katey Sagal is a TV actress to this day, having appeared in regular roles on Married . . . With Children and Sons of Anarchy. Boris Sagal was killed in a freak accident in 1981 on the set of the miniseries World War III, when he was decapitated by the tail rotor blades of a helicopter.

Venus de Mars, sans tassels

Saving the most bizarre for last, the role of Maria was played by an actress who went by the name of Venus de Mars. You won't find any other film or television credits for her, but Norman Lloyd explained that she was a Mexican striptease artist who performed at the Main Street Follies burlesque house in Hollywood. She also turns up in a 1961 article about the Sunset Strip, where John Weaver reports that she stood 37 inches tall and was "known for her extraordinary tassel work."

"Maria" is not yet available on DVD but can be viewed online here. The original story "Jizzle" can be read here.

Sources:

"ASK THE OLD PRO." New York Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2013.

Benyon, John. "Jizzle." Collier's 8 Jan. 1949: 10-11+. Print.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. Churchville, MD: OTR Pub., 2001. Print.

IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2013.

"Maria." Alfred Hitchcock Presents. NBC. 24 Oct. 1961. Television.

"Norman Lloyd." Archive of American Television. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2013.

Weaver, John. "The Sunset Strip." Holiday. July 1961. 57.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2013.

She really does have talent!

2021 Update: I found this article online:

Batman in the 1970s Part 56: May and June 1978

by Peter Enfantino

& Jack Seabrook

Batman 299 (May 1978)

"The Island of Purple Mist!"
Story by David V. Reed
Art by John Calnan and Dick Giordano

Batman confronts Baxter Baines and they knock out a trio of crooks together. Baines reveals that he has been trying to make Batman's identity public because it was on a list of things he had set for himself to do to combat boredom. Batman realizes that all of the clues apply equally to Baines himself and broadcasts a fifth one: that Batman's real initials are B.B. Baines fears for his life from the criminals of Gotham City. Meanwhile, assassins from the Crimson Coffin cult try to kidnap Baines but fail. When they return to their underground lair, their priestess announces that their leader will be sacrificed while dressed as Batman, along with Aldrich, who was scheduled to die last issue. Batman arrives after it appears that one crook has been killed. A fiery conflagration ends the reign of the cult. Batman explains to Commissioner Gordon that it was all part of an elaborate scheme involving illegal immigrants and a note from Baxter Baines reports that he has fled the country!

PE: A disappointing conclusion to what I considered David V. Reed's finest hour (thus far), this chapter is meandering and confusing as all hell. Is Baxter Baines a new character? X-Girl is given short shrift, which is sad since she's a real peach as drawn by Calnan and Giordano!

Jack: The X-Girl is surely the highlight of this issue. I get a strong feeling that Giordano had to do a lot of the heavy lifting with this issue's art, since it looks much more like his work (especially the drawings of Batman) than Calnan's. The plot is utterly confusing and when I wrote the above synopsis I hope I got it as straight as possible! Sales figures for 1977 are published in this issue and Batman sold an average of 148,219 copies that year.

We would save her!

Detective Comics 477 (June 1978)

(A Little Talk with Rupert Thorne)
Story by Len Wein
Art by Marshall Rogers and Dick Giordano

Batman visits Boss Thorne in his cell at Arkham Asylum, wanting to know why the mobster gave it all up when it was in the palm of his hand. Thorne tells Batman he had no choice as the ghost of Hugo Strange wouldn't let him be. Commissioner Gordon comments that someone as strong-minded as Batman would never be taken in by "ghosts." Batman wonders aloud if that's the case as he remembers a past adventure that concerned a haunted house. Meanwhile, in the Bowery, something sinister is taking place.

PE: Pretty hard to review something that's three pages and change. It looks, from this small sampler, that Dick Giordano will fit in quite nicely though.

Jack: I was very impressed by these pages, as short as the frame is, and they made a nice contrast to the reprint.

"The House That Haunted Batman"
Story by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman
Art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano
(a reprinting of Detective #408)

PE: In the "We Done Dodged a Bullet" Department: according to a small item in The Comic Reader #153 (February 1978), Len Wein and David V. Reed were all set to swap titles. "No big deal," sez you? Well, that means that Reed would have been scripting Marshall Rogers and Dick Giordano. No thanks! I'll take my chances with Wein on this title. The following issue (#154, March 1978) saw a mention that Reed would be, instead, swapping jobs with Denny O'Neil, who was working on The Batman Family. In the end, neither came to pass. Stay tuned for details. In the "Ain't We Seen This Before?" Department, we get this issue's reprinting of a story originally published in the February 1971 issue of 'tec. The rerun was as a result of Marshall Rogers's troubles making a deadline. I don't know about you but, considering the run of classics Rogers pumped out during his short stay on this title, I can live with a bump in the road now and then.

Jack: This was a great story the first time around and it's still great, even edited and with reproduction not as good as the original. The Adams art is brilliant, as usual, and it's neat that they were able to dig through the files and find a story that Len Wein had worked on now that he's back at DC. Sales figures for 1977 on Detective are in this issue--average monthly sales were 125,143. With this issue, Detective reverts back to bi-monthly status.


Batman 300 (June 1978)

"The Last Batman Story --?"
Story by David V. Reed
Art by Walt Simonson and Dick Giordano

At an unspecified date in the future, the adult Robin stands guard while a young woman is brought to the hospital in critical condition.  A sudden attack on the airport terminal by a flying cannon is met with equally forceful opposition by Batman, who fights some crooks but is surprised to see their leader, a man colored blue, explode. Robin tells Batman the story of a man who had approached him at a dinner party wanting to buy one of his antique cars. Robin declined and the man threatened him; soon after, he began to receive prisms in the mail just as factories belonging to Wayne International were destroyed. Intelligence operative Annie Morgan was asked to investigate and sent Robin mysterious clues before disappearing.

Batman and Robin follow the clues and infiltrate an organization called Spectrum, whose members are designated by the various colors of the rainbow. After they destroy the syndicate, Bruce Wayne confides in Dick Grayson that he is considering a run for governor, marriage to his girlfriend, and retirement from his long life as a crime fighter.

PE: I usually hate these "imaginary Batman tales," but this one's a little special. It's not The Dark Knight Returns but it's a low-budget ancestor with a lot of special effects thrown in for good measure. As much complaining as I do about David V. Reed, it does me good to howl out to the stars when he finds the right note. "The Last Batman Story--?" is much more complex than anything Reed has attempted in past issues. He seems to be having a ball with the extra pages, using them to flesh out these future versions of old friends. In the big action set pieces, Simonson and Giordano seem to have studied Sir Kenneth Adam's sets for the Bond films. In fact, the whole story has a Bond feel to it. Yeah, as usual I could scratch my head at the DC time-vortex and wonder how it could be so far into the future and yet Alfred's still wandering the halls of Wayne Manor, trays filled with caviar and cucumber sandwiches. From a grown-up Dick Grayson (now married, with twins, and running Wayne Enterprises) to a gone-grey Bruce Wayne (wearing a bolo!), check your brain at the door and just enjoy it. I issued a hearty guffaw at the following exchange between Batman and Robin:

Batman: If they're using sonic detection, we'll register as a passing flight!
Robin: And if they've got radar?
Batman: You would bring that up!

Great ending too, but I was surprised Reed left us dangling with the mention of the whereabouts of The Riddler without a follow-up. I thought for sure, since The Riddler was the only member of The Rogues left unaccounted for, he'd have had something to do with all the intrigue.

Jack: I liked the Simonson/Giordano art and all of the little touches in this story, but the main plot was David V. Reed's usual mess. Bruce Wayne is grey at the temples and Robin is all grown up and has a new outfit. This outfit looks awfully familiar, and I wonder if it's one that readers suggested a few years back? (Check out our writeup on Batman 259 here--there are similarities!) The scene where they speak with Gordon via Skype (though not called that yet) is neat, especially seeing Gordon in retirement writing his memoirs. It's a nice touch to have Dick's kids named Bruce and James, but I would have liked to find out who his wife is and who Bruce's girlfriend is! This is definitely a fun issue and I think it recalls some of the DC stories of the '50s and '60s a little bit, what with all the emphasis on colors and the futuristic trappings.

Time to go shopping on eBay again!

Batman in the 1970s Part 55: March and April 1978

by Jack Seabrook

& Peter Enfantino

Batman 297 (March 1978)

"The Mad Hatter Goes Straight!"
Story by David V. Reed
Art by Rich Buckler and Vince Colletta

When the filming of a lavish TV commercial goes awry and ends with a hat being passed and the onlookers putting their valuables into the chapeau, it can only mean one thing--the Mad Hatter is back to menace Gotham City once again! Yet for Jarvis Tetch, the thrill is gone and he decides to go straight. He masquerades as the sheriff of Midtown Park and saves Bruce Wayne and a damsel from a robbery, only to steal the woman's pearl necklace. Frustrated by his inability to stay within the law, Tetch pretends to be a Rhodesian zookeeper and steals a valuable armadillo. His crimes continue until Batman lures him to a party for private eye Jason Bard. The Dark Knight corners pastry chef Tetch and ensures that the only hat he will wear from now on is a dunce cap.

PE: Unless I'm mistaken, this is the first time (other than a cameo in the "What Were You Doing..." arc) we've encountered The Mad Hatter. A third-tier Rogue, The Mad Hatter really came to popularity because of David Wayne's portrayal of the villain in that show. David Reed's story is harmless enough (certainly better than his previous attempts at other Rogues) and it's made better by Rich Buckler's art. Curious that when Bruce Wayne mentions the fundraiser for Jason Bard, Commissioner Gordon almost seems oblivious to who Bard is. Jason explains that he's been in Vietnam for a while but wouldn't Gordon remember the guy who was dating his own daughter a few DC years back? This Jarvis Tetch, by the way, is evidently a "fraud," and the real Tetch, a somewhat vertically challenged fellow, will return in the 1980s to reclaim his throne. Jarvis tries to quit crime but just can't do it. That horrible urge creeps on him every time. Nice twist!

Jack: I think that when Bard referred to his time in Vietnam he was referring to the period before his adventures as a private eye and sometime boyfriend of Barbara Gordon, since (by 1978) no one had been in Vietnam for a few years--at least not any U.S. military personnel! I have read about the criticisms of Buckler for aping or swiping from Neal Adams, but I really don't see it in this story. He does a pretty good job of drawing Batman but some of his non-costumed humans look pretty wooden. I was surprised to see Jason Bard return, even if it was for such a brief time. We haven't seen him since his series ended in Detective a few years back.



Detective Comics 476 (April 1978)

"Sign of the Joker!"
Story by Steve Englehart
Art by Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin

The Joker, enraged that Gotham won't grant his copyright on his Joker-fish, murders Thomas Jackson, his second member of the Gotham Commission. Since Batman had been protecting Jackson, he takes the crime personally and vows to bring The Joker in. Bringing in a dangerous madman proves to be a daunting task, however. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne's girlfriend, Silver St. Cloud, continues to wrestle with her doubts about Bruce's night time activities while hitchhiking with Boss Thorne, himself wrestling with apparitions. When Silver says one offensive line too many to the mob boss, he kindly asks her to hoof it. Minutes later, Thorne is attacked by the ghost of Hugo Strange. Back in Gotham, The Joker and Batman have a fierce battle in a storm atop a high-rise construction. The girder The Joker is standing on is struck by lightning and he falls into the Gotham harbor waters. As The Batman scours the harbor for any sight of his foe, Commissioner Gordon relates how Boss Thorne stumbled into police headquarters and confessed all his crimes.

PE: A very satisfying conclusion to the groundbreaking first part of this saga but I'd have liked a couple more chapters. Why, oh why, couldn't we have been graced with a four-part arc like this one rather than those DVR abominations we had to settle for over in Batman? Marshall Rogers seems to be growing in leaps and bounds issue to issue. He's even more cinematic in his panels here than ever before. Witness the sequence in the car between Boss Thorne and Silver. One panel shows the two talking but their heads are out of the shot while a subsequent one shows the pair from the floorboards of the vehicle! It's like a short Scorsese film. There's some experimenting going on here and we're the lucky guinea pigs. Unfortunately, this is the last we'll see of Terry Austin on inks (other than for the cover of #477). Austin quit DC after a harrowing run-in with DC editor Joe Orlando over pay for the inking done on that cover. Dick Giordano will fill those big shoes beginning next issue. Cross your fingers.

Jack: I was thinking the same thing as I read and enjoyed this issue--it's very cinematic, and your observations that it influenced the Nolan film trilogy are incisive. I am looking forward to Dick Giordano's inks, since he's one of my favorite Bat artists.

PE: There are so many textured layers here to love. The haunting of Boss Thorne spreading to The Dark Knight. Silver St. Cloud's maddening doubts and suspicions. The Joker's insane reasonings behind murdering the Gotham Commission one by one. The whole thing reads like an intricately-planned novel. Not so surprising since Steve Englehart abandoned his comics career following this issue to write his novel, The Point Man. On his website, Steve reveals that his eight-issue run was the foundation for Tim Burton's first Batman flick and that Englehart worked on a couple of drafts of that script in the 80s. The Englehart/Rogers/Austin powerhouse would return to the Batman/Joker gold mine for the 2005 six-issue mini-series, Dark Detective (and a one-issue follow-up in 2006). Once again, Hollywood stood up and took notice as several of the ideas from the mini-series found their way into The Dark Knight. The new 'tec writer effective next issue, Len Wein, has some huge shoes to fill: Steve Englehart, at least to this point in our study, was the best writer ever to script the Caped Crusader. Who knows how many more classic stories may have come out of Englehart had he not jumped ship so quickly?

Jack: Can I raise my hand meekly to suggest Denny O'Neil (at his best) should be included in that conversation? One interesting thing I noticed in this issue is that the Joker image on page 5 is a dead ringer for Cesar Romero! And he looks fearsome, at that.

Batman 298 (April 1978)

"The Case of the Crimson Coffin!"
Story by David V. Reed
Art by John Calnan and Dick Giordano

Beneath an abandoned house, Batman discovers a ritual murder in the works and makes short work of the two costumed killers, each of whom wields a machete. Also below ground, Batman discovers three illegal aliens and a female reporter who has been tied up. Yet the Caped Crusader has other concerns above ground: someone is placing clues to his secret identity in highly visible places around Gotham City. Batman discovers that the reporter is in league with the costumed killers. Does someone know who Batman really is? Tune in next issue, same Bat-time!

PE: Amazingly enough, I think we've hit a patch of really good David V. Reed scripting the last three issues. This story certainly kept my interest and I was delighted to see that Reed (or Schwartz) opted to carry it over to the next issue rather than deliver a rushed climax. I thought for sure we'd be given the standard "Yep, it's The Riddler doling out the clues" reveal but, nope, Reed keeps the intrigue going (at least for now). Who's the pretty girl who wears the (pretty silly) 'X' dress? Has she stumbled over to the wrong comics company? This is the second time we've had an encounter with the nonsense-speaking fink Batman uses to get info (of course, if he's the world's greatest detective, what does he need a two-bit fink for, right?). I swear I thought he was talking Australian. And a big thumbs-up to Dick Giordano's inking skills this issue, working magic on John Calnan's pencils. One only has to gander back at Calnan's previous Bat-art to know Giordano earned his $20 a page (or whatever pittance they were paying these guys in 1977). Nice to see we've got two enjoyable Bat-titles to discuss this week.

Fortunately, Julie Schwartz understood gibberish.

Jack: One of the disappointments with the recent issues of Batman for me has been the letdown in interior art after the great covers by Jim Aparo (though the reflection on the sword's blade doesn't make sense spatially). Aparo was one of the best Batman artists of the 1970s but he only did a few stories for Detective, mostly sticking with The Brave and the Bold. This issue, however, marks the welcome return of Dick Giordano as inker, who puts his own style on Calnan's pencils in a way that Tex Blaisdell could not in the recent four-issue arc with the trial. It's nice, for once, to see a splash page that isn't just a waste of space and actually starts the story. In our ninth year of reading through these two titles in the 1970s, I think it's safe to say that Giordano has done more to establish the best look for Batman than any other artist.

The record club finally hit the skids when CDs came along.

John Collier on TV Part Five-Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Anniversary Gift"

by Jack Seabrook

The last story by John Collier to be adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents was "Anniversary Gift," which had been published in the April 1959 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. More humor than horror, the story concerns Hermie Jensen, who is unhappily married to Myra, a woman with "the mental age of ten." They live in a cheap house in an unfashionable beach colony in Florida, where Hermie longs to return to his native Brooklyn. Myra has collected a menagerie of pets, which Hermie looks after while she lounges in her playsuit.

Hermie imagines killing Myra and suggests that she get a new pet snake. He sets off for the village of Melodie, north of the Everglades; at the end of a dirt road, he finds a 13 year old boy named Eidelpfeffer, a self-styled herpetologist who put an advertisement in a magazine offering live reptiles for sale. Hermie pretends to be a professor seeking a small, very poisonous snake to use in an experiment and the boy sells him a coral snake for $18.50, nearly all the money he has.

Hermie returns home and gives the snake to Myra as an early anniversary present, recommending that she cozy up to it and leaving the room so it can bond with her. He goes for a walk and returns to find Myra complaining that the snake doesn't like her; Hermie sits down on the couch and is bitten by the snake, which had burrowed between the cushions. Myra runs for help but returns to find Hermie dead; a game warden captures the snake and confirms that it's a harmless king snake. Myra is relieved to know that Hermie died of a heart attack and she is certain that he did not intend to give her a deadly serpent, as he had claimed after he was bitten.


"Anniversary Gift" is a clever and funny story that demonstrates that author John Collier had grown familiar with American ways yet still used British expressions in his writing to describe them: he notes that Hermie had "looked forward confidently to control of the exchequer" and that Myra's first husband had died before he could make his "postwar pile." It is noteworthy that the first four Collier stories adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents had been published originally in The New Yorker, a popular and respected mainstream magazine, while "Anniversary Gift" was published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, a digest that published crime and detective stories; EQMM was probably the best in its field, but in terms of respectability, circulation and (probably) pay rate, it was a step down from The New Yorker.

The story belongs in the category of those where the main characters think that they are smarter than they are. Hermie is bilked by a thirteen year old boy who sells him a harmless king snake when he asks for a poisonous coral snake. Myra spends her days lounging around their Florida home playing with her pets and allows herself to believe that her husband had not tried to kill her. This unfavorable view of married life recalls "Back for Christmas," though Hermie is not successful in killing his wife. In the five Collier stories adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, all of the families have been dysfunctional. In "Back for Christmas," Herbert Carpenter is henpecked and kills his wife because it is easier than standing up to her. In "Wet Saturday," the Princey family includes a murderous daughter and a boorish son; the father must frame a family friend to preserve the clan's air of respectability. In "De Mortuis," Dr. Rankin thinks that he leads a happy life but decides to kill his wife after learning that she is unfaithful. In "None Are So Blind," Seymour Johnstone is so anxious to inherit his aunt's money that he speeds her death along with a poorly conceived murder. Finally, in "Anniversary Gift," Hermie Jensen despises his wife and tries to kill her by taking advantage of her love of animals; his stupidity leads to his own death. John Collier has been descried as a writer who does not like women; these five stories demonstrate that he has few illusions about family life in general.

Barbara Baxley as Myra

After the three Collier episodes that had been broadcast in rapid succession in the fall of 1956, there was a three-year drought for the author before "Anniversary Gift" appeared on CBS on Sunday, November 1, 1959, near the start of the show's fifth season. The teleplay was by Harold Swanton, who added aspects to the source that served to make the show even funnier than the story. There is a running gag where a toucan screeches at Hermie and calls him a "slob." A new character is added in George, the next-door neighbor, who spends his days drinking beer and going fishing. Ironically, George tells Hermie that he envies Hermie's married life--George's wife died nine years before and he is lonely. Ignoring Hermie's question ("How'd you manage that?) as to how his wife died, he tells Hermie that "since she's been gone, my life is nothing but beer and fishing." Hermie doesn't share his sadness and envies George's life as a widower.

As Hermie, Harry Morgan has a wonderful time with the role, mimicking the words "one beer" as Myra tells him his limit and grudgingly accepting an "allowance" of ten dollars from his spouse. He becomes animated and cheerful when he thinks he is putting one over on Myra; he rhapsodizes about what wonderful pets snakes make and tells her she needs to get to know her new pet better and "love him up." Morgan's comic timing is perfect. He imitates a snake dance strip tease and shows Myra how she could carry a snake inside the front of her blouse and let it peek its head out. Watching this episode, it is hard to imagine that Morgan and Barbara Baxley (as Myra) could have performed this scene without dissolving into laughter and ruining the take.

Michael J. Pollard as Hansel Eidelpfeiffer

Another highlight is the scene where Hermie visits Eidelpfeffer, renamed Hansel Eidelpfeiffer in the show (and even funnier for that). The "boy" (played perfectly by a 20 year old Michael J. Pollard) figures out very quickly that Hermie is not the professor he claims to be and talks circles around him before out-negotiating him and taking his $10 allowance as payment for a fraudulent snake. Morgan again shines in this scene, boasting that the scientists at Cape Canaveral want to beat the Russians and be the first to put a snake on the moon.

"Anniversary Gift" is an excellent comic episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that benefits from a tight script, excellent camerawork and editing, and terrific performances. One of the best moments comes after Hermie has been bitten; he is frantic while Myra remains calm: Myra tells him that they should clean the bite, because one "never can tell where their teeth have been," and Hermie responds, "They've been in me!"

The script for "Anniversary Gift" was by Harold Swanton, who wrote for radio and then television, with credits going as late as 1980. There is no biographical information available online, so I will add him to the list of writers to highlight in this series of articles in order to learn more about him. He wrote 11 episodes of the Hitchcock series and won an Edgar in 1958 for best episode of a TV series ("Mechanical Manhunt" on The Alcoa Hour).

Jackie Coogan as George

Norman Lloyd directed the show; born in 1914 and still alive today, he was associate producer or producer of over 200 episodes of the Hitchcock series, directing 22 of them and acting in five. Harry Morgan (1915-2011) was one of the most recognizable actors on TV in the '60s and '70s, appearing in various series such as Dragnet and M*A*S*H. This was the only time he appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, though he directed two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Barbara Baxley (1923-1990) was also a recognizable TV actress who was on TV from 1950-1987 and in movies from 1955-1990. She was in six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including co-starring in "Design for Loving" with Norman Lloyd.

Jackie Coogan (1914-1984) played George, the neighbor. Coogan started in the movies as a child in 1917 and became a star when he co-starred in The Kid (1921) with Charlie Chaplin. He had a long career in movies and on TV and is best remembered today as Uncle Fester on The Addams Family (1964-1966). Like Harry Morgan, this was his only appearance on the Hitchcock series.

Henry Morgan as Hermie

Michael J. Pollard (1939- ) played Eidelpfeiffer with what film historian David Thomson called his "sleepy-boy mumbling" style. He has been making movies since 1959 and his most famous role was in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). He appeared twice on Alfred Hitchcock Presents as well as on Lost in Space and Star Trek.

"Anniversary Gift" was remade as part of the 1980s revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and broadcast on February 28, 1987. Neither version of the show is available for online viewing but the original may be purchased on DVD here.


Sources:

"Anniversary Gift." Alfred Hitchcock Presents. CBS. 1 Nov. 1959. Television.

Collier, John. "Anniversary Gift." 1959. Ellery Queen's Murder--in Spades! New York: Pyramid, 1969. 58-72. Print.

"Galactic Central." Galactic Central. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2013.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. Churchville, MD: OTR Pub., 2001. Print.

IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.

Thomson, David. The Big Screen : The Story of the Movies. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012. Print.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.

Batman in the 1970s Part 54: January and February 1978

by Peter Enfantino

& Jack Seabrook

Batman 295 (January 1978)

"The Adventure of the Houdini Whodunit!"
Story by Gerry Conway
Art by Michael Golden

Batman is called to a meeting of the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City. Armchair detective Martin Tellman tells of a dead woman found in his doorway whose body disappeared from a closed ambulance. Crime beat writer Art Saddows and mystery novelist Kaye Daye narrate similar occurrences. Batman follows the clues to discover that the dead woman was June Gold, assistant to magician David Hamton. The Caped Crusader is trapped in Houdini's water escape and, after managing to extricate himself, confronts Hamton's apprentice onstage during a magic show, proving that he is the killer.

Jack: Gerry Conway and Michael Golden pull off the amazing trick of turning Batman from a floundering title into a very good one. Conway's script manages to take some characters who had been weak in prior appearances (Kaye Daye, for instance) and using them to craft an exciting story. Michael Golden is an artist whom I had forgotten in the last few decades, but I was impressed by his art on this story. It is modern without being overly stylized, and his Batman, while not as groundbreaking as that of Marshall Rogers over in Detective, is the kind of Dark Knight that we love.

PE: While I'm not ready to declare this title saved, I will say this is the best story in Batman in quite some time. Always loved Gerry Conway's Marvel work (including his scripting on perhaps the most infamous and polarizing Marvel comics of all time, The Amazing Spider-Man #121 and #122), so it's no surprise I'd like his version of Batman. Conway's plot meshes perfectly with Michael Golden's Wrightson-esque pencils. Don't hold your breath for a revival, though, as David V. Reed returns next issue.

Detective Comics 475 (February 1978)

"The Laughing Fish!"
Story by Steve Englehart
Art by Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin

There's some question as to whether Bruce Wayne's newest girlfriend, Silver St. Cloud, knows the true identity of The Batman. The Dark Knight is pretty sure (and we, the readers, know for sure) the cat's out of the bag but any romantic troubles will have to be put on ice while he deals with the newest threat from his oldest and deadliest foe. The Joker has been dumping a compound into Gotham's waters, infecting the fish with a toxin that makes their faces mirror that of The Clown Prince of Crime. Now The Joker wants to copyright the new look on Gotham's seafood and he'll murder anyone who gets in his way.

PE: Compare this Joker to the one David Reed uses in his stories over in Batman. Can't be the same character, can it? Reed's version is content with placing whoopie cushions on his victim's seats while this incarnation pushes his henchmen in front of speeding cars. It's like comparing Cesar Romero to Heath Ledger, I guess. Some folks like the buffoon, others like the homicidal maniac. I'm firmly in the latter camp. To this point in time (1978), only Neal Adams has drawn a creepier Joker. I'd never read this particular story nor the follow-up but both are invariably listed by Bat-fans in their Top Ten Batman Stories of All Time list and I can see why. Rogers's art is reaching its peak (gone are the sketchy backgrounds and matchstick human characters) and Steve Englehart is . . . well, the best comic book writer of the 1970s, hands down. Steve nails The Joker's madness to the wall. The plot (copyrighting ghoulish fish) seems right out of one of those comical 1950s Bat-tales, missing only the campy humor and cartoonish antics of Batman and The Boy Wonder. As we saw with some of Neal Adams's iconic work back in the early 1970s, there's a lot of stuff here that ended up on the big screen in The Dark Knight (in particular, the spirit of that scene where The Joker warns Boss Thorne not to disclose the identity of The Batman "since it would take away the fun--the thrill of the joust with my perfect opponent!").

Jack: Englehart, Rogers and Austin make great use of the Joker here, but what I like best about this story is the way they interweave the threads of the Silver/Batman/Bruce subplot, the Boss Thorne subplot, and the Joker menace. The idea that the Joker would hesitate to kill Batman is carried over from the last great Batman story drawn by Neal Adams, "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!" (Batman 251). This run by Englehart and Austin is unlike much else we've seen in Batman in the 1970s in the way it develops a story over multiple issues. One might even say it's more like the style of Marvel comics than that of DC. Whatever it is, it is very enjoyable.

PE: The encounter with Silver St. Cloud is well handled as well. She and Batman seem to have a bit of a Mexican standoff going when they confront each other in her bedroom. He thinks she knows. She thinks he knows she knows. How to proceed? A nice awkward moment when Bruce calls a couple minutes after leaving to postpone their date that night. The only misfire here is the climax when we're asked to believe Silver is hitchhiking three hundred miles outside of Gotham and gets picked up by (Mighty Marvel-esque Coincidence!) the fleeing Rupert Thorne!

Jack: I had no problem with the climax and actually was surprised. I could not tell if Thorne had gone off the deep end earlier in the story and now am a bit worried about what will happen to Silver. And just so we don't avoid being snarky once in awhile, was Silver named Silver from birth and it is just a coincidence that she has silver hair?

PE: We're snarky?

From Batman 295

Batman 296 (February 1978)

"The Sinister Straws of the Scarecrow"
Story by David V. Reed
Art by Sal Amendola

The Scarecrow has developed a new potion that will release a person's most secret fear. After testing it out on one of his Strawmen/henchmen, he uses it to force Jarvis Skibo to return bonds he had stolen from Gotham City National Bank. Batman plants a fake news story claiming that the bonds were counterfeit and follows Skibo to track down the Scarecrow. Though the villain escapes, Batman is waiting for him in disguise at his next crime scene. Overcoming the fear potion by force of willpower, the Dark Knight once again defeats the Scarecrow and his minions.

Jack: I had high hopes after last issue's fine story by Conway and Golden. Sadly, they were dashed to bits again by the return of David V. Reed and Sal Amendola (last seen in Detective Comics 440--May 1974). The Scarecrow's henchmen wear ridiculous outfits and Amendola's drawings of Batman are poor. The story is a mixed-up jumble of the usual Scarecrow tropes and the usual Batman triumphs. Hopefully, editor Schwartz can come up with a new writer soon for this title as well as an artist who can actually draw the Caped Crusader. Five of the last six issues have featured sub-par art, first by Calnan and now by Amendola.

Would you mind repeating that?

PE: Wow! I couldn't disagree with you more, Jack. I've never been a fan of David Reed's writing and you'd be hard-pressed to go back through our past posts and find a single complimentary thing I've had to say about him but, with this one, he hits a triple. Maybe it's the fact that I'm such a fan of The Scarecrow. Who knows? Reed had written tales involving most, if not all, of Batman's Rogue Gallery and proven inept at all of them but, for some reason, he seems to have gotten a handle on the villain who uses exactly what The Dark Knight uses as a primary weapon: fear. And, as for Amendola's art, yeah, it's very sketchy at times (reminded me a lot of Bill Sienkiewicz in some panels), but I thought it atmospheric and creepy as befits the subject. It's been way too long since we saw Sal in these parts (Detective #439-440) and, unfortunately, it's the last time we'll encounter him during our run.

Wanted: someone who can draw Batman

The splash page is easily
the highlight of this issue.

Jack had at least one of these posters up on
his wall at age 14--guess which one!