Batman in the 1980s Issue 15: March 1981

The Dark Knight in the 1980s
by Jack Seabrook &
Peter Enfantino

Various

Detective Comics #500

"To Kill a Legend"

Story by Alan Brennert

Art by Dick Giordano

The Phantom Stranger explains to Batman and Robin that, in an alternate universe, Thomas and Martha Wayne are about to be killed in front of their only son, Bruce, in a matter of days. The Stranger offers Bruce Wayne a chance to travel to that other dimension and prevent the murders from happening yet again. In this way, Bruce might be able to purge the nightmares and guilt from his own past. 

The Dynamic Duo arrive and immediately look up the Waynes. Dick Grayson is startled to see a spoiled rotten youth named Bruce Wayne, obviously heading for a future as a spoiled rotten millionaire playboy. While perusing the Gotham library, Robin makes a startling discovery: this universe contains no planet named Krypton. No Superman will be arriving on Earth. Robin explains to Batman his notion that if they interject in the killing, Batman will never exist in this alternate world. But Batman scoffs and explains that if he can save one child's misery, he'll risk anything.

Batman tracks the assassin, Joe Chill, down only to discover him dying from a gunshot wound. Chill explains that his boss, Lew Moxon, heard some freak in a cape was asking after Chill and decided to eliminate any obstacles to killing Thomas Wayne. Moxon hires another killer, but Batman and Robin arrive in time to prevent the murder. The Phantom Stranger arrives to tell the Caped Crusaders that their job here is done. In the alternate universe, a small boy named Bruce Wayne dumps his toys and, using the giant bat-man as inspiration, begins a tough regimen of workouts and caviar.

Peter: 500 issues for any comic magazine is amazing, but this happens to be the title that gave us the greatest superhero of all time and, so, a reason to celebrate. The first issue of DC, dated March, 1937, sporting a "yellow peril" illustration on its cover, featured the adventures of Speed Saunders, Cosmo (the Phantom of Disguise), Bret Lawton, Bruce Nelson, Gumshoe Gus, Bart Regan, Eagle-Eyed Jake, Buck Marshal (Range Detective), and Slam Bradley. 68 pages for one thin dime! None of those characters became the icon that would be introduced a couple of years later in issue #27. We'll get to that anniversary as well in about two years' time. 

Well, I guess it was inevitable that, in an anniversary issue like this one, we'd have to get yet another reimagining of the mythology. But at least, with the help of Alan Brennert, this one is entertaining and clever. I like that, in this "infinite Earth," Bruce Wayne is going to grow up to be the antithesis of our Bruce Wayne. In fact, as Robin remarks, this alternate dimension will play host to the guy that Bruce Wayne pretends to be in order to hide his alter ego! Giordano's art is dazzling, as always. I believe this is the first time we've been exposed to the work of Alan Brennert, a guy who had a few stories published in DC Comics (Wonder Woman, for one), but had also broken into TV scripting (Wonder Woman as well!). In my mind, Brennert's greatest achievement was successfully rebooting The Twilight Zone in the late 1980s. 

Jack: "To Kill a Legend" will easily make my top ten (top five?) of 1981. I was very confused by the timing at first, with the Waynes being killed 20 years ago when Bruce was eight years old, thus making Batman 28 in 1981. Then the Phantom Stranger popped by to remind us all about Earth One and Earth Two, which (sort of) helps clarify matters. I love the idea that there are no superheroes on the third Earth and that Bruce is a spoiled brat; I also love the conclusion, where Batman's intervention sets things in motion to provide this world with its first costumed hero. Giordano's art is as good as I've seen it, making this an instant classic.

"The 'Too Many Cooks' Caper!"

Story by Len Wein

Art by Jim Aparo

At his retirement party, Police Inspector Archie Evergreen is shot and killed by, it would be presumed, his arch-nemesis, the mobster Victor Dominion. Archie left behind quite a few friends and admirers and a handful of those team up to track down Dominion and avenge their friend's death. 

Peter: Listed as a Slam Bradley vehicle, "The 'Too Many Cooks' Caper!" could almost be viewed as a Justice League of tenth-tier back-up stars. The characters include: Slam Bradley (who appeared in the very first issue of Detective back in March 1937!); Gotham PI Jason Bard (Detective, early 1930s); Captain Mark Compass (a regular in early 1950s' Star-Spangled Comics); TV Detective Roy Raymond (Detective, early 1950s) pilot Rick Carter a/k/a Mysto the Magician (mid-1950s' Detective Comics); Christopher Chance, the Human Target (Action Comics, early 1970s); and Pow-Wow Smith, Indian lawman (early 1950s' Detective). Not quite an all-star cast, but the idea is intriguing. The plot isn't bad, but the reveal is ludicrous (Archie was dying of cancer and knew he couldn't nail Dominion before he shuffled off, so he killed himself in a theatrical way, hoping his super-smart buddies would track down and eliminate Dominion for him) and now I know why superheroes have costumes; that way, you can tell them apart. Everyone here (aside from Chief Pow-Wow, who looks more like a cowboy than an Indian) resembles either Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne. Don't get me wrong... I still enjoyed this oddball team-up; I just wish I could have known who was who.

Jack: I had the same problem. It was fun to see all of the back-up feature detectives in one place, but the story is run of the mill, which makes it consistent with most of the stories these characters appeared in to begin with!

"Once Upon a Time..."

Story by Len Wein

Art by Walt Simonson

Jack: This two-pager is not worth a summary, but I think it's worth a mention because it gives us the opportunity to see Walt Simonson draw Batman again, however briefly. Simonson was one of the best Bat artists of the 1970s.

"The Final Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe!"

Story by Mike W. Barr

Art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, attempts to find the party responsible for assaulting the world’s number one fan of Edgar Allan Poe. Turns out the Poe boy had found valuable plates that the famed writer had created to print a new magazine. Since the plates contained a never-before-published EAP story, the value is priceless. Dibny nabs the guilty party with the help of his stretchable nose and ears and the world will soon gasp in wonder at the uncovered Poe.

Peter: “The Final Mystery of Edgar Allen Poe,” drawing on facts in the bizarre death of the writer, is lightweight fun. Dibny never really does anything that a half-dozen other heroes (or regular people, even) couldn’t do. He uses his nose to open a lock and his ear to catch a falling paper. But I think that’s the idea. Dibny is a self-loving nerd who digs attention and revels in what little fame he’s been allowed. The art, by José Luis García-López, is fabulous, so much better than the low-budget art we’re used to on these back-ups. 

Jack: I agree--the art by Garcia-Lopez definitely makes the story more enjoyable. Half the fun with Elongated Man is seeing how he uses different parts of his body to create handy objects. It's a fun mystery story that is a notch above what we usually see from this character.

"The Batman Encounters--Gray Face"

(Text Feature)

Story by Walter Gibson

Art by Tom Yeates

Commissioner Gordon has gotten word that the legendary Chinese pirate, Gray Face, has arrived in Gotham and is terrorizing the merchants of Chinatown. The Batman tracks Gray Face to his lair and attempts to quash his reign of terror.

Peter: Here's something new: a novella-length prose Batman thriller with a decidedly pulpish atmosphere. Of course, that's down to its writer, Walter Gibson, creator of and main writer for The Shadow pulp magazine. I liked the plot and Gibson's action sequences, which harken back to his 1940s' style, but could have done with a little more creative writing. Gibson's sentences seem to exist only to describe what's going on in a scene. That may sound like a strange complaint, but it's tiring, after four or five pages of text that reads like "The Batman picked up a shoe. The Batman threw the shoe at the bad guy. The bad guy ducked and pulled his .44 on The Batman." I'd have to go back and look, but I don't think Gibson ever labeled our hero as anything but "The Batman." Of course, Gibson's famous character was a major influence on the creators of the Dark Knight, so it's fitting that "The Batman Encounters--Gray Face!" was actually a never-published Shadow story that Gibson rewrote for this anniversary issue. The spot illustrations, by Tom Yeates, are the highlight.

Jack: This old-fashioned text piece with illustrations fits in well in this nostalgic issue of Detective; those old text pages that were stuck in to meet a mailing requirement were what I always skipped reading. Not this time, though! It was a great idea to bring things full circle by having Walter Gibson write a Batman story, and it's pulpy and fun, filled with booby traps and Chinatown scenes. The story pulled me in and I really enjoyed the spot illustrations, though I kept thinking they should be in black and white.

"The Strange Death of Doctor Erdel"

Story by Paul Levitz

Art by Joe Kubert

Katar-Hol and Shayera, a/k/a Hawkman and Hawkchick, hope to solve "The Strange Death of Doctor Erdel." There were only two suspects in the suspicious death of Erdel: his lab assistant, Fred, and the scientist's niece, who stood to inherit Erdel's great wealth. Though there was never enough evidence to convict either one, Hawkman wants to use his super intelligence and detective work to investigate further. Once Hawks is satisfied that neither suspect actually committed the murder, his attention turns to the computer Erdel was working on when he was electrocuted. Sure enough, when the Hawk-couple slip into Erdel's lab, a giant creature known as a Wyrd-Beast (from Alpha Centauri) pops up and confesses to the crime. The thing attempts to kill Shayera, but Hawkman uses his mace to destroy the monster. 

Peter: When Joe Kubert is the artist, the story becomes secondary, and this little bit of nonsense sure benefits from the drawing hand of the master. I assume DC-aholics who are more familiar with the 1950s' and 1960s' DC mythos will be a little less lost than I was (the J'ohn J'onzz tie-in at the climax went way over my head), but I'll just shrug and look at Kubert's renderings of Hawkchick a few more times.

Jack: I love to see Kubert drawing Hawkman again and his art in this story is just gorgeous. Unfortunately, the story is not up to the quality of the art. Kubert had not lost anything over the decades; if anything, he got better, unlike Carmine Infantino.

"What Happens When a Batman Dies?"

Story by Cary Bates

Art by Carmine Infantino & Bob Smith

The Batman lies dying in a Gotham hospital after he's bitten by a dog injected with poison. Robin and Gordon keep watch over their friend, but there's really nothing they can do. Despite lapsing into a coma, Batman manages to get a message out to Robin through his EKG (no, seriously!) to contact Deadman. The message is intercepted by Deadman himself, just as Batman flatlines, and the hero must meet his friend halfway to the "shining light" and talk him out of giving up. Martha and Thomas Wayne appear to give their son a pep talk and remind him how much he's needed back on Earth. Batman's soul re-enters his body and the doctors give Gordon and Robin a much better prognosis. Before one sigh of relief is heard, though, Deadman takes over Robin's body and has the Boy Wonder inject the Dark Knight with a boatload of adrenalin. Deadman then takes over the Caped Crusader's body and Batman bolts out of bed. Together, the two heroes track down the assailant, a man named Stryker, and take a sample of the poisoned dog's blood, enough to analyze for an antidote for Bats. Deadman gets the Dark Knight back to the hospital for some r 'n' r.

Peter: This is a really busy story; there's a lot going on here and some of it makes little to no sense. I'm doubtful that even the world's greatest detective can manipulate his own EKG (while he's in a coma, yet) to emit Morse code messages. How do you train for that? And what is the motivation behind Stryker's attack on our hero? It's a pretty grand scheme, involving henchmen and exotic toxins and trained canines. Yet we never learn the why behind this plot. Did it have anything to do with Bruce Wayne asking his foundation's board for a two-million-dollar donation to the city's cops? I don't know. Why you asking me?

The art is a bit sketchy as well (pun intended). In spots, it reminds me why I've always liked Carmine's Gil Kane-esque penciling, but Bob Smith's inks do not do Mr. Infantino any favors. The story is divvied up into "atmospheres": we get a very 1950s' vibe from the early panels of the Caped Crusader heading out in the Batmobile, a stark blue and black for the flashbacks, and a weird red and yellow for the scene set in the dimension between life and death. I must say the latter is effective despite also being nearly imperceptible. Overall, the 500th issue of Detective Comics is an enjoyable package and a worthy anniversary souvenir.

Jack: I agree about the issue as a whole, but not so much about Infantino's art here. Bob Smith's inks definitely fix more problems than those of Steve Mitchell in this month's issue of The Brave and the Bold; that said, the pencils are still not great. Infantino was a giant in the industry and his earlier art was classic, but by this point it wasn't looking so hot. The pages in black and white and the pages in the great beyond are hard to look at. Still, it's a very good story and I'm almost always happy to see Deadman. Paul Levitz's text piece on the last page providing more info on characters and creators is terrific!

Aparo

The Brave and the Bold #172

"Darkness and Dark Fire"

Story by Gerry Conway

Art by Carmine Infantino & Steve Mitchell

Batman runs into private eye Jason Bard, who explains that he's investigating Professor Martin Stein for a prospective new employer. Stein has been having mysterious blackouts and disappearing. Batman is investigating Firestorm, his fellow JLA member, who recently confided to his teammates that he is also suffering from blackouts. Firestorm enters a hospital and steals a pair of mechanical hands that can handle radioactive materials; as Jason Bard begins to suspect there is a connection between Prof. Stein and Firestorm, Batman follows Firestorm to a decommissioned nuclear reactor.

It turns out that the reaction that fused Ronald Raymond and Martin Stein into Firestorm also created a sentient being that has been living in the reactor. It managed to take control of Firestorm's mind and ordered him to bring it the pair of mechanical hands so it could work with radioactive material. The being senses Batman's presence and tells Firestorm to kill him, but a blast from Firestorm's hands misses Batman and silences the core of the reactor, ending the threat. Back to normal, Stein and Raymond thank Batman, who warns them about Jason Bard's investigation. They show up together and stall Bard's concerns for the time being.

A classic Infantino Bat-pose on the splash page.

Jack: I was excited to see Carmine Infantino back on Batman in "Darkness and Dark Fire," but after the splash page the art goes downhill fast. I remember thinking his work had really deteriorated when he was doing Marvel's Star Wars comic in the late '70s and, unfortunately, his art here isn't any better. He can draw Batman just fine, but his faces are awful and I don't think Steve Mitchell's inks help. As for the story, it reads like the editor told Gerry Conway he had to cook up something quick with Batman and Firestorm and he didn't have any good ideas. I don't know if Peter is familiar with the character, but I think you need to know him somewhat to follow this story.

Peter: I know nothing about Firestorm and, after reading "Darkness and Dark Fire," I have no desire to learn anything. I thought the art was adequate (it's certainly better than Novick/McLaughlin) but, you're right, it's not Carmine's finest hour. Nor is this Gerry's. So, the nuclear reactor grew a brain. No need to tell us how that happened or what the thing's plan was, Gerry? One thing that's always puzzled me. The action in this episode takes place in New York. I always thought Gotham was supposed to be Manhattan but then what's Metropolis? So, now I learn that New York is a place in the DC Universe as well? I need a map. And a drink. Oh wait, Nemesis is up next. Make it a double, bartender.

"Pirate's Peril!"

Story by Cary Burkett

Art by Dan Spiegle

Nemesis in disguise

Despite his gunshot wound, Nemesis manages to overpower some goons and drive off safely with Valerie in tow. Her brother, an ex-Army medic, removes the bullet and stitches Nemesis up. Valerie insists on staying with Nemesis, so she is there when, several days later, he is in one of his disguises to steal a piece of film from a movie studio. He quickly teaches her how to pilot a helicopter and they use smoke bombs to cause a car to crash. Nemesis retrieves pirated video tapes from the car's trunk and calls M.C. Curtis, who is in charge of the piracy ring, to set up a meeting.

In yet another disguise, Nemesis shows Curtis the piece of film he stole from the studio, and it turns out to be a shot from an upcoming science fiction blockbuster. Curtis agrees to team up with Nemesis to steal the whole film and sell pirated video tapes, but Nemesis double crosses him and ends the pirate's career when the police arrive.

Jack: I want Nemesis on my team! He can teach someone to pilot a helicopter in no time and his disguises are beyond belief. In "Pirate's Peril," Valerie comments that he looks like a completely different person when he's disguised, and she's right. Forget that none of it makes any sense. The art is as bad as ever, so it's a good thing we have the (retrospectively) funny thought of selling pirated video tapes for profit to entertain us.

Peter: This is just odiferous stuff. The art. The script. The "action." All third-rate. It's good for some larfs at least. Two hours after major surgery to remove a bullet (probably performed without anesthesia), Nemesis is hanging off a helicopter ladder, plugging bad guys with "toxin bullets!" I love when our hero tells his make-shift surgeon, when asked for a name, "if you've got to have a name, you can call me Nemesis!' And he says it with a straight face yet! All this drama over some pirated VHS tapes of Raiders of the Lost Ark!

Aparo

Batman #333

"The Lazarus Affair, Chapter Two:

The China Syndrome!"

Story by Marv Wolfman

Art by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin

In Nepal, a mysterious man in a trench coat turns on a radio receiver and picks up a signal not heard in over a decade. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, Batman is disguised as Kruggerand, Falstaff's assistant. He tries to infiltrate a high-security bank for criminals but is quickly found out. He manages to escape a death trap and skis down the side of a snowy mountain, avoiding assassins on skis with laser-guided rifles.

Returning to his hotel, Batman finds Talia waiting for him and their dinner that night is interrupted by a man with a machine gun. Once again, Batman survives, and he and Talia fly to Nepal, then on to the mountains on the border of China. They hike towards Hong Kong, swim a shark-infested river, and outsmart a patrol helicopter. Finally reaching Hong Kong, Bruce Wayne visits a man on a Chinese junk and promptly passes out from a gas attack.

"The China Syndrome"

Jack: "The China Syndrome" is an exciting read with fewer subplots and distractions than we saw in part one. Other than the brief, mysterious opening, this episode is straightforward, following Batman and Talia as they make their way from Europe to Asia. The escape down the snowy mountain recalls On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with Batman replacing James Bond, and the relationship between Bruce and Talia is unusually adult for a DC comic. It's quite clear that the two sleep together in the hotel before heading off to Hong Kong. Novick's art is serviceable, as usual, and I'm looking forward to part three.

Peter: Once again, my friend, we disagree over the quality of a funny book. You make comparisons to Bond, and that's apt, but this is bad Bond (read: Roger Moore), the one I'd never give a rewatch to. Marv desperately wants to craft a globe-trotting epic but there's no substance here. Why would Bruce Wayne announce his presence at the junk in Hong Kong harbor? Won't he then have some explaining to do when both Bruce and Bats are reported in the same area at the same time? And the greatest detective in the world can't seem to help walking into traps everywhere.

"Shanghaied!"

Story by Marv Wolfman

Art by Irv Novick

"Shanghaied!"

At Gotham City Jail, Robin and Catwoman find a convict who admits to Lucius Fox's son that the claim about Bruce Wayne being a slumlord was a lie. Lucius and his son reconcile and Commissioner Gordon tells Robin that King Faraday wants to see Robin in Shanghai. Robin and Catwoman fly to Shanghai, where they meet Faraday, who turns out to be the mysterious man in the trench coat from this issue's Batman story. The radio signal led him to an inflatable raft (remember last issue's Batman story?) that had the word "Batman" scrawled on it.

Seeking information, Catwoman takes Robin to visit a Chinese fence named Chin Ho at an opium den. Catwoman wants to know who Falstaff's boss was, but the tea they are served is drugged and, before you know it, our heroes are under attack and soon find themselves tied to tables, where Ho's stooge is about to inject them with fatal doses of cocaine.

Jack: I like that the lead story and the backup story are connected; having Marv Wolfman write them both and Irv Novick do the pencils on both certainly helps. When Catwoman and Robin visit Chin Ho, Robin appears to be in disguise as... who? I read "Shanghaied!" twice and I'm still not sure. The Batman story in this issue is the better of the two, but I'm intrigued to see where this all leads and how Wolfman ties the features together.

Peter: Robin was obviously disguised as... Nemesis! I liked the back-up a lot more than the lead-off this issue. The script is a bit confusing (wait, who's this Faraday cat and where did he go?) but the art is pretty sharp. This shows that Robin can carry (or co-star in) a back-up if the writer leaves out all that boring and inane college tripe.

Next Week...
Can these two series
get even dopier?
You have no idea!

The Warren Report Issue 46: September-November 1973

The Critical Guide to 

the Warren Illustrated Magazines

1964-1983

by Uncle Jack

& Cousin Peter

Sanjulian

Eerie #51 (September 1973)

"A Stranger in Hell"

(Reprinted from Eerie #38)

"Pity the Grave Digger!"

(Reprinted from Eerie #40)

"The Caterpillars"

(Reprinted from Eerie #41)

"Evil Spirits!"

(Reprinted from Eerie #16)

"Head Shop"

(Reprinted from Eerie #39)

"Vision of Evil"

(Reprinted from Eerie #2)

"The Curse of Kali!"

(Reprinted from Eerie #6)

Jack: A great rendition of Cousin Eerie on the cover leads to an odd mix of reprints inside, with three Goodwin stories from 1966 and 1968 and four more recent tales from 1972. The three older selections feature art by Johnny Craig, Alex Toth, and Angelo Torres, while the newer ones showcase the Spanish artists, including fine work by Auraleon and Bea. It's not a bad collection, but I think that reprinting stories just a year old in a bi-monthly magazine is a bit soon.

Enrich

Vampirella #28 (October 1973)

"Vampirella and the Curse of the MacDaemons!"★★

Story by Flaxman Loew (Mike Butterworth)

Art by Jose Gonzalez

"The Clash of Leviathans!"★★

Story by Doug Moench

Art by Ramon Torrents

"Blind Man's Guide"★★1/2

Story and Art by Fernando Fernandez

"The Power and the Gory!"★★1/2

Story by W. Eaton

Art by Rafael Auraleon

"Eye Don't Want to Die!"★★1/2

Story by Doug Moench

Art by Ramon Torrents

"The Other Side of Heaven"★★1/2

Story and Art by Jose Bea

"Old Texas Road"★★

Story by Bruce Bezaire

Art by Isidro Mones

In Scotland, at Castle Grayve, Alastair MacDaemon gets an unexpected gift for his twenty-first birthday: his father shows him the horrible family secret and then blows his brains out. Two years pass, and Pendragon receives a surprise inheritance of $3000 and tells Vampirella that they'll spend it on a trip to Scotland, where they make the best booze. No sooner do the duo arrive on the shores of Loch Eerie than Vampi is knocked out and awakens in Castle Grayve. Overcome by her beauty, Alastair immediately declares his love for the gal from Drakulon and she reciprocates and, after a day of bliss, Alastair tells his new love the family secret.

Jose Gonzalez, is this the best you can do?

Two hundred years ago, a beautiful woman was tricked into marrying the ugly old Laird of the castle. She was taken down to the shore of the Loch and tied up, completely naked. A lake monster impregnated her and, nine months later, she gave birth to its child, a girl, that has been kept locked in the castle ever since, kept alive by human sacrifices. Vampi makes the mistake of telling Alistair that she needs time to think about their whirlwind romance, so he drugs her and chains her to a wall to await the arrival of the hungry beast.

The beast instead turns her anger on Alistair and kills him; Vampi turns into a bat to escape her chains and kills the monster by sucking its blood. Outside, the creature's father rises from the Loch, none too happy at the death of its offspring.

"Vampirella and the Curse of the MacDaemons!" is the first story credited to Flaxman Loew, which (according to another blog) was a pen name used by Mike Butterworth. The story is terrible and Jose Gonzalez can only do so much to redeem it. It's absurd that Vampi and Pendragon would jet off to Scotland in the first place, and the crazy plot twists only get worse from there. Alistair proclaims his love for our heroine and she's fine with that, falling head over spiked heels for him in the blink of an eye. Perhaps worst of all is Gonzalez's depiction of the monster that lives in the castle. You know it's bad when I thought it looked like the work of our old friends Fraccio and Tallarico.

"The Clash of the Leviathans!"

"The Clash of Leviathans!" occurs in the Mesozoic Age, when a T-Rex named Tarn battles and eats a crocodile, looks hungrily at a Brontosaurus, and munches on a Stegosaurus. Suddenly, a spaceship lands, bearing a trio of big, scary aliens who want to colonize Earth. One makes the mistake of trying to subdue Tarn, but after the T-Rex kills and eats the alien, the other two get back in their ship and head off. Unfortunately, the alien's body contained bacteria that kills Tarn and leads to the eradication of the dinosaurs.

"Blind Man's Guide"

Doug Moench gives us lucky readers a dull treatise on dinosaurs before bringing in aliens for one of the oldest twist endings in the sci-fi handbook. Ramon Torrents does a fine job of illustrating the beasts, and his aliens aren't bad, either, but it's a pretty tedious nine pages.

A blind boy trudges through the snow, guided by his trusty dog. He recalls working as a "Blind Man's Guide" for an orator who traveled from town to town, reciting classic poetry and prose in exchange for a few coins. When the boy grows tired of being beaten by his master, he attacks him and leaves him to be killed by wolves. As the man dies, he curses the boy, who runs back to the town to report his master's death. In his haste, he does not see a carriage and is run over; doctors save him but he is left blind. Unfortunately, he soon learns that his trusty guide dog is really another hungry wolf.

I'm very impressed by Fernando Fernandez's art on this tale. The writing is fairly good, though the end is predictable. Still, it's nice to see someone write and draw his own story and do a good job of it. It makes me think of Johnny Craig or, more recently, Richard Corben. I'm looking forward to more by Fernandez.

"The Power and the Gory!"

British colonial governor Roscoe Strang's son Murdock is a problem: the young creep first kills local pets and then moves on to killing beautiful local women. His father promises to punish him if he's caught, so when Murdock murders Anne Franklin, the constable's daughter, and dumps her body in a pond, Roscoe sentences him to be put in the stocks for eight hours. He doesn't specify where the stocks should be, though, so the constable puts Murdock in the stocks at the bottom of the pond. When Roscoe has him fished out, the corpse of Anne Franklin emerges as well, its hands clasped around Murdock's neck.

"The Power and the Gory!" meanders here and there but features terrific art by Auraleon and a final panel that recalls at least one EC story--by Johnny Craig, if memory serves. Can anyone help me identify the story I'm trying to recall? Also, has anyone else noticed that Auraleon's beautiful, dark-haired girl always seems to be the same girl?

"Eye Don't Want to Die!"

London's East End in the early 1900s is a sordid place, where the residents of a boarding house speculate about an old man who sews clothes for a living. They think he's a miser, hiding piles of money in his room. He also has a disturbing glass eye. One night, a beautiful woman who also lives in the boarding house murders the old man for his money, planning to sail to America the next day. But that night, as she sleeps, a shadowy figure does something and, the next day, she finds herself followed mercilessly by the dead man's glass eye. She finally goes mad and her heart stops without her ever noticing that the eye is connected to the hem of her dress by a carefully-stitched thread.

In spite of Doug Moench's usual overblown prose ("A sorrow evident in a cheek-sliding tear welling from one eye only..."), "Eye Don't Want to Die!" is pretty good, partly because it's a blatant ripoff of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and partly because of the lovely art by Ramon Torrents. So far, this issue of Vampirella features impressive art and less than impressive stories, from that stunning cover to this fourth tale. It makes up for a lot of weak writing.

"The Other Side of Heaven!"

On the island of Menorca, Thomas the Fisherman comes across a squid-like creature that communicates with him, explaining that it is God and that it created all life. It explains that it is dying and it wants to make him its replacement. It absorbs part of Thomas's body and now he walks around, part man and part creature, creating new planets and inhabiting "The Other Side of Heaven!"

Jose Bea joins Fernando Fernandez in this issue by writing and illustrating this strange story, which has elements of horror but which is told with an almost religious awe. I kept waiting for a surprise or a twist ending but it never came. Instead, Bea's tale plods along from start to finish, as if expecting the reader to buy that the squid-like creature actually is God and that it has melded with Thomas the Fisherman. Not bad, just strange.

Out for a late-night drive with his girlfriend on the "Old Texas Road," Bernie Kendall runs out of gas and has to set off on foot for fuel. Before he leaves, he scares his girlfriend by telling her all of the horrible things that could happen to her. As she sits alone in the car, she hears scratching and tapping sounds on the roof that cause her to grow terrified and eventually pass out from exhaustion and fear. Next morning, cops wake her up and take her away. She never saw Bernie, hanging wounded in tree branches above the car, scratching for help on the roof until his blood dripped all the life out of him.

"Old Texas Road"

A silly story with mediocre art by Munes, this is essentially a shaggy-dog tale that is a seven-page setup for the final shock. How did Bernie get in the tree? What happened to him? Who (or what) put him there? We are given no clues, and thus the story is not satisfying. Overall, not a bad issue of Vampirella. Some fun, lots of good art, and the usual run of the mill writing.-Jack

Peter- Gotta say, I was anything but nuts about "Vampirella and the Curse of the Macadamias." Very little of this story made sense. Our girl talks about being in love with Alastair but she’s "never been able to give myself completely…" as if she’s been with the guy for years rather than hours. I’m not sure why the elder MacDaemon’s surprised his wife ends up with a monster’s bun in the oven when he puts her out there on the edge of the Loch and tells her to get ready for anything. What did he expect to happen? This is just plain dumb.

From Vampirella #28

Doug Moench’s florid prose ("There are no buildings to obstruct the horizon. No foul contaminants to mute the crimson flush of dawn.") seeks to provide a barricade for what lies behind it: a simple and silly story that, without all the high-falutin’ analogies, is fairly clever and entertaining. Unfortunately, part of the process is to read all those metaphor-stuffed boxes. The same could be said for Doug’s other horror story this issue, "Eye Don’t Want to Die," but the twist is such a winner I can excuse the verbosity. Some great Torrents work here as well. 

There’s not much substance to either "Blind Man’s Guide" or "The Power and the Gory." Both have climaxes that sputter out rather than satisfy, but at least "Power" has the best use of color, outside of Corben, we’ve yet seen in a Warren mag. "Blind Man" sees the debut of writer/artist Fernando Fernandez, who’ll become a regular in Vampirella for the next three years but, oddly, contribute nothing to the other titles. 

"Old Texas Road" is more like one of those fireside scare fables than an honest-to-gosh script, but the reveal is a hoot. The actual climax, however, is too abrupt. Not everything in Jose Bea’s "The Other Side of Heaven" works and it’s a page or two too long, but give the guy some extra credit for reaching for the eccentric and delivering something unique. I kept waiting for the "peanut butter monster" to be revealed as the protagonist’s missing wife but, thankfully, Bea didn’t settle for that old standby. A real oddball tale, easily the best thing to be found in this issue.

Sanjulian

Creepy #57 (November 1973)

"The Destructive Image" ★1/2

Story by Don McGregor

Art by Ramon Torrents

"The Hope of the Future" ★1/2

Story by Doug Moench

Art by Jaime Brocal

"The Bloodlock Museum" ★

Story by Jack Butterworth

Art by Martin Salvador

"The Low Spark of High Heeled Noise!" ★★★

Story by Doug Moench

Art by Richard Corben

"The Red Badge of Terror" ★★

Story by Doug Moench

Art by Jose Bea

"Sense of Violence" ★

Story by Doug Moench

Art by Isidro Mones

"The Destructive Image"

Herb Walters finally gets his TV set back from the repair man and he and his significant other, Edith (!), kick back to watch their usual Saturday night fare. Herb realizes something's up really quick when a character from the show he's watching turns up at the door as an electrical repairman. He advises Herb there's something that needs fixing down in the basement and promptly disappears. In short order, Herb is attacked by a lunatic, nearly drowned in a huge wave, and then nearly eaten by the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms before salvation, in the form of the network's "Conalrad (sic)"

"The Destructive Image" is one gigantic head-scratcher, from panel one all the way up through its final, pretentious message. First of all, why does Mr. McGregor feel the need to introduce the possibility that Herb's television set was monkeyed with by some unknown force ("just a few spare parts that none of the personnel at Harvey's repair shop realize have been subjected to intense radioactive exposure") and then leave that hypothesis dangling immediately thereafter? Does anyone outside of Herb's house know something's going on? I mean it is strange that the giant monster bursts through the roof but no one calls the cops. I guess the other neighbors are as hypnotized by Carol Burnett as Herb and Edith (was the wife's name a nod to All in the Family?) and don't even notice there's a flood going on next door (the wave, I assume, is the opening shot of Hawaii Five-O). No use spending too much time with a dissection of the silly stuff. It's obvious what Donny Mac was trying to tell us: TV is rotting your brain, buy Warren comic books instead--much better. Torrents's art isn't too bad, except for the fact that Edith never quite looks the same from panel to panel, morphing from Barbara Steele to Ali McGraw to something akin to an Italian Norma Desmond. 

I do have to own up to the fact that, as an impressionable young lad more than a quarter century ago, I picked "The Destructive Image" as one of the best of the Creepy stories for an article I wrote for the final issue of The Scream Factory. Yep, I wrote something to the effect of: Don McGregor’s cautionary tale about the evils of television addiction may seem preachy at times (and we could have done without the explanation of the "radioactive TV"), but still packs a punch. I have no idea what I thought the punch was all those years ago but at least I didn't proclaim Don a genius. Even I can change my mind now and then. If you want to read about "the evils of TV" in an entertaining and thought-provoking style, skip this one and buy Harlan Ellison's Glass Teat books.

"The Hope of the Future"

Nigel was once a "vaunted lecturer, assiduous expert on the occult, the arcane, the mystic" until a strange mist arrives from space, a vapor that, twelve years later, kills all children on Earth. Mankind doomed, the catastrophe gives one more kick to humanity's groin when all the dead children rise from the grave to burn their parents at the stake. Now, Nigel does nothing but sit in his upstairs window and watch as the children gather in his yard and get closer to the time when they'll light him up as well. 

So, I Am Legend by way of Midwich Cuckoos? "The Hope of the Future" doesn't contain much that can be labeled original. Doug makes the most of his thesaurus once again, bombarding us with so many adjectives that I had to Google some of them. Thus, I'm not sure if we have Doug or the letterer to thank for "runneling pain." Again, with Doug Moench, the night is not only dark but it's filled with an ebony so black it borders on coal, Nigel can barely stand the "shrieking cacaphony of his rushing mind...," and the demon kid has "lambently burning eyes..." The list goes on and on, until you wish someone would have reminded Moench this wasn't the pulps and Warren payed by the page, not by the phrase. Those of you who have an intolerance for Doug Moench might want to put Creepy #57 down (maybe in the trash?) now as we're in for a four-scooper this issue.

"The Bloodlock Museum"

The mercifully-short "The Bloodlock Museum" is an inane trip through a museum of dead bodies. Mr. and Mrs. Bloodlock have gathered up all the people who were ever mean to their son, Jimmy (or anyone who looked sideways at him, apparently), and murdered them in appropriate ways. A land salesman who blocks an emergency call on a party line is buried alive; a finance company agent is folded, spindled, and mutilated, etc. etc. etc. The wheelchair-bound man who's getting the grand tour is revealed to be Jimmy's military recruiter and the final panel shows him strapped on a wheel, set to be stabbed, shot, and burned at the same time. An exercise in tedium and stupidity at the same time, "The Bloodlock Museum" almost seems like an edited version of something that might have been a bit longer and, oh, I don't know, provided a little more detail and characterization. What's left is laughably bad. The thought going through my mind when I see the corpse of the photographer who was "snooping around the museum" and now resides in a giant replica of a camera is that these elderly farmers sure have a lot of disposable income on hand. If given the choice, I'd rather take a "Dreadlock Holiday" than visit the "Bloodlock Museum."

After his car breaks down, traveling salesman Don Gray has no choice but to climb the hill to the spooky old mansion in the rain. A kooky couple, Harry and Mona, answer the door and Don is able to talk his way into staying overnight. Later, while Don is lying in bed, he swears he hears the "tap tap" of high heels and a figure enters his room with a meat cleaver high above its head. The figure disappears before it cleaves Don in half and the puzzled man is left sweaty and scared for his life.

Grabbing the revolver he carries with him for protection, Gray heads out into the hallway and overhears the owners of the house arguing over the recent murder of Harry's wife. Suddenly, smelling a reward if he hands these two over to the cops, Don heads into the kitchen just as Harry brains Mona with a candlestick. Just as Harry decides to kill two in one evening, Don unloads the contents of his pistol into the man and drinks Harry's beer as a celebration. Bad move. Mona was fixing on killing Harry before she got brained and the beer is laced with poison. As Harry lays dying, a naked specter with a cleaved head and a blood red cleaver enters the room. The ghost of Harry's wife!

That ending is pretty random and there's no reason (other than titillation) why the corpse walks around nekkid but for a pair of Dolce & Gabbana stilettos but, overall, I have to hand it to Doug this one time (so far). "The Low Spark of High Heeled Noise!" is an entertaining and goofy horror story, highlighted by rhythmic prose that actually works for once. The poem doesn't seem forced at all (but, I must admit, as much as I tried I could not sing it to the melody of Doug's inspiration) and actually complements the images. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Rich Corben used himself as a model for Don Gray. The color just gets better and better with each issue.

"The Red Badge of Terror"

Two Yankees chase a Reb bearing important papers into a spooky ghost town. When they find the man's horse, parked in front of a huge estate, they enter the building and discover a coffin in the hallway. The casket is empty but for some dirt, so the soldiers begin searching the rest of the home. They find the Reb, his throat torn out, and one of the men remarks it looks like the work of a vampire. Sure enough, out pops Christopher Lee (at least, Lee by way of Bea), who puts the bite on the Yanks. The next night, the four vampires await fresh prey. You won't burn too many brain cells reading through "The Red Badge of Terror" (I assume poor Doug couldn't find an appropriate Civil War-themed Emerson, Lake and Palmer song title to rip off, so he went with classic literature instead), but it's harmless enough and just goofy enough to entertain. Looking at Jose's art here makes we want to go back through all his previous work to see if he ever drew a character who had decent teeth. Nah, never mind.

"Sense of Violence"

His mind is workin' overtime like a flickerin' horror show of every cardiac arrest nightmare he's ever had... switchblades etching tic-tac-toe on his cheeks ripping his belly, spilling guts and blood, goo, the blood... thick and stark, crimson and floods of it glaring so brightly, so sharp the blade, and cold and slicing maiming... pain, excruciating agony... his life sluicing from tender vulnerable wrists, the veins light blue, ruptured... protruding from the skin tendons severed, ragged flecks of chopped muscle all covered with such red, red goo...

And that's just one caption box. Imagine having to read dozens of those. I'll excuse you for skipping "Sense of Violence," the final story this issue. I sure wanted to. This is the obligatory "Doug Moench tells us just what's wrong with society" tale this issue. And Doug had been doing so well so far. Here, Moench reminds us that the world is shit, a hopeless, hopeless place where blacks kill whites and vice versa. Hippies hate the pigs and vice versa. If I wanted to relax to these bits of info, I'd turn on Cronkite rather than plunking down three quarters for this pretentious tripe. The plot (what there is) has something to do with a paranoid man wandering through the back alleys of this godforsaken city, seeing crime and hate around every corner. He murders a man he believes to be a mugger but, we later discover, is actually a detective. This is really dreadful stuff, made even worse by Doug Moench's disdain for proper punctuation. If Jack allowed it, there'd be a big fat "0" up there instead of a star-Peter

Jack-We don't usually disagree this completely, but I gave "The Bloodlock Museum" four stars! It's a great story with art to match and--for once--a Warren story seems like it could fit comfortably in an EC comic. The end is a bit heavy-handed, true, but the art reminded me of Reed Crandall's work and the series of tortures just seemed like the sort of thing the EC gang would've done.

The rest of the issue is terrible, from the pompous "The Destructive Image," with Don McGregor overwriting a boring criticism of TV (I looked up Conalrad, by the way, and it really was a thing), to the foursome of Doug Moench tales that really took a lot of effort to plod through. The "Low Spark" title is yet another example of Doug showing how hip he is, with his understanding of rock music, while the story and the rhyming captions were almost unreadable. Corben's color is superb but why do his people always look like their skin is made of rubber? "The Red Badge of Terror" made me wish John Severin had drawn it; Jose Bea is good at weird stories but something more realistic like this Civil War tale doesn't fit his set of skills.

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The Hitchcock Project-Alfred Hayes Part Two: Bonfire [8.13]

 by Jack Seabrook

The second teleplay by Alfred Hayes to air on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour was "Bonfire," which premiered on CBS on Thursday, December 13, 1962. Credited to Alfred Hayes and William D. Gordon, the script is based on "The Wheelbarrow," a short story by V.S. Pritchett that was published in the July 16, 1960 issue of The New Yorker. A comparison between the short story and the TV show demonstrates the way in which a short story that does not include a crime was transformed into a TV show that features two murders.

V.S. Pritchett (1900-1997) was an English journalist, critic, and fiction writer who wrote novels but who was best known as a writer of short stories. Knighted in 1975, he has been called "the finest English short-story writer of the 20th century" by the Royal Society of Literature. Only two films and two television shows have been made that were based on his stories; "Bonfire" was one of them.

"The Wheelbarrow" was
first published here

In Pritchett's story, Laura Wantage, having taken the train from London, arrives in the town where she grew up, and is taken by taxi to the home of her recently-deceased aunt. The taxi driver, a rough Welshman named Robert Evans, is quickly hired to help her clean out the house in preparation for its sale. He finds a new wheelbarrow in a garden shed and, over the next several days, uses it to convey large amounts of junk from the house to incinerate in a bonfire. An oddly intimate relationship develops between the 45-year-old divorcee and the younger, married man, who reveals that he is a former sinner who became a believer when he was trapped in a mine collapse and who now preaches nightly in a nearby revival tent.

Most of her aunt's possessions have little effect on Laura, but when she discovers an old trunk that contains souvenirs of her life as a carefree young woman, she finds herself moved. Evans notices her reaction and compares it to his own, when he was trapped in the mine, calling hers "'the mine of the past.'" She spurns his attempt at physical intimacy and tells him to burn everything, remarking that "'I've been trapped down the mine, too, and long enough.'" She tells him that she will make a gift of the wheelbarrow to him and their time together ends. Two days later, when she has finished with the house and walks to the bus station, she passes the gospel tent and hears Robert preaching. She hears him say that he had been a sinner but that he had "'burned the adulteress in the everlasting fire, my friends, and all her property.'" "'Well, not quite all, Robert,'" Laura says aloud, as she walks to the bus stop.

Peter Falk as Robert Evans

"The Wheelbarrow" is a beautifully-written character study that focuses on two very different people who find themselves spending several days together. Laura is referred to through most of the story as "Miss Freshwater's niece," erasing her own identity and seeing her only in relation to her elderly, deceased aunt. Though only 45 years old, she sees herself as someone whose youth is long past, and when Robert suggests that they became lovers, she responds, "'I am far past that sort of thing.'" Robert, on the other hand, is a creature of the earth, or perhaps beneath it. He was a Welsh miner who was trapped in a mine collapse and who now preaches nightly at tent revival meetings. He has a habit of squatting and she thinks that he looks like "an imp or a devil."

Dina Merrill as Laura Freshwater

The ending is subtle and requires thought. When Robert preaches that he "'burned the adulteress in the everlasting fire, my friends, and all her property,'" he speaks metaphorically, and the reader may understand that he has not killed a real person but rather that he destroyed the last remnants of Laura's youth and all of those things that remained in the old house to tempt her. Laura's response, "'Well, not quite all, Robert,'" is said "pleasantly, aloud" as she walks to the bus stop, and it causes a child who watches her walk by to think that "the old lady was mad." She is referred to as Mrs. Wantage now, not as Miss Freshwater's niece, signifying that she has put her youthful, carefree self to the side and accepted her age and station in life. The "'not quite all'" may refer to the wheelbarrow of the title, a shiny object that Robert coveted and one of the only items from the house that avoided the bonfire.

Lighting is used to make Evans look ominous
as he withholds the heart medicine from Naomi

From the first scene of the TV adaptation of "The Wheelbarrow," which is retitled "Bonfire," it is clear that Pritchett's short story has undergone significant revision. The show begins with a scene (and a character) not in the short story, as Evans visits Naomi Freshwater (Laura's aunt) one evening and flirts with her. They share a bottle of wine and he compliments her appearance; he insists on getting her up out of her chair to dance, then spins her around so fast that she has a heart attack. He refuses to give her the heart pills she requests and she dies on the spot. Before her heart attack, Naomi tells Robert that he deserves her house and that she wants to show her gratitude for his kindness in visiting her. When she is dying on the sofa, there is a shot of him looking up from below that uses high contrast lighting to demonstrate his evil nature; Naomi suddenly realizes that he is not going to save her and cries out, "'Oh, Robbie!'" just before she dies.

By adding this scene, which runs about six and a half minutes, the writers of the teleplay frame the story in an entirely different light. We see Mrs. Freshwater die and we see that Robbie is responsible; we can infer that he commits this crime in order to speed up his inheritance of the old woman's house. By portraying Evans in this way at the start, all of his interactions with Laura are cast in a different and more ominous light; instead of a character study, the viewer is left waiting for him to turn on the niece of his first murder victim. And turn on her he does.

Patricia Collinge as Naomi Freshwater

The show then continues where the story begins, with Robert picking up Laura at the train station and taking her to her aunt's house. When they get there, he tells her that he knows who she is and that her aunt left the house to her in the will; he admits that he and Naomi were "'kind of close'" and that she "'toiled right there beside me'" at the Gospel Mission. The emphasis on the wheelbarrow is removed from the script, but Evans displays a flash of anger when he discovers that the garden shed has been left unlocked by the gardener's son. This small detail will be important at the show's conclusion. Just before he leaves, Robert tells Laura: "'I was with your Aunt Naomi when she passed away.'" This comment is surprising to Laura but, to the viewer, it obscures the truth of what happened. He describes his visits to Naomi in a way that makes him look kind, then snaps that "'She meant for me to have this house for the Mission. It didn't work out that way but it was in her heart. She promised it to me.'" He adds that "'The last word she said was my name,'" a statement taken out of context.

As she begins to sort through the junk in her aunt's house, Laura is surprised by the return of Evans, who tells her: "'You need a man. I looked around and all I could find was me.'" Laura asks about his wife and he shows that he has the gift of gab, something he demonstrated earlier with Naomi; he tells Laura, "'Ma'am, my wife's dead and my home's wherever my heart is, and my heart's wherever there's work to be done.'" He estimates that he'll need to dig a fire pit outside, four or five feet deep, and we next see him waist-deep in a large, rectangular hole that looks like a grave. This foreshadows Laura's fate at the end of the episode. "'That's deep enough to burn Sodom and Gomorrah,'" quips Robert. Sitting beside the fire pit, Laura and Robert discuss his background, and he says he was born in "'a Pennsylvania mining town,'" showing that the locations in the short story, which were England and Wales, have been moved to America for the TV show. He describes his experience with the mine collapse much as he does in the short story, again demonstrating an ability to weave a captivating story that serves him well as a preacher.

Robert begins to strangle Laura

In the next scene, Laura visits the Gospel Mission to watch Robert preach, something she never does in the short story. His eloquence is on display and, as she looks around at the others in the tent, she sees that they are mostly much older than she is, contemporaries of her late aunt. In the next scene, Laura finds, in the attic, the old truck that contains her souvenirs. Robert becomes too familiar, touching Laura's waist and then helping her try on an old shoe, his hand lingering on her calf. He suggests that she is not cut out for a life of travel and that she needs the right man; she does not take him seriously and he leaves when he hears the mission bell toll. He returns sometime later with a bottle of champagne and catches her trying on one of her old dresses and admiring herself before a mirror; downstairs, presumably after they have had dinner together, he holds a glass of champagne and she sits on the sofa in the same spot where her aunt died, unaware of the parallels between Robert's flirtations with her and those he directed toward her aunt. Laura asks about Robert's wife and how she died; he says she died from an accidental fall and that it was the "'hand of providence--she wanted me to get back in the mine.'" Laura has no reason to suspect foul play, but the viewer, having seen Robert let Naomi die, immediately suspects that he murdered his wife as well.

Lighting is again used to portray
Evans in a chilling fashion.

Robert recreates the scene with Naomi by sharing wine, candlelight, and music with Laura. They dance, and he paints a picture in words of the two of them sharing the house together and having children, her living a happy life as a wife and mother in place of her current, transient existence. She rebuffs his proposal even as he tells her to burn her past. They kiss, and the scene fades to black. The next day, Robert arrives with flowers, excited to see Laura, but for her the magic of the night before has evaporated and she avoids his attempt at another kiss. She tells him that she's leaving but he argues, saying that she promised to stay with him--this is the second time Evans thinks that a Freshwater woman has broken a promise to him and destroyed his vision of his future. He grows angry with her and, despite her calm, rational explanation of her decision, he cannot accept it and snaps. Robert essentially confesses to having murdered his wife and then puts his hands around Laura's throat and chokes the life out of her. As she dies, just below the frame, the lighting changes to the same high-contrast lighting that was used in the first scene, again depicting Evans as a monster.

The TV adaptation of "The Wheelbarrow" has, by this point, deviated far from the short story. The last scenes are completely new. With Laura's dead body lying in the background, Robert sees the open trunk and there is a cut to a shot of him dragging the heavy, closed trunk across the attic, the implication being that it contains Laura's corpse. He struggles to maneuver the trunk down two flights of stairs to the first floor, unaware that, outside, the gardener and his son have arrived to tend to the lawn. In a Hitchcockian moment, the young man rings the doorbell just as Robert stands next to the trunk in the foyer; the young man asks Evans for the key to the toolshed and we recall the earlier scene where Robert had complained about the same door having been left open.

Paul von Schreiber as the gardener's son

Robert goes outside to ask the young man to get the wheelbarrow from the shed and to help him move the trunk. Unaware of its contents, the young man helps Robert lift the trunk and carry it to the wheelbarrow; the trunk nearly falls after Robert has to stop to give the young man a half dollar that he promised for his aid. This scene is not as effective as it could be due to some inappropriately cheerful moments in Pete Rugolo's musical score. The gardener and his son leave and Evans dumps the trunk into the fire pit, where flames begin to engulf it. Darkness falls and Evans remains, crouched by the pit, a demon observing the flames of Hell as they devour his victim. He hears the mission bells sounding in the distance, and there is a cut to him once again preaching in the tent.

Evans leads the congregation in singing "Shall We Gather By the River" and God must be listening, because a heavy rain suddenly begins to fall. Trapped at the Gospel Mission, Evans looks up to Heaven as the rain pours down, and we see the trunk, burning in the fiery pit, the water beginning to douse the flames and reveal a hole that has been burned in the side of the trunk, permitting Laura's clothing to be seen. A police car pulls up outside the tent and the gardener's son, still afraid of the wrath of Evans, asks the policeman not to tell the preacher that he left the shed door open, had to go back and lock it, and thus saw what was inside the trunk. The show ends with Evans preaching as the police enter the tent. He tells the congregation that he set his wife straight with his two hands, that promises must be kept, and that he will have a temple with loudspeakers at the corners, suggesting his future home in prison.

Sam Weston as the taxi driver

Comparing "Bonfire" to "The Wheelbarrow" is instructive in that it shows how the writers who adapted the story for television changed its focus and added opening and closing scenes that transformed it into a tale of murder. The short story is great on its own and the TV show is impressive, but they have very different tones. Evans is changed from a man of the Earth to a psychotic killer, who kills three women: his wife when she told him to return to the scene of a tragedy, an old woman out of greed, and a younger woman because she would not agree to marry him. The portrait as developed by the screenwriters and the actor is complex and compelling.

When two writers are credited with a teleplay, and they are not known as a team, like Levinson and Link, one may assume that one of them wrote a teleplay that was rewritten by the other one. In the case of "Bonfire," it is tempting to speculate that Alfred Hayes wrote an adaptation of "The Wheelbarrow" that hewed too closely to the source and was not thought to contain enough excitement for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, so William D. Gordon was assigned to add a couple of murders and some suspense.

William D. Gordon (1918-1991) wrote for radio in the 1930s, served in the Infantry during WWII, and had dual careers as an actor and as a writer and story editor for TV from the late 1950s through the mid-1980s. As an actor, he appeared twice on The Twilight Zone and once on Thriller. As a writer, he wrote two episodes of Thriller and six episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, including two where he is co-credited with Alfred Hayes. He also worked as a story editor/supervisor for four TV series, from 1963 to 1981.

"Bonfire" is directed by Joseph Pevney (1911-2008), who started out as an actor in vaudeville in the 1920s and had a short career as a film actor from 1946 to 1950. He then became a director and was more successful, directing films from 1950 to 1966, including Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). His career as a TV director spanned the years from 1959 to 1985 and included 14 episodes of Star Trek and five episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, one of which was "Starring the Defense."

Craig Duncan as the policeman

Giving a superb performance as Robert Evans is Peter Falk (1927-2011). Born in New York City, he started out on Broadway in 1956 and began appearing on TV in 1957. Film followed in 1958. He appeared in one episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in addition to his role on "Bonfire," and he also was seen on The Twilight Zone. He will always be remembered as Lieutenant Columbo, from the long-running series of TV mysteries that aired, on and off, from 1968 to 2003. He won five Emmy Awards during his career, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and wrote an autobiography, Just One More Thing (2006).

Dina Merrill (1923-2017) holds her own with Falk and portrays Laura Freshwater with an appealing mix of vulnerability and toughness. Merrill was also born in New York City but came from a much different background than did Peter Falk; her father was the famous stockbroker, E.F. Hutton, and her maternal grandfather was the cereal pioneer, C.W. Post. She was on screen from 1955 to 2009 and she appeared on Batman, Night Gallery, and The Odd Couple. "Bonfire" was her only role on the Hitchcock show.

Seen in the first scene as Naomi Freshwater is Patricia Collinge (1892-1974), who creates a believable and lovable character in a very short time on screen. She was born in Dublin, Ireland, and began her career on stage in 1904, coming to the United States with her mother in 1907. Collinge appeared on Broadway from 1908 to 1952 and played roles on screen from 1941 to 1967. Her films included Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and she was seen on the Hitchcock TV show six times, including "The Landlady."

In smaller roles:

• Paul von Schreiber (1937- ) as the gardener; he had a brief screen career from 1959 to 1963.
• Sam Weston (1927-2000) as the taxi driver who complains when Evans rushes off with Laura after she arrives in town; born Samuel Weinstein, he was the brother of actor Jack Weston. Sam acted on TV mainly from 1961 to 1970, then he adopted the pseudonym Anthony Spinelli and had a long and successful career as a director of pornographic movies from 1971 to 1997.
• Craig Duncan (1918-1994) as the policeman who arrives at the end to arrest Evans; he was on screen from 1947 to 1967 and appeared in three other episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "Bang! You're Dead."
• Craig Curtis (1939- ) is credited as "young man," but I have been unable to pick him out in this episode. He was on screen from 1959 to 1983 and also appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "The Woman Who Wanted to Live."

Watch "Bonfire" for free online here; it is not available on U.S. DVD.

Sources:

"Bonfire." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 8, episode 13, CBS, 13 Dec. 1962. 

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

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/. 

Pritchett, V.S. "The Wheelbarrow." The New Yorker, 16 July 1960, pp. 30–40. 

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

In two weeks: The Paragon, starring Joan Fontaine and Gary Merrill!