The Hitchcock Project-Alfred Hayes Part Five: The Photographer and the Undertaker [10.21] and Wrapup

by Jack Seabrook

The last episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour to air with a script by Alfred Hayes was "The Photographer and the Undertaker," which was broadcast on NBC on Monday, March 15, 1965. Based on the short story of the same title by James Holding that was published in the November 1962 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, the TV version follows the story closely but also expands it, adding an important new character and deepening its themes.

Holding's story takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Mario Andradas is a killer for hire who gets his assignments from a group known as the Management. When he sees a man named Gomez watching his photography studio from the shadows across the street, Andradas realizes that Gomez intends to kill him.

"The Photographer and the
Undertaker" was first
published here

Manuel thinks back to having met with his contact Rodolfo, who gave him a third of a million cruzeiros (about $6000 today) in advance to kill a man who lives only eight blocks away. The assassin located the residence of his target, a mortician named Gomez, and observed the man returning home. That evening, Manuel noticed Gomez observing him in much the same way and realized that they had been hired to kill each other. Manuel understands that Gomez is the Undertaker, an assassin for hire whom the management calls when Manuel is not available. Gomez telephones, asking to make an appointment to have his portrait taken, and they agree to meet at ten o'clock that night.

When Gomez arrives at ten, Manuel is in his darkroom. Gomez enters and Manuel has the upper hand, being used to the darkness. He avoids a knife thrust and breaks Gomez's wrist before tying the other assassin to a chair in his studio. Manuel explains that he has been hired to kill Gomez for a million cruzeiros. Gomez admits that he was promised the same amount. Manuel explains that it must be a competition; the Management only needs one killer and chose this method to select the best one. Gomez tells Manuel that his contact is a man named Ernesto; he reveals where they meet and how proof of death is provided by a newspaper obituary. Gomez prefers to use a knife and fire to accomplish his ends.

Jack Cassidy as Arthur Mannix

Suddenly, Gomez pulls a small knife from behind his neck and throws it at Manuel's heart. Manuel turns quickly and the knife lodges in his upper arm. He kills Gomez with a quick blow to the throat. Manuel takes a series of photographs to prove that his target is dead before placing the corpse in his own bed and setting fire to his studio. The next afternoon, Manuel, pretending to be Gomez's imbecilic nephew, gives a newspaper obituary to Ernest and receives the balance of payment due to Gomez for the murder of the Photographer. The next day, Manuel calls his contact, Rodolpho, and when they meet he shows the photographs that prove the death of Gomez. Rodolpho agrees to pay Manuel and gives him the name of his next target: Ernesto.

James Holding (1907-1997), the story's author, was born James Clark Carlisle Jr. and wrote over 175 short stories that were published between 1960 and 1992. He also wrote juvenile mystery novels, including three featuring Ellery Queen Jr. Holding was nominated for an Edgar Award in 1983 for Best Short Story. Among his series characters was the Photographer, who was featured in 17 stories that were published between 1960 and 1984. "The Photographer and the Undertaker" was the second story in the series and it was Holding's only story to be adapted for television.

Harry Townes as Hiram Price

The show that was produced from Alfred Hayes's teleplay is a delight. The location of the story is moved from Brazil to Los Angeles, and all of the characters are Americans: Manuel Andradas has been renamed Arthur Mannix. In the first scene, we see Mannix at work, as he suddenly appears and kills a man who is sitting alone, watching a baseball game on TV. He takes a Polaroid photo of the victim and is clearly a professional, having a sip from the victim's glass of wine and sitting in his chair, in no hurry to vacate the scene.

The short story's Rodolpho has become attorney Jonathan Rudolph, a businessman with a secretary. Alone in his office, Rudolph listens to a cassette tape from the home office instructing management in regard to cost-cutting measures. The events take place in 1964 and there is a reference to a meeting at Hotel Thanatopsis in Lake Saranac, NY; the word "thanatopsis" is defined as "a consideration of death" and death is Rudolph's real stock in trade. Rudolph telephones Ernest (Ernesto in the story) and, though we don't know it yet, this must be the call that sets up the competition between assassins.

Alfred Ryder as Jonathan Rudolph

Mannix returns home to his photography studio, where he finds Rudolph waiting for him. Both men have respectable jobs to cover their illicit business of murder, and each reveals to the other that he has investigated the other's personal life. Mannix shows Rudolph proof of the death of the baseball fan and is paid; Rudolph then gives Mannix his next assignment: Hiram Price, as Gomez from the short story has been renamed. The men discuss the workings of organized crime as if it were a corporation, even referring to the former location of the home office as Chicago, where organized crime was so prevalent in the earlier decades of the twentieth century. Rudolph instructs Mannix to watch out for the knife of envy and ambition, foreshadowing the later scene where Price will fling a knife at Rudolph.

Mannix surveils Price's funeral home from an outside phone booth. The following scene introduces Sylvia Sylvester, Mannix's beautiful girlfriend, a character not in the short story. They relax at Malibu Beach and she tells Mannix that he will need to talk to "Daddy" that night about their plan to wed. After dinner with Sylvia and Daddy, Mannix talks with Sylvester about marriage; director Alex March stages the scene to suggest that the older man holds the power in the relationship, with him standing and looking down at the seated Mannix. Sylvester (whose first name is not revealed until a surprise occurs later in the episode) interrogates Mannix and makes it clear that the prospective suitor will need money to take care of Sylvia.

Jocelyn Lane as Sylvia Sylvester

There is some humor in this scene that unintentionally looks forward to the "Spanish Inquisition" sketch on Monty Python's Flying Circus; Sylvester keeps adding to his list of things that are important--brains, competition, thrift, saving, spending--as he verbally fences with Mannix, who gently pokes holes in the older man's argument as Sylvester pivots from one position to another, blithely unconcerned with self-contradiction. Sylvia's father tells Mannix that they can discuss marriage when the prospective groom has $50,000 in cash. The addition of Sylvia and her father gives Arthur motivation and sets up a new twist, along with a concrete financial goal.

Mannix returns to his studio, makes the appointment to see Price, and Price arrives. This long scene plays out essentially the same way it does in Holding's short story. Director March stages it nicely, with both men having a surface conversation while planning to kill each other. As he did with Sylvester, Mannix allows the other man to think he is in control of the exchange while Arthur really has the upper hand. In a reminder of the show's first scene, where Arthur killed a man with a karate chop, he disarms Price with a karate chop to the wrist. March uses a variation on his approach from the scene where Mannix and Sylvester had their conversation; this time, Mannix is shown to have the power in the conversation because the camera looks down from his higher point of view. Price, in a subordinate position, looks up at Mannix and, in a perhaps overly showy camera move, the camera swings back and forth to display Mannix's viewpoint as he paces back and forth. When Price suddenly throws the knife at Mannix, it misses entirely and lodges in the wall. Mannix kills Price and the scene ends with the studio on fire.

Philip Bourneuf as Ernest Sylvester

We next see Mannix in a hotel room, reading a newspaper account of his own death. He dons a disguise, consisting of a fake nose, mustache, wig, sunglasses, and beret, and the scene shifts to a public park, where we see Arthur, dressed as a hipster and bopping to the music from a portable radio that he carries, meet Ernest, the man from the crime organization who is Price's handler. In a twist that is at once shocking and brilliant, Ernest turns out to be none other than Sylvia's father! The straight-laced businessman who lectured Arthur in the earlier scene is a crook! Arthur's disguise is clever and hilarious, and the fact that he refers to Ernest throughout this scene as "Daddy" has a double meaning: it is both a word that a hipster would use (this is surely how Ernest takes it) and it is also a sly wink to Sylvia's insistence at referring to her father that way, but Ernest does not know that the man in disguise is really his potential son-in-law.

As in earlier scenes, Arthur pretends not to be in control of the situation while actually knowing more than the other person. He pretends to be a man named Hugo, affecting a high, groovy voice and making Sylvester think that he is of low intelligence. The following scenes are all rather short but tie up the loose threads from the episode, ending the tale of Arthur Mannix in a way similar to that of the short story but also taking it a step further. Rudolph is in his office when he is surprised to receive a call from Mannix, whose obituary he has just been reading, and a meeting is set. Sylvia, at home and gloomy, is also surprised to receive a call from Arthur, whom she had thought dead.

Jack Bernardi as Leibowitz

Mannix meets Rudolph at his office and shows him a photograph of the dead Price. "'You know, I think I'll try color the next time,'" says Mannix, referring to the black and white photograph. This may also be a sly remark by the writer of the teleplay to the fact that, while The Alfred Hitchcock Hour was filmed in glorious black and white, and Alex March and the director of photography use the black, white, and gray palette to superb ends in this episode, the world of network television was moving inexorably toward color and the prime-time network schedule would be fully in color by the beginning of the season that started just over a year later, in September 1966. Mannix also mentions to Rudolph that he is getting married: "'pretty soon, now--one more assignment should do it,'" he says, and we recall that he has collected $40,000 and needs one more payment to reach Sylvester's goal of having $50,000 cash on hand in order to marry Sylvia.

Joan Swift as Miss Whiting

While the short story ends with Manuel being given the assignment to kill Ernesto, the TV adaptation takes it further with two more scenes. In the first, Sylvester walks into the park for another meeting with Hugo, angry at having paid for the supposed death of Mannix. Arthur/Hugo lures him into the bushes and kills him with a karate chop. The final scene occurs just after Arthur and Sylvia have been married and are being pelted with rice. Mannix's last remark to his new bride is filled with irony: "'Hadn't been for old Daddy, we wouldn't be here,'" he quips, and it's true: murdering Sylvia's father provided Arthur with the last $10,000 he needed to meet his financial goal to secure his wife.

The clever script by Arthur Hayes expands and deepens the short story on which it is based, adding a love interest and a twist with her father being the man who hires the Undertaker to kill the Photographer.

"The Photographer and the Undertaker" is directed by Alex March (1921-1989), in his only effort for the Hitchcock TV series. He directed mostly episodic TV from 1954 to 1984 and does an excellent job on this episode.

Richard Jury as Willis

Starring as Arthur Mannix is Jack Cassidy (1927-1976), who was a star on Broadway, in film, and on TV from 1944 until his untimely death in 1976. He won a Tony Award in 1964 for his role in She Loves Me and appeared in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in addition to his role in this hour-long show. He was also on Night Gallery and a regular on the series, He & She (1967-68). He was the father of music and TV star David Cassidy and he was married to Shirley Jones from 1956-75. He died in a fire at home that started when he fell asleep with a lit cigarette.

Harry Townes (1914-2001) plays Hiram Price, the Undertaker. He served in the Army Air Corps in WWII and his screen career lasted from 1949 to 1988, mostly on TV, where he played countless parts. Townes was in four episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Creeper," and he also appeared on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, and Night Gallery. He co-starred in the 1958 film adaptation of Fredric Brown's The Screaming Mimi. Townes is superb in "The Photographer and the Undertaker"!

In the role of Jonathan Rudolph, the attorney/middle manager in the mob who assigns hits to Mannix, is Alfred Ryder (1916-1995), who also served in the Army Air Force in WWII. Born Alfred Corn, he was a member of the Actors Studio and had a successful career in Old Time Radio. His screen career stretched from 1944 to 1980, but this was his only appearance on the Hitchcock series. He was on Night Gallery and Star Trek and he was featured in the famous episode of Bus Stop called "I Kiss Your Shadow." He was married to Kim Hunter, who also appeared on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and his sister, Olive Deering, appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Clegg Hoyt as the doomed baseball fan

Jocelyn Lane (1937- ) steams up the small screen as Sylvia Sylvester, Arthur's eventual wife. Born Jocelyn Bolton in Vienna, Austria, she was a busy model by age 18 and acted in films and on TV from 1954 to 1970. This was her only appearance on the Hitchcock show. She appeared in Playboy in 1966 and married a German prince in 1973.

Her father, Ernest Sylvester (1908-1979), is played by Philip Bourneuf, another member of the Actors Studio. He had a long career on Broadway, from 1934 to 1964, and was on screen from 1944 to 1976, including a role in Fritz Lang's Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). He was on three episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Dip in the Pool," and he was also on Thriller.

In smaller roles:

• Jack Bernardi (1909-1994) as Leibowitz, the man Arthur speaks to outside the deli next to his apartment building; the brother of Herschel Bernardi, he was on screen from 1951-89 and appeared on The Night Stalker.
• Joan Swift (1933- ) as Miss Whiting, Rudolph's secretary; born Joan Hill, she was also on Star Trek and her screen career lasted from 1957-75.
• Richard Jury (1926-2009) as Willis, Price's assistant who meets him outside the funeral home; he was on TV and in film from 1958 to 2007, mostly on TV.
• Clegg Hoyt (1910-1967) as the man who is killed by Mannix in the first scene; he was on screen from 1955-67 and he was in six episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Day of the Bullet." He was also on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, and Star Trek.

"The Photographer and the Undertaker" can be purchased to read from Amazon here for 99 cents. The TV show may be viewed for free online here.

Sources:

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

Galactic Central, philsp.com/.

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

Holding, James. "The Photographer and the Undertaker." Kindle ed., Wildside Press, 1980. 

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/. 

"The Photographer and the Undertaker." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 10, episode 21, NBC, 15 March 1965. 

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

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Alfred Hayes on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: An Overview and Episode Guide

Alfred Hayes wrote seven teleplays for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, ranging from the premiere episode in 1962 ("A Piece of the Action") to an episode near the end of the final season ("The Photographer and the Undertaker"). Three of the teleplays were credited to Hayes and another writer, suggesting that Hayes was brought in to doctor problematic scripts.

In season eight, "A Piece of the Action" is an excellent adaptation of the 1930 film, Street of Chance; the earlier version has been updated to the 1960s and relocated to sunny California, but the tragic events remain the same. "Bonfire," credited to Hayes and William D. Gordon, adapts a short story by V.S. Pritchett and turns a short story that does not involve crime into a brutal look at a murderer. "The Paragon" is a not wholly successful adaptation of a story by Rebecca West where the lead performances are the high point.

In season nine, "Beyond the Sea of Death" is credited to Hayes and Gordon but fails to capture the short story's effectiveness and shocking final twist. "The Second Verdict," credited to Hayes and Henry Slesar, improves on its source by adding new scenes and ends up an exciting and suspenseful hour of television.

In season ten, "Water's Edge" is one of the great hours of television horror, and "The Photographer and the Undertaker" uses humor and violence to tell an entertaining story of a hired killer, adding to its source and dramatizing the tale in a most effective way.

Alfred Hayes's contributions to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour vary in quality, but the best of them stand with some of the show's finest episodes.

EPISODE GUIDE-ALFRED HAYES ON THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR

Episode title-"A Piece of the Action" [8.1]
Broadcast date-20 September 1962
Teleplay by-Alfred Hayes
Based on the screenplay for Street of Chance, by Oliver H.P. Garrett
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

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

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

Episode title-"The Paragon" [8.20]
Broadcast date-8 February 1963
Teleplay by-Alfred Hayes
Based on "The Salt of the Earth" by Rebecca West

First print appearance-Woman's Home Companion, March and April 1934
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

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

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

Episode title-"The Second Verdict" [9.30]
Broadcast date-29 May 1964
Teleplay by-Henry Slesar and Alfred Hayes
Based on "Second Verdict" by Henry Slesar

First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, February 1964
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

Episode title-"Water's Edge" [10.3]
Broadcast date-19 October 1964
Teleplay by-Alfred Hayes
Based on "Water's Edge" by Robert Bloch

First print appearance-Michael Shayne Mystery Magazine, September 1956
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

Episode title-"The Photographer and the Undertaker" [10.21]
Broadcast date-15 March 1965
Teleplay by-Alfred Hayes
Based on "The Photographer and the Undertaker" by James Holding

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, November 1962
Notes
Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-no

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Listen to Al Sjoerdsma's podcast about "Help Wanted" here.

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Bad Actor" here.

In two weeks: our series on William Fay begins with "The Crooked Road" starring Richard Kiley and Walter Matthau!

The Hitchcock Project-Alfred Hayes Part Four: Beyond the Sea of Death [9.14]

 by Jack Seabrook

When shall they meet? I cannot tell,

Indeed, when they shall meet again,

Except some day in Paradise:

For this they wait, one waits in pain.

Beyond the sea of death love lies

For ever, yesterday, to-day;

Angels shall ask them, 'Is it well?'

And they shall answer, 'Yea.'

--from "One Day" by Christina Rossetti

 (1830-1894)

In "Beyond the Sea of Death" by Miriam Allen deFord, which was first published in the May 1949 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and which won a fourth prize in the magazine's story competition that year, an unnamed reporter narrates the tale of Sophie Renford, "a rich young woman" convicted of murder. The identity of her victim is not disclosed at first, and the reporter is determined to examine her motive. Sophie's mother died when she was born and she inherited a fortune when her father died. Not pretty, she was shy and awkward; she was raised by Minnie Briggs, who evolved from Sophie's nurse to her governess, her chaperone and, finally, her adult companion. Briggs "cherished her with a maternal passion" and was crestfallen when Sophie eloped with the family's chauffeur.

"Beyond the Sea of Death"
was first published here

After two years of unhappiness, they were divorced and he was paid $50,000 to disappear. Sophie bought a gun to protect herself if he should return and became convinced that no man would ever love her for anything but her money. Time passes, and one day Sophie answers an ad in a literary magazine and begins corresponding with Keith Holloway, an American engineer living in Bolivia. She conceals her wealth from him and finds that they have much in common; he is also an orphan who lives with an elderly friend. They exchange photos and he writes that he's coming to America for a visit and wants to see her.

Keith arrives and he and Sophie are inseparable. She hides her wealth and large home from him, but when he proposes marriage, she confesses that she is rich and had a prior husband. Keith is not concerned, so she brings him home to meet Minnie, her surrogate mother. He returns to Bolivia and his letters to Sophie are filled with plans for their future together. Sophie's joy comes to an abrupt end when she receives a letter telling her that Keith was killed in a mine explosion. She pores over his past letters and fixates on a quotation from the poem cited above: "'Beyond the sea of death Love lies for ever, yesterday, today.'"

Interpreting the quotation as a premonition, Sophie settles into the quiet life of a spinster with Minnie until, one evening, she reads in the newspaper an advertisement for a talk by Swami Avranyakananda, who uses the same quotation in the ad. She thinks it's a message from Keith, attends the swami's lecture, and makes an appointment for a private meeting with him. She returns home from the meeting convinced that he gave her messages from her dead lover. Minnie is skeptical, especially when Sophie announces that she plans to spend all of her fortune to finance a temple for the swami. Minnie decides to investigate and watches people come and go from the building where the swami is staying, until she selects an unhappy young woman and approaches her.

Diana Hyland as Grace Renford

The young woman tells a tale of heartbreak, involving a Bolivian mining engineer whom she agreed to marry but who was killed in a mining accident. She shows Minnie a photograph of the man and Minnie recognizes him as Keith Holloway. Like Sophie, the woman is convinced that the swami carries messages from her dead fiance. Minnie understands the confidence game now and how Sophie was led astray. Before she goes to the police, she decides that she must tell Sophie, so that the young woman can "face life with more common sense." The reporter tells the reader, "It was a bad mistake. It made a murderess of Sophie Renford."

That evening, Minnie tells Sophie about her investigation and what she discovered. Later that night, Sophie "committed her murder." The reporter explains that he or she met Sophie in prison and later won the Pulitzer Prize for helping break the "'Rich Young Widow Conspiracy Ring.'" But it was not the swami whom Sophie killed. "The one thing she could not endure was the bursting of the iridescent bubble of her dreams"; forced to face the truth that no man had ever truly loved her, Sophie "shot Minnie Briggs through the heart while her old companion slept."

Mildred Dunnock as Minnie Briggs

In the introduction to "Beyond the Sea of Death" in its original magazine publication, the author calls this story "'primarily not a murder story but a story.'" It poses the question, what does one do when a dream dies? Sophie spent years convincing herself that no man could love her for anything but her money. Duped by Keith, she fell hopelessly in love, and when he died, she believed that she could communicate with him beyond the grave. She felt this so strongly that she was willing to give away her entire fortune to build a temple for the man she thought had established communication between her and Keith. When she discovered that Minnie was responsible for the death of this dream, she killed the closest thing to a mother that she had.

Minnie is the victim of her own love for Sophie. She believes that she is helping the young woman by telling her the truth, but she really is destroying the only thing Sophie had to cling to, as false as it was. DeFord's portrait of two women and their tragic fate is well done. As a mystery, it works--we know who the killer is from the start, but we don't know the identity of the victim until the story's final line. Minnie becomes an unlikely detective, but her "client" does not appreciate her efforts and pays her with a bullet.

This short story has been reprinted many times since its original publication; perhaps the producers of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour noticed it in the collection, The Quintessence of Queen, published in 1962. It was adapted for television and aired on January 24, 1964. The story had been adapted for TV once before, airing on the live, half-hour series, The Web, on October 24, 1951, but it is unlikely that this show was available to the writers of the Hitchcock hour and it is probably lost. Like "Bonfire," the adaptation is credited to Alfred Hayes and William D. Gordon, which suggests that there were two versions of a problematic script.

Jeremy Slate as Keith Holloway

The show opens with Grace (as Sophie has been renamed) running up the stairs and going to her room in tears. She speaks briefly in voiceover (the only voiceover in the show) and takes from her dresser drawer a stack of letters tied with ribbon, and a gun, which she loads. We see a framed photo of Keith Holloway on her dresser and there is a dissolve to "'less than a year ago.'" The character of the reporter who narrates the short story has been eliminated and almost the entire show plays out in flashback. Keith checks into a hotel, having traveled from Bolivia to see Grace, and Grace tells Minnie about her beau for the first time, taking her companion to an apartment that Grace has set up to deceive Keith into thinking that she is not rich. The viewer can infer Grace's status by the fact that she has a butler and wears a fur coat; dialogue between Grace and Minnie is used to explain how Grace met Keith and how their relationship developed. The initial section of the story is jettisoned and dealt with in a few lines of dialogue so that the show can get right to the moment where Keith arrives.

In addition, the magazine where Grace saw the ad from Keith was not a literary magazine but rather a magazine called The World Beyond, which Minnie refers to as "'that spooky spirit magazine you read.'" This shows that Grace is already predisposed to believing in the supernatural even before she meets Keith. A scene follows in which Keith, in an ill-fitting suit, visits Grace at her fake apartment, where she ineptly tries to cook and serve dinner; the steaks are inedible and the coffee only hot water. Keith pulls a volume of Christina Rossetti's poetry from her bookshelf and reads from it, setting up the later use of her poem. Keith tells Grace that he became interested in spiritualism when he was in New Dehli and that he felt he was somewhere else when he was in the mountains of Bolivia. He then quotes the line, "beyond the sea of death" from the Rossetti book, again foreshadowing the later importance of this verse.

Abraham Sofaer as Dr. Shankara

In a budget-conscious effort to show their courtship progressing quickly, we see stock footage of a football game and shots of Keith and Grace cheering in a small section of what is meant to be a large crowd at the game but which looks nothing like it. Despite Minnie's counsel to move slowly, Grace accepts Keith's marriage proposal on a romantic overlook above the city of San Francisco. There is yet another mention of the Rossetti poem as Keith says goodbye to Grace before ostensibly returning to Bolivia. After she learns of Keith's death, we see Grace reading from the book of poetry and taking a gun from a case.

The swami, renamed Dr. R.D. Shankara, has already given his lecture when Grace sees his ad, and we next see them in a darkened room together as he speaks as if giving a message from beyond the grave. She immediately believes that Keith is speaking to her. Minnie tells her, "'You're in love with a ghost,'" and Grace replies, "'Keith is real to me. More real than this world or anyone in it.'" This is a big hint about how Grace will react when Minnie tells her the truth. Minnie's investigation is shortened; she meets a woman in the hallway outside Dr. Shankara's room and pretends to need advice. They sit together and the woman reveals that her story mirrors that of Grace, right down to the same photo of Keith.

Unlike in the story, Minnie goes to the police before speaking to Grace and, when she tells the young woman the truth, Minnie brings in police Lieutenant Farrell to talk to Grace. He shows her Keith's mug shot and explains that her beau has used many aliases; she drops the photo and runs upstairs to her room. There is another dissolve and we are back to the opening scene. Minnie enters Grace's bedroom and sees the gun in her hand. Now, rather than thinking that Grace intends to murder the swami, the inference is that she is contemplating suicide. Minnie tries to talk her out of it, but suddenly Minnie realizes that Grace is pointing the gun at her. Minnie tries to run but is shot and killed in a most unconvincing fashion. Grace talks to her companion after shooting her, accusing her of taking Keith away and asking why.

Ann Ayars as Lucy Barrington

The TV adaptation changes the murder mystery of the story, dragging it out and telescoping it in ways that diminish its effectiveness. We don't know until the very end of the TV show that a murder will occur, while the mystery in the story is focused on who will be the victim. Much of the character development in the early part of the story is eliminated and covered in brief lines of dialogue; in its place, the TV show adds a scene where Grace demonstrates her inability to impersonate a less-affluent woman. One wonders if the voiceover that we hear briefly in the first scene might have been a remnant of an earlier draft of the teleplay, and perhaps more voiceover to explain the story's narrative might have been a better way to dramatize it than the dialogue used in the show.

Both the TV adaptation and the short story don't address the issue of Grace's deceit. She is not entirely innocent in her relationship with Keith, deceiving him about her real station in life and seeming to make him fall in love with her under false pretenses. Still, when marriage is proposed, Grace confesses the truth, while Keith maintains his deception.

The co-writer of the teleplay is William D. Gordon (1918-1991), who 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.

Orville Sherman as Charles

Director Alf Kjellin (1920-1988) was born in Sweden and started out in the movies in 1937 as an actor. He began acting on TV in 1952 and continued until 1979. He started directing films in 1955 and worked as a director on American television from 1961 to 1985, concurrent with his work as an actor. As an actor, he appeared in the 1966 film adaptation of Jack Finney's Assault on a Queen and in one episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. As a director, he was at the helm for one episode of the half-hour Hitchcock series ("Coming Home") and eleven episodes of the hour series.

Diana Hyland (1936-1977), as Grace, is a pretty, blue-eyed blonde, and it is hard to accept that she would ever have trouble finding a husband. In the story, she is described as not pretty, shy, and awkward, but Hyland does not display those traits. Still, she does her best to portray a hopeless woman. Born Diana Gentner, Hyland appeared mainly on TV from 1955 to 1977. She was on one other episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, she was on The Twilight Zone, and she was a regular on Peyton Place from 1968 to 1969. Hyland was romantically involved with John Travolta after they met while filming a TV movie; she was 40 and he was 22. She died of breast cancer at age 41.

Francis DeSales
as Lt. Farrell

Mildred Dunnock (1901-1991), as Minnie, is excellent, embodying her character with humor and compassion. She was a founding member of the Actors Studio and originated the role of Linda Loman in Arthur Miller's classic play, Death of a Salesman, on Broadway in 1949. Dunnock played many roles on screen from 1944 to 1992 and appeared in Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry" (1955). She was on the Hitchcock show four times, including "Heart of Gold," and she was also seen on Thriller.

Jeremy Slate (1926-2006), as Keith, is believable as a con man who knows how to appeal to desperate women. Born Robert Perham, he landed at Normandy on D-Day and later went on to a career in movies and on TV from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. He appeared in five episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "One Grave Too Many." In an interview, he admitted that he acted from 1960 to 1970 and then tuned in, turned on and dropped out, spending the next ten years traveling around the USA in a motor home.

In smaller roles:

• Abraham Sofaer (1896-1988) as Dr. Shankara. He was on screen from 1931 to 1974 and appeared in three episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Changing Heart." He was also on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, and Night Gallery.
• Ann Ayars as Lucy Barrington, the other woman duped by Keith. She was on screen from 1941 to 1967, but this was her only appearance on the Hitchcock show. She also appeared on Batman. Ayars was a star soprano in the New York City Opera and taught music for two decades after her film and TV career ended.
• Orville Sherman (1916-1984) as Charles, the butler. He was on screen from 1958 to 1982 and also appeared on The Twilight Zone. This was his only role on the Hitchcock show.
• Francis DeSales (1912-1988) as Lt. Farrell. He was on screen from 1950 to 1978 and has numerous TV credits. He also played a police lieutenant on the radio show, Mr. and Mrs. North (1942-1954) and its TV version (1952-1954). He has an uncredited role in Psycho (1960) and was on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. He can also be seen in "Crack of Doom" on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Vince Williams

• Vince Williams as the first hotel clerk. He was on screen from 1958 to 1971 and appeared in four episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, including "Death Scene."

Ollie O'Toole

• Ollie O'Toole (1912-1992) as the second hotel clerk. He started out on radio in the 1930s and was one half of a comedy due with Art Carney, impersonating famous politicians. His screen career lasted from 1950 to 1984 but this was his only role on the Hitchcock show.

Jim Barringer

• Jim Barringer (1943-2002) as the messenger boy. He appeared in ten TV shows between 1957 and 1964 and this was the only one of them for the Hitchcock series.

Watch "Beyond the Sea of Death" for free online here. Thanks to Peter Enfantino for providing a copy of the story!

Sources:

"Beyond the Sea of Death." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 9, episode 14, CBS, 24 Jan. 1964. 

DeFord, Miriam Allen. "Beyond the Sea of Death." Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1949, pp. 40–57. 

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

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

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/. 

"Introduction to 'Beyond the Sea of Death.'" Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1949, p. 40. 

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

In two weeks: Our series on Alfred Hayes concludes with "The Photographer and the Undertaker," starring Jack Cassidy and Harry Townes!

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "Help Wanted" here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "Bad Actor" here!

The Hitchcock Project-Alfred Hayes Part Three: The Paragon [8.20]

 by Jack Seabrook

After adapting a story by Sir V.S. Pritchett for the small screen ("Bonfire"), Alfred Hayes next adapted a story by Dame Rebecca West, continuing the trend of the producers of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour to seek out works by prestigious authors.

The episode titled "The Paragon," which was broadcast on CBS on February 8, 1963, was adapted from a story called "The Salt of the Earth" that was published in two parts in the March and April 1934 issues of Woman's Home Companion. It was collected in a 1935 volume by West titled The Harsh Voice: Four Short Novels, and it had been adapted for television four times before it aired on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. The first four TV versions were:

• Actor's Studio, May 12, 1949, teleplay by Elizabeth Hart
• The Revlon Mirror Theater, June 30, 1953
• Encounter, January 4, 1955, teleplay by Elizabeth Hart
• Playdate, November 29, 1961, teleplay by Elizabeth Hart

Part one of "The Salt of the Earth"
was published here

As the story opens, Alice Pemberton accepts a young man's offer to drive her home after she has spent time convalescing at her mother's house. Her mother seems relieved to see Alice leave, and the 40-year-old daughter wonders why her mother has not "valued her properly," despite all that Alice has done for her. She returns home to Camelheath, near London, and is greeted by her servants; she inspects each room and finds everything clean and in order, until she discovers a framed photograph of herself that has been torn in half and clumsily repaired. While inspecting her husband Jimmy's suits, she finds a small tube partially filled with white powder that tastes bitter when she examines it.

Alice walks across the fields to visit her sister, Madge, whom she has spent a lifetime "telling her all the things she had done wrong." Madge seems anxious to get rid of Alice, who next proceeds to the home of her brother, Leo. His wife lies and says that he is not home, even though Alice can hear him coughing in another room. Alice returns home and berates the cook for the food she plans to serve for dinner; when her husband arrives, she laments the poor treatment that she has received from everyone since she got back.

Alice tells Jimmy, "'you'd never have any civilization at all if you didn't have the people who knew best teaching all the others what to do.'" Jimmy asks her to leave her siblings' families alone for a while. He and Alice host an older man named Mr. Norman for dinner, but the guest leaves early, and Alice refuses to recognize that her behavior drove him away. Getting ready for bed that evening, Alice suggests that her sister needs a vacation, but Jimmy explains that Madge and her husband cannot afford it, due to his bad investments. Jimmy compares Alice to a fairy-tale princess who cannot stop herself from doing the one forbidden thing that causes her downfall. He calls her "'the salt of the earth'" but cautions that "'nobody likes having salt rubbed into their wounds...'" Jimmy tells Alice that she hurts people, using her brother as an example, and that her family resents and avoids her.

Part two was published here

Alice feels unfairly treated and Jimmy again begs her to leave her siblings alone. Alice tells him about her nightmares, where she is in her bedroom and "'something awful comes nearer and nearer to me, circling round me, drawing in on me, and I know that in the end it's going to destroy me utterly.'" She mentions the torn picture in the frame and asks about the vial of medicine she found in Jimmy's pocket. He say that it is "'just something that sends people to sleep,'" and rolls it back and forth in his hand, looking at it. She pours a glass of her bedtime hot chocolate and Jimmy asks her why the cook is down the hall, causing Alice to go out of the bedroom to check. She returns and he tells her to drink her chocolate, then he takes the glass and washes it out. Alice begins to sweat and Jimmy carries her to the bed, saying "'Poor little Alice'" as he pulls the covers up around her, and "'her mouth was full of a haunting bitterness.'"

"The Salt of the Earth" is the story of a woman whose husband murders her because he is tired of her cruelty to those around her. He attempts to show her the error of her ways, but she is so convinced of her own righteousness that he decides to end her life. By doing so, he may also put a stop to the misery she spreads. In retrospect, it seems likely that the stomach ailment that sent Alice to her mother's to recuperate was a first attempt by her husband to poison her. The story never specifies what is in the vial, but the fact that it tastes bitter when Alice examines it suggests cyanide.

Joan Fontaine as Alice Pemberton

In 1935, Edith Walton, reviewing the story in The New York Times, called it "a curiously fascinating yarn, which... makes its heroine so obnoxious that one gleefully assents to murder." Read today, the story is rather dull and seems an odd choice to adapt for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Alfred Hayes was assigned the job of writing the teleplay, and he succeeds in remaining quite faithful to West's story while inserting some elements that fit the conventional methods of creating suspense on television.

The show opens with a close-up of Alice in bed, experiencing a nightmare in which she sees the curtains of her bedroom blowing and a large shadow approaching and overtaking her. Hayes has taken the nightmare that Alice relates to her husband in the story and placed it at the beginning of the episode in order to create an instant feeling of suspense. The show then follows the story faithfully, other than moving the setting from England to America and updating it from the 1930s to the 1960s. Jimmy has been renamed John and, before Alice finds the vial in his jacket pocket, we see him put on the jacket and take the vial out himself to inspect it. There is a close-up of the bottle's warning label and we see that the drug is called Hexitone; this is more commonly known as methohexitone, a barbiturate that came into use in the late 1950s as an anesthetic for surgical patients.

Hayes is careful to show the bottle of medicine early and to return to it a few times throughout the hour to make sure the viewer does not forget about it. When Alice finds the vial, there is another close-up of the warning label. Later on, when John asks Alice to promise to leave her sister alone, Hayes adds a bit of dialogue that foreshadows the ending when John smiles and says, "'I might do something violent if you don't [leave them alone]... [I might] murder you.'" It appears to be said in jest, and Alice takes it that way, but the viewer--conditioned by the repeated shots of the medicine bottle and warned by the opening sequence with the nightmare--knows better.

Gary Merrill as John Pemberton

After the scene where John compares Alice to a fairy princess who brings on her own destruction, Hayes adds a short scene in which John visits the public library and looks up Hexitone in a medical book. A close-up of the page in question tells the viewer that the medication is a barbiturate that, when given in overdose, can cause coma and death. As in the story, we never actually see John poison Alice's drink; he looks at the cup and then there is a cut to Alice in the hall. She returns and drinks the fatal cup of cocoa. The camera follows the cup in close-up, recalling for Hitchcock fans the glass of milk in Suspicion, but this time the danger is real. Once again, the viewer knows more than the victim and is thus complicit with John in the murder of his wife.

Alice sinks back into her pillows as John washes out the cup. He sits across the room and lights a cigarette, watching her as she falls asleep. She has the same nightmare that she did at the start of the show and it becomes clear that this time, it is no dream: her nightmare in the opening scene predicted her death in the closing scene. In the end, one is left thinking that murder is an extreme way to deal with a difficult person, and that the show, while somewhat dull overall, is most notable for the strong performances of its two leads.

Joan Fontaine (1917-2013) plays Alice as a strong-willed woman, a far cry from her timid roles in Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941). Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland to British parents living in Tokyo, her film career lasted from 1935 to 1966 and her TV career spanned the years from 1953 to 1994. She also appeared in Fritz Lang's noir classic Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956), won an Oscar for Suspicion, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her autobiography is No Bed of Roses (1978). This was her only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show.

Her husband John is played by Gary Merrill (1915-1990), who holds his own on the small screen with Fontaine. He was on film from 1943 to 1977 and on TV from 1953 to 1980, appearing in Otto Preminger's Where the Sidewalk Ends and the classic, All About Eve, both in 1950. He was on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits and "The Paragon" was one of seven episodes of the Hitchcock TV show in which he was featured.

In smaller roles:

• Virginia Vincent (1918-2013) plays Madge Fletcher, Alice's sister whom she finds lying on the couch in the dark. She was seen mainly on TV from 1952 to 1988 and this was her only role on the Hitchcock show. She was born Virginia Vincent Grohosky and also made an appearance on Night Gallery.

Virginia Vincent

• Linda Leighton (1917-2005) plays Evie Wales, Alice's sister-in-law. Born Bertie Mae Johnson, she was on screen from 1940 to 1977 but did not appear in any other Hitchcock shows.

Linda Leighton

• June Walker (1899-1966) makes the most of her short scene as Alice's mother. She had a long career on Broadway from 1918 to 1958 and was the first actress to play Lorelei Lee when Gentleman Prefer Blondes opened in 1926. She was seen in a handful of films and started turning up on TV in 1949. She appeared on Thriller as well as three episodes of the Hitchcock show; "Return of Verge Likens" was her last credit.

June Walker

• Irene Tedrow (1907-1995) is a familiar face to fans of classic TV. Here, she plays Alice's maid. She started out on radio in 1929, was in films from 1940 to 1981, and was seen on countless TV shows from 1949 to 1989. She was on The Twilight Zone twice and she was also in "Don't Come Back Alive," one of the first episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Irene Tedrow

• Susan Gordon (1949-2011) plays Betty, Madge's daughter. The daughter of filmmaker Bert I. Gordon, she had a brief career on screen from 1958 to 1967 and appeared on The Twilight Zone and the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "Summer Shade."

Susan Gordon

• Richard Carlyle (1914-2009) plays Leo Wales, Alice's coughing brother. He was on screen from 1950 to 1994, appeared in one episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and was seen on Star Trek.

Richard Carlyle

• William Sargent (1930- ) plays Madge's husband, Walter. On screen from 1960 to 1997, he was on The Twilight Zone twice and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour three times, including "The Thirty-First of February." He was also on Star Trek. He was born Wolf Jakubowicz in Berlin and his family fled the Nazis in the early 1930s.

William Sargent

• Jesslyn Fax (1893-1975) plays Mrs. Bates, Alice's cook. She was on screen from 1950 to 1969 and had small parts in Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) and North By Northwest (1959), as well as on five episodes of the Hitchcock TV show, including "Coming. Mama" She was also on Batman.

Jesslyn Fax

• Willis Bouchey (1907-1977) plays the dinner guest, Mr. Norton. He was the voice of Captain Midnight on radio and played numerous character roles in a screen career that spanned the years from 1951 to 1972. He was in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) and John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and his many TV roles included episodes of The Twilight Zone, Thriller, and thee Hitchcock hours, including "I Saw the Whole Thing."

Willis Bouchey

• Lester Maxwell plays Colin, the teenager with the big glasses. He had a brief screen career from 1959 to 1962 and this episode was his last credit.

Lester Maxwell

• Donald Elson (1923- ) plays the mailman. He was on screen from 1953 to 2008, appeared on Thriller and Batman, and was also seen in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?"

Donald Elson

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

Finally, Rebecca West (1892-1983) was born Cicily Isabel Fairfield in London. She took the pen name Rebecca West from a character in an Ibsen play and had a son by H.G. Wells. A prominent feminist and progressive writer, she was respected as a novelist, a literary critic, and a journalist. She covered the Nuremberg trials for The New Yorker and her major works included Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1949). She was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1959.

"The Paragon" is available for free viewing online here.

Sources:

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

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

"The Paragon." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 8, episode 20, CBS, 8 Feb. 1963.

Walton, Edith. "Four Stories by Rebecca West." New York Times, 3 Feb. 1935, movies2.nytimes.com/books/00/09/10/specials/west-voice.html.

West, Rebecca. "The Salt of the Earth." Rebecca West: A Celebration, Viking Press, 1977, pp. 69–111.

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

In two weeks: Beyond the Sea of Death, starring Mildred Dunnock and Diana Hyland!