The Silver Screen Oasis

JackFavell wrote: i need to find that episode of Kojak! I can't IMAGINE Alan Napier that way!

It's from Season 3, "The Forgotten Room"
http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1010107161/

Thanks, I'll see if I can dig it up.

JF:
Thanks for the link to last Sunday's Alfred Hitchcock. I love anything with Colleen Dewhurst. Did you know that the episode of The Fugitive "Fatso" was directed by Ida Lupino??

One particularly creepy Alfred Hitchcock Hour that I caught the other night was called "The Second Wife" with June Lockhart as a librarian who becomes engaged via a lonely hearts pen pal club to John Anderson, a man she has never met before she hops off the bus in his town. This was a story written by Richard Deming and adapted by the singular Robert Bloch (Psycho) into a peculiarly eerie tale.

Of course, as soon as June, looking like a lost lamb, got off the bus, I was yelling at her to turn around and do not marry a guy like John Anderson. Despite my pleas, the story as it evolves was most engaging, and Anderson gave a poignant touch to his inherently spooky mien. Lockhart proved herself a bit steelier than expected as well.

The episode was directed by the underrated Joseph Newman, who also directed the great short subject, A Crime Does Not Pay Subject: The Luckiest Guy in the World (1947), the wonderfully bleak noir Abandoned (1949), The Human Jungle (1954) and This Island Earth(1955). The spooky quality of the story was enhanced by the work of the Academy Award winning Ray Rennahan, whose black and white photography was increasingly distressing as the story's atmosphere grew more chilling.

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oh wow, i don't think i have ever seen that episode...at least not complete. Thanks, Moira!

MissGoddess wrote:oh wow, i don't think i have ever seen that episode...at least not complete. Thanks, Moira!

My pleasure. Sometimes it is a plus to be awake at 2am! BTW, that may be the loveliest image of ET I have ever seen in your new avatar. (Note that it was before she started brushing her hair with an egg beater).

Moira - I DID see Ida's name at the beginning, and it kind of shocked and jolted me into paying more attention, but by the time I got done watching, I forgot about her because the story and characters were so enthralling. She did a GREAT job. What I liked most about the episode was how no one really ended up being a villain in the piece.

I guess I have to look at the episode, but is John Anderson that tall, gaunt fellow with curly hair whose career lasted well into the 1980's? Looked a little like Fritz Weaver? Anderson and Roberts Blossom are two of my favorite character actors, though I admit to not actually being quite sure of their names even now.

I am trying to remember that Crime Doesn't Pay short... Is it the one with Barry Nelson?

JackFavell wrote:I guess I have to look at the episode, but is John Anderson that tall, gaunt fellow with curly hair whose career lasted well into the 1980's? Looked a little like Fritz Weaver?

You got it, JF...


Above: John Anderson, who seemed to be in everything on television in the late '50s & early '60s

JackFavell wrote:I am trying to remember that Crime Doesn't Pay short... Is it the one with Barry Nelson?

Yup, that's the one. One of the best (and darkest) of the whole series of shorts! Was Barry Nelson ever better? I don't think so. For most of his career, he seemed to be kind of Jackie Cooper's less impressive brother. I know that Janet Leigh, who had a big romance with him when both were youngsters at MGM, thought that he was quite intellectual and an underrated actor. Maybe he was one of those guys who was great on stage but hopelessly pigeon-holed by the studios?

I hate to say this, but I saw Nelson on stage. Perhaps I was disturbed by his hair, which was bright, BRIGHT red and exactly the same as he wore it in those early films. Perhaps it was the play he was in, which was supposed to be comedy, but his performance felt like noir - it gave me the willies. His acting didn't really make me think 'intellectual and underrated'. It made me think more 'where is the exit?'

I agree though, he's just great in the Crime Doesn't Pay short. I wish maybe that he had gotten more roles like that, and less in the sixties comedy genre.

BTW, that may be the loveliest image of ET I have ever seen in your new avatar. (Note that it was before she started brushing her hair with an egg beater

ha! you mean when she started letting Jose Eber do her hair? that one shouldn't be allowed near a hairbrush without violating his parole.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

MissGoddess wrote:

BTW, that may be the loveliest image of ET I have ever seen in your new avatar. (Note that it was before she started brushing her hair with an egg beater

ha! you mean when she started letting Jose Eber do her hair? that one shouldn't be allowed near a hairbrush without violating his parole.

Whatever happened to Jose? He used to be everywhere. Maybe he got caught combing someone's hair to look neat instead of just bewildered.

JackFavell wrote:I hate to say this, but I saw Nelson on stage. Perhaps I was disturbed by his hair, which was bright, BRIGHT red and exactly the same as he wore it in those early films. Perhaps it was the play he was in, which was supposed to be comedy, but his performance felt like noir - it gave me the willies. His acting didn't really make me think 'intellectual and underrated'. It made me think more 'where is the exit?'

I agree though, he's just great in the Crime Doesn't Pay short. I wish maybe that he had gotten more roles like that, and less in the sixties comedy genre.

Hmmm, you mean a teenage Janet Leigh might not have been the best judge of Barry Nelson? Shocking. Yeah, a little less "Mary, Mary" and "Under the Yum-Yum Tree" and more of "Crime Doesn't Pay" or even The Shining type of role would have been good, but actors rarely have much control over their fate (and that insecurity sometimes leads the poor dears to resort to stuff like bright henna dye). Glad you survived seeing Barry on stage.

I probably wasn't much older than Janet Leigh when I saw him, so it's very possible that MY judgement of him was the erring one.

I'm convinced John Anderson was in every TV show ever produced! Hitchcock, TWILIGHT ZONE. And countless RIFLEMANs!

RedRiver wrote:I'm convinced John Anderson was in every TV show ever produced! Hitchcock, TWILIGHT ZONE. And countless RIFLEMANs!

...and John Dehner.