Thu 15 Jul 2010
A TV Review by Mike Tooney: THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR “Death and the Joyful Woman.”
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[9] Comments
“Death and the Joyful Woman.” An episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (Season 1, Episode 27). First air date: 12 April 1963. Gilbert Roland, Laraine Day, Don Galloway, Frank Overton, Laura Devon, Tom Lowell, Richard Bull, Raymond Greenleaf. Teleplay: James Bridges, tenuously based on the novel Death and the Joyful Woman (1961) by Ellis Peters. Director: John Brahm.
It’s going to be quite an evening at the Aguilar estate. Luis Aguilar (Gilbert Roland) plans to make an announcement at a big dinner party he’s throwing. He intends to publicly disown his son, Al (Don Galloway), because he won’t take on the family business (wine bottling); ironically enough, Al doesn’t even drink alcohol! For Luis, this is intolerable.
Before this night is over, Luis will make a pass at a young woman; Al will nearly drink himself into a coma trying to win $5,000 from Luis, money that would help pay the bills for the baby that’s on the way; someone will be murdered; another will get koshed and thrown in a giant vat to drown; and a faithful servant will see her hopes dashed and attempt suicide.
Yes, indeed, quite an evening is in store at the Aguilar estate.
Ellis Peters (real name: Edith Pargeter, 1913-95) is most famous for her series of novels featuring the medieval monk Brother Cadfael, filmed and shown on PBS as Cadfael (13 episodes, 1994-98). This Hitchcock adaptation of her novel radically alters the story, if the description of it on the Fantastic Fiction website is accurate. (See below.)
Gilbert Roland (1905-94) was a silent film star who successfully made the transition to the talkies. Laraine Day (1920-2007) was present in Hollywood’s Golden Age; her last screen credit was a two-parter on Murder, She Wrote (1986). And Don Galloway (1937-2009) is best remembered as Detective Sergeant Ed Brown in just about every episode of the Ironside TV series (1967-75).
“Death and the Joyful Woman” is available on Hulu here.
From the Fantastic Fiction website:
July 15th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Gak, that one paperback is psychedelic seventies at its most verminous. A pretty good story, though it has a lot about calf love in its original version (that may be the high point for many).
July 15th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Frank Overton played George Felse in this one and Tom Lowell Dominic his teenage son (at various times most of the Felse family headlined as sleuths in the series)
Leonard Maltin said of Gilbert Roland that no film (or television episode for that matter) was ever worse for his presence and most were much better. He continued working well into his eighties appearing on HART TO HART and in the Willie Nelson/Gary Busey film BARBAROSA and looked remarkably close to the way he had since the early fifties.
He was seldom a leading man in the talkie era (I can only think of two films other than the CISCO KID series — one with Mae West and one with Jane Russell), but one of the most reliable character actors in the business. He was particularly good in BANDIDO, MAYLAYA, WE WERE STRANGERS, THE TREASURE OF PANCHO VILLA, and THE FURIES — the last with Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston.
July 15th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Curt
Agree on that cover. Avon did a whole line of mysteries with those ghastly covers in that design for Philip MacDonald and others, a design disaster.
The Felse books always were pretty domestic, though PIPER ON THE MOUNTAIN was a pretty good international chase thriller for Dominic and his sister. Of course for the HITCHCOCK the whole family became Americans.
July 15th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Backing up to Comment #2, I mentioned Gilbert Roland quite favorably in my review of the spaghetti western ANY GUN CAN PLAY back here some time ago:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1240
July 15th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Steve
Before we leave Gilbert Roland, am I the only one who thought he would have been the perfect choice to play Robert L. Fish’s Captain Jose ‘Ze’ Da Silva?
July 16th, 2010 at 12:30 am
Yeah, there’s an Avon Philip MacDonald, Murder Gone Mad, that looks like something out of Yellow Submarine!
July 16th, 2010 at 6:05 am
Aty one point I had the entire Avon Classic Crime Collection series – I have a few left now – and they certainly did have a distinctive look. They did some ‘classic’ authors (Philip MacDonald, Simenon, C. P. Snow’s Death Under Sail) as well as (then) newer titles.
I know I had a checklist somewhere.
July 17th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Getting back to David and Comment #5, Gilbert Roland as Captain Jose Da Silva would have been a TV series to watch. As part of the Sunday Mystery Movie series? I like it!
July 17th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
I always wanted to ask Fish if he modeled Ze on Roland — the description in the books is uncannily close. And say William Windom as Wilson …