Wed 3 Mar 2010
A TV Review by Mike Tooney: THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR “Annabel.”
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[6] Comments
“Annabel.” An episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (Season 1, Episode 7). First air date: 1 November 1962. Dean Stockwell, Susan Oliver, Kathleen Nolan, Bert Remsen. Teleplay: Robert Bloch, based on the novel This Sweet Sickness (1960) by Patricia Highsmith. Director: Paul Henreid.
David Kelsey (Dean Stockwell), outwardly a fairly normal if brilliant individual, is leading a double life, assuming two different identities.
He also has a case of unrequited love for Annabel Delaney (Susan Oliver), who is already married to a man who’s getting angrier and angrier; while David, in turn, hardly notices Linda Brennan (Kathleen Nolan), herself another case of unfulfilled desire. Ultimately, something’s got to give — and it does, violently ….
Stockwell’s character is very much in Patricia Highsmith’s Talented Mr. Ripley mold: insensitive, narcissistic, warped, and capable of almost anything.
Dean Stockwell’s huge list of screen credits includes Home, Sweet Homicide (1946), Song of the Thin Man (1947), Compulsion (1959), two episodes of Columbo, one Ellery Queen (1975), 97 episodes of Quantum Leap (1989-1993), and 15 appearances on the Battlestar Galactica reboot (2006-09).
Susan Oliver did a lot of TV starting in the ’50s; sci-fi enthusiasts remember her from the Star Trek pilot film. She had a long run on the Peyton Place soaper, two appearances each on The Name of the Game and Murder, She Wrote — and she was also a superiior pilot.
As for Robert Bloch: Psycho — ’nuff said.
Hulu: http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1071120409/
March 4th, 2010 at 12:22 am
After reading Mike Tooney’s review I watched this episode and found it to be one of the better shows on the Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Robert Bloch AND Patricia Highsmith is a great combination. A darker than usual episode.
March 4th, 2010 at 2:07 am
Paul Henreid began his directing career with FOR MEN ONLY (1952) and did a good deal of television including twenty eight episodes of HITCHCOCK PRESENTS but only this one of HOUR.
The HITCHCOCK HOUR seemed to frequently go fairly dark, and aside from this also adapted books by Cornell Woolrich, Margaret Millar, and Harlan Ellison among others.
Kathleen Nolan also appeared in “The Beast in View” episode of the HITCHCOCK HOUR based on Margaret Millar’s novel with Joan Hackett and Kevin McCarthy.
There is a fairly interesting book to be done on novels adapted as episodes of television series. Aside from PERRY MASON and MICHAEL SHAYNE PRIVATE DETECTIVE that used quite a few of the characters original novels, quite a few series adapted novels into one or two part episodes of various series. At least one other Millar was done as an episode of BORIS KARLOFF’S THRILLER, and John D. MacDonald’s CRY HARD CRY FAST was a two parter on RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, just to name two.
Even as late as HUNTER at least two two part episodes were based on novels adapted to the character. It doesn’t happen much today (if at all) and you have to wonder if modern producers aren’t missing out.
Of course there isn’t much evidence television producers today can read, much less adapt fiction to their series. I don’t know about anyone else, but if the least likely suspect turns out to be guilty one more time I may scream.
Even a series like BONES so totally ignores it’s fictional source that they have to do original novels by Max Allan Collins (in itself, always a good thing) for readers who want to see the characters from the show in print.
Television always did have a cavalier attitude to it sources, but today the only thing they seem to take seriously are comic books.
March 4th, 2010 at 3:14 am
David,
You say “There is a fairly interesting book to be done on novels adapted as episodes of television series.”
As you and anyone else who’s familiar with Al Hubin’s CRIME FICTION IV knows, he lists any film adaptation of a detective or mystery novel that’s included. This includes two-hour pilot films, but in general, he does NOT include individual episodes of TV shows.
There are a few instances where such adaptations are included, but for consistency’s sake, they’d have have to be deleted, rather than, as Al says, open up the gates for far more than he’s ready to handle.
I don’t blame him. Even though the cutoff for novels to be included is the year 2000, new data continues to pour in. New facts, new information about authors, correct spellings of titles, new series characters, settings to be added, and most sadly, deaths of authors. It’s more than enough to keep Al, myself and a whole team of researchers for as long he wants to keep us going.
So if there’s a book that needs to be done on TV episodes based on books, it will have to be someone else that will do it.
And it’s not as easy as it sounds. Mike Tooney and I spent some time this afternoon trying to find which John Bingham novel was the basis for another of the HITCHCOCK HOUR episodes, and we were able to narrow it down to two or three, but no more.
(But isn’t there a definitive book on Hitchcock’s TV shows that would have the information? I think there is, but if so, I don’t have it, and I think I ought to.)
And I digress. There’s a book to be done, as I was saying, and one that would be interesting — at least to me, and maybe dozens of others?
Aye, there’s the rub.
— Steve
March 4th, 2010 at 5:04 am
Steve
Which is why I was suggesting someone other than me do it. In he eighties I set out to compile a listing of mysteries that appeared as films under a name other than the one they were known in print under. Of course without the Net research was even harder, but it soon got completely out of hand — particularly since I included many foreign adaptations. I wouldn’t even begin such a project today.
Re John Bingham, no idea which of his books was adapted, but readers here might be interested to know that John Bingham was the model for John Le Carre’s George Smiley according to Le Carre.
He does not seem to have taken it as a compliment having stated at one point that an agent who behaved like Smiley would probably be a prime candidate for treason.
At least one of Bingham’s novels was filmed as A FRAGMENT OF FEAR with David Hemmings.
March 4th, 2010 at 6:23 am
Steve:
The definitive book on the Hitchcock TV shows is THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS COMPANION(2001 and 656 pages), by Martin Grams and Patrik Wikstrom. The book lists the episode “Captive Audience” as being based on the John Bingham novel, MURDER OFF THE RECORD. Also the episode “The Tender Poisoner” is based on the Bingham novel by the same name. Martin Grams probably has seen more TV than is good for him and has written many books on the subject.
March 5th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Thanks, Walker.
I’d narrowed the choice as to which Bingham book it was to MURDER PLAN SIX or MURDER OFF THE RECORD, which is the good news. The bad news is that I was leaning toward the wrong one, not having read either one.
I’ve put off buying Martin Grams’ book on the TV Hitchcock Shows, but it’s starting to appear that I ought to have it.
Martin is probably even more knowledgeable about Old Time Radio shows, having done books on INNER SANCTUM and SAM SPADE already, among many others. Coming soon, if not this month, is his long-awaited book on THE GREEN HORNET, covering the Hornet and Kato in all their many media appearances. But they started in radio.