Sat 3 Apr 2010
A TV Review by Mike Tooney: THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR “The Tender Poisoner.”
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[6] Comments
“The Tender Poisoner.” An episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (Season 1, Episode 14). First air date: 20 December 1962. Dan Dailey, Howard Duff, Jan Sterling, William Bramley, Philip Read, Richard Bull, Bettye Ackerman. Writer: Lukas Heller, based on the novel Five Roundabouts to Heaven (1953; aka The Tender Poisoner, US, 1953) by John Bingham. Director: Leonard Horn.
Barney Bartel (Dan Dailey) is an unhappily married man who has fallen for a woman, Lorna (Bettye Ackerman), ten years younger than his wife Beatrice (Jan Sterling). Barney’s pal Peter Harding (Howard Duff) knows about the affair and seems anxious to discourage Barney — but things aren’t always what they seem, are they?
For Peter the situation has its advantages, indeed it does; for Barney, though, the situation is becoming intolerable. The first step involves getting rid of Beatrice, in preparation for which Barney must do an experiment on his dog, one involving poison …
Longtime hoofer Dan Dailey proves in this show that he could do serious crime drama. Most of us may have forgotten the TV series Dailey did in 1959-60, 39 episodes of The Four Just Men inspired by characters created by Edgar Wallace. His only other series was the comedy The Governor & J. J. (1969-70).
Howard Duff’s character is almost identical to the shifty guy he played in Naked City (1948). He also appeared in Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949), Spy Hunt (1950), Shakedown (1950), Private Hell 36 (1954), Women’s Prison (1955), While the City Sleeps (1956).
On TV he was in Dante (26 episodes, 1960-61) and Felony Squad (73 installments, 1966-69), one Ellery Queen (1976), six appearances on Police Story, 37 episodes of Flamingo Road, and one as Thomas Magnum’s grandfather on Magnum, P.I.
Jan Sterling was in a few crime dramas: Mystery Street (1950), Union Station (1950), Appointment with Danger (1951), Split Second (1953, reviewed here), The Human Jungle (1954), Female on the Beach (1955), and two episodes of The Name of the Game.
Hulu: http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi869793817/
Editorial Comment: The photo you see of Howard Duff is strictly a case of “None of the Above,” as far as the credits go as listed for him by Mike. If you know the part he’s playing, then you almost assuredly know who it is who’s in the scene with him.
April 3rd, 2010 at 8:47 pm
I have a Dan Dailey anecdote from about 1964, one that I still feel guilty about.
In high school, afternoons after school I did deliveries for my neighborhood pharmacy in Bel Air California. One day there was one to Dan Dailey’s house.
He answered the front door himself, friendly and grinning.
Truthfully at that age I still had trouble distinguishing between Dan Dailey and Don Defore; nevertheless as soon as I saw him I knew it was Dailey.
Not wanting to appear star-struck I said blankly, “Mr. Dan Dailey??”
His face fell, crestfallen in disappointment that I apparently had no idea who he was. Believe me, I ruined his day…at least.
From that day on I have never seen his name in print or image on TV without feeling bad for hurting his feelings because I had to act cool.
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Lest we forget Howard Duff was also radio’s Sam Spade/Charlie Wild — and wasn’t there a brief TV series?
The Dailey story reminds me of the famous story James Arness liked to tell.
Soon after he started GUNSMOKE he was in New York promoting the show when he was stopped on the street.
“Now don’t tell me,” the fan said. “You’re you’re …”
Finally a helpful Arness prompted the man. “James Arness.”
“Naw,” the man said. “that’s not it,” and walked away.
April 6th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
And somehow we all seem to have forgotten to mention Duff’s most famous series, ADAM AND EVE with wife Ida Lupino. They even guested in one of the hour long color episodes of I LOVE LUCY playing their Adam and Eve roles as husband and wife film stars.
April 7th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
David
It wasn’t clear whether your pointing out that Howard Duff was the star of the SAM SPADE radio show was prompted by the image I included in Mike’s review or not, but of course that’s who he’s playing in the scene that’s shown.
I’m sort of surprised that nobody’s yet answered the question of who it is that’s in the scene with him.
Duff didn’t play Spade for the entire run of the radio series. Steve Dunne took over for the last season or so, nor did Duff play Charlie Wild when Spade (and Hammett) were eventually forced off the air altogether. There was a Charlie Wild TV show, but never a Sam Spade one, so far as I know.
And yes, I certainly remember MR. ADAMS AND EVE, with Howard Duff and his then-wife Ida Lupino. For a long time I’ve been thinking I might be the only one who did, so it’s good to know I’m not. The only one, that is.
I don’t remember much about it, nothing at all, to tell you the truth, except that I made a definite point of never missing an episode.
Ida Lupino was a beautiful and talented lady.
— Steve
April 8th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Steve
MR. ADAMS AND EVE didn’t have a long run as I recall, but it was one of those bright series that stuck in the mind, Lupino and Duff seemed to have real fun doing it, and as you say she was always a knockout.
If you have never seen it, catch her in THE LIGHT THAT FAILED with Ronald Colman as the model who destroys him (she’s all of sixteen at the time), and as one of the Bronte sisters in DEVOTION (with Olivia de Haviland and Arthur Kennedy as Bramwell), and in the noirish gothic LADIES IN RETIREMENT with Louis Hayward. She is outstanding in the latter. And it goes without saying she was a hell of a director.
She’s also the heroine in the best of the Rathbone and Bruce Holmes films THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and the best of the Lone Wolf films THE LONE WOLF’s SPY HUNT. Considering she is still a teen in most of these her performances are even more striking.
I knew Duff left the Spade series, but not before it became Charlie Wild. Of course Charlie Wild was named after Wildroot Hair Creme which sponsored the show. A weekly ad in the form of a comic strip ran in many papers (and comic books) with adventures of Sam Spade and later Charlie and most often drawn by legendary comic book artist Lou Fine who went on to work for BOY’S LIFE and drew his own private eye comic strip PETER SCRATCH. Fine was one of the models for the comic strip artist in Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize winner THE ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND KLAY.
Sorry, I can’t make out the actress in the scene with Duff though I assumed it was a scene from Sam Spade. I assumed it was whoever played Effie in the series.
The Spade series was one of the first I sought out when I began collecting old radio on reel to reel tape in the early sixties, and one I have updated to cassette and now CD.
The screwball series was almost surreal in its language and style, closer to Robert Leslie Bellem’s Dan Turner than Dashiell Hammett, but because of that it still hold up well today. Duff’s voice and manner was particularly well suited to the screwball private eye radio made of Sam Spade.
I’m pretty sure I was thinking of the Charlie Wild series, though I’ve never seen any of them.
March 26th, 2021 at 11:08 pm
“The Light That Failed” (mentioned in passing above) just might be my favorite performance by Ida Lupino –and that’s saying something, because she turned in a wagon-train of wonderful performances. I have no criteria to state why this is, just that she seemed to uncork lightning in this role as a self-centered painter’s model. She is wild and jittery and uncontainable. Glad to be reminded of it.