The Hitchcock Project-Stanley Ellin Part Five: You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life [7.7] and Wrapup

by Jack Seabrook

Being a woman in America in the late '50s/early '60s was no picnic, as we have seen repeatedly on various episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but the ordeal of Julie Barton, as presented in "You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life," may be the worst example yet. In Stanley Ellin's story, which was first published in the May 1958 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Julie awakens from sleep and thinks her husband Tom has come home late from work, but instead a gloved hand covers her mouth and, when she bites it, she is punched until she passes out. She wakes up to find herself being attended to by a doctor as her husband urges her to describe her attacker to the police. Lieutenant Christensen and Mr. Dahl from the District Attorney's office attempt to interrogate her, but all she remembers is that the man wore leather gloves.

"You Can't Be a Little
Girl All Your Life"
was first published here

Implying that she was raped, the police pressure her to help identify her attacker for the safety of the community. She receives round the clock attention from her husband and two nurses. Her parents visit and her mother reports that Tom is determined to kill Julie's attacker once he has been identified. She warns Dr. Vaughn, who promises to tell the police so that they will keep an eye on Tom. A suspect, Charles Brunner, is arrested and Julie is brought to the police station to identify him; under great pressure, she agrees that he was her attacker. Tom pulls a gun and lunges toward the man, but the police tackle him and his leg is broken in the melee.

After Tom spends time in the hospital, he comes home with his leg in a cast. As the trial approaches, Julie avoids mentioning the subject. One evening, after Tom is asleep, Dr. Karlweiss visits and wants to know if she is sure that Brunner was the man who attacked her. Karlweiss had been treating Brunner and says that a crime of this sort is out of character for him. As the trial gets ever closer, Julie is filled with a sense of impending dread. One evening, Tom asks her to gather his clothes to take to the tailor so that he will ready to attend the trial. She picks up the jacket that he had not worn since the night of the attack and finds a pair of gloves in the pocket; one is "crusted with dark-brown stains." Tom, hobbled by his cast, admits that he came home drunk from work after a business deal fell through. He could not find his key, so he crawled through the window. "'That's when it happened,'" he says. He can't explain why he did it, but he insists that she must go through with seeing that Brunner is convicted so she will never have to think of it again. Tom insists that no one will believe her if she tells the truth. Julie runs into the street, discarding the dark glasses behind which she had been hiding, and "fled toward lights and people."

Dick York as Tom

In this story, Stanley Ellin provides clues to the horrible fact of the attacker's identity while painting an uncomfortable portrait of a woman whose own identity is defined by the men around her. Julie is "desperately anxious to give him the answer he wanted" when Lt. Christensen presses her for details of her attacker's appearance, and her interrogators demonstrate no compassion for her, showing her her own face in a mirror to try to force a reaction. Her own mother insists that Julie protect Tom from his violent instincts and tells her that she "'owes'" her husband sex, leaving Julie "chilled by a sudden insight into her parents' life together." Julie is treated like a child: Dr. Vaughn tells her that she looks "'mighty cute in those dark glasses '" and Julie, understandably, admits that "'I just feel better wearing them,'" happy to shield herself from the reality of the situation before her.

Carolyn Kearney as Julie

Julies complicity in her situation is not ignored, however. When Tom calls her "'the only demure married woman in the world,'" she glows with happiness. At the story's climax, when Tom attempts to justify his actions, Julie's eyes are opened and she realizes that her weakness lies in "the need to have them always approve." At the end, she removes the dark glasses and throws them to the ground, no longer hiding herself from the reality of her world where men are in charge and she has been powerless.

Three years after Ellin's story was published, Helen Nielsen adapted it for television and it was broadcast on Alfred Hitchcock Presents on NBC on Tuesday, November 21, 1961. The teleplay removes the story's opening scene, where Julie is attacked, and the episode opens on a close up of Julie in profile. The right side of her face is kept hidden by how she is positioned and where the camera is placed, creating anticipation for the moment when her bruises are first shown. We learn of the assault through dialogue and Julie's interrogators subtly suggest that she may have played some part in her own victimization, asking how she spent her long, lonely evenings. Nielsen ends the first segment with a shocking moment, as Dahl spins Julie's chair around and we see her full face reflected in a wall mirror for the first time, followed by a cut to a close up of her eyes, one of which is badly bruised.

Julie is forced to look in the mirror

Nielsen increases Julie's isolation by removing all of the other female characters from the story and by increasing the focus on how the men in Julie's life have always sheltered her. When Julie's father visits, he explains that her mother died when Julie was young and her father raised her, protectively. He insists on tucking her into bed like a child and reminds Tom that her husband was also her first boyfriend; she went straight from the role of daughter to that of wife. Dr. Vaughn also asks Julie how she spent her evenings, suggesting that she was going out or doing something to encourage her attacker. Nielsen's script downplays Tom's violent tendencies; he has no gun at the police station and no one tells Julie she needs to protect him.

Ted de Corsia as Lt. Christensen

The final scene benefits from good shot choices by director Norman Lloyd. We see Tom sitting before a mirror in a shot that shows Julie's point of view; he puts on his tie and a pair of crutches are thrust into the frame in front of him. Julie goes to get his coat and puts on her dark glasses, suggesting that, once more, she is trying to shield herself from the truth. She takes his coat out of the closet and drops it, then sees the glove poking out of a pocket; she sees the torn finger and puts the glove on her own hand to confirm her suspicions.

Julie then confronts Tom in a scene that is more suspenseful than the one in Ellin's story. Once again, the camera shows her point of view, and we are in Julie's place as she approaches her husband. Her hand, holding the glove, enters the frame as she asks him about the garment and then accuses him. "'You hit me!'" she says, leaving any mention of rape out of the discussion. Unlike the story, where Tom is unable to stand up, here he gets up and, using his crutches, approaches her menacingly as he makes his excuses, falling once but getting back up and continuing towards her as she yells at him and finally takes off her glasses. He makes one last lunge and falls to the floor; she throws the glasses down and exits, repeating: "'They will believe me!'"

Howard Caine as Dahl

"You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life" is a good adaptation of a powerful short story, a short, low-budget crime film that makes good use of minimal sets and scene changes. The entire episode takes place in three rooms: Julie's bedroom, her living room, and a room at the police station. Carolyn Kearney gives a strong performance as Julie and Helen Nielsen's teleplay streamlines the story, increasing the suspense and adding moments of high tension such as the incident at the end of first segment where Julie is forced to look at herself in the mirror. Norman Lloyd's direction is sharp, with the point of view shots near the end of the episode recalling similar shots used by Robert Stevens in episodes like "Our Cooks a Treasure," and the camera angles and positioning of Kearney in the first scene creating viewer anticipation for the revelation of her bruised face.

Frank Milan as Dr. Vaughn

Helen Nielsen (1918-2002) contributed to the designs of aircraft in World War Two and the FictionMags Index lists over fifty short stories written by her, mostly between 1954 and 1973. She also wrote crime novels for 25 years, from The Kind Man in 1951 to The Brink of Murder in 1976. There were a handful of TV and film adaptations of her work, and she wrote teleplays for the Hitchcock show, both adapting her own stories for the small screen and adapting the work of others, such as Stanley Ellin.

Needing no introduction is Norman Lloyd (1914- ), who directed twenty-two episodes of the Hitchcock show. The last one examined here was Ellin's "The Day of the Bullet."

Bill Quinn as Julie's father

As Tom, the brutal, deceiving husband, Dick York turns on a dime from concern to menace. His screen career lasted from 1945 to 1984 and he was seen on the Hitchcock show seven times, including Ellin's "The Blessington Method."

Carolyn Kearney (1930-2005), so effective as the battered wife, was born in Detroit. Her screen career was rather brief, lasting from 1956 to 1970, and this was the only time she appeared on the Hitchcock show. She was also seen on The Twilight Zone and she played Dick York's wife once again (having not learned her lesson) on the classic Thriller episode, "The Incredible Dr. Markesan."

In smaller roles:

• Ted de Corsia (1905-1973) plays Lt. Christensen; he was on Old Time Radio and then on screen from 1947 to 1972, playing countless small roles on TV, including appearances on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, and The Outer Limits. He was seen on the Hitchcock show three times, including "The Magic Shop." His first film credit was for Orson Welles's The Lady from Shanghai.
• Frank Milan (1905-1977) plays Dr. Vaughn; he had an unremarkable career on screen, appearing on film from 1937 to 1942 and on TV from 1951 to 1962. This was his only role on the Hitchcock show.
• Howard Caine (1926-1993) plays Dahl, the District Attorney's man; born Howard Cohen in Nashville, he served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War Two and was on Broadway. His screen career lasted from 1953 to 1988 and he was seen on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. He was a semi-regular on Hogan's Heroes and an accomplished banjo player. Caine appeared on three episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat."
• Bill Quinn (1912-1994) plays Julie's father; he was on film as a child in 1923-1924 and then returned to the screen in 1956 and stayed till 1989. He was seen in countless TV shows and played Dr. Melnitz in four episodes of The Odd Couple. He also had a part in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). He was in two episodes of the Hitchcock TV show.

Like most of the seventh season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life" is not yet available on DVD in the U.S., nor is it available for viewing online.

Sources:

Ellin, Stanley. “You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life.” The Specialty of the House, Mysterious Press, 1979.

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

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

"Helen Berniece Nielsen." Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2003. Contemporary Authors Online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/H1000073099/CA?u=lawr69060&sid=CA&xid=ecc117b1. Accessed 28 May 2018.

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

Stephensen-Payne, Phil. Galactic Central, philsp.com/.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 May 2018, www.wikipedia.org/.
“You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life.” Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 7, episode 7, NBC, 21 Nov. 1961.

Stanley Ellin on Alfred Hitchcock Presents: An Overview and Episode Guide

The eight episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents based on stories by Stanley Ellin represent a very strong group indeed. All of the stories originally appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, from the first ("The Specialty of the House") in May 1948 to the last ("The Day of the Bullet") in October 1959. Two episodes aired toward the end of season one: "Help Wanted" and "The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby"; both were fine adaptations that featured meek men who turn to murder. The weakest of the batch is the sole episode from season three, "The Festive Season"; the story on which it is based depends on a twist ending and the TV show is overly talky.

Three episodes from the fifth season deserve the label of "classics": "The Blessington Method," a rare show with science fiction elements that posits a solution to the problem of the elderly; "Specialty of the House," an unforgettable look at cannibalism and greed based on the story that launched Ellin's career; and "The Day of the Bullet," a wistful lament about childhood and how two boys' paths diverge after a seminal event.

Finally, season seven brought two more Ellin stories to the small screen: "You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life," a fine, low budget crime film that paints a troubling picture of a woman's life in 1961, and "The Faith of Aaron Menefee," with a script by Ray Bradbury that tells of a possibly crooked faith healer in rural America.

Stanley Ellin's stories are a delight to read and they served as great sources for a series of wonderful half hours of classic television.

EPISODE GUIDE-STANLEY ELLIN ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS

Episode title-“Help Wanted” [1.27]

Broadcast date-1 April 1956

Teleplay by-Robert C. Dennis

Based on-"Help Wanted" by Stanley Ellin

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine June 1949

Notes

Watch episode-here
Available on DVD?-here

"Help Wanted"

Episode title-"The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby" [1.29]

Broadcast date-15 April 1956

Teleplay by-Victor Wolfson and Robert C. Dennis

Based on-"The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby" by Stanley Ellin

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine May 1950

Notes

Watch episode-here

Available on DVD?-here

"The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby"

Episode title-"The Festive Season" [3.31]

Broadcast date-4 May 1958

Teleplay by-James P. Cavanagh

Based on-"Death on Christmas Eve" by Stanley Ellin

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine January 1950

Notes

Watch episode-here

Available on DVD?-here

"The Festive Season"

Episode title-"The Blessington Method" [5.8]

Broadcast date-15 November 1959

Teleplay by-Halsted Welles

Based on-"The Blessington Method" by Stanley Ellin

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine June 1956

Notes

Watch episode-here

Available on DVD?-here

"The Blessington Method"

Episode title-"Specialty of the House" [5.12]

Broadcast date-13 December 1959

Teleplay by-Victor Wolfson and Bernard C. Schoenfeld

Based on-"The Specialty of the House" by Stanley Ellin

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine May 1948

Notes

Watch episode-here

Available on DVD?-here

"Specialty of the House"

Episode title-"The Day of the Bullet" [5.20]

Broadcast date-14 February 1960

Teleplay by-Bill S. Ballinger

Based on-"The Day of the Bullet" by Stanley Ellin

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine October 1959

Notes

Watch episode-here

Available on DVD?-here

"The Day of the Bullet"

Episode title-"You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life" [7.7]

Broadcast date-21 November 1961

Teleplay by-Helen Nielsen

Based on-"You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life" by Stanley Ellin

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine May 1958

Notes

Watch episode-unavailable

Available on DVD?-no

"You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life"

Episode title-"The Faith of Aaron Menefee" [7.17]

Broadcast date-30 January 1962

Teleplay by-Ray Bradbury

Based on-"The Faith of Aaron Menefee" by Stanley Ellin

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine September 1957

Notes

Watch episode-unavailable

Available on DVD?-no

"The Faith of Aaron Menefee"

In two weeks: Our short series on John Cheever begins with "The Five-Forty-Eight," starring Phyllis Thaxter and Zachary Scott!

The Hitchcock Project-Stanley Ellin Part Four: The Day of the Bullet [5.20]

by Jack Seabrook

Stanley Ellin's short story, "The Day of the Bullet," was first published in the October 1959 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Told in the first person by an unnamed narrator, the story begins with his assertion that the day in question was a turning point in the life of his best friend when they were boys together in Brooklyn in 1923. The narrator's family was moving to Manhattan the next day, so the day in question was fraught with emotion and the sense of an ending.

In the present, the narrator is eating breakfast with his wife when he sees a newspaper headline reporting the death of racket boss Ignace Kovacs, who was shot to death in his car, a bag of golf clubs on the seat next to him. The narrator tells his wife that Kovacs was his next door neighbor and best friend in 1923 when they lived in Bath Beach, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, where the story's author was also born. In a flashback, he tells of Mr. Rose, who lived in a large house at the end of their block. Once, while playing around by Rose's fancy car, Rose caught Iggy by the arm and shook him, causing Iggy to threaten to tell his father, whom he idolized.

"The Day of the Bullet"
was first published here

One day, the boys went to the Dyker Heights golf course to fish for golf balls in the water hazard. They witnessed Rose beat up another man and dump him in the water. The narrator wanted to flee, but Iggy insisted on trying to help the victim, who chased the boys away. Iggy decided to tell the police, but they were strangely unmoved by his story. Mr. Rose and Iggy's father were brought in and Rose denied the incident. To Iggy's shock, his father seemed nervous and did not stick up for Iggy. Rose told Iggy to come to his house for odd jobs and gave the boy a five-dollar bill. Thirty-five years later, the narrator understands that that was the day when Iggy switched loyalties from his father to Mr. Rose and set out on a life of crime that would end decades later with his violent death.

The title of the story refers to the day in 1923 when the narrator says that the bullet was figuratively fired that would reach its target decades later. The narrator believes that each person has "one day of destiny" and the lives of the two boys went in different directions: the narrator is shown to be happily married, while his friend became a criminal. Ellin paints a vivid picture of 1923 Brooklyn as it seemed to a 12-year-old boy, where the most wealthy and powerful man in the neighborhood was a gangster made rich by bootlegging during Prohibition.

Barry Gordon as Iggy

Iggy, the narrator's best friend, was always "full of mischief" but worshipped his father, a trolley car conductor and Sunday afternoon baseball star. The narrator leaves Iggy behind, moving up in the world and across the river to Manhattan, while Iggy stays in the more working-class borough of Brooklyn. Ellin uses symbolism when he shows that the boys have to climb over landfill to reach the golf course, which smells bad; the beating they witness is a visual demonstration of the festering garbage buried underneath the green expanse of the course. Iggy, "small and skinny," identifies with the man who is beaten and it is not clear whether Iggy wants to help the man and report the incident to the police out of charitable instincts or from a desire for revenge. The narrator, who grows up to be a solid citizen, wants to leave and not get involved, but Iggy insists on checking on the wounded man and reporting the crime to the authorities.

Iggy is confronted by a series of surprises that make him re-evaluate his core beliefs:

1. The beaten man does not appreciate the boys' concern and tells them to go away. 
2. The police are not concerned about the crime, especially after they learn of Rose's involvement. 
3. Mr. Rose arrives at the police station calm and in control of the situation. 
4. Iggy's father is visibly nervous and does not support his son. 

Glenn Walken as Clete

After Rose offers to pay Iggy to do odd jobs and gives him money, it is not surprising that the boy turns on his father and transfers his loyalty to Rose. "The Day of the Bullet" is a story of the transition from childhood to adulthood. The boys are twelve years old, on the cusp of puberty and at an age where they begin to be responsible for their own moral choices. The narrator is lucky in that he is removed from the neighborhood and thus avoids having to choose between a good and an evil life. Iggy has seen how the world of men operates and does not have the internal strength or moral character to resist pursuing a life of crime, despite having tried to act honorably when confronted with a dilemma.

John Craven as Clete as an adult

"The Day of the Bullet" is a brilliant, elegiac story that was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Short Story of the Year but lost to Roald Dahl's "The Landlady." It was quickly bought and adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, airing on CBS on Valentine's Day, Sunday, February 14, 1960. The teleplay is by Bill S. Ballinger and is a Valentine to the viewers, a classic episode of the series.

Ballinger’s script for the TV show follows Ellin’s short story closely, with a few small changes and one big change. The film opens with establishing shots of New York City skyscrapers to set the scene, then we see a man walking down a city sidewalk and buying a newspaper at a newsstand. Gone is the story’s opening narration and gone is the scene at the breakfast table between the narrator and his wife; in fact, "The Day of the Bullet" is an unusual episode in that it features not a single female character. Why did Ballinger choose to alter the opening in this way? The reason will not become apparent until the end of the show.

Dennis Patrick as Mr. Rose

The newspaper’s headline reads, "Brooklyn Rackets Boss Shot to Death," and the voice over narration briefly tells us that the man on the street is remembering events of thirty-five years ago as the scene dissolves to 1925. Ballinger takes each scene from the story and turns narrative passages into dialogue, showing us the incident at Mr. Rose’s house with his car rather than describing it. The story's unnamed narrator is given the name of Cletus (Clete) Vine, and we see him and Iggy outside the shop window as Iggy admires the golf club on display inside. Iggy's love for his father is shown in a scene where the man, having come from a baseball game at the park and still in uniform, talks with the boys and tells Iggy that it’s important not to be scared after Iggy confirms that his father would protect him from a bully.

The musical cues in this episode are particularly good, with the strains of what sounds like "Someday My Prince Will Come" audible on the soundtrack during the two scenes between Iggy and his father. In the scene at the golf club, the story's references to landfill and malodorous smell are removed, but Ballinger lifts entire passages of dialogue directly from Ellin's tale, nearly word for word. There is a nice shot at the police station, looking up at the desk sergeant from the boys' point of view, and the show ends with a beautifully shot scene as the boys walk home down a dark, Brooklyn sidewalk, past a row of identical stoops; the setting recalls the settings of Fritz Lang’s great, mid-1940s films with Edward G. Robinson, The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street. The flashback ends with Iggy running off alone in tears, calling back to Clete, "You’ll see!" several times.

There is a dissolve back to the present and a close up of the newspaper with "Ignace (Iggy) Kovacs" highlighted above the headline. This is why Ballinger changed the opening scene: the revelation of the relationship between the dead racket boss and the boy in the flashback was uncertain till this moment, and there was some question throughout the flashback as to which of the boys grew up to be a racketeer. Voice over narration ties the events from thirty-five years ago to the murder the night before, and the show comes to an end.

"The Day of the Bullet" is another example of a great short story that translates beautifully to the small screen, where the script is brought to life by expert direction and great performances by the cast members, especially Barry Gordon as Iggy.

Biff Elliott as Iggy's father

The show was directed by Norman Lloyd (1914- ), the actor/director/ producer with the Hitchcock connection who directed twenty-two episodes of the television series. Though not credited on screen, it is Lloyd’s voice we hear giving the voice over narration at the beginning and end of this episode.

Bill S. Ballinger (1912-1980) wrote the teleplay, which (like the short story on which it was based) was nominated for but did not win an Edgar Award. Ballinger began writing for radio in the 1930s and 1940s, then wrote for television from 1949 to 1975, penning seven episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents as well as an episode of The Outer Limits and two episodes of The Night Stalker. He also wrote many crime novels from 1948 to 1975. There is an excellent website here devoted to the man and his work.

Giving a hyperkinetic performance as Iggy is Barry Gordon (1948- ), a child actor who also had success at a very young age as a singer. Gordon went on to a long career as both a character actor and a voice actor and he was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1988 to 1995. His screen career began in 1956 and continues today, and he was seen in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and one each of Thriller and The Night Stalker.

Harry Landers as Joe, the chauffeur

His best friend Clete is played by Glenn Walken (1945- ), whose TV career ran from 1952 to 1974 and whose last credit was a small role in Apocalypse Now. His brother is the actor, Christopher Walken.

Dennis Patrick (1918-2002) plays the menacing Mr. Rose; he was a busy TV actor who was on screen from 1949 to 1994 and who was seen in three episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Last Escape."

Iggy’s father, whose feet turn out to be made of clay, is played by Biff Elliott (1923-2012), who started out on TV in 1950 and whose first film credit was as Mike Hammer in I, the Jury (1953). Elliott appeared on screen through 1986 and was on Alfred Hitchcock Presents five times, including "A Crime for Mothers." He also appeared on Star Trek. There is a website about his career here.

In smaller roles:

Harry Landers (1921-2017) as Joe, the chauffeur who menaces the boys in Mr. Rose's driveway; he was also in "Breakdown" and was on screen from 1947 to 1991, usually playing bit parts.

Clegg Hoyt as the desk sergeant

John Craven (1916-1995) as the adult Clete, who is seen in the opening and closing scenes with the newspaper; he was in the original Broadway cast of Our Town and he was on screen from 1937 to 1970, appearing in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as well as Thriller and The Twilight Zone.

Clegg Hoyt (1910-1967) plays the desk sergeant at the police station; his brief career on screen spanned the years from 1955 to 1967 and he was on the Hitchcock show four times, as well as on Thriller and The Twilight Zone.

David Fresco (1909-1997) plays the man who gets beaten up on the golf course; he was on screen from 1946 to 1997 and may be seen in no less than 12 episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Gloating Place."

David Fresco as the golf course victim

Sam Gilman (1915-1985) plays the cop who brings the boys to see the sergeant; his career is most interesting. He started out as a comic book artist for Marvel and Centaur from 1939 to 1942, drawing a text illustration for Marvel Comics #1. He then served in World War Two. On returning to civilian life, he became an actor and befriended Marlon Brando. He moved to Hollywood and got his first role in Brando’s film, The Men (1950). He went on to a career on screen that lasted until 1983 and he may be seen in five episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Insomnia." He was also on Thriller.

Sam Gilman

The beautiful photography in "The Day of the Bullet" is the work of Neal Beckner (1906-1972), who worked his way up in Hollywood as a member of film camera crews starting in 1930, eventually becoming a TV director of photography by 1956. He had this role for 26 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, in seasons five through seven, and "The Day of the Bullet" was the first to air. He also was the cinematographer for a handful of films in the early 1960s.

Finally, the fine selection of musical cues (something that could be a distraction on the Hitchcock series, especially in early years) was the work of Frederick Herbert (1909-1966), who was the music supervisor for 59 episodes in seasons four through six.

"The Day of the Bullet" is available on DVD here or may be viewed online for free here. Read the Genre Snaps review here.

Sources:

"The Day of the Bullet." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 5, episode 20, CBS, 14 Feb. 1960.

Ellin, Stanley. "The Day of the Bullet." The Specialty of the House, Mysterious Press, 1979.

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

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

Grand Comics Database, www.comics.org/.

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

"Neal Beckner." British Film Institute, www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bc30e3d77.

Stephensen-Payne, Phil. "Galactic Central." Galactic Central, philsp.com/.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 May 2018, www.wikipedia.org/.

In two weeks: Our series on Stanley Ellin concludes with "You Can’t Be a Little Girl All Your Life," starring Dick York!

The Hitchcock Project-Stanley Ellin Part Three: Specialty of the House [5.12]

by Jack Seabrook

Stanley Ellin's first story, "The Specialty of the House," is his most famous. Published in the May 1948 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, it begins as a man named Laffler takes his employee Costain to dinner at Sbirro's, a restaurant housed in the basement of an unassuming brownstone. They are welcomed into a small dining room that is lit by gas jets, where no women are allowed and where an East Indian waiter serves them. Laffler is disappointed to learn that the special is not being offered tonight, and Costain is surprised to learn that every diner is served the same dish, prepared by a single chef. Laffler has never seen the inside of the kitchen but is obsessed with it.

"The Specialty of the House"
was first published here

The meal is superb but the rules are strict: no condiments, tobacco, alcohol, or any drink besides water are allowed. Laffler explains that Sbirro's is for the true gourmet. The meat is delicious but Laffler tells Costain that it is nothing like the special: Lamb Amirstan, from a rare flock of sheep on the border between Afghanistan and Russia. The dish is not often served and no notice is given. Most of the patrons are regulars and the restaurant is a well-kept secret.

Costain begins to accompany Laffler to Sbirro's on a regular basis and his profile at work improves as he puts on weight. Two weeks after his first visit to Sbirro's, the special is served, though one of the regular diners is missing. Costain meets Sbirro for the first time when the owner visits Laffler's table and explains that his restaurant is not a private club but rather is open to the public, since he only wants people to eat and enjoy his food. Pointing out a portrait that hangs on the wall, Sbirro explains that it portrays one man who was allowed into the kitchen. Costain recognizes the man as a famous writer who disappeared in Mexico, and he and Laffler savor their Lamb Amirstan.

The next evening, on the way to dinner at Sbirro's, Laffler and Costain encounter their waiter being choked by a drunken sailor who accuses the waiter of having tried to rob him. Laffler attacks the sailor and he and Costain subdue him, leading the waiter to tell Laffler that he owes him his life. Sitting down to dinner at Sbirro's, Laffler informs Costain that he is off to South America on a surprise tour of inspection for an unknown duration and that he is leaving tonight. The waiter that he saved warns Laffler never to go into the kitchen and Sbirro appears and tells Laffler that the chef flew into a rage when he heard there might be a guest in his domain. Sbirro invites Laffler into the kitchen alone and Costain gets up to leave. The last thing he sees is Laffler being led into the kitchen by Sbirro.

Robert Morley as Laffler

"The Specialty of the House" is a well-written story that is subtle in its menace, where the final events are only implied but are terribly clear in their implications. The parallels to ancient practices and religious rites are evident throughout the tale. Like a church, Sbirro's has "'refused to compromise'" and seems not to have changed in "'half a century.'" Costain remarks to Laffler early in the story that "'you make it sound more like a cathedral than a restaurant.'" Comparisons of humans and animals are also evident, as Laffler is described as having "large, cowlike eyes." The entrance to Sbirro's has an "ancient pull-bell," and the restaurant is lit by gas jets, not modern electricity. No women are allowed and only one meal is served, much like Communion in the Catholic Church.

The kitchen at Sbirro's is off limits to patrons (parishioners), like the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple and, like a religion, there are strict rules prohibiting alcohol, tobacco, and women. Laffler comments that the restaurant "'represents man at the apex of his civilization,'" yet it also seems like something retained from ancient times. When Costain tries the meat for the first time, his consumption of the dish is described in animalistic terms:  he notes "the peculiarly flat, yet soul-satisfying ooze of blood which the pressure of his jaws forced from the half-raw interior," he is "ferociously hungry for another piece," and he must prevent himself from "wolfing [it] down."

Kenneth Haigh as Costain

The owner and his staff are exotic and the signature dish, Lamb Amirstan, is from a foreign land. Laffler calls Sbirro's a "'warm haven in a coldy insane world,'" much as a churchgoer might view the inside of a church. In a sense, Costain is like a new convert to a religion; he is "hypnotized" by Sbirro's words. Continuing the theme of restaurant as temple, Laffler refers to the kitchen as the "'sanctum sanctorum'" (a/k/a the Holy of Holies, or innermost room in the temple, where only the high priest could enter once a year, on the Day of Atonement) and when Costain takes a bite of Lamb Amirstan he exclaims, "'Good God!'" as if he has just taken a Communion wafer that has been transformed by the priest into the Body of Christ.

Costain comments that "'It is as impossible . . . for the uninitiated to conceive the delights of lamb Amirstan as for mortal man to look into his own soul,'" causing Sbirro to reply, "'perhaps you have just had a glimpse into your soul.'" Costain says that "'I should hardly like to build my church on lamb en casserole,'" which is meant as a humorous remark but which recalls Jesus' statement about Peter being the Rock upon which he will build his church. Sbirro, continuing the same theme, suggests that Costain turn his "'thoughts a little to the significance of the Lamb in religion.'" Stanley Ellis could not be much clearer at this point in the story; Sbirro is referring to the sacrificial lamb, whose life is taken as payment for the sins of others. At the end of the story, Laffler will be the next lamb to be sacrificed.

Spivy as Spirro

Laffler himself recognizes the parallels between food and religion, stating that "'Lamb Amirstan is a ritual with [Sbirro]; get him started and he'll be back at you a dozen times worse than a priest making a conversion.'" After the sailor attacks the waiter, Laffler says that the sailor's drunken and violent condition is due to "'Plain atavistic savagery'" but he quickly uses the same term to explain his and Costain's reason for enjoying the consumption of meat: "'because our atavistic selves cry for release.'" Atavism describes the return of an ancestral trait lost through evolution over generations; in a sense, the sailor's attack and the diners' enjoyment of meat both hearken back to the actions of primitive man. Laffler compliments Sbirro for bending "'all his efforts to the satisfaction of our innate nature without resultant harm to some innocent bystander,'" not realizing that he himself will soon be harmed to satisfy the appetites of his fellow diners.

In the end, the East Indian waiter believes he owes his life to Laffler and warns him in a particularly significant way, telling him "'By the body and blood of your God . . . do not go in the kitchen . . .'" As Sbirro leads Laffler into the Holy of Holies, Costain glances back, much like Lot's wife looking back at Sodom. Costain sees the lamb being led to the slaughter but fortunately he is not turned into a pillar of salt, since condiments are not permitted at Sbirro's.

"The Specialty of the House" has clear religious parallels but is also a thoroughly entertaining story with hidden treats. The famous writer who disappeared in Mexico is surely meant to recall Ambrose Bierce, who disappeared in that country in 1914 while observing the revolution. Ellis has a bit of fun here by suggesting that the author did not really make it south of the border but rather was an earlier victim of Sbirro, served to diners on the eve of the first world war. Near the end of the story, Costain makes a comment that he intends as humorous but which is unintentionally prescient: "'think of that ferocious chef waiting to get his cleaver on you.'"

George Keymas as Paul, the waiter

In 1959, when the decision was made to adapt Ellin's story for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the writer assigned to the task had a challenging job ahead of him. In his introduction to a 1979 collection of his mystery short stories, Ellin wrote that, when he wrote this one, he had "an idea for a story so outrageous that even as I was putting it down on paper I knew it was destined for oblivion." He was certainly wrong about the fate of his tale, but he was not wrong about its outrageous premise. The teleplay for "Specialty of the House" (the definite article has been removed from the title) is credited to Victor Wolfson and Bernard C. Shoenfeld, suggesting that there was some difficulty in translating the story to the small screen that required two writers to work on the teleplay. The show that they crafted benefits from strong performances by the actors and from the creative mind of director Robert Stevens.

The shows opens with two establishing shots. It is night, and the camera pans across a river with a bridge in the distance; we see a highway with many cars speeding by alongside the river. I suspect the city is New York, though this is never explicitly stated (late in the episode, Costain says that he is going to dictate a memo to London, so the setting is not London). The shot dissolves to a fog-shrouded dock, then to a sidewalk, where we see Laffler and Costain hurrying to dinner. Among the many minor alterations from story to screen is the fact that in the TV version, Sbirro's is a private club, not a public eatery, and in the credits at the end of the show, Sbirro's name is spelled "Spirro."

Cyril Delevanti as the diner who says, "No salt!"

Not surprisingly, the religious parallels of Ellin's story are toned down considerably for TV, though a few comments survive: Costain tells Laffler, right before their first experience at Spirro's, that "'You make me feel as if we're going into a temple, not a restaurant,'" to which Laffler replies, "'In a sense, we are.'" Inside the club, the writers of the teleplay use dialogue and interaction between Laffler, Costain, and the other diners to make points that are made through narrative in the story. An Asian diner named Long Fong Ho says he comes three times a year from Singapore "'just to eat here'" and a diner at another table overhears Costain complain about the soup needing salt and exclaims, "'No salt! No salt! Keep the palate pure!'" The key dish, known as Lamb Amirstan in the story, becomes "Lamb Armistan" the first time it is mentioned, and later "Lamb Armistran."

Wolfson and Schoenfeld open up the story by having a few scenes at the office of "Laffler & Co.--Importers/Exporters," where Laffler and Costain interact with the only other employee in sight, a secretary named Miss Hinkle. Costain is shown to be a liar when he breaks a date with Miss Hinkle by saying that Laffler wants to go over accounts with him; in reality, he is accompanying his boss to dinner at Spirro's. The source of Lamb Armistran is said to be a plateau on the boundary of Uganda, perhaps because mentions of Russia were unpopular at the height of the Cold War. Another religious parallel is made when Laffler tells Costain that one of his two obsessions is to "'see the kitchens where these miracles are performed.'" Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly, the dramatic rise that ends the first act comes after Costain asks Laffler of Spirro, "'What sort of a fellow is he?'" Spirro's hand appears on Laffler's shoulder and the camera pans up to reveal a stout woman, rather than a man. This is doubly surprising to those familiar with the story, in which women are banned from the restaurant--now, the owner is a woman! Unlike Ellin's story, Spirro gives notice of the special dish and says, "'I think we shall be having the specialty of the house very soon, my friend.'"

Bettye Ackerman as Miss Hinkle

After the break, we return to see Spirro sitting at a piano, having just finished playing a song and basking in applause from the assembled diners. This is very different portrayal of the restaurant's owner than that in the story, where Sbirro's only concern is to serve food that makes people happy. Costain approaches Spirro and asks if he might become a member; she is impressed by his manners and modesty and Laffler compares her to a religious figure, calling her "'the high priestess of our kitchen.'" This leads to an interesting addition to the religious theme, one not found in Ellin's story, as Spirro says that "'The only dish I prepare personally is the Lamb Armistran. I've been preparing it now for three days.'" Of course, the traditional time between the death and resurrection of Jesus was three days, and the writers of the teleplay seem to be making a subtle comparison here that suggests that the murder of the missing diner and his return as a fine dish parallel the resurrection in the New Testament. When Spirro leaves the dining room, there is a fleeting glimpse of a painting of Mary and the Baby Jesus on the wall.

In another change from the story, Spirro says that "'the specialty shall be ready'" the next night; in Ellin's original, it was always served with no advance notice. The atavistic behavior of the diners when presented with the meat is suggested by Laffler's anger with Costain the following night, when he does not want to share the Lamb Armistran with his employee and thus refuses to let him into the restaurant. Unexpectedly, Spirro comes to the door and lets Costain in herself. After dinner, the scene shifts back to the office, where Laffler shows Costain files in preparation for leaving on his trip. This time, Laffler's statement is prescient, as he remarks that "'I want to have time to enjoy my last meal at Spirro's. Well, my last meal for a few weeks.'"

Lee Turnbull as the chef

The events that follow take a different approach than in the short story. Costain stays behind at the office as Laffler rushes to dine at Spirro's. Taking a seat behind Laffler's desk, he takes a telephone call from Spirro and tells her, "'No, I haven't forgotten.'" Forgotten what? Is Costain aware of what goes on in Spirro's kitchen and is he complicit in Laffler's murder? The answer is not certain. Laffler stops the attack on the waiter by himself and enters the club alone. Soon after that, Costain arrives and hands a wrapped package to Spirro--presumably, the package is what she called him at the office to remind him to bring. Laffler petulantly complains to Spirro and she invites him into the kitchen to address his complaint. The waiter tries to stop Laffler at the kitchen door but Laffler ignores him and enters the kitchen, which is never seen in the short story. In the TV show, Laffler takes time to examine the large, elaborate kitchen in the presence of Spirro, who tells him that the chef is waiting for him. She leads Laffler into a large meat locker, where the chef awaits, holding a large meat cleaver. Spirro shuts the door, grinning ear to ear.

Costain then enters the dining room and Spirro unwraps the package, which contains a framed photograph of Laffler. She hangs it on the wall, in line with many other portraits, and comments "'How well he looks there among our other absent friends.'" Spirro then confirms that the specialty of the house will soon be served and the episode ends, having made Laffler's fate much clearer than it was in the short story but leaving the viewer wondering what Costain's role in the proceedings was and how much he knew about what was going to happen to his boss.

Charles Wagenheim as Henlein

Giving a wonderful performance as Laffler is Robert Morley (1908-1992), an English actor whose girth fits the role perfectly. He started acting on stage in the late 1920s and moved to film in 1935; among his memorable film roles were as Katherine Hepburn's missionary brother in The African Queen (1951) and as the critic who is forced to eat his dogs in Theatre of Blood (1973). Morley turned down a knighthood in 1975 and, unfortunately, this was his only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show.

His employee, Costain, is portrayed by Kenneth Haigh (1931-2018), who was also seen in the Hitchcock-directed episode, "Banquo's Chair." Some of the shots in this episode recall shots in that one, especially in the way Haigh's face is lit. He was on screen from 1954 to 2002 and also appeared on The Twilight Zone and Thriller; he made a splash on stage in 1956 when he starred in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger.

The rather frightening character of Spirro is played by an actress credited only as Spivy (1906-1971). Born Bertha Levine in Brooklyn and known professionally as Spivy, she began her career as a nightclub singer in the 1930s and ran a club in Manhattan called Spivy's Roof from 1940 to 1951. "The Specialty of the House" was her first screen role; she would appear on TV and film occasionally until 1967.

In smaller roles:

• George Keymas (1925-2008) as Paul, the waiter; he had many small parts on TV from 1952 to 1976 and is best remembered as the Leader in the "Eye of the Beholder" episode of The Twilight Zone; his menacing image is beamed on screen throughout the hospital as he advocates for conformity.
• Bettye Ackerman (1924-2006) as Miss Hinkle, the secretary; she had a recurring role on Ben Casey from 1961 to 1966 and was on screen from 1953 to 1991. She was married for many years to the much older actor Sam Jaffe and also appeared in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
• Charles Wagenheim (1896-1979) as Henlein, another diner; he was on screen from 1929 to 1979 and played the assassin in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940). His life ended when he was murdered in his Hollywood apartment.
• Tetsu Komai (1894-1970) as Long Fong Ho, the Asian diner; he was born in Japan and emigrated to the United States in 1907. He was on screen from 1925 to 1964 and his family was held in a Japanese internment camp during World War Two. He appeared in Island of Lost Souls (1932) and one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
• Lee Turnbull makes a fleeting appearance as the chef with the meat cleaver; he has few credits and was on screen from 1951 to 1961.
• Cyril Delevanti (1887-1975) makes an uncredited appearance as the diner who tells Costain, "No salt!" He was on screen from 1931 to 1974 and appeared in three Hitchcock episodes, including "The Derelicts."

Tetsu Komai as Long Fong Ho

Robert Stevens (1920-1989), the director, worked in television from 1948 to 1987 and directed 44 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and five episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He won an Emmy for "The Glass Eye." He also directed 105 episodes of Suspense in the early 1950s.

Victor Wolfson (1909-1990), one of the two writers credited with the teleplay, was a playwright who also wrote books. He wrote for TV from 1951 to 1960, including teleplays for Suspense. He penned an episode of Janet Dean, Registered Nurse, the show that Alfred Hitchcock Presents producer Joan Harrison produced right before the Hitchcock show began, and he wrote six episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby," also based on a short story by Stanley Ellin.

The other writer credited with the teleplay is Bernard C. Schoenfeld (1907-1980), who wrote for film and TV from 1944 to 1975 and who wrote the screenplay for Phantom Lady  (1944), which was produced by Joan Harrison. Among the sixteen episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that he wrote was "A Night with the Boys."

Laffler first enters the kitchen

"The Specialty of the House" was adapted for the 1980s Alfred Hitchcock Presents series and broadcast on March 21, 1987; from summaries in print and online it appears that the story was much different. The short story was also adapted twice for BBC Radio: first, on April 13, 1974, for the series The Price of Fear (with Vincent Price) and later, on March 20, 1988, for the series, Fear on Four.

Read Stanley Ellin's story online here or watch the Alfred Hitchcock Presents version here. Listen to the radio adaptations here and here. The 1959 Hitchcock episode is available on DVD here. The 1987 version is not available on DVD or online, but a short clip is here and it is in Spanish here. Read the Genre Snaps take on this episode here.

Sources:

Ellin, Stanley. “Introduction.” The Specialty of the House, Mysterious Press, 1979.

Ellin, Stanley. “The Specialty of the House.” The Specialty of the House, Mysterious Press, 1979.
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.

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/.
“Specialty of the House.” Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 5, episode 12, CBS, 13 Dec. 1959.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Apr. 2018, www.wikipedia.org/.

In two weeks: The Day of the Bullet, starring Barry Gordon!