I'm glad TCM decided to show this. Although it's a little afield for them, being a TV episode, it's not totally unconnected to classic film, and was rewarding in a few ways.
The 1950s were the heyday of TV anthology shows--so many, I won't blame you if you never heard of Screen Directors Playhouse. I hadn't either, despite a strong concept: established Hollywood movie directors, and mostly A-list actors, put on a 30-minute story. Judging by this episode, the directors got to make use of production values that were high for mid-50s TV.
Norman Z. McLeod directed some popular Bob Hope comedies, and other films like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. That was about a frustrated man who indulges in daydream fantasies, so maybe that's why McLeod directed The Life of Vernon Hathaway, which sounds like it could be accused of being derivative. But it's fairly enjoyable for what it is.
Ernest Stockhoeffer is bored working at his humble clock and watch shop, and he can't make headway with his would-be fiancee Irma. Like Mitty, Ernest escapes by indulging in fantasies. In fact, he creates an alter ego named Vernon Hathaway to engage in the exciting activities of winning swordfights or the World Series. When a wonderful cash windfall comes along for Ernest, will it lead him towards a more Vernon-like life?
You'll have to watch to find out how well this ends for Ernest, but along the way is a comedy of circumstances and mistaken identity. It's rather amusing, and some of the events are extraordinary, but they tend not to be filmed in an extraordinary way. And some of the fantasies consist only of vague stock footage.
But there is one genuinely impressive special effect: out of the coat pocket where Ernest keeps his big cash, periodically an imaginary figure of Vernon crawls out and up onto Ernest's shoulder to encourage him. It looks great for the time; the trick photography is very clean and neat. When mini-Vernon is done, he dives back into the pocket, and the image (usually) cuts off right where the pocket begins. The whole thing is simultaneously a neat metaphor.
Playing the hero is Alan Young. In what I've seen of him (e.g. His hit sitcom "Mister Ed," which is great fun), it seems he was a character actor whose affable persona appeared in light comedies. (I have yet to see Androcles and the Lion, in which technically Young does Shaw!) He was a good choice for Ernest.
I didn't recognize Cloris Leachman ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show") in an early turn as his fiancee (though she'd been doing anthologies like this for years).
The only real off-note is one scene involving a racing locomotive that is so bizarre, unrealistic, and inconsistent with the rest of the episode, that I couldn't tell whether it was supposed to be another fantasy. Apparently not.
Another positive: the train staff includes a couple of black characters who are presented straight and inoffensively. One of the roles is a bit substantial, too, and it's played by Roy Glenn ("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"). Very good by the standards of 1955 TV.
The 1950s were the heyday of TV anthology shows--so many, I won't blame you if you never heard of Screen Directors Playhouse. I hadn't either, despite a strong concept: established Hollywood movie directors, and mostly A-list actors, put on a 30-minute story. Judging by this episode, the directors got to make use of production values that were high for mid-50s TV.
Norman Z. McLeod directed some popular Bob Hope comedies, and other films like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. That was about a frustrated man who indulges in daydream fantasies, so maybe that's why McLeod directed The Life of Vernon Hathaway, which sounds like it could be accused of being derivative. But it's fairly enjoyable for what it is.
Ernest Stockhoeffer is bored working at his humble clock and watch shop, and he can't make headway with his would-be fiancee Irma. Like Mitty, Ernest escapes by indulging in fantasies. In fact, he creates an alter ego named Vernon Hathaway to engage in the exciting activities of winning swordfights or the World Series. When a wonderful cash windfall comes along for Ernest, will it lead him towards a more Vernon-like life?
You'll have to watch to find out how well this ends for Ernest, but along the way is a comedy of circumstances and mistaken identity. It's rather amusing, and some of the events are extraordinary, but they tend not to be filmed in an extraordinary way. And some of the fantasies consist only of vague stock footage.
But there is one genuinely impressive special effect: out of the coat pocket where Ernest keeps his big cash, periodically an imaginary figure of Vernon crawls out and up onto Ernest's shoulder to encourage him. It looks great for the time; the trick photography is very clean and neat. When mini-Vernon is done, he dives back into the pocket, and the image (usually) cuts off right where the pocket begins. The whole thing is simultaneously a neat metaphor.
Playing the hero is Alan Young. In what I've seen of him (e.g. His hit sitcom "Mister Ed," which is great fun), it seems he was a character actor whose affable persona appeared in light comedies. (I have yet to see Androcles and the Lion, in which technically Young does Shaw!) He was a good choice for Ernest.
I didn't recognize Cloris Leachman ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show") in an early turn as his fiancee (though she'd been doing anthologies like this for years).
The only real off-note is one scene involving a racing locomotive that is so bizarre, unrealistic, and inconsistent with the rest of the episode, that I couldn't tell whether it was supposed to be another fantasy. Apparently not.
Another positive: the train staff includes a couple of black characters who are presented straight and inoffensively. One of the roles is a bit substantial, too, and it's played by Roy Glenn ("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"). Very good by the standards of 1955 TV.