When Hell Froze
- Episode aired Feb 2, 1966
- 1h
YOUR RATING
A housewife's kindness to a WWI vet causes a tragic misunderstanding.A housewife's kindness to a WWI vet causes a tragic misunderstanding.A housewife's kindness to a WWI vet causes a tragic misunderstanding.
Photos
E.J. André
- Calicoon
- (as E.J. Andre)
Dan White
- The 2nd Man
- (as Daniel White)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- SoundtracksKiss Me Again
Words by Henry Blossom
Music by Victor Herbert
Played on harmonica (and a few words sung) by Martin Milner
Featured review
Strong Wyman performance, in badly dated tale
William Daniel Steele, one of America's most popular writers back in the 1920s era but largely forgotten today, wrote the short story for this Chrysler Theatre period piece, and alas, it had dated badly. The basic theme is powerful, but its ending is unacceptable by standards of a century later.
Jane Wyman stars in a small town Pennsylvania setting just after World War I, living on a farm with hubby Leslie Nielsen and two sons. When her eldest boy and husband are away in New York on business, she encounters a soldier boy played by Martin Milner, offers him supper and has a platonic but fateful encounter, leading to melodrama.
It boils down to a simple misunderstanding wherein everyone (small town gossip being a given) believes she has cheated on her husband, even though absolutely nothing happened between her and Milner, beyond his mild flirting. Nielsen insists she symbolically wash her hands in water filled with lye to atone, and stubborn Jane refuses, walking out on him and her family to stay in town (and live it up a bit) with her aunt and uncle.
A couple of climactic scenes are well-staged, especially when Milner returns and seems to be ready to rape her, but is actually just testing her in a rather contrived fashion (he had previously starred in a Steele story adaptation "Blue Devil" on his "Route 66" series, but is too good to be true here). Conclusion to the show is strictly acceptable dramaturgy for a Silent Movie, dated even for 1966 when this was aired let alone now.
Milner invited Jane's character to leave her subjugated and stilted status as the farmer's wife, lorded over by her husband, and go away with him to see the "wide world", which she turns down. Earlier audiences might applaud a woman who, while asserting herself, "knows her place" but I couldn't swallow that hogwash, especially since a more suitable approach to the material was already available in Ibsen's "A Doll's House" in 1879!
Jane Wyman stars in a small town Pennsylvania setting just after World War I, living on a farm with hubby Leslie Nielsen and two sons. When her eldest boy and husband are away in New York on business, she encounters a soldier boy played by Martin Milner, offers him supper and has a platonic but fateful encounter, leading to melodrama.
It boils down to a simple misunderstanding wherein everyone (small town gossip being a given) believes she has cheated on her husband, even though absolutely nothing happened between her and Milner, beyond his mild flirting. Nielsen insists she symbolically wash her hands in water filled with lye to atone, and stubborn Jane refuses, walking out on him and her family to stay in town (and live it up a bit) with her aunt and uncle.
A couple of climactic scenes are well-staged, especially when Milner returns and seems to be ready to rape her, but is actually just testing her in a rather contrived fashion (he had previously starred in a Steele story adaptation "Blue Devil" on his "Route 66" series, but is too good to be true here). Conclusion to the show is strictly acceptable dramaturgy for a Silent Movie, dated even for 1966 when this was aired let alone now.
Milner invited Jane's character to leave her subjugated and stilted status as the farmer's wife, lorded over by her husband, and go away with him to see the "wide world", which she turns down. Earlier audiences might applaud a woman who, while asserting herself, "knows her place" but I couldn't swallow that hogwash, especially since a more suitable approach to the material was already available in Ibsen's "A Doll's House" in 1879!
helpful•00
- lor_
- Jun 4, 2024
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content