Therefore, it would seem essential for television to boost the images of such marginal stars by drawing on authenticity as a value superior to the artificiality of constructed glamour and by underscoring television’s ability to rediscover or uncover the genuine talents of the film world’s castoffs and supporting players.” it would appear as though, while the cinema’s star system was delineated by a complicated aesthetic, industrial and economic history, the television star is simply a fall from grace.” Television studies scholar Susan Murray rightly comments suspiciously on these theories: “The dominant tendency in star studies has been to denigrate the stature of television stardom, to argue that television does not actually produce stars of the complexity, depth, and cultural value that film does, largely because of the medium’s lesser cultural status and its essential familiarity and intimacy… In the 1950s, the transition from film to television was still a relatively new concept, and many Hollywood actresses were hesitant to make the switch. The emergence of television in the 1950s and 60s transformed the entertainment industry, leading many iconic Hollywood actresses to transition from film to TV. Television of the 1950s brought the big screen stars into the inner sanctum of our living rooms. “TV has done more for old movie stars than plastic surgery,” -Popular TV critic for the LA Mirror Hal Humphrey wrote his articles based on network and press agent publicity, defended television’s stars in comparison to films during the time in the period when big screen actors were transitioning to television.Ĭiting the examples of Joan Blondell, Ann Sothern, and Joan Crawford, Hal Humphrey claimed that these actresses were not “has-beens.” It might be more apt to describe them as mistakes made by the movie industry and rectified by television.”ĭuring the 1950s after decades of escaping the world and its worries within the vastness of the darkened movie theater, television delivered the actors we imagined vividly on the big screen and altered the illusion by fitting them inside a little box in our homes. We were always pretty offbeat, but people get used to us being offbeat.” -Alfred Hitchcock (as quoted in “The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion,” 2001) In television the problem is to maintain a standard (especially after seven years). I cannot say I know how the arrangements were made. “This is the way of television… Half-hour shows were becoming one-hour shows, so it was decided that ours was to become a one-hour show. The CMBA Presents the 2023 Spring Blogathon: Big Stars on the Small Screen - In Support of National Classic Movie Day SILVER SCREEN STAR’S JOURNEY TO A SMALL GOLDEN BOX 1955 Headliner Alfred Hitchcock film director © Copyright CBS Broadcasting Inc.Īll Rights Reserved Credit: CBS Photo Archive It's a plus in this mostly dour entry.This is Part 1 in a series. He looks to be having a ball, and his enthusiasm is infectious. Russell Collins, playing a former police officer, now a private investigator, shines in one of the few times on this series he was allowed to look clean shaven, wear a suit and tie and portray a character of substance and authority. Philips is good in "other man" and organization man parts, and was well cast. She was also a beautiful woman in addition to being a fine actress. Lee Philips and Gia Scala make an attractive young couple, with Miss Scala's performance the more engaging of the two, as she appears to be living in a dead end. It's worth noting that there's no real hero in this episode, and that none of the three major characters is sympathetic. The twist at the end of this one I could see coming, as so often when watching stories like this, around the half-way point. Things never work out as planned in these tales, no matter how cleverly the murder is planned and executed. The story is typical of the series, featuring yet again two people engaged in a relationship in which one is married to someone else and either or both start to make plans to do away with the (as nearly always) aging spouse so that the young lovers can live happily ever after. Deathmate is a nicely made, unexceptional and well acted Hitchcock half-hour.
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