![]() ![]() In a New York hotel, he reviews letters that have arrived for him in the mail. He thinks of a woman named Marion, who is waiting for him in Chicago, and plans to write letters home as if he were Hermione in order to cover his tracks. He drives off alone, secure that he will get away with his crime. ![]() He hides until they leave then cleans up the body, disposing of it in pieces in a hole that he had claimed was being dug for a wine cellar. While he is in the basement, the Wallingfords stop by to say farewell. He strips naked to clean up the mess and has to go to the cellar to turn on the water supply, which his wife had shut off as part of her preparations for travel. Carpenter calls his wife upstairs and murders her as she leans over the bathtub, bashing in her skull with a length of lead pipe. The Carpenters are about to leave for America and their friends insist that they must be back in England for Christmas. Hermione Carpenter host a party for their friends. "Back for Christmas" was first published in The New Yorker on Octo(I am using the version collected in the 1961 Bantam paperback edition of Fancies and Goodnights sources report that Collier rewrote some of the stories in this volume for republication in book form, but I do not know if this story was one of them). The first episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to be adapted from a Collier story was "Back for Christmas." In this series of nine articles, I plan to examine each of the episodes of the Hitchcock series either adapted from a Collier story or adapted by Collier from the work of another author. Like His Monkey Wife, many of his short stories exhibit a misogynistic theme, though Paul Theroux wrote that it is "such a wickedly cheerful kind it is irresistible." Collier's stories were adapted for radio and later for television, as early as a 1946 episode of Lights Out. Five of his short stories were adapted by other writers for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, while Collier himself adapted three stories by other writers: two for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and one for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Collier did not adapt any of his own stories for the Hitchcock TV series. Other screenplays included The African Queen (1951), which was credited to James Agee and John Huston but on which Collier and Peter Viertel also worked, and I Am a Camera (1955), which later inspired the Broadway musical and film, Cabaret.Ĭollier is best known for his short stories, many of which were collected in Fancies and Goodnights (1951), which won an Edgar Award and an International Fantasy Award the following year. Collier moved to Hollywood in 1935 when he was hired to write the Katherine Hepburn film, Sylvia Scarlett he continued to write screenplays and, eventually teleplays. In this novel, the protagonist is tricked into marrying a chimpanzee and discovers that life with her is preferable to life with the vapid women he meets. He began his writing career as a poet, then had some success with his first novel, His Monkey Wife, published in 1930. All in all, it's a X- mas episode worthy of the Hitch brand and this grumpy old viewer's down time.John Collier was born in London in 1901. Good also to see fine utility actress Gregg on a break from Dragnet, and looking all fresh and sparkly. After all, why should a kid follow him down the same rocky slope. Fitz is perfect for the role, looking like he's just come off a two week bender plus, I like the way they've supplied deeper motivation for his swiping the jet plane. But this one's a goodie, hitting the right non-sappy notes. Okay, I'm drawn to X-mas shows like a fly to a swatter. After all, what's more appropriate than lining up the old sourpuss with a string of adoring kids who can't wait to sit on his lap. Why it's a Santa Claus gig in a big department store. So what job does the parole assistant (Gregg) find for him. But he better straighten out this time or it's the slammer for his remaining years. ![]() Seems he's a petty criminal on parole, something of a habit over a long lifetime. But leave it to curmudgeonly actor Fitzgerald to bridge the gap, which he does in slyly fine fashion. That's like pairing a glass of lemonade with a lump of sugar. ![]()
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