"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" Never Again (1956)

Director:

Robert Stevens

Writers:

Gwen Bagni (teleplay) &
Irwin Gielgud (teleplay) ...

TV Series:

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955)

Original Air Date:

22 April 1956 (Season 1, Episode 30)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Karen has once again broken her promise not to drink anymore, and now she is in a strange bed, injured, with no memory of what happened the night before.

Plot Keywords:

Hangover | Party | Injury | Broken Promise | Recovering Alcoholic

Cast

Alfred Hitchcock	...	Himself - Host
Phyllis Thaxter	...	Karen Stewart
Louise Allbritton	...	Renee (as Louise Albritton)
Warren Stevens	...	Jeff Simmons
Jack Mullaney	...	Marlow
Joan Banks	...	Margaret
Mason Curry	...	Mr. Sterling
Karine Nordman	...	Tipsy Woman
Marion Gray	...	Party Goer
Jack Mulhall	...	Bar Patron
Carol Veazie	...	Nurse
Jack Ramstead

Runtime:

USA:30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Filming Locations:

Republic Studios - 4024 Radford Avenue, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Shamley Productions

Trivia:

One of the few episodes in which the serious subject matter (in this case, alcoholism) prompted host Alfred Hitchcock to deliver a straightforward closing monologue, rather than his usual humorous quips.

Brilliant Cautionary Tale

An excellent sketch from the first season. Seems to be essaying the cocktail culture of the organizational man. We see the pressures wrought by the Madison Avenue set of the high 50s and how only a few were allowed to feel comfortable there.

Phyllis Thaxter, as the protagonist Karen Stewart, got her start in some Peyton Place type movies of the 1940s and then quickly moved into early television theater, performing multiple stints on venerable TV drama showcases as both the Ford and Motorola playhouses.

She does a spectacular job here as a woman past her youth who does not belong to the "smart talk" of the account exec peers of her fiancé, Jeff, played by a natty Warren Stevens. Her fight to stay whole is beclouded by a desperate descent into drink.

She staves it off through most of the sketch, but the inevitable incursion of an aggressive Madison paramoor, competing for the attentions of Jeff, pushes her over the edge and she goes into a violent drinking rampage.

I'm rooting for Karen until the end, seeing her basic intentions and sincerity as the match for any of those fast-talking ad ladies. And yet she has no sense of how to use that gift to compete. She simply panics and eventually turns to the martini for protection.

Hitchcock often created highly neatened vignettes about murder and personal sabotage, but in this one, he lets all the messiness hang out, the rage and the raw feelings of self doubt, to great effect. It is one of the most shocking of all Hitch's TV efforts because of the way the unprotected self is stripped down to its bare bones to survive, brilliantly demonstrated by Ms. Thaxter.

In the epilogue, the master provides an apologia for the power of the episode, saying he will not go into his usual tongue in cheek bit about the fate of a deserving antagonist. Instead, he suggests this is more of a cautionary outing in the hopes that it will prevent some struggling soul from a similar fate.

Unforgettable.