This week’s mystery movie was the 1953 Goodyear Television Playhouse production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote, with Lillian Gish, John Beal, Eileen Heckart, William Hansen, Eva Marie Saint, Will Hare, Frank Overton and Dennis Cross.
Announced by Durward Kirby.
Settings by Otis Riggs.
Lighting by Leo Farrenkopf.
Video by Al McClellan.
Technical direction by O. Tamburri.
Associate producer Gordon Duff.
Produced by Fred Coe.
Directed by Vincent J. Donehue.
The Trip to Bountiful is online via Bowling Green State University.
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I decided to honor Eva Marie Saint, who died October 6 at the age of 102, by going back to her early career. Many obituaries featured a photo of her with Lillian Gish in the stage adaptation of The Trip to Bountiful, so I hunted down the TV version, which aired March 1, 1953. The stage version played on Broadway for 39 performances, receiving a lukewarm review in Variety.
Brooks Atkinson said in The New York Times (November 4, 1953):
Everything being possible, Lillian Gish may some day give a finer performance than her Mrs. Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful, which opened at Henry Miller’s last evening. But no one has a right ever to expect anything finer. For this is Miss Gish’s masterpiece. As a weary old woman, homesick for her youth in the country, she gives an inspired performance that is alive in every detail and conveys an unconquerable spirit….
….The story is thin and the dialogue is all in one tone of deliberate flatness. As a gallery of character portraits, however, [Horton Foote’s] drama has distinction. And under Vincent J. Donehue’s direction, the performance is so pitilessly exact that you can hardly tell where the writing leaves off and the acting begins.
November 11, 1953, Variety.
For Monday, we have a mysterious fellow. His companion has been cropped out due to lack of mysteriousness and will appear later in the week.
Update: For Thursday, adding our mysterious fellow’s mystery companion.
Update: This is Lillian Gish and Frank Overton.
Note: This week’s mystery movie does not involve gorillas, amusement parks, or current or former inmates of the Mystery Movie Jail.
For Tuesday, we have a mysterious commercial from our mystery sponsors.
Update: This is Durward Kirby.
Brain Trust roll call: Sylvia (mysterious teleplay and mystery guest).
For Wednesday, we have a mysterious couple.
Update: This is Eileen Heckart and John Beal.
Brain Trust roll call: Sylvia (mystery guest and mysterious tire), Sarah (Monday’s and Tuesday’s mysterious guests), Mike Hawks (Monday’s and Tuesday’s mystery guests) and Roget-L.A. (Tuesday’s mystery guest).
For “Aha Thursday,” we have a mysterious woman.
Update: This is Lillian Gish.
Brain Trust roll call: Anne Papineau (mysterious TV show, Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s mystery guests), Stacia (Monday’s mysterious fellow and Wednesday’s mystery woman), Funky PhD (mysterious TV series), Sylvia (Wednesday’s mystery guests), Mike Hawks (mysterious TV show, Wednesday’s mystery guests) and Roget-L.A. (mysterious TV series, Monday’s mystery guest and first guess on Wednesday’s mystery woman).
For Friday, we have two mysterious women.
Update: This is Lillian Gish, left, and Eva Marie Saint. Variety called her “a striking looker with an interesting stage quality…. although she obviously lacks experience, she has promise as an actress and personality.”
Brain Trust roll call: L.C. (mysterious TV series, mysterious episode, mystery cast and enigmatic announcer), Anne Papineau (Thursday’s mystery woman on her 133rd birthday), Stacia (mystery TV episode, Thursday’s mysterious woman), Allie (Thursday’s mystery woman), B.J. Merholz (Thursday’s mystery woman), Mike Hawks (Thursday’s mystery woman), Megan and Thom (mysterious TV episode, Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s mysterious guests), Sylvia (Monday’s and Thursday’s mysterious woman) and Roget-L.A. (mysterious TV episode and Thursday’s mystery woman).
Monday – I think our guy on the stairs is Frank Overton but no idea of the production. It looks like a kinescope frame, so from a TV show maybe.
Anyway, a challenge. He was in so many things.
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A Monday guess, a rarity for me.
The Philco Television Playhouse 1953 “The Trip to Bountiful”
Frank Overton and (I’ll take a chance because of her recent passing) our cropped for lack of mysteriousness woman is Eva Marie Saint. Could also be Lillian Gish, but I’m going for Ms Saint for now.
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For Monday, Dabs Greer?
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A good guess! But alas, not this time.
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Tuesday – Durward Kirby with a tire from one of the show’s sponsors, Good Year Tires.
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Just reading up: the Program name changed to Goodyear Television Playhouse by this time.
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Monday = Larry Overton; Tuesday = Durwood Kirby.
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Oops – not Larry Overton, it’s Frank Overton.
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Is that Doodles Weaver Tuesday?
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Great guess! But alas, I’m afraid not.
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Frank Overton and Durwood kirby.
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For Tuesday, Durward Kirby.
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It sure does look like an old TV broadcast. I recognize Durwood Kirby next to the tire, and Eileen Heckart and John Beal. This must be an homage to Eva Marie Saint, in her first big break, “The Trip to Bountiful.” She remained great friends with the star, Lillian Gish.
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Wednesday’s mystery actress is Eileen Heckart, I thought Monday was Frank Overton but finding a TV episode from the 1950s with both of them in it has proven impossible. Also I know I’ll recognize Wednesday’s mystery actor when I see his name on the IMDb but they’re not coughing up the goods this time. I also think Tuesday is a touch of misdirection!
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“Wish on the Moon,” from Goodyear Television Playhouse. Wednesday’s mysterious couple are Phyllis Baxter and Richard Carlyle.
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Barry Sullivan
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Wednesday – Eileen Heckart and John Beal
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Eva Marie Saint, Eileen Heckart and John Beal in THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL.
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Wednesday, the guy in the hat looks suspiciously like Jack Parr.
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I think Monday’s mysterious fellow is Frank Overton and Wednesday’s mysterious woman is Carmen Mathews (who, at first, I thought was Eileen Heckart), which would make this an episode of Goodyear Television Playhouse entitled “The Room” (Sept. 28, 1952).
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Paar, that is.
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A good guess, but not this time. Forgive my oversight. Jack was a funny guy…
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The Trip to Bountiful (1953) for the Goodyear Television Playhouse, starring Lillian Gish, Eva Marie Saint, Eileen Heckart, Frank Overton, John Beal and Goodyear tire commercial with announcer Durward Kirby.
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Lillian Gish on her 133rd birthday, October 14!
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Well heck, this really is “The Trip to Bountiful,” I found a few photos from it online but they didn’t seem to match the screenshots, and I couldn’t find any video. And I was 100% wrong about recognizing Wednesday’s actor if I saw his name because I cannot figure out who he is, he doesn’t look like any of the other actors listed on the IMDb but he does look very familiar.
Thursday is Miss Lillian Gish!
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Lillian Gish
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Lillian Gish
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Lillian Gish.
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Our mystery program is A Trip to Bountiful with Lillian Gish, Frank Overton, Eileen Heckart, and John Beal.
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Thursday – reveal for Monday and full face, Lillian Gish
That leaves Eva Marie Saint for Friday
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Aha! The Philco Television Playhouse 1953 broadcast of A Trip to Bountiful, with Lillian Gish on Thursday.
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I don’t even get an ‘alas, I’m afraid not’? Gee.
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Lillian Gish and Eva Marie Saint
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I assume Tuesday’s tire is a commercial on the Goodyear Theater.
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Lillian and Eva.
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