Craig'sWife (Aired March 10, 1940)
The Campbell Playhouse was a sponsored continuation of the Mercury Theater on the Air, a direct result of the instant publicity from the War of the Worlds panic. The switch occurred on December 9, 1938. In spite of using the same creative staff, the show had a different flavor under sponsorship, partially attributed to a guest star policy in place, which relegated the rest of the Mercury Players to supporting cast for Orson Welles and the Hollywood guest of the week. There was a growing schism between Welles, still reaping the rewards of his Halloween night notoriety, and his collaborator John Houseman, still in the producer's chair but feeling more like an employee than a partner. The writer, as during the unsponsored run, was Howard Koch.
THIS EPISODE:
March 10, 1940. CBS network. "Craig's Wife". Sponsored by: Campbell's Soup. Good story about a determined wife, more concerned with her house than her home and her husband. Pulitzer Prize winning play. Ann Harding, Orson Welles, Janet Beecher, George Coulouris, Bea Benaderet, Regis Toomey, Mary Taylor, Richard Bear, Clara Blandick, Dan Seymour (announcer). 60:25.
In Craig's Wife, the second of three filmings of George Kelly's play, Rosalind Russell plays the cold-hearted, scheming wife of a good guy named Walter Craig (John Boles). He doesn't realize it yet, but she's been attempting for the entire length of their marriage to isolate the Craigs from the rest of town. Harriet's goal is to create a sanctum sanctorum from their house, a little corner of perfection where she can have everything exactly the way she wants it. It takes a murder subplot to reveal the extent of Harriet's scheming, and for Walter Craig to realize the extent of his emasculation at her hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment