Screen Directors Playhouse (TV Series) Life of Vernon Hathaway (1955) User Reviews

The Secret Life of Ernest Stockhoeffer

[boblipton · 5/10 · 4 November 2011]

Ernest Stockhoeffer lives a dull life in a small, dull town. When a man who shoplifted a watch from his shop ten years earlier atones by giving him a thousand dollar bill, Ernest realizes it, stops the express train to go down to Miami and live a little and winds up bluffing his way into success.

Screen Director's Playhouse was a very good anthology series, but this is one of the weakest entries and it is not helped much by Alan Young's washrag characterization of Stockhoeffer and his alter ego, Vernon Hathaway. Director Norman McLeod could direct a great comedy given a script or talented comics -- he managed to direct the Marx Brothers in two of their more chaotic Paramount comedies -- but can't do much with the script of this one.

Disappointing Entry

[Michael_Elliott · 8 November 2011]

Screen Directors Playhouse: The Life of Vernon Hathaway (1955)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Ernest Stockhoeffer (Alan Young) is a timid clock repairman who dreams of a more exciting life. One day a man walks into his store saying that seven years earlier he had stolen a watch so he wants to give Ernest a thousand dollar bill. This bill allows his imagination run wild and soon he starts to live what he had always fantasized about. THE LIFE OF VERNON HATHAWAY is yet another disappointing episode in this early series. I started watching episodes from later in the series and the majority of them were very good so going through these from the start onwards I must admit that I'm a little surprised to see how weak the majority of these early episodes are. There are a couple very big problems here but we can start with the screenplay that really doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. Throughout the film I kept waiting to figure out if this was meant to be a comedy, a drama or some sort of weird fantasy but no matter what they wanted it to be it pretty much falls flat on all levels. There are some attempts at humor but they're never funny. I'm going to guess we get a few bits of drama but the lead character is so bland that you really don't get caught up in anything. The fantasy aspect is probably the strongest thing that the filmmakers were going for but it too fails because you just simply don't know where they're going or what they're trying to do. It also doesn't help that Young isn't all that memorable in the lead role and even supporting players like Cloris Leachman and Raymond Bailey don't have much to do. Director Norman Z. McLeod really doesn't bring any life to the project and to date this is the worst the series has offered.

Fairly good comedy with a bit of TV history behind it

[El Cine · 2 May 2024]

I'm glad TCM decided to show this. Although it's a little afield for them, being a TV episode, it's not totally unconnected to classic film, and was rewarding in a few ways.

The 1950s were the heyday of TV anthology shows--so many, I won't blame you if you never heard of Screen Directors Playhouse. I hadn't either, despite a strong concept: established Hollywood movie directors, and mostly A-list actors, put on a 30-minute story. Judging by this episode, the directors got to make use of production values that were high for mid-50s TV.

Norman Z. McLeod directed some popular Bob Hope comedies, and other films like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. That was about a frustrated man who indulges in daydream fantasies, so maybe that's why McLeod directed The Life of Vernon Hathaway, which sounds like it could be accused of being derivative. But it's fairly enjoyable for what it is.

Ernest Stockhoeffer is bored working at his humble clock and watch shop, and he can't make headway with his would-be fiancee Irma. Like Mitty, Ernest escapes by indulging in fantasies. In fact, he creates an alter ego named Vernon Hathaway to engage in the exciting activities of winning swordfights or the World Series. When a wonderful cash windfall comes along for Ernest, will it lead him towards a more Vernon-like life?

You'll have to watch to find out how well this ends for Ernest, but along the way is a comedy of circumstances and mistaken identity. It's rather amusing, and some of the events are extraordinary, but they tend not to be filmed in an extraordinary way. And some of the fantasies consist only of vague stock footage.

But there is one genuinely impressive special effect: out of the coat pocket where Ernest keeps his big cash, periodically an imaginary figure of Vernon crawls out and up onto Ernest's shoulder to encourage him. It looks great for the time; the trick photography is very clean and neat. When mini-Vernon is done, he dives back into the pocket, and the image (usually) cuts off right where the pocket begins. The whole thing is simultaneously a neat metaphor.

Playing the hero is Alan Young. In what I've seen of him (e.g. His hit sitcom "Mister Ed," which is great fun), it seems he was a character actor whose affable persona appeared in light comedies. (I have yet to see Androcles and the Lion, in which technically Young does Shaw!) He was a good choice for Ernest.

I didn't recognize Cloris Leachman ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show") in an early turn as his fiancee (though she'd been doing anthologies like this for years).

The only real off-note is one scene involving a racing locomotive that is so bizarre, unrealistic, and inconsistent with the rest of the episode, that I couldn't tell whether it was supposed to be another fantasy. Apparently not.

Another positive: the train staff includes a couple of black characters who are presented straight and inoffensively. One of the roles is a bit substantial, too, and it's played by Roy Glenn ("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"). Very good by the standards of 1955 TV.