Stealing Through Time: On the Writings of Jack Finney (28 page)

The letter reaches Elizabeth, who races to Gettysburg, only to find Denby on his deathbed. In a touching scene, she recites her poem to him as he dies. Back in the present, Scott finally shows Debra the letters from Elizabeth, and he confesses his love for the dead woman. They break off the engagement, and Scott visits the old Whit-comb house in Willoughby one last time. Clarice has died, leaving the house to her caretaker. Scott again has the sensation that Lizzie is in the room with him, and Lizzie feels the same thing in her era. The old caretaker gives Scott a box of Elizabeth Whitcomb's letters, poems, and journals, and in it he finds the photograph of himself that he had sent to her.

The teleplay ends as Scott visits an old churchyard and finds Elizabeth's grave. On her headstone is carved the phrase, "I never forgot." The story has one more twist, however, as Scott meets a woman who is Elizabeth's double and they go off together to have coffee. She tells him that her name is Beth. As the credits roll, the camera focuses in on a bookstore window, where the newly published volume of Elizabeth Whitcomb's poetry — edited by Scott — is displayed.

"The Love Letter" is a wonderful adaptation of Jack Finney's short story. The acting is outstanding, especially by Campbell Scott and Jennifer Jason Leigh in the two lead roles. The writers have done an excellent job of expanding the short story to fill a two-hour time slot, using plot devices and ideas that are in keeping with Jack Finney's other time travel tales. No other television programs based on Finney's work have appeared since 1998, but "The Love Letter" stands as a fine example of what can be done with this source material and a creative approach.

NINETEEN

Jack Finney on Film

In May 1955, the first film to be adapted from a Jack Finney novel was released:
5 Against the House
was a Columbia Pictures production, directed by Phil Karlson and adapted by Stirling Silliphant, William Bowers, and John Barnwell. The credits state that it was based on the
Good Housekeeping
story by Jack Finney. This may be because the story was sold to the studio before the novel was written or published, or it may be that the producers thought that the name of the popular magazine might carry some weight with the public.

The film stars Guy Madison as Al Mercer and Kim Novak as Kay Greyleg (Tina in the book). Brick is played by Brian Keith. Jerry Weiner and Guy Cruikshank in the book become Ronnie and Roy, played by Kerwin Mathews and Alvy Moore, respectively. The only other character worth noting is Eric Berg, the man who pushes the money cart at Harold's Club and who is held up by Brick and his friends. Berg is played in the film by William Conrad, whose career spanned many years in radio and television.

The film version of
5 Against the House
is in black and white, and it is very different from the novel. The story and characters are established in the film's first section, which takes place in Reno, Nevada. Al and his three friends drive to the gambling mecca from their Midwestern university to visit Harold's Club, have fun, and gamble. Each of the four young men is introduced in scenes that provide quick snapshots of their characters. Al Mercer is serious, carefully watching the time as they spend their planned hour in the casino. Ronnie is from a wealthy family and wears an ascot around his neck; he has a system that does not seem to result in much winning. Roy is the comedian of the group, and Brick is the somewhat more mature ladies' man. The unusual casino parking lot is shown, where cars are lifted to upper levels by means of a mechanical lift. We also see an attempted robbery in the casino, as well as the heavy security there that prevents it from succeeding. A policeman who almost arrests two of the foursome tells them that it's "easier to knock off Fort Knox."

On the drive back to Midwestern University, Al begins to consider the challenge of robbing Harold's Club. Back at college, hijinks abound and we learn that Al and Brick served in Korea together. Brick saved Al's life, and Al feels a bond to the obviously shell-shocked veteran. Al's girlfriend Kay is introduced as a former department store worker who has metamorphosed over the summer into a sultry nightclub chanteuse. In between comedy relief involving college boys, scenes depicting the trouble that Al and Kay are having over the decision to get married, and Brick's hair-trigger state of mental health, Ronny works out a plan to rob Harold's Club. To him, it is an intellectual puzzle, since he clearly does not need the money. To Brick, however, it represents the promise of financial freedom and escape from the tensions of school and career preparation that threaten to push him over the edge of sanity.

Ronny, Brick, and Roy prepare for the heist and bring Al in at the last minute, tricking him into joining them on a trip to Reno but not telling him their plan. Kay decides to accompany them in order to take advantage of the laws in Nevada that allow for quick marriage.

Near the end of the long drive to Reno, Al learns of the plan to rob the casino and does not want to be involved. Brick threatens him with a gun and forces Al to drive the rest of the way at gunpoint.

Arriving in Reno, the four young men enter the club and carry out their plan. Things go awry and Brick runs off with the stolen money, hiding in the upper level of the Harold's Club parking deck that had been shown early in the movie. Al finds Brick and talks him into giving up; as the film ends, Brick is taken away by the police as Al and Kay are driven off in another police car. It is a curiously calm and happy ending, where Al and Kay are relieved by the knowledge that Brick will finally be treated for his mental problems that stem from his war experience.

5 Against the House
is a minor film that takes a very different approach from the novel that was its source. First of all, the male members of the film's cast are much too old to be playing college boys. While Al Mercer is nineteen years old in the novel, actor Guy Madison was in his early thirties when the film was made. Brian Keith and Alvy Moore were each a year older than Madison. Kerwin Mathews was a "boyish" 29. Only Kim Novak, at 22, was about the right age for her part, carrying on the Hollywood tradition of pairing older men with younger women.

The novel's focus is on the caper itself and on Al's attempt to justify robbery as a moral choice. The film puts the caper aspects of the story on the back burner and concentrates on two major plot threads: the relationship between Al and Kay, and the relationship between Al and Brick. Al and Kay's relationship is superficial in the film, and the waitress of the novel has become a glamorous lounge singer in order to give Kim Novak a chance to sing and look seductive. One sequence in particular, where Novak sings to Madison as he drives to Reno, is quite awkward.

The other relationship, between Al and Brick, is the central issue in the film and one that was absent from the book, at least in the way the film portrays it. The film's creators decided to make Al and Brick veterans of the Korean War, and Brick's experience left him shell-shocked. This is used to explain all of Brick's unorthodox behavior, and the crazed look in actor Brian Keith's eyes when he starts to be "possessed" by the memory of Korea borders on the humorous.

5 Against the House
is a mediocre and forgotten novel today; the film has also been justly forgotten.

The second film to be adapted from Jack Finney's work was
Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
a film that has been far from forgotten. Released in 1956 by Allied Artists, the film sticks closely to its source and is considered a classic. It begins with the well-known framing sequence, which was added at the studio's insistence to tone down the film's level of terror. Kevin McCarthy plays Miles Bennell, a small town doctor, who is brought by police to see a psychiatrist at a hospital. He insists he is not insane, and tells the story of the film in flashback — "it started last Thursday," he remarks, adding that "something evil had taken possession of the town."

As the tale begins, we see Dr. Bennell return by train from a conference that has kept him away from the small California town of Santa Mira for two weeks. Patients were lining up to see him while he was gone, refusing to see anyone else. As Miles drives back to his office, he sees Jimmy Grimaldi, a small boy he knows, run into the street in terror, and he notices that the Grimaldi family's formerly prosperous vegetable stand has fallen into disrepair.

Back at his office, Miles is greeted by the lovely Becky Driscoll, who is back in town after a five-year absence. She and Miles had been sweethearts before they had each married other people; both are now divorced, and it takes little time for the romance to begin again. Like author Jack Finney and his first wife, Miles and Becky have both recently been divorced in Reno, Nevada.

A sense of uneasiness begins to set in as Miles meets patients who insist that their family members are not who they seem. Jimmy Grimaldi, the boy who had run down the street in terror, claims his mother is not his mother. Becky's cousin Wilma insists that her Uncle Ira is not her Uncle Ira. Throughout the first part of
Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
the sense of dread and unease grows slowly. The film has been hailed as a classic of science fiction cinema, but its success lies more in its film noir qualities. Miles's voiceover narration recalls similar narration by Humphrey Bogart in
The Big Sleep
and other classic private eye films; the movie is shot in black and white and shadows are used to suggest horrors not yet revealed.

Miles's friend, psychiatrist Danny Kaufman, provides the voice of cold reason in the film, explaining that Santa Mira's citizens are exhibiting signs of mass hysteria, probably caused by worry about what's going on in the world. Later events are foreshadowed as Miles tells Becky, "I'd hate to wake up some morning and find out you weren't you." The relief provided by Dr. Kaufman's rational explanation doesn't last long, however, as Miles and Becky are called to the home of Jack and Theodora Belicec. Jack is a writer (like author Jack Finney, whose given name he shares), and he shows Miles a body on his basement pool table. The body is strangely unformed but resembles Jack. At this point, the eerie feeling that has dominated the film so far is replaced by something tangible. Becky Driscoll and the viewers are shocked by the sudden alarm of a cuckoo clock in the Belicecs' basement; this subtly suggests that everything in the film has suddenly turned "cuckoo"—or crazy.

Miles begins to suspect a connection between the alleged mass hysteria in Santa Mira and the body double. There is another brief respite from the suspense as Miles takes Becky home and she refuses to let him stay the night. "That way lies madness!" she quips, to which he replies, "What's wrong with madness?" Her answer, "Madness!" implies that madness itself is something to be avoided and feared. The scene then shifts back to the Belicecs' house, where the couple have dozed off, only to be awakened by the cuckoo clock, signaling more of the sort of madness that Becky wants to avoid. The body on the pool table opens its eyes, and we see that it has now become more clearly a replica of Jack.

Jack and Theodora rush to Miles's house. Miles calls Dr. Kaufman and asks him to come over, then rushes to Becky's house, fearing for her safety. He breaks in through a basement window, opens a storage bin, and sees a partially formed replica of Becky. More than ever in the film, Miles is the detective in a film noir world at this point — his voiceover narration explains his descent into a world gone mad. He finds Becky in bed and carries her off in his arms when he is unable to awaken her. Doing so saves her life for a time, though we don't realize it until later in the film.

Back at Miles's house, Dr. Kaufman has arrived and once more the voice of reason attempts to take over and calm the growing sense of chaos and madness. Kaufman, Miles, and Jack return to Jack's house, where they find that the body has disappeared. They then go to Becky's house, where there is also no body. Explanations by Dr. Kaufman and a policeman make sense to the characters in the film but not to the viewers, who have seen more than any of the characters and know that something is wrong.

The next day, Friday — hard to believe that all of this has happened in one day! —finds things strangely calm in Santa Mira. Miles's patients line up to tell him that they are fine and claim that their worries were groundless. But Miles is not convinced, and his voiceover narration reveals his concern about the sudden turn of events. The horror of the situation soon explodes as Miles discovers large seed pods in his greenhouse; they are photographed at an odd angle and begin to open, revealing replacement bodies for Miles, Becky, Jack, and Theodora. Miles quickly deduces that the pod-bodies replace the originals and that the change occurs when one falls asleep. Suddenly, all of the eerie feelings and frightening suggestions in the film are revealed to be real. Miles's attempt to call the FBI fails, and he destroys his own replacement pod but cannot bring himself to destroy Becky's. Just as he had saved her by waking her up the night before, this act of weakness seals her doom.

Miles and Becky flee. The "pods," as they have been known since the film premiered in 1956, realize that the couple pose a threat and begin to search for them, sealing off the town's borders. Miles and Becky take refuge in his office, taking pills to keep themselves awake all night. Miles remarks that, in his practice, he has seen people allow their humanity to drain away, but it usually happens slowly—not all at once.

Saturday morning begins, with the fugitive couple still locked in the medical office. Outside, they observe replacements preparing seed pods to be taken to nearby towns, like "a malignant disease spreading through the whole country." Their safety ends when a changed Jack Belicec leads the pods to the office. This represents one of the biggest changes from the source, for in the serial and novel upon which the film was based the Belicecs survive, along with Miles and Becky.