Twitch Upon a Star (25 page)

Upon review of “Mr. Lucifer,” it immediately becomes clear just how much Lizzie reveled in the performance, as she delivered what could be described as an early, energetic pre-witched take on
Serena, Samantha's
look-a-like cousin on
Bewitched. Iris
is hot, snippy, loose, fun-loving, free-spirited, and devious. We see her as platinum blond, a raven-haired beauty in elegant evening wear, and in a bikini. At one point, she even says it straight out, “… I'm on the loose, and I just may take off.”

Other dialogue is as revealing, and somewhat more representative of Lizzie's real life. At one point, she begins a telling conversation with Astaire's
Lucifer
: “All I can say is they don't make men like they used to. When I was a moon goddess …”

But he interrupts her: “When they made
you
they broke the mold.”

Another of
Iris's
lines which slightly bespoke Lizzie's life: “I always thought that every woman should marry, and no man”; “When you're independent it costs you.”

But probably the most interesting sequence of “Mr. Lucifer” is when Lizzie as
Iris
and Astaire as the
Devil
are literally monitoring on screen the life of the mild-mannered
Tom Logan
(Frank Aletter), who they so very much want to bring over to the dark side. Here, the audience is introduced to
Jenny Logan
, Tom's wife, on whom
Iris
and
Lucifer
set their sights to use as a pawn in his seduction.

When
Mr. Lucifer
wonders how to first seduce
Jenny, Iris
suggests summoning
Don Juan, Casanova,
and
Ben Casey
, the latter of which was a popular TV doctor of the time played by Vince Edwards. But
Lucifer
rejects the idea:

“You don't corrupt the young American girl with matinee idols.”

“Oh,”
Iris
replies, “you don't?” (a possible wink to Robert Montgomery).

What proves more provocative about this sequence is that the role of
Jenny
is played by none other than actress Joyce Bulifant who, years later would not only go on to star as Gavin MacLeod's spouse on
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
(CBS, 1970–1977), but would become William Asher's wife in real life after his divorce from Lizzie. As
Lucifer
and
Iris
discuss Bulifant's character, Iris looks none too pleased, if not downright jealous, and says of
Jenny
: “She's the kind of wife women hate. She designs and makes her own clothes, speaks three languages, she's a fine cook, a charming hostess; and she's writing a novel in her spare time.”

An additional noteworthy, if not lengthy, appearances from this early era of Lizzie's career was when she performed in the “Patterns” segment of another live anthology series, NBC's
Kraft Theatre
(1947–1958). “Patterns” aired January 12, 1955, and was written by the prolific Rod Serling and directed with great skill by Fielder Cook. The episode, which was remade as a theatrical feature film the following year, proved so popular, it was first re-performed live on TV February 9, 1955, a rare development for the small screen at the time. Usually, live segments were broadcast only once; even recorded editions of the same episode never aired twice. But such was not the case with “Patterns,” which also just so happened to be the five hundredth episode of
Kraft Theatre
.

Here, Lizzie played the small role of a secretary named
Ann Evans
, alongside a cast that included a young Richard Kiley (
St. Elsewhere
), Ed Begley (father to Ed Begley, Jr., also from
St. Elsewhere
), Everett Sloane, Joanna Roos, Jack Starter, Victoria Ward, June Dayton, Jack Livesy, and others.

One of Lizzie's opening lines (to a fellow secretary) sets the stage for the entire premise. Even though we never hear too much from her again, she says: “No sign of the new genius, I suppose?”

Her most memorable line in the episode: “Wow … you never know when you're going to hit a nerve”; which, off camera, proved telling of her sometimes too frank conversations with her father—or anyone else who was in the room.

Other than that, she said little else to say or do in “Patterns,” and although it was a small part, she made it her own. She was helped along, of course, by Cook's clearly defined direction and the densely written script by Serling, with whom Lizzie would work a short time later on her now famous “Two” episode of
The Twilight Zone
.

Arguably her most prominent and best known pre-
Samantha
TV spot, “Two” debuted on CBS September 15, 1961, and co-starred a young and pre-superstar Charles Bronzon as the only other cast member. Author Marc Scott Zicree summarized the episode in his excellent book
The Twilight Zone Companion
(Silman-James Press, 1992):

As Zicree appraised, “Two” was penned and directed by the multitalented Montgomery Pittman (1920–1964). Pittman's first assignment in the
Zone
was helming “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” But it was “Two” that demonstrated the full extent of his abilities. Here, he presented an optimistic story set in a substantially dark, post–World War III desolated town inhabited only by the dead, with the exception of two enemy soldiers. Zicree explains how fairly obvious it becomes that Bronson signifies an American soldier and Lizzie a Russian. “In fact,” he writes, “her single line is ‘precrassny'—Russian for ‘pretty.' This is a gritty and realistic story of survival, told with a minimum of dialogue yet with the emphasis always on characterization.”

The “Two” characters “go against the stereotype,” Zicree goes on to say. It is Bronson's character, “broad and muscular, with a face like an eroded cliff, who is the pacifist.” On the other hand, he labels Lizzie's character as “one who is suspicious and quick to violent action. Those who remember her from
Bewitched
might be shocked by her appearance here: long brown hair, smudged face, pretty in a peasant-like way, but not at all the glamour girl.”

Pittman's widow Murita also comments in the book, saying Lizzie “was so dedicated to her art. Most girls want to look really pretty for the camera. Monty had to fight her, really, because she wanted to make her eyes really black. She got too much makeup on; she was making herself too haggard.”

Maybe so, but her dedication to the role was more than evident. “It was not an easy part by any means,” Zicree concludes.

And Lizzie embraced the challenge. “You find yourself reacting to things you never reacted to before,” she said at the time. “You find it difficult not to exaggerate every look, every action. You think nobody will notice you unless you ham it up. You have to underplay every scene in a play of this type. But I must say I never enjoyed doing a show as much as I did ‘Two.'”

According to
The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic
by Martin Grams, Jr. (OTR Publishing, 2008), Lizzie thought making “Two” was “creepy. I couldn't help thinking what it would be like if I went around the corner and there actually wasn't anyone there—nothing but rubble, grass growing in the streets, the debris of a dead human race.”

On September 18, 1961
The Hollywood Reporter
offered its review of “Two”:

As Grams pointed out in his
Zone
guide,
Variety
, the other industry trade, had a policy of reviewing all season premieres of television programs and was also confused. The magazine ended up reviewing next week's episode instead of this one.

Elizabeth made two appearances on yet another anthology series, this one titled,
Appointment with Adventure
, which aired for only one season on CBS, from 1955–1956. Filmed live each week,
Danger
gave viewers a glimpse of drama and adventure from around the world and from the distant and not-so-distant past. Subjects of the weekly plays included the American wars, as well as conflicts of far-away countries, and were performed by a number of well-known stars of the time.

The episodes in which Lizzie starred were called “All Through the Night” (2-5-56) and “Relative Stranger” (11-20-55). In “Night,” she performed with her friend John Cassavetes (an alumnus of the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts) and actress Tina Louise (who would later play movie star
Ginger
on
Gilligan's Island
).

“Relative Stranger,” however, stands out. Written by Irving Werstein and directed by Paul Stanley, the episode also starred William Windom, who would later take home an Emmy for his lead in the ground-breaking if short-lived sitcom,
My World and Welcome to It
(NBC, 1969–1970). He also appeared as
Commodore Matt Decker
, commander of the doomed USS
Constellation
in the famous 1968
Star Trek
episode “The Doomsday Machine,” and in the 1980s–1990s portrayed the curmudgeonly
Dr. Seth Hazlitt
opposite Angela Lansbury's mystery-writing/solving
Jessica Fletcher
on CBS'
Murder, She Wrote
.

But for the moment, he was married to Lizzie, and found himself involved in the mysterious escapades of “Relative Stranger”:

The anthology's main title (
Appointment with Danger
) was melodramatic, but it must have appealed to Lizzie's adventurous side, while the specific episode title (“Relative Stranger”) was an ominous description of how Lizzie at times perceived Robert Montgomery in her youth (as she once admitted not knowing he was an actor until learning so from a fellow Westlake classmate).

The paternal dialogue in “Relative” was clear as a bell.
Helen
tells
Dan
things like: “I'm kind of nervous about meeting Dad's cousins for the first time. I hope they like me”; “I've never had a large family. There's just mother and dad and me”; and “I don't mind talking about Father. Of course it has been rather lonely without him” (which may have specifically echoed Lizzie's feelings as a child when her father spent months making movies abroad or serving in the Air Force).