Twitch Upon a Star (27 page)
Read Twitch Upon a Star Online
Authors: Herbie J. Pilato
In his biography,
Straight Shooting
(McMillan, 1980),
Untouchables
star Robert Stack said the “Rusty Heller” story was one of his favorite segments in the series, mostly because of working with Lizzie:
One of the best episodes was “The Rusty Heller Story.” When it came time to cast the lead, the producers drew up a list of actresses as possible stars. The last name on the list was Elizabeth Montgomery. I had known Liz's father Bob Montgomery; I went shooting with him, and took him to Dad's duck lodge when I was a kid. I'd only known Elizabeth as a young socialite. When the girls at her finishing school talked about making a debut, I'm sure they weren't thinking about the kind Liz made in her first appearance on
The Untouchables
, in the role of a tough young southern hooker. I'd learned from parts I'd lost that you must be objective in your judgment; the fact that I knew this girl and her background was no reason to disqualify her from consideration for the part. The producers didn't always ask my opinion about casting, but in this instance, I'm glad they did. Anyway, she took the part and ran away with it; she got an Emmy nomination and, I think, should have won it. Dame Judith Anderson won the award for
Medea
, which was shot in Scotland on location over a thirty-day period. Liz turned in a smashing performance in six days. It was the only time that
Ness
got emotionally involved. The episode had a touching and gentle poignancy to it.
As
TV Guide
noted at the time, this
Untouchables
segment and Lizzie's Emmy-nominated performance doubled her “acting price.” She also attained a feature film contract, was inundated with TV scripts, and, after a decade of hard work, all but established Robert Montgomery as “Liz Montgomery's father.” But she, then married to Gig Young, was all but surprised by the attention. As she recalled at the time, Stack had approached her while working on the show and said, “Liz, if you don't get an Emmy nomination for this, I'll be surprised.” She replied:
Oh, Bob, for heaven's sake. It was the last thing I did in 1960 before Gig and I left for New York (Young appeared on Broadway for six months in
Under the Yum Yum Tree
). Then last spring Gig and I were driving back from New York and we stopped in Arizona. Gig said, âThere's a Los Angeles paper,' and I said, âOh, I just can't wait to see who's been nominated for all those statues.' And I looked down and saw Ingrid Bergmanâ Judith Andersonâand me. I knew Judith Anderson would get it. It wasn't a wish. I just knew it.
Anderson won that year for “Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” for her interpretation of
Lady Macbeth
in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of
Macbeth
, which aired on NBC. It was Hallmark's second version of Shakespeare's classic play with a different supporting cast, but the same two leads (Anderson and Lizzie's future
Bewitched
father, Maurice Evans), and the same director (George Schaefer).
Lizzie's other fellow contender that year was Ingrid Bergman, who was nominated for her role in CBS's
Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman's Life
. Bergman's
Clare
was grandmother to
Helen Lester
(played by Helena de Crespo) who was in love with a man she had known only 24 hours, a playboy who spent time in jail for passing bad checks. Although the man has promised to change, most of her straitlaced relatives are up in arms. Bergman's
Clare
says the girl is free to join the man she loves on one condition: that she listen to the story of a day in
Clare's
own life and of a man she tried to change.
Bergman's
Clare
was a character of great texture, as certainly was Anderson's
Lady Macbeth
, and both actresses were stellar veteran performers, even then. Lizzie, however, was still somewhat of a newcomer and pigeon-holed as her father's daughter. Those were two strikes that may have worked against her in the eyes of Emmy academy.
What's more, the twitch ties to
The Untouchables
were manifold if not yet realized.
The Untouchables
was produced by Desilu, the powerhouse studio run by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, the latter of whom gave Bill Asher his big break in TV directing for
I Love Lucy
(CBS, 1951â1957). A few years after her
Rusty Heller
stint on
Untouchables
, Lizzie, coming off of two failed marriages, fell in love with Bill on the set of
Johnny Cool
in 1963, shortly before they worked together on
Bewitched
. It was a match made in magic, as two very different but somehow similar people were brought together to form what eventually became one of the most successful Hollywood business partnerships this side of Ball and Arnaz.
Not only did Bill direct episodes of
I Love Lucy
and
Bewitched
, but there were other similarities between the two shows. The famous
Lucy
episode, “Job Switching,” was remade as a
Bewitched
segment called “
Samantha's
Power Failure.” Just as
Lucy
squealed, “Well!” to her husband
Ricky
on
Love
at some impending doom, so did
Samantha
to
Darrin
on
Bewitched
;
Lucy
and
Ricky
were of different cultures as were
Samantha
and
Darrin
. Lucy employed her wit and special prowess to resolve any particular situation, as did
Samantha.
In any case, Asher was the “third man in.” Freddie Cammann had long been out of Lizzie's life; Gig Young, like Cammann, was not able to live up to the qualities of the idealized man Lizzie envisioned to be her husband. Now it was up to Asher, and everyone wondered if he'd be able to pull it off.
