Wish you were here         
in Amalphie             

AMALFI SUMMER 

Even though that standard phrase "Written especially for..." is used, 
in this case for Romance, it's a good bet that Hite's script 
for the episode that aired on June 12, 1954 was intended for Escape 
or Suspense (even the incidental music belongs those shows). 
As a super-simple, spare-as-a-key, meaning-stripped, 
every-bit-of-substance-thrown-overboard light thriller, 
Amalfi Summer is pretty good ear floss. 
But who wants to think of Hite as dropping empty allusions 
to—and shoplifting elements from—du Maurier and Hitchcock? 
One even suspects that Amalfi is no reference to Webster, 
but merely Hite calling attention to a recent vacation in Italy. 
Or the producer reminding her to set her story somewhere 
seaside, saily, and sunny daily. 
As her hero—uh, a writer—Jeff Warnock telegraphs inside the story, 
"I write short stories in a hurry that sell, 
so I can spend a long time on a novel that probably won't." 
Well, nobody ever claimed that Hite's pieces for Escape 
were worth whatever currency was used in Amalfi before the Euro. 
Let's pretend this is indeed an episode of Escape or Suspense, 
and do what's best when you find yourself listening to either—  
concentrate on the actors: 
Whitfield Connor does a better Dick Powell than Gerald Mohr, 
but projects even less intelligence and sensibility, if possible. 
Great fun can be had by listening very closely 
to Gunsmoke gun Lou Krugman as a hotel clerk, 
and Jack Kruschen as the photo developer. 
If this episode belongs to anyone, it's Virginia Gregg. 
If you're used to her playing homestead hags, woe-wedded wives, 
drunken dames, and murdering mamas, 
her Leoni proves she is just as good at less jagged characters. 
Dropped into a half-Rebecca, half-Notorious soufflé, 
she rises to the occasion for a part that in the movies 
would have been played by Fontaine, Bergman, or Grace Kelly. 
There comes a point when, even with other loyalties, 
one has to acknowledge Virginia Gregg unconditionally 
as the premiere female actor in radio. 
There simply wasn't a role that this protean actor could not 
inhabit to perfection. 



December 15, 2005 



Copyright © 2005-2011 E. A. Villafranca, Jr.  
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