FRACTION FATALE 

FRACTION OF A SECOND  

TV westerns never gave Bette Davis anything to bite down on; 
then again, series television in general never really gave her a good shot. 
Every episode seemed written to produce fireworks for the star, 
but each came up a dud and came down with a thud. 
It's not so much that they were disastrous, but that they were simply dull. 
They made it seem that Davis could no longer deliver, 
when the problem was powderless scripts that no actor could ignite. 
'Fraction of a Second,'  the April 21, 1958 adaptation by Kathleen Hite 
of a Daphne du Maurier story, is alas no exception. 
This episode was certainly not lacking in combustible actors—  
not only should have there been a great conflagration 
between the likes of Davis, Marian Seldes, and Linda Watkins, 
but Barry Atwater, Whit Bissell, Judson Pratt, Ben Wright and Mike Ragan 
were more than enough kindling.  Alas, it is a sluggish slog 
of an uninspired hour slooooooowly leading up to the revelation 
that Miss Davis is a victim of a standard gimmick of suspense shows.  
However, if you are a Kathleen Hite follower, there is more than enough 
of her tracks here to keep you—if no one else—in suspense.  
A woman hanging on desperately to a threadbare life, 
keeping up the standards of a past dearer than a dream, 
keeping herself together by sheer will, 
madness supporting her in the onslaught of hostile reality 
and taking her to a safer place. 
"It's as if all the things I feared had descended upon me. 
All the good swept away.  All the ugliness settled about me." 
There are also touches of Hite humor here and there, 
although the bit about seedy apartment tenants 
is more remindful of Graham Greene poking fun 
at the absurdity of lower-class lives 
(Linda Watkins is wonderful in these scenes).  
'Fraction of a Second' was an episode of the series Suspicion, 
made by the same people that produced Alfred Hitchcock Presents. 
(Interesting that the graphics of the openings of the 70s shows 
Night Gallery and The Sixth Sense resemble that of Suspicion, 
made 15 years earlier.)  It is worth noting that television saw fit 
to employ Crawford and Davis in a lot of these suspense shows. 
(Gloria Swanson did a couple of tv thrillers herself, 
and Crawford was in the pilot for Night Gallery.) 
As for 'Fraction of a Second,'  this kind of story was done 
much better a year later in 'Walking Distance,' 
the fifth episode of The Twilight Zone 
and conceivably its best.  It only illustrates that the hour 
format becomes a problem—as in many tv westerns—  
when it creates a demand for the writer to attenuate material 
that can be dealt with easily in a half hour. 
If you are not particularly a Kathleen Hite fanatica 
but a westerns loco, and perhaps a Wild Bill Elliott wacko, 
you may find it amusing that in this drab & dreary tale 
set in modern city foyers and parlors, 
Bette Davis utters that magic word that never fails 
to bring a spark to the westerner's heart and a smile 
to his face...  'peaceable.'  


January 29, 2006 


Copyright © 2006-2011 E. A. Villafranca, Jr.  
All Rights Reserved