Outlaw Mother        

HOME FOR THE WEEKEND 

This is about as unoriginal and unimaginative an episode 
as you're going to get from Kathleen Hite. 
It's that corny chestnut written and rewritten many 
a time in "ladies'" magazines, 
the cautionary about how even perfectly perfect 
new wives and mothers-in-law can get off to a bad start, 
and a prescription as to how to avoid the possible missteps. 
Did Hite have any special insights into what is perhaps 
the most classic confrontation between two women? 
Did she with the skills of Don King, Oprah, and Tennessee Williams 
stage a pay-per-view of this female face-off? 
Did she dissect the dynamic between these dueling dames 
and expose to us what lies beneath the drama & drang 
that seemingly needs must happen every time 
a person dares introduce mate to mama? 
Not here. 
(For an excellent treatment of this clash & conciliation theme, 
look within the Gunsmoke family and watch 
John Dunkel's b&w hour The Far Places, directed by Harry Harris, Jr.)
Home for the Weekend aired on March 19, 1955. 
Yes, the ratio of four female actors to one male in the cast 
looks promising, and seems a heartening change 
from the usual equations in Hite-Macdonnell Gunsmokes, 
but two of the women leave after a minute or two. 
As for those who stay, although the end credits 
identify Helen Kleeb as 'the star,' 
this is strictly a Virginia Christine show. 
Helen Kleeb was indeed almost 50 and playing 
a mother-in-law, but in slipping prematurely into what 
would become her stock in trade, the old biddy(ish) voice, 
she renders her character rather...  characterless. 
It is Virginia Christine's vocal rendition of steely anger 
that is something to behold. 


February 3, 2006 


Copyright © 2006-2011 E. A. Villafranca, Jr.  
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