Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) 1.30

Never Again

starring Phyllis Thaxter, Louise Allbritton, Warren Stevens

written by Gwen Bagni, Irwin Gielgud

directed by Robert Stevens

Karen (Phyllis Thaxter) wakes up in a hospital bed. One of her hands is bandaged. She doesn't recall how she got there. Her head hurts. She struggles to remember what she can. She remembers that she had a drinking problem that she was trying to quit. She had been sober for four weeks. Jeff (Warren Stevens), her boyfriend, insisted on taking her to a party mostly populated by his coworkers.

There was lots of drinking at the party. Karen tried to endure but people kept pushing drinks on her. She wound up throwing a drink in the face of Renee (Louise Allbritton), the hostess, who was flirting with Jeff. Karen ran off. Jeff ran after her. They talked and she decided to return to the party with him. She thought it couldn't get any worse than it already was, but it did.

Thoughts

Maybe a little melodramatic and over the top but I like this episode. I really got sucked into it. I guess I was rooting for Karen so the ending hit kind of hard. I thought all three of the leads in this episode were very good.

Notes

This is the first of six episodes of this show in which Phyllis Thaxter appeared. She also appeared in episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959), Kraft Suspense Theatre, and The Invaders.

This is the first of two episodes of this show in which Warren Stevens appeared. I have seen two movies in which he appeared, Black Tuesday (1954) and Forbidden Planet (1956). He also appeared in episodes of Four Star Playhouse, The Twilight Zone (1959), The Outer Limits (1963), Kraft Suspense Theatre, and Star Trek (1966).

This is the only episode of this show in which Louise Allbritton appeared. Jack Mullaney played the part of Renee's brother, one of the people who keeps trying to get Karen to drink. This is the first of four episodes of this show in which he appeared. 

The teleplay for this episode was written by Gwen Bagni, Irwin Gielgud, and Stirling Silliphant. The story upon which it was based was written by Adela Rogers St. John. This is the only episode of this show that Adela Rogers St. John had a hand in writing.

This is the first of 11 episodes of this show that Stirling Silliphant had a hand in writing. He also wrote the screenplay for In the Heat of the Night (1967).

This is the first of two episodes of this show that Gwen Bagni and Irwin Gielgud had a hand in writing. He was her second husband. The most recent thing I watched that she worked on was an episode of Four Star Playhouse, 1.15 The Last Voyage.

This is the 11th of 44 episodes of this show that was directed by Robert Stevens. The 10th episode he directed was 1.28 Portrait of Jocelyn.