"The Shape of the River" | |
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Playhouse 90 episode | |
Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 15 |
Directed by | Boris Sagal |
Written by | Horton Foote |
Featured music | Jerry Goldsmith |
Original air date | May 2, 1960 |
Guest appearances | |
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"The Shape of the River" was an American television play broadcast on May 2, 1960, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90 . It was the 15th episode of the fourth season of Playhouse 90.
The play examines the life of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) from 1895, shortly before he departed on a European speaking tour, to 1905. During these years, Twain fell deeply into debt, and wife suffered a nervous breakdown and died. Daughter Susy became insane and died of spinal meningitis, and daughter Jane had a heart attack and drowned in a bathtub.
Fred Coe was the producer. Boris Sagal was the director, and Horton Foote wrote the teleplay. Foote had studied Twain's works since childhood and conducted extensive research before writing the screenplay. [1]
The cast included Franchot Tone as Samuel Clemens, Leif Erickson as William Dean Howells, Katharine Bard as Livy Clemens, Shirley Knight as Susy Clemens, and Jane McArthur as Jane Clemens. [1]
Fred Danzig of the UPI praised the performances of Bard and Tone. [2]
Cynthia Lowry of the Associated Press called it "a poignant and in some ways slow-moving play." [3]
Critic Paul King praised Tone's performance as "masterful" and the best of his career, though he found other performances mediocre and the production "disturbingly erratic". [4]
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
The Miracle Worker refers to a broadcast, a play and various other adaptations of Helen Keller's 1903 autobiography The Story of My Life. The first of these works was a 1957 Playhouse 90 broadcast written by William Gibson and starring Teresa Wright as Anne Sullivan and Patricia McCormack as Keller. Gibson adapted his teleplay for a 1959 Broadway production with Patty Duke as Keller and Anne Bancroft as Sullivan. The 1962 film also starred Bancroft and Duke. Subsequent television films were released in 1979 and in 2000.
Mary Foote was an American painter and producer of notes of Carl Jung's seminars. As an artist, she lived and worked in New York's Washington Square, Paris and Peking. From 1928 to the 1950s she lived in Zürich and created and published notes of Carl Jung's seminars until World War II. She returned to the United States in the 1950s and spent her later years in Connecticut, where she died.
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s usually were hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual: a weekly series of hour-and-a-half-long dramas rather than 60-minute plays.
The Adventures of Mark Twain is a 1944 American biographical film directed by Irving Rapper and starring Fredric March as Samuel Clemens and Alexis Smith as Twain's wife Olivia. Produced by Warner Bros., the film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including that for Best Music for Max Steiner's score. Irving Rapper was hesitant to direct the film but was persuaded by Hal B. Wallis.
The Philco Television Playhouse is an American television anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.
Olivia Langdon Clemens was the wife of the American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known under his pen name Mark Twain.
Mark Twain's legacy includes awards, events, a variety of memorials and namesakes, and numerous works of art, entertainment, and media.
Mark Twain: The Musical is a stage musical biography of Mark Twain that had a ten-year summertime run in Elmira, NY and Hartford, CT (1987–1995) and was telecast on a number of public television stations. An original cast CD was released by Premier Recordings in 1988, and LML Music in 2009 issued a newly mastered and complete version of the score. Video and DVD versions of the show are currently in release.
Olivia Susan Clemens was the second child and eldest daughter of Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, and his wife Olivia Langdon Clemens. She inspired some of her father's works, at 13 wrote her own biography of him, which he later published in his autobiography, and acted as a literary critic. Her father was heartbroken when she died of spinal meningitis at age 24.
Clara Langhorne Clemens Samossoud, was an American concert singer, and the daughter of Samuel Clemens, who wrote as Mark Twain. She managed his estate and guarded his legacy after his death as his only surviving child. She was married first to Ossip Gabrilowitsch, then to Jacques Samossoud after Gabrilowitsch's death. She wrote biographies of Gabrilowitsch and of her father. In her later life, she became a Christian Scientist.
John Marshall Clemens was the father of author Mark Twain and of journalist and politician Orion Clemens, who was the first and only Secretary of the Nevada Territory.
"Target for Three" was an American television play broadcast live on October 1, 1959, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. It was the first episode of the fourth season of Playhouse 90 and the 118th episode overall.
"Misalliance" was an American television play broadcast live on October 29, 1959, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. It was the third episode of the fourth season of Playhouse 90 and the 120th episode overall.
"To the Sound of Trumpets" was an American television play broadcast on February 9, 1960, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. It was the ninth episode of the fourth season of Playhouse 90 and the 126th episode overall.
"The Cruel Day" was an American television play broadcast on February 24, 1960, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. It was the tenth episode of the fourth season of Playhouse 90 and the 127th episode overall.
"In the Presence of Mine Enemies" was an American television play broadcast on May 18, 1960. It was the 16th episode of the fourth season of the CBS television series Playhouse 90, and also the final broadcast in the show's four-year run.
"Tomorrow" was an American television play broadcast on March 7, 1960, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. It was the 11th episode of the fourth season of Playhouse 90.
"Old Man" is an American television play broadcast on November 20, 1958, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. The production, starring Sterling Hayden and Geraldine Page, was adapted by Horton Foote from the short novel "Old Man" by William Faulkner. It was nominated for three Emmy Awards: for most outstanding program of the year; for best single performance by an actress (Page); and for best writing of a single dramatic program one hour or longer (Foote).
Jane Lampton Clemens was the mother of author Mark Twain. She was the inspiration of the character "Aunt Polly" in Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. She was regarded as a "cheerful, affectionate, and strong woman" with a "gift for storytelling" and as the person from whom Mark Twain inherited his sense of humor.