If
costumes can be recycled for TV and movies, then why not a set? Actually, there's a
fun video out there that shows all the times the curved grand staircase from
Auntie Mame (1958) popped up in movies, before and after. It's quite startling! But today we're examining a particular set. Shown here is a dollhouse from a 1972 episode of a little known series called
Ghost Story. Produced by William Castle, I discovered it not long ago and have been enjoying the type of guest star pairings that longtime readers know thrill me to no end! David Birney, Barbara Parkins & Jeanette Nolan one week, Jason Robards & Stella Stevens the next, then Stuart Whitman with Gena Rowlands, James Franciscus with Elizabeth Ashley and so on.
So then this one came up, episode 8, "House of Evil" with Melvyn Douglas, Jodie Foster, Richard Mulligan and Mildred Dunnock. It centers on Douglas, who harbors a tremendous grudge against his late daughter's widower. The widower (Mulligan) allowed his wife to die in childbirth in order to save the baby (who is played now by Foster.) Mulligan is now remarried (to Joan Hotchkis) and lives with her, their newly-adopted son (Brad Savage) and housekeeper Dunnock.
After ingratiating himself enough to pay a visit (after several years of estrange- ment), Douglas forms a telekinetic bond with his granddaughter Foster, who is stone deaf. He speaks to her with his mind and begins to use her as a pawn in his game of revenge, much of which involves the house they all are living in and which he has had recreated as a dollhouse for her amusement. He next pilfers some smiley-faced raisin cookies and has Foster dress them up in snatches of real clothing taken from each member of the household. Then the voodoo kicks in!
But the house... This sole shot of it from the outside is a night scene, so please forgive the blurry look of it. Does it seem familiar at all?
How about now in this shot from an earlier program. (I have to confess that this is a colorized version of the original scene, which was initially broadcast in black & white.) It's not a place where mystical or spooky goings on would be particularly out of place.
Yes, this set for the Douglas episode of
Ghost Story is actually the one and the same home that housed Elizabeth Montgomery and crew of
Bewitched for eight seasons!
Bewitched went off the air in the spring of 1972 and
Ghost Story began its one-season run that fall. The top photo has Douglas arriving, greeted by a skeptical Dunnock. The bottom one has Montgomery opening the door for her (temporary) nosy neighbor Mary Grace Canfield.
In this pairing, we see Hotchkis cleaning up the living room while speaking to Mulligan while in the picture below, (second Darrin) Dick Sergeant entertains his boss David White and a another couple in the very same, albeit redressed, room.
Here we see Douglas presenting Foster with her present in the house's foyer while below is the very same foyer, but with the wallpaper and alternate furnishings that were on set for later episodes of
Bewitched.
Bewitched's stairs turned off near the end, with a landing and wound up facing the front door. For the set of
Ghost Story, the stairs led straight down all the way to the edge of the living room.
This shot shows Foster descending the stairs while the one below shows a guest star (Cliff Hall) doing the same on
Bewitched.
This set of shots depicts the living room fireplace, mantel and bookshelves as seen in the varying programs.
Fans of
Bewitched will recall the placement of the TV set nestled below that landing of the stairs, a place I always found a bit awkward, but they never seemed to watch a great deal of television anyway.
And the dining room! Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur is seen standing before the Stephens' dining room while below Foster is seen trundling through the revised version in her TV episode. The kitchen is completely different in these two series because the set for the
Bewitched kitchen had been transplanted for use in
The Paul Lynde Show which debuted that fall.
A closer look reveals that Mulligan and his family actually have the very same dining room furniture that The Stephens owned when the house was theirs!! Dunnock is polishing the table that once served many a crazy meal to various family members and clients of Samantha and Darrin's.
The many changes in look for this set probably took quite a bit of work for studio craftsmen who might have benefited from the famous nose twitch that Montgomery used to utilize in each episode. Somehow she made redecorating a hell of a lot easier. LOL
The 1969 Jerry Lewis comedy
Hook, Line and Sinker was filmed while
Bewitched was still on the air, but utilized The Stephens' home as well. As seen here with Lewis' wife in the film, Anne Francis, the fireplace was given a huge, flat, stone facade and the large window leading to the patio was draped with garish, deep-red curtains.
The decor was done with lots of orange, red and gold and, as shown here, the TV placement was changed to a more realistic location. While plenty was done to obscure the fact that this was the Bewitched living space, it's still incredibly distinctive for fans of the show.
Here is a look at the foyer and stairs as Francis attempts to communicate with TV-addicted babysitter Kathleen Freeman.
This movie found room for a piano in the spacious, yet ultimately quite cluttered, living room. (Sorry about the poor quality of this vidcap.)
The set was far from done being used, though. It was featured as James Caan and Shelley Fabares' home in the iconic TV-movie
Brian's Song (1971), some shots seen below including that unmistakable foyer wallpaper, and in various other products from
Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) to certain episodes of
I Dream of Jeannie and even
Home Improvement.
In
Ghost Story, the dollhouse and real house are seen burning to a crisp, but exterior, in fact, still stands today. A video with some clips of the house before and after
Bewitched, some surprisingly current, can be seen
here, though often it's just the top of the house that can be seen.
When Douglas acted in this installment of
Ghost Story, he was already an Oscar-winner for
Hud (1963) and had an Emmy for an episode of
CBS Playhouse (1967.) A cinematic leading man of the 1930s, he was good then, but later developed into a terrifically good curmudgeon in supporting parts. He won a second Oscar for
Being There (1979) and had also earned a nomination for
I Never Sang for My Father (1970), but that went to George C. Scott for
Patton. In 1981, he joined several other old-timers for the unrelated feature film called
Ghost Story. My favorite Douglas story regards a statement he once made that in effect said being
co-starred with Greta Garbo (who he was paired with three times!) didn't necessarily warrant an
introduction to Miss Garbo!
Little did anyone know during the filming of this program that Douglas' diminutive costar Foster would herself grow up to collect two Oscars as well, for
The Accused (1988) and
The Silence of the Lambs (1991!) Did something rub off?
