"The Shape of the River" was an American

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...

broadcast on May 2, 1960, as part of the CBS television series, ''

Playhouse 90 ''Playhouse 90'' was an American television anthology series, 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 dr ...

''. It was the 15th episode of the fourth season of ''Playhouse 90''.

Plot

The play examines the life of Samuel Clemens (

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

) 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.

Production

Fred Coe Frederick Hayden Hughs Coe (December 23, 1914 – April 29, 1979) was an American television producer and director most famous for '' The Goodyear Television Playhouse''/''The Philco Television Playhouse'' in 1948-1955 and ''Playhouse 90'' from 1 ...

was the producer.

Boris Sagal Boris Sagal (October 18, 1923 – May 22, 1981) was an American television and film director. Early life and career Born in Yekaterinoslav, Ukrainian SSR (now known as Dnipro, Ukraine) to a Ukrainian-Jewish family, Sagal immigrated to the United ...

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. The cast included Franchot Tone as Samuel Clemens, Leif Erickson as

William Dean Howells William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...

Katharine Bard Katharine Bard (October 19, 1916 – July 28, 1983) was an American actress. She appeared in the films '' The Decks Ran Red'', '' The Interns'', ''Johnny Cool'', ''Inside Daisy Clover'' and ''How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life''. She appea ...

as Livy Clemens,

Shirley Knight Shirley Knight Hopkins (July 5, 1936 – April 22, 2020) was an American actress who appeared in more than 50 feature films, television films, television series, and Broadway and Off-Broadway productions in her career, playing leading and charac ...

as Susy Clemens, and Jane McArthur as Jane Clemens.

Reception

Fred Danzig of the UPI praised the performances of Bard and Tone. Cynthia Lowry of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

called it "a poignant and in some ways slow-moving play." 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".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shape of the River 1960 American television episodes Playhouse 90 (season 4) episodes 1960 television plays