MY LITTLE MARGIE: THE HOODED VERN {FIRST SEASON FINALE} (TV)

Summary

One in this series of comedy programs about widower and former silent film star Vern Albright, who lives in a hotel suite with his spirited twentysomething daughter Margie. In this episode, Margie admits that she noticed a man in a restaurant and wants to approach him, but "convention" dictates that she must wait for him to come to her, and Vern forbids her to be forward. Nevertheless, she schemes with Mrs. Odetts to meet the man, an FBI agent called Norman. Mrs. Odetts suggests that she should pretend to be a foreign spy to make Norman take notice of her, and Margie soon turns up to the restaurant where she has seen Norman dressed very dramatically and employing a mysterious accent. She sits at the table next to him and Mrs. Odetts poses as an innocent flower seller, and they watch happily as Norman becomes suspicious and peeks through Margie’s things when she leaves the table. She leaves behind a note with a “secret code” on it, and Norman takes the note back to HQ and discusses the matter with an associate, Bradley. Bradley explains who Mrs. Odetts and Margie are, and Norman realizes that the “spy” is the same woman he has been admiring for days. They realize what Margie is up to, and Norman decides to handle it himself and “investigate” her after all.

Margie is excited when Norman calls, posing as a phone repairman, and stops by her apartment to check her set. She continues her Mata Hari impression and he tells her that he wishes he could take her out, but she is clearly too high-class for him. She offers him a way to make extra money by assisting her spy friends with their wiretapping business, and he feigns ignorance of such shady dealings. Norman then meets with Vern and explains the situation, and they decide to “give her a good scare” and let her think she has gotten mixed up in real spy business, and Vern eagerly asks to be included. A very shifty-looking man calling himself Seven arrives at Margie’s home, calling her “the countess” and saying that he got her “secret message” at the restaurant. She protests that she is not really a spy, but he gives her an address and tells her to come that night. Margie confesses her scheme to Norman, but he tells her that she can be “a real patriot” and help out with the dangerous case. Margie nervously goes to the address and encounters Seven and “the leader,” a silent, hooded man who orders her to transport a capsule of highly volatile explosives that night at midnight. When she leaves, Norman shares a good laugh with the hooded man, who is, of course, Vern. Later, Norman tells Margie a tentative goodbye, given the danger of that night’s mission, and Seven delivers the “explosives”—but a woman calling herself the real countess arrives and accuses Margie of working with the FBI. Margie panics and puts the capsule in her mouth, and Norman shoots both Seven and the woman “dead,” causing Margie to swallow the capsule in fright. Vern and Norman decide that she must have emergency at-home surgery before she explodes, and as they “prep” her, Seven and the woman revive and ask to watch, and Margie realizes that she has been had. Vern explains that the capsule was nothing more than vitamins that he found in her cabinet, but she tragically declares that they really contained poisonous hair dye, and Vern and Norman panic, begging her to hold on—and Margie has the last laugh when they both fall for her ruse. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: CBS
• DATE: August 25, 1952 10:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 0:25:02
• COLOR/B&W: B&W
• CATALOG ID: B:40868
• GENRE: Comedy
• SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Fathers and daughters
• SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1952-1953; NBC - 1953-1955
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Hal Roach, Jr. … Producer
• Guy V. Thayer, Jr. … Associate Producer
• G. Carleton Brown … Writer
• Frank Fox … Writer, Characters created by
• Hal Yates … Director
• Charles Farrell … Cast, Vern Albright
• Gale Storm … Cast, Margie Albright
• Gertrude W. Hoffmann … Cast, Mrs. Odetts
• Richard Simmons … Cast, Norman
• Otto Waldis … Cast, Seven
• Teresa Tudor … Cast, Countess
• Paul McGuire … Cast, Bradley
• Diane Fauntelle … Cast, Waitress