The Rockingham Tea Set

Before Grace Kelly made her film debut in a minor role in Fourteen Hours in 1951, she had already appeared in numerous television productions and would continue in this field until she established herself as a Hollywood leading lady after favorable appearances in High Noon [1952] and Mogambo [1953]. In 1954 she starred in Dial M for Murder, the first of three Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, and never again returned to television work after her participation that same year in several episodes of Kraft Television Theatre. While much of her television work was good training for her future film career, the quality of the roles were often uneven and undistinguished. Occasionally though, Kelly would shine in a colorful part and The Rockingham Tea Set [1950] is one of her best dramatic showcases. Based on a story by Virginia Douglas Dawson, The Rockingham Tea Set was adapted as a fifty-nine minute television drama for the popular program, Westinghouse Studio One [1950-1958]. Opening with a framing device of an elderly woman interviewing a potential candidate for her personal nurse, the bulk of the story focuses on Sara (Grace Kelly), the young applicant who was recently dismissed from her previous case. In flashback, we learn about Sara's previous charge, Celia (Louise Allbritton), a highly neurotic and emotional invalid who was paralyzed after a car accident inadvertently caused by David, her fiancé, who was drunk at the time. Confined to bed for the rest of her life, Celia makes life difficult for everyone around her, especially David whose guilt over the incident ensures his steadfast devotion to her. Sara, however, discovers that Celia is only pretending to be crippled in order to exert her hold over David and her family. When Celia realizes Sara's discovery along with her own jealousy of David's attraction to the nurse, she takes drastic measures that implicate Sara as a possible murder suspect. The Rockingham Tea Set was such a success with viewers that it was remade in 1952 with a different cast that included Cloris Leachman in the Grace Kelly part. The 1950 production was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes [1968], Patton [1970]) and produced by Worthington Miner, who also worked on the teleplay adaptation with Matt Harlib. Miner, who is not well known today, was one of the pioneers and innovators of early television drama. He was responsible for bringing ambitious and challenging work to the Westinghouse Studio One program such as adaptations of novels by Henry James (The Wings of the Dove, Berkeley Square), W. Somerset Maugham (Of Human Bondage) and Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre) and for selecting and hiring some of the brightest talents in the business for his productions such as Charlton Heston, E.G. Marshall, Paul Lukas, Anne Francis, Margaret Sullavan and Yul Brynner, to name just a few. He later became disillusioned with the direction television programming began to take in the late fifties and left it to dabble briefly in the film industry, serving as executive producer on The Pawnbroker [1964] and The Fool Killer [1965]. Producer: Worthington Miner Director: Franklin J. Schaffner Screenplay: Matt Harlib, Worthington Miner; Virginia Douglas Dawson (story) Music: Robert Allen, Bernard Herrmann, Bernhard Kaun Cast: Louise Allbritton, Katherine Emmet, Grace Kelly, Judson Laire BW-59m. by Jeff Stafford SOURCES: Grace by Robert Lacey (G.P. Putnam's Sons) True Grace: The Life and Death of an American Princess by Wendy Leigh (Thomas Dunne Books)