James MacArthur Official Website: Studio One: Tongues of Angels

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal ..." So begins the story of Ben Adams (James MacArthur), a young man who appears one day at the front door of the Walker house looking for work on their farm. He indicates that he is deaf and dumb, using crude signs and written notes to communicate. Although he is initially reluctant, Cyrus Walker (Leon Ames), eventually succumbs to the will of his wife Sarah (Frances Farmer) and his daughter Jenny (Margaret O'Brien), and agrees to hire the boy. Soon Jenny comes to realize that Ben can hear just fine and that he is not dumb, but suffers from a stuttering affliction so severe that he would rather not speak at all than reveal it. With patience and love, Jenny eventually helps Ben overcome his fears and begin to conquer his affliction.

"Before we performed this episode of Studio One, I decided to visit a class for stutterers so that I could gain some real-life insight into this affliction. I went to the class and pretended to be a stutterer. I learned quite a lot of valuable information, including the fact that many stutterers don't so much repeat consonants as that they have to take a lot more time and effort to form them and get them out properly than non-stutterers. At the end of the class, before it was dismissed, I got up in the front of the class and confessed that I didn't really have a stuttering problem, but was an actor preparing for a role. I wanted to apologize to the students and the teacher for my deception. To my surprise, they were all very warm and supportive, even going so far as to say that no one had suspected that I was faking a stuttering problem. Many told me that they were pleased that I had taken the time and trouble to learn what I could so that I could make a more effective portrayal. When it came time to do the actual show, I had to work in a way different from what I might have done in a full-length movie or play. Because of the shorter format of a one-hour show and the complex story we had to get across in that hour, there wasn't as much time for me to stumble through the lines, yet I needed to convey Ben's affliction in a way the audience would understand. Instead of falling back on the old repeating consonants theme widely used to portray stutterers, I tried to effectively convey the severity of Ben's affliction using more tortured facial expressions and sounds outside of normal speech, as I had seen with some of those in the class I had attended. I'm happy to say that I've since learned that this particular portrayal of a stutterer is widely credited by those who do stutter as one of the most realistic ever shown on television or film."

“Around the Dials”
James MacArthur Wins Laurels in TV Drama
by Bob Williams
Review published in The Evening Bulletin (18 March 1958)

The reports from Hollywood about James MacArthur -- that he is one of the most promising young actors on the horizon -- were strongly confirmed last night on Studio One.

MacArthur, the son of actress Helen Hayes, and the late Charles MacArthur, noted playwright, gave a striking performance as a frightened, brooding stutterer in Tongues of Angels.

There were only four in the cast, and MacArthur had last billing behind Margaret O’Brien, Leon Ames and Frances Farmer. But his was the key role, and to it he gave depth and conviction.

John Vlahos’ teleplay told the story of a youth who poses as a mute to cover up his affliction. He is taken on as a farm family’s handyman at the urging of a teenage daughter, played by Miss O’Brien.

Although she doesn’t realize it at first, she’s in love with this strange, affection-starved boy. When she discovers he can hear and talk, she dedicates herself to breaking down the wall of silence he has erected to shield himself from the ridicule of a cruel society.

Although Miss O’Brien was at all times a bit shrill, the scenes with MacArthur were often deeply touching. There were several bathos-drenched moments that cloyed, but these were the fault of the writer, not the actors.

Vlahos’ drama, nevertheless, was moving and believable, several cuts above most of the rickety vehicles that have passed as teleplays this season.

It was greatly enhanced by excellent supporting performances from Miss Farmer and Ames; by unusually fine staging and the sensitive direction of Herbert Hirschman. The camera work also was exceptional.

All of which appears to render premature the funeral orations which many New York television partisans read over Studio One when it moved from Manhattan to Hollywood at the beginning of this year.

* * *

How MacArthur came by the role in Tongues of Angels is a story in itself. Playwright Vlahos and James’s mother, Miss Hayes, have the same agent, who asked Miss Hayes to read the script solely to evaluate it.

She did, and upon learning that Studio One planned to produce it, phoned her son in Mexico, where he was vacationing, and urged him to return to Hollywood immediately to audition for the role of the youth.

MacArthur formerly attended the Solebury School near new Hope. He made his TV debut two seasons ago during summer vacation on Climax. Last year he entered Harvard, but took a leave of absence this term when offered several movie roles.

“Look and Listen”
with Donald Kirkley
Review published in The Baltimore Sun (20 March 1958)

Studio One in Hollywood came back in the standard of excellence it left behind in New York with its latest offering, Tongues of Angels, by John Vlahos. This was the third production by Norman Felton who, in an interview before he went West, declared that he was aware of the traps and hazards of Hollywood and intended to try to avoid them.

There was a turn for the better on March 3, with Jackie Cooper starred in a drama of intrigue in the press relations department of a motion picture company, but the characterization was only skin deep. The second one i skipped; it was about a murder and I’ve had enough of them. Tongues of Angels reverted to the principles on which the first brilliant school of TV drama was built, it dealt with tenderness and perception on an emotional crisis in the lives of two likeable people in a commonplace setting.

This is the kind of thing -- the study in depth of human beings in close-up -- which television can do best and in which it is unique among the forums of the theater. Tongues of Angels had novelty as well, for the affliction of stuttering was an important part of the story.

Speech impediment is banned by custom in all dramatic media, and for good reason. Years ago, it was used occasionally in the movies for comedy effect (remember Roscoe Ates?), but it was finally understood that no physical handicap is a fit subject for humor. On the other hand, it’s possible to write a play about many ailments, if the author has a valid purpose and combines compassion with understanding. Mr. Vlahos succeeded admirably.

There was nothing clinical in his approach, and this was primarily a love story, and a very gentle and moving one, but the viewer absorbed a good deal of knowledge about the cause, nature and treatment of stuttering, and in the ways in which people can help or hurt the stutterer. Herbert Hirschman, in his direction, caught the spirit of the script and James MacArthur gave a sensitive and accurate portrayal of the troubled youth, as befits the son of Helen Hayes.

The scene was a dairy farm in New York, and Mr. MacArthur turns up as a hired man who is supposedly a deaf mute. Margaret O’Brien, whose parents (Leon Ames and Frances Farmer) own the farm, discovers by chance that he has chosen to pass himself off as deaf and dumb rather than reveal his stuttering, and his acute fear of talking with people.

Miss O’Brien draws him out of his shell in the course of the play, learns the reason for his withdrawal from society, and helps him in his desperate and painful attempts to free himself and break his mental block. There’s no sudden cure, no miracle; but as the story closes, it’s obvious that in time, the young man will succeed.

Mr. MacArthur handled a difficult task like a veteran, suggesting the severity of the impediment without stressing it too much. I think this young actor has a very bright future.

“Screening TV”
‘Mute’ Drama Stirring
by Harry Harris
Review published in the Philadelphia Enquirer (18 March 1958)

John Vlahos’ Tongues of Angels on Studio One last night was a throwback to the good old days of TV drama, when the medium wasn’t reluctant to tell simple, but stirring stories about ordinary people.

This particular “slice of life” had to do with a young farmhand who masquerades as a deaf mute because of his painful stuttering. He’s found out by his employer’s daughter, who sets out to help him overcome his affliction.

There are several small triumphs (he finally gets up the nerve to use a telephone) and several setbacks (when his first attempt to speak before the girl’s parents and their friends seems to cause hoots of laughter, he starts to run). But finally, bolstered by the girl’s love, he decides to stick it out and fight it out.

Some of the harrowing explanation of his difficulties seemed a bit excessive, but the play and its people were always warm and endearing.

Margaret O’Brien was splendid as the compassionate Jenny, and James MacArthur conveyed movingly Ben’s torment. Frances Farmer and Leon Ames, as Jenny’s kind, but somewhat uneasy parents, rounded out the first rate cast skillfully directed by Herbert Hirschman.

To view a full gallery of screen captures from this episode click here.