Mabel shuts the alarm off at 7:30 am and yells for Henry to bring her coffee. When Henry asks what’s for breakfast, she instructs him to see what’s in the kitchen.  Mabel is just the latest in a long line of shrewish wives on this show.

While Henry is toiling away at work, Mabel does pry her butt out of bed to go see the latest film of her idol Martha Mason.

Leaving the theater, she admires the poster of Martha Mason and imitates the actress fainting into a policeman’s arms.

She returns home, nearly running Henry down in the garage as he hoists a bag of fertilizer, and tells him to look where he’s going.

She then mocks his interest in gardening and berates his previous efforts to grow anything. When he begins building a wooden frame for his garden, she is effusive in her lack in interest.  In fact, she scolds him for generally being such a dullard.  But there is a hole in the ground and we know one of them is going to end up in it.

Henry seems like a good egg, so it is unfortunate that he ends up in the hole after Mabel whacks him on the head with a hammer.

The next morning, she shuts the alarm off at the crack of eleven.  Henry’s boss calls looking for him, and Mabel makes up a tale story that Henry ran off with another woman — a perfectly believable scenario.  Well, believable that he would leave, less so that he could persuade another woman would go with him.

His boss comes to the house to see for himself. He doesn’t believe that Henry ran off; or if he did, it is just a “fling normal for a 47 year old man.”  He suggests Mabel buy a new hat to raise her spirits.  Now, here’s a man that knows people.

Mabel is called to the police station to answer some questions.  She sticks to her story that Henry ran off with another woman.  Her story takes a hit when a woman in the station says, he didn’t run off with another woman “because I’m the other woman!”

Mabel once again assumes the fainting pose from the poster, this time for real.

It would have been nice for the ending scene to be staged exactly like the movie poster, but in 1957, who knew that such comparisons could be easily made.  After 25 minutes, the 2nd pose probably seemed exactly like the poster.

Post-Post:

• AHP Deathwatch:  No survivors.
• Not to be confused with Martha Marcy May Marlene.
• Or Marsh Mason.