The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Jar (1964)
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Pat Buttram (he was Mr. Haney on Green Acres) brings a macabre twist to his standard country-bumpkin characterization in this bone-chilling episode. Visiting a traveling carnival, farmer Charlie Hill (Buttram) is fascinated by one of the exhibits: a huge jar, filled with water and mysterious floating objects. Convinced that the jar possesses magical qualities, Charlie purchases the object and brings it home, putting it on display for his friends and neighbors -- who are equally fascinated, even mesmerized, by the jar's eerie "properties." All of this brouhaha annoys Charlie's promiscuous young wife, Thedy Sue (Collin Wilcox), who plans to expose the jar as a fake and humiliate Charlie in public just before running off with her current boyfriend. James Bridges earned an Emmy nomination for his adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story The Jar, which also boasts an appropriately eerie minimalist musical score by frequent Alfred Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Complete Cast:
- Pat Buttram - Charlie Hill
- James Best - Tom Carmody
- William Marshall - Jahdoo
- Carl Benton Reid - Gramps Medknowe
- Jocelyn Brando - Emma Jane
- Sammy Reese - Milt Marshall
- Billy Barty - The Barker
- Collin Wilcox - Thedy Sue Hill
- Slim Pickens - Clem Carter
- Jane Darwell - Granny Carnation
- George Lindsey - Juke Marmer
- Alice Backes - Mrs. Tridden
- Marlene de Lamater - Eva Ann
- Director(s):
- Norman Lloyd
- Writer(s):
- James Bridges
- Closed Captioning:
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- Subtitles:
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