Joan Harrison Movies

Hammer recut and repackaged two installments of their popular television series Journey to the Unknown (one of the earliest projects of longtime Hammer director Roy Ward Baker) for this theatrical release. The first tale involves a guest at an unusual masquerade party at which he is given an unflattering look at his past misdeeds; the second installment stars The Haunting's Julie Harris as a rich woman pursued by a slimy, gold-digging potential suitor who meets his comeuppance thanks to an ancient Indian spirit. Though rather staid in comparison to Baker's flamboyant anthology work for Amicus, this is nevertheless a moody and stylish pair of tales, if not fully representative of the series' finer moments. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Season ten of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour marked the suspense anthology's move from CBS to NBC, where as Alfred Hitchcock Presents it had previously run in a half-hour format from 1960 through 1962. At the same time, the series forsook its sparsely attended Friday-night time slot to a slightly more advantageous berth on Monday evenings, opposite the long-running but now lagging Ben Casey and the born-loser Slattery's People. As was the case during season nine, season ten contained no episodes directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself. The season began with the Arnold Laven-directed "The Return of Verge Likens," starring Dennis Hopper as a hillbilly who uses psychological torture to avenge the death of his father. It is fairly grim stuff, but nowhere near as gruesome as some of the other tenth-season offerings. "Water's Edge," adapted from a Robert Bloch story, concludes with the spectacle of Ann Sothern preparing John Cassavetes to be devoured by a horde of rats, and "The Final Performance" features Franchot Tone as a washed-up vaudeville performers who employs his peculiar talents to nastily divest himself of his faithless young wife. A handful of episodes this season represent rare Alfred Hitchcock Hour forays into fantasy and the supernatural, notably the offbeat fable "Where the Woodbine Twineth" and the futuristic murder yarn "Consider Her Ways." Also, the series occasionally plundered the classics, adapting Andre Maurois' mordant "Thanatos Palace Hotel" as a vehicle for Steven Hill and Angie Dickinson, and W.W. Jacobs' Grand Guignol masterpiece "The Monkey's Paw" as a showcase for prolific series director Robert Stevens. In the tradition of such past efforts as "Bang, You're Dead" and "Hangover," this season features one of the few episodes in which Alfred Hitchcock foregoes his characteristic humorous epilogue in favorite of a deadly serious message addressing an acute social problem. "Memo from Purgatory," adapted by Harlan Ellison from his own experiences while posing as a juvenile delinquent in order to gather information for a book, stars James Caan as the Ellison counterpart, and a pre-Star Trek Walter Koenig in a searing performance as a vicious street-gang leader. Canceled at the end of its tenth season, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour wrapped things up with its 361st episode "Off Season," written by Robert Bloch and directed by a young William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After two years on NBC, the long-running suspense anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents returned to its original stamping grounds, CBS, for its eighth season on the air. Only it wasn't Alfred Hitchcock Presents anymore: responding to a then-current industry trend, the series had expanded from 30 to 60 minutes per week, and had been rechristened The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Not only did this provide the series' production staff with the opportunity to do longer, more complex and more in-depth stories, but it also allowed host Alfred Hitchcock to make three between-the-acts appearances per episode, rather than just two. Moving into its new 10 p.m. Thursday slot in the fall of 1962, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour kicked off its eighth season with "A Piece of the Action," starring veteran Gig Young and relative newcomer Robert Redford, and directed by frequent series contributor Bernard Girard. Former Hitchcock contractee Vera Miles, who has headlined the series' very first half-hour episode, "Revenge," back in 1955, returned to star in the second hour-long entry, "Don't Look Behind You," helmed by John Brahm. As for Hitchcock, his only directorial foray this season is the fourth episode, the Rashomon-like "I Saw the Whole Thing." It would be the last of the series' Hitchcock-directed installments; thereafter, The Master confined his TV activity to his hosting and story-editor duties, reserving his directorial energies to such theatrical features as The Birds and Marnie.

Highlights of the series' inaugural one-hour season include "Captive Audience" and "Dear Uncle George," a brace of "perfect-murder" yarns penned by Richard Levinson and William Link of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote fame; "The Black Curtain," adapted from Cornell Woolrich's famous whodunit; "Ride the Nightmare," scripted by Richard Matheson, who also wrote the episode The Thirty-First of February" under the nom de plume of "Logan Swanson"; "Diagnosis: Danger," directed by Sydney Pollack, who had previously worked on the series as an actor; "The Long Silence," co-authored by Charles Beaumont; and "Death of a Cop," written by veteran Hollywood scenarist Leigh Brackett, whose film credits ranged from The Big Sleep to The Empire Strikes Back. In the tradition of the previous season's "Bang, You're Dead," season eight offers another "serious" episode, in which Hitchcock foregoes the traditional humorous epilogue to deliver a straightforward cautionary message about an all-too-real social problem. In this case, the problem is alcoholism, and the episode in question is "Hangover," co-written by mystery author John D. MacDonald and co-starring Tony Randall and Jayne Mansfield. After a shaky start opposite the high-rated NBC variety series The Andy Williams Show, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour moved from Thursday to Friday evenings in January of 1963, where it fared somewhat better opposite the flagging 77 Sunset Strip and the low-rated satirical series That Was the Week That Was. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After five seasons on CBS' Sunday-night roster, the suspense anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents moved to a new network, NBC, and a new night, Tuesday, for its sixth season on the air. NBC hoped to utilize the Hitchcock show as a strong lead-in for its new anthology, Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff. The season opener, directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself from a story by Roald Dahl, is "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat," an ironic fable of infidelity starring a decidedly post-Honeymooners Audrey Meadows. The only other Hitchcock-directed episode this season is "The Horse Player," an uncharacteristically sentimental morality play featuring Claude Rains and Ed Gardner, former star-creator of radio's Duffy's Tavern. Season six provided ample opportunity for Hitch's stable of TV directors to flex their creative muscles. Paul Henreid and John Brahm continued turning out above-average work, while Norman Lloyd contributed two of the season's best entries: "The Conquest for Aaron Gold," featuring future director Sydney Pollack in a pivotal role, and "O, Youth & Beauty," one of the earliest TV adaptations of a John Cheever story. Newcomers to the series' directorial lineup include actress Ida Lupino, guiding another specialist in "hard-boiled dame" roles; Claire Trevor, through her paces in "A Crime for Mothers"; stylish B-picture stalwart Robert Florey, whose "Summer Shade" features a young James Franciscus; and Alf Kjellin, once a leading actor in the Scandinavian film industry and later a prolific director on such 1960s series as I Spy, who this season helmed the superb Alfred Hitchcock episode "Coming Home." While Alfred Hitchcock Presents held on to its fan base during it sixth season, the change of network and time slot didn't do its ratings much good -- the series languished opposite such sure-fire audience magnets as Dobie Gillis and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season four of Alfred Hitchcock Presents gets under way with "Poison," directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself, adapted from a story by Roald Dahl, and starring Wendell Corey, who'd been one of the leads in Hitch's 1954 theatrical feature Rear Window. The only other episode helmed personally by Hitchcock this season is "Banquo's Chair," based on an oft-dramatized Rupert Croft-Cooke short story and featuring another Hitchcock "regular," John Williams. Emmy-winning director Robert Stevens continued turning out first-rate work during the series' fourth season, as did Paul Henreid, whose credits this year include "Out There: Darkness," starring Henreid's Now, Voyager co-star Bette Davis. Newcomers to the series' directorial roster included Norman Lloyd, who as an actor had appeared in Hitchcock's 1940s features Saboteur and Notorious, and who had been on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents production staff since the previous season. The best examples of Lloyd's output this year are "Safety for the Witness," starring Art Carney in one of his first post-Honeymooners acting assignments, and "Human Interest Story," one of the series' rare forays into the realm of science fiction, with Steve McQueen in the leading role. The stiff competition of NBC's Dinah Shore Chevy Show caused Alfred Hitchcock Presents to suffer a ratings dip during its fourth season, though the series managed to end the year as America's most popular filmed dramatic anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As in its first season on CBS, season two of the suspense anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents opens with an episode directed by Hitchcock himself: "Wet Saturday," starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke as an aristocrat who tries to cover up a murder committed by his wastrelly son by framing someone else for the crime. Too busy with his movie career to contribute much more to the series beyond his weekly opening and closing appearances, Hitch directed only one other second-season effort: "One More Mile to Go," a virtually wordless tour de force for star David Wayne as a middle-class murderer who encounters unexpected difficulty trying to hide his wife's corpse from an overly friendly highway patrolman. Also in keeping with a precedent set in season one, most of the best season-two episodes are the handiwork of director Robert Stevens. Case in point: the three-part "I Killed the Count," adapted by Francis Cockrell from a story by Alec Coppel, who would later collaborate on the script for Hitchcock's 1958 movie classic Vertigo. And, likewise as in the previous season, several young, up-and-coming actors were showcased in the second-season endeavors, such as Inger Stevens ("My Brother Richard"), Rip Torn ("Number Twenty-Two"), and Vic Morrow and Barbara Cook ("A Little Sleep"). Leaping to sixth place in the overall TV ratings during its sophomore season, Alfred Hitchcock Presents also earned its first Emmy award, bestowed upon James P. Cavanaugh's script for the episode "Fog Closes In." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Circle of Danger stars Ray Milland as an American at large in London, Wales and Scotland. During World War 2, Milland's brother had died in a commando raid. The details of his death were somewhat murky, and Milland would like to know the truth. The truth is murder in every sense of the word, though rather disappointingly, Milland himself is never in any peril. While Circle of Danger was produced by longtime Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison, the Master's touch is noticeably absent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fourth directorial effort of actor Robert Montgomery, Eye Witness was lensed on location in England. Montgomery plays an American attorney whose British pal (Michael Ripper) has been accused of murder. Ripper insists that he spent the evening of the crime with a woman, who has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. Montgomery dedicates himself to locating the missing witness before sentence can be pronounced. A compact courtroom drama highlighted by unexpected moments of humor, Eye Witness was released in some areas as Your Witness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Montgomery directed and starred in this exotic film noir set during a New Mexico fiesta. Montgomery plays a secretive ex-GI who plans to extort money from a prominent gangster (Fred Clark) as retribution for the death of Montgomery's best friend. An FBI man (Art Smith) would like the government to get the incriminating information on the gangster that Montgomery is carrying. Trailed by the FBI agent, Montgomery takes refuge at an old carousel, where he meets a Mexican gamin (Wanda Hendrix) who refuses to leave his side. The girl is on hand when the gangster catches up with Montgomery and has him beaten. She nurses Montgomery back to health, but the would-be blackmailer is determined to confront the gangster again. This time, however, the FBI agent comes to the rescue. Ride the Pink Horse is a properly moody melodrama, containing one of the few truly good performances from eternal ingenue Wanda Hendrix. The film was remade for TV in 1964 as The Hanged Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fabric designer Harry Quincey (George Sanders) has the unhappy task of caring for his tiresome unmarried sisters, Lettie (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and Hester (Moyna MacGill). When Harry falls in love with Deborah Brown (Ella Raines), Hester is delighted, but Lettie smolders with jealousy. Upset at Lettie 's opposition, Harry would like nothing better than to do her in. Does he? And what has really happened here? When originally presented on Broadway, Thomas Job's play Uncle Harry utilized a complex flashback technique in unfolding its story, which was capped by a grimly ironic ending. Stephen Longstreet's screenplay not only takes a more linear approach, but also radically alters the ending to conform with the censorship strictures then in effect. The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry was one of several Universal film noirs of the 1940s produced by longtime Alfred Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Engineer Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis) is at a seedy midtown Manhattan bar early one evening, drowning his sorrows over a failed marriage, when he strikes up a conversation with a woman (Fay Helm). She's well dressed, with a very ornate hat topping off her ensemble, and also seems even sadder and more lost than he is. Henderson persuades her to join him in taking advantage of the two theater tickets he has. They attend the show -- a song-and-dance showcase by a Brazilian artist (Aurora) -- and then part company without ever exchanging names. He returns home to find three detectives in his apartment and his wife strangled. Inspector Burgess (Thomas Gomez) questions Henderson and tries to verify his alibi, but no one -- not the bartender, the cabbie who hauled them to the theater, or the drummer in the band who was watching her -- admits to remembering the woman. Henderson can't prove that he was elsewhere when his wife was strangled and is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. His assistant, Carol Richman (Ella Raines), who has watched all of this happen, can't sit by while Scott is destroyed, and decides to get at the truth, joined by Inspector Burgess, who now believes Henderson to be innocent. Carol hounds the bartender (Andrew Tombes) until he seems ready to crack, but before he talks, he tries to get away from her and dies in an accident. The drummer, Cliff Milburn (Elisha Cook Jr.), proves more talkative and reveals that someone paid him 500 dollars to forget about the woman, but before Burgess can question him, he's strangled. It seems as though there's no hope left, even with the added help of Jack Marlow (Franchot Tone), Scott's best friend, newly returned from Brazil, when Carol gets a line on the unusual hat the woman was wearing. She traces the hat to its owner in a mansion on Long Island, where she is recovering from a breakdown over the death of her fiancé -- that was her trouble on the night she crossed paths with Scott Henderson. It is only on returning to New York, while awaiting Burgess' arrival, that she realizes that Jack Marlow is the murderer -- that he returned after having dinner with them, following their fight, and strangled Henderson's wife; paid off the bartender, the cab driver, and Cliff Milburn to keep them from revealing the existence of the woman that Scott was with; and killed Milburn to prevent him from talking; and he plans to kill Carol before she can talk to Burgess. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Aircraft plant worker Robert Cummings is accused of sabotaging his factory and causing the death of a co-worker. Actually, Cummings is the fall guy for a clever ring of Nazi spies, headed by above-suspicion American philanthropist Otto Kruger. Our hero goes on a cross-country chase after genuine saboteur Norman Lloyd, all the while pursued himself by the police. Along the way, he acquires a reluctant "travelling companion" in the form of Priscilla Lane, who at first despises Cummings and intends to turn him over to the authorities at the first opportunity, but who gradually comes to realize that the boy is innocent. Alfred Hitchcock intended Saboteur to be the American equivalent to his British The 39 Steps, employing such details as the solid-citizen villain, the handcuffed hero, the unwilling blonde heroine, and any number of stopovers with a variety of offbeat characters (a travelling "freak" show, a compassionate blind man, a grizzled old prospector who turns out to be one of the spies, etc.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide