Alfred Hitchcock Movies
Alfred Hitchcock was the most well-known director to the general public, by virtue of both his many thrillers and his appearances on television in his own series from the mid-'50s through the early '60s. Probably more than any other filmmaker, his name evokes instant expectations on the part of audiences: at least two or three great chills (and a few more good ones), some striking black comedy, and an eccentric characterization or two in every one of the director's movies.Originally trained at a technical school, Hitchcock gravitated to movies through art courses and advertising, and by the mid-'20s he was making his first films. He had his first major success in 1926 with The Lodger, a thriller loosely based on Jack the Ripper. While he worked in a multitude of genres over the next six years, he found his greatest acceptance working with thrillers. His early work with these, including Blackmail (1929) and Murder (1930), seem primitive by modern standards, but have many of the essential elements of Hitchcock's subsequent successes, even if they are presented in technically rudimentary terms. Hitchcock came to international attention in the mid- to late '30s with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), and, most notably, The Lady Vanishes (1938). By the end of the 1930s, having gone as far as the British film industry could take him, he signed a contract with David O. Selznick and came to America.
From the outset, with the multi-Oscar-winning psychological thriller Rebecca (1940) and the topical anti-Nazi thrillers Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Saboteur (1942), Hitchcock was one of Hollywood's "money" directors whose mere presence on a marquee attracted audiences. Although his relationship with Selznick was stormy, he created several fine and notable features while working for the producer, either directly for Selznick or on loan to RKO and Universal, including Spellbound (1945), probably the most romantic of Hitchcock's movies; Notorious (1946); and Shadow of a Doubt (1943), considered by many to be his most unsettling film.
In 1948, after leaving Selznick, Hitchcock went through a fallow period, in which he experimented with new techniques and made his first independent production, Rope; but he found little success. In the early and mid-'50s, he returned to form with the thrillers Strangers on a Train (1951), which was remade in 1987 by Danny DeVito as Throw Momma From the Train; Dial M for Murder (1954), which was among the few successful 3-D movies; and Rear Window (1954). By the mid-'50s, Hitchcock's persona became the basis for the television anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which ran for eight seasons (although he only directed, or even participated as producer, in a mere handful of the shows). His films of the late '50s became more personal and daring, particularly The Trouble With Harry (1955) and Vertigo (1958), in which the dark side of romantic obsession was explored in startling detail. Psycho (1960) was Hitchcock's great shock masterpiece, mostly for its haunting performances by Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins and its shower scene, and The Birds (1963) became the unintended forerunner to an onslaught of films about nature-gone-mad, and all were phenomenally popular -- The Birds, in particular, managed to set a new record for its first network television showing in the mid-'60s.
By then, however, Hitchcock's films had slipped seriously at the box office. Both Marnie (1964) and Torn Curtain (1966) suffered from major casting problems, and the script of Torn Curtain was terribly unfocused. The director was also hurt by the sudden departure of composer Bernard Herrmann (who had scored every Hitchcock's movie since 1957) during the making of Torn Curtain, as Herrmann's music had become a key element of the success of Hitchcock's films. Of his final three movies, only Frenzy (1972), which marked his return to British thrillers after 30 years, was successful, although his last film, Family Plot (1976), has achieved some respect from cult audiences. In the early '80s, several years after his death in 1980, Hitchcock's box-office appeal was once again displayed with the re-release of Rope, The Trouble With Harry, his 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo, all of which had been withheld from distribution for several years, but which earned millions of dollars in new theatrical revenues. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- 2004
- Add Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque to Queue Add Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque to top of Queue
Henri Langlois was, in many respects, the ultimate film fan. In 1936, at the age of 22, Langlois became (along with Jean Mitry and Georges Franju) one of the founders of the Cinémathèque Française, a theater and museum devoted to preserving the history of the motion picture. Initially a tiny operation financed by private funds, the Cinémathèque, with time, grew into Europe's most important film archive, collecting and preserving prints of rare films from all over the world and protecting many rare gems of the French cinema from destruction during the Nazi occupation of World War II. Langlois' enthusiasm for sharing the treasures of his collection with others helped spawn a film-crazy generation who created the French New Wave of the '50s, and in time, the French government acknowledged the importance of the Cinémathèque's work by financing their endeavors. In 1968, the French minister of culture, André Malraux, responded to Langlois' difficult personality and sloppy bookkeeping by pulling the government's financing of his projects, which led to an international outcry leading to the shutdown of the Cannes Film Festival by activists and film buffs. The Cinémathèque's funding and Langlois' leadership were later restored, and in 1973, his work in film preservation was honored with a special Academy Award. Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinémathèque is a documentary which chronicles the life, times, and passions of the legendary archivist and includes interviews with his friends, contemporaries, and colleagues -- including Claude Berri, Claude Chabrol, Jack Valenti, and Daniel Cohn-Bendit. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Henri Alékan, Jo Amorin, (more)
- 1989
The fourth season of the full-color Alfred Hitchcock Presents revival was also the series' third season on the USA Network -- and the final season in which new episodes were produced (16 in all). This year, only one of the episodes is based on an earlier installment from the first Alfred Hitchcock Presents of the 1950s and '60s; the rest are all originals. The games begin with "The Big Spin," directed by prolific Canadian character actor Al Waxman and starring Erik Estrada as a duplicitous cab driver who gets more than he bargains for when he "borrows" a lottery ticket. Other fourth-season entries include "Don't Sell Yourself Short," with David Soul in fable of Wall Street chicanery with a homicidal twist; "Skeleton in the Closet," a contemporary spin on the 19th century Lizzie Borden murder case; "My Dear Watson," an unofficial sequel to Arthur Conan Doyle's His Last Bow, starring Brian Bedford as Sherlock Holmes; and "Diamonds Aren't Forever," a James Bond takeoff featuring one-time-only "007" actor George Lazenby. The best of the batch, appropriately enough, is a brace of Alfred Hitchcock spoofs: "The Man Who Knew Too Little," starring Lewis Collins as an amnesia victim, and the series finale, "South by Southeast," all about a "lost" Hitchcock script chock-full of instantly recognizable movie references. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- 1988
Originally telecast on the USA cable network, season three of the color revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents offers 24 new episodes. Unlike previous seasons, which were largely comprised of remakes from the old black-and-white Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the third season consists virtually in its entirety of "originals," specially written for the revival; indeed, only the episode "Prosecutor" is derived from the earlier series. The season opens with "A Very Careful Rape," starring Melissa Sue Anderson as an actress who uses cutting-edge technology to wreak vengeance on her rapist. Subsequent episodes are equally up-to-date in content, notably "A Stolen Heart," wherein the title "character" is held for ransom just before a transplant operation, and "Career Move," with David Cassidy well cast as a washed-up rock star who plans to revitalize his career in a macabre fashion. Other episodes are quite "traditionalist" in nature, as witness "You'll Die Laughing," starring Anthony Newley as a terminally ill comedian who tries to stage his suicide to look like murder, and the two-part "The Hunted," a cat-and-mouse thriller starring The Equalizer's Edward Woodward. And whereas the older Alfred Hitchcock Presents only rarely delved into the supernatural, the new version is top-heavy with such fantastic yarns as "Houdini and Channel Four," in which the ghost of the celebrated escape artist is summoned to rescue a contemporary kidnap victim. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- 1987
Canceled by NBC in 1986, the "new," full-color version of the classic suspense anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents was brought back one year later by the USA network. For its inaugural season on USA, the series served up 13 new half-hour episodes, fleshing out the schedule with reruns from the NBC version. As before, most of the new episodes are actually remakes of stories previously seen on the first incarnation of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with the late Mr. Hitchcock actually introducing them via colorized film clips from the earlier show. These include "Specialty of the House," "Anniversary Gift," "Man on the Edge," and "The World's Oldest Motive." Of the original episodes (original to this revival, that is), highlights included "If the Shoe Fits," with Ted Shackelford in a dual role; "The Impatient Patient," starring frequent Hitchcock collaborator E.G. Marshall as a disgruntled invalid plotting to kill his annoying nurse; and "The Final Twist," featuring Martin Landau in the story of a group of homicidal movie special-effects artists. In addition to the above-mentioned performers, the "star lineup" for season two of Alfred Hitchcock Presents includes Marion Ross, Mark Hamill, Edward Herrmann, Pamela Sue Martin, Samantha Eggar, and Adrian Zmed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- 1985
NBC's 1985 revival of the classic suspense anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents begins with the two-hour pilot episode, made up of four new versions of classic Hitchcock episodes from the 1960s: "Incident in a Small Jail," "Man from the South," "Bang, You're Dead," and "An Unlocked Window." Although Alfred Hitchcock had been dead since 1980, he still manages to introduce each episode, via colorized excerpts from the original black-and-white series. After this extra-length opener, the series proper gets under way with a remake of the original 1955 Alfred Hitchcock Presents debut episode, "Revenge," with Linda Purl taking over from Vera Miles in the role of a traumatized rape victim. Indeed, virtually all of the episodes seen during the revival's first season are remakes of vintage Hitchcock efforts. The best of these include "Method Actor," an updated version of 1962's "Bad Actor," directed by Burt Reynolds and starring Martin Sheen in the old Robert Duvall role; "Final Escape," a gender-switch version of the 1964 nail-biter with Season Hubley replacing Will Hutchins as an escape-happy convict; "Breakdown," with John Heard as the paralyzed accident victim originally essayed by Joseph Cotten; and the Ray Bradbury shocker "The Jar," with Griffin Dunne stepping into the part created by Pat Buttram. Also in the manifest is "Four O'Clock," an abbreviated remake of a one-hour playlet that Alfred Hitchcock had directed for the 1957 anthology series Suspicion. Only handful of "originals" -- that is episodes expressly written for the 1985 version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents -- were seen during season one. These include "Prisoners," directed by series producer Christopher Crowe and starring Yaphet Kotto as a fugitive and Cristina Raines as his extremely willing hostage, and "A Very Happy Ending," with Leaf Phoenix (aka Joaquin Phoenix) as a deaf boy who holds the fate of a murderer (Robert Loggia) in his hands. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock's final film was adapted from Victor Canning's novel The Rainbird Pattern by Ernest Lehman, who previously wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's North by Northwest. Barbara Harris plays Blanche, a phony psychic, hired by wealthy Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbitt) to trace the whereabouts of her nephew, who'd been given up for adoption years earlier and who is now heir to a fortune. Blanche's cohort is "investigator" Lumley (Bruce Dern), who is fully prepared to milk the last dollar out of Julia before locating the long-lost nephew. Meanwhile, we are introduced to elegant kidnappers Adamson and Fran (William Devane and Karen Black). The fates of the two couples are inextricably intertwined by the search for the missing heir. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Karen Black, Bruce Dern, (more)
Alfred Hitchcock entered the 1970s with his commercial reputation virtually in tatters, a far cry from his stature at the start of the 1960s. Then, he'd been in the middle of the massively successful trio of movies, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds, and was a ubiquitous presence on television thanks to his anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents -- but the series ended, and he'd suffered three expensive box-office failures in a row, Marnie, Torn Curtain, and Topaz, in the second half of the 1960s. He redeemed himself with Frenzy, however, which marked his return not only to England for the first time in 20 years but also to the subject matter with which he'd started his career in thrillers back in 1926 -- murder, and a hunt for a serial killer in London. As the latest female victim of the "Necktie Murderer" is found in the Thames, raped and strangled, we meet Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), a bitter, belligerent ex-Royal Air Force officer who can't seem to find his way in life. He drinks too much and holds grudges too easily, and has an explosive temper, which is very near the surface as he's just lost his job. We also meet his girlfriend, a barmaid (Anna Massey); his ex-wife, a professional matchmaker (Barbara Leigh-Hunt); and his best friend, Covent Garden fruit seller Bob Rusk (Barry Foster). Their connection to the necktie murders will be clear to us in the first 30 minutes of the movie and, not coincidentally, completely misinterpreted by the police, as Chief Inspector Oxford (Alec McCowan) and his men tighten a circle around the wrong man, who rapidly runs out of options and allies.
The chase and suspense are classic Hitchcock, favorably recalling a dozen of his earlier movies, from The Lodger and The 39 Steps through Saboteur and Spellbound to Dial M for Murder and North by Northwest, with some new twists and the added energy afforded by the extensive use of actual London locations. There's also a good deal more sex and nudity here than Hitchcock was ever allowed to use in his earlier movies, owing to the relaxation of "decency" standards that had taken place in the years leading up to this production. The suspense derives from multiple interlocking and overlapping layers of uncertainty -- when will each of the two men, suspect and murderer, slip? (And which will slip first?) When and how will the police realize their mistake, and will it be in time to save the innocent man? Amid the straightforward storytelling and thriller elements, Hitchcock manages to slip in a few bravura cinematic moments, the best of them a pullback shot down a flight of stairs into a busy street as the killer invites his next victim into his home, as well as a scene aboard a truck, with a murderer desperately wrestling with a corpse hidden in a sack of potatoes. Frenzy was adapted from Arthur La Bern's novel Goodbye Picadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by mystery aficionado Anthony Shaffer, but for all of that and its decidedly modern trappings of sex and violence, it bears the indelible stylistic stamp of Alfred Hitchcock. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
The chase and suspense are classic Hitchcock, favorably recalling a dozen of his earlier movies, from The Lodger and The 39 Steps through Saboteur and Spellbound to Dial M for Murder and North by Northwest, with some new twists and the added energy afforded by the extensive use of actual London locations. There's also a good deal more sex and nudity here than Hitchcock was ever allowed to use in his earlier movies, owing to the relaxation of "decency" standards that had taken place in the years leading up to this production. The suspense derives from multiple interlocking and overlapping layers of uncertainty -- when will each of the two men, suspect and murderer, slip? (And which will slip first?) When and how will the police realize their mistake, and will it be in time to save the innocent man? Amid the straightforward storytelling and thriller elements, Hitchcock manages to slip in a few bravura cinematic moments, the best of them a pullback shot down a flight of stairs into a busy street as the killer invites his next victim into his home, as well as a scene aboard a truck, with a murderer desperately wrestling with a corpse hidden in a sack of potatoes. Frenzy was adapted from Arthur La Bern's novel Goodbye Picadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by mystery aficionado Anthony Shaffer, but for all of that and its decidedly modern trappings of sex and violence, it bears the indelible stylistic stamp of Alfred Hitchcock. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jon Finch, Barry Foster, (more)
Filmed on locations ranging from Denmark to the Universal backlot, Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz is based on a novel by Leon Uris. Frederick Stafford, a veteran of European-filmed James Bond rip-offs of the 1960s, is cast as Andre Devereaux, a French secret agent assigned to snoop around Cuba in the months prior to the 1962 missile crisis. Someone is supplying Castro -- and, by extension, Moscow -- with NATO secrets; it is up to Devereaux to liquidate the "mole." Aiding Devereaux is CIA agent Nordstrom (John Forsythe) and aristocratic anti-Castro Cuban Juanita (Karin Dor), who happens to be the girlfriend of pro-Castroite Rico Parra (John Vernon). The director seems to be in awe of the fact-based storyline, and as a result, the film is more cut-and-dried than most Hitchcock efforts. Three different endings were filmed for Topaz; the Laserdisc version carries all three, as does the print available to the American Movie Classics cable service. According to the MPAA, the film was originally rated M but later changed to PG; however, a number of home-video issues of Topaz officially list it as "Not Rated." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, (more)
A double agent has to contend with enemies on both sides of the political fence as well as the woman he loves in this thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Prof. Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman) is an gifted American physicist who, at the height of the Cold War, decides to defect to East Germany. To his surprise, his fiancée, fellow scientist Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews) follows him, and she soon discovers Armstrong is no traitor, but acting as a secret undercover agent. As Armstrong attempts to ingratiate himself with political and scientific factions in East Germany, Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling) becomes his guide, though Armstrong is aware he's a government agent assigned to trail him, and as he tries to shake Gromek, Armstrong realizes his new "friend" knows what his real agenda happens to be. Torn Curtain was one of the rare Hitchcock films from his "classic" era which did not feature a score by Bernard Herrman; due to objections from his studio, Hitchcock removed Herrman from the project, though excerpts from the score he had begun were included as a bonus on the film's DVD release in 2002. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, (more)
- 1964
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alfred Hitchcock
Condemned as being a "disappointing" and "unworthy" Alfred Hitchcock effort at the time of its release, Marnie has since grown in stature; it is still considered a lesser Hitchcock, but a fascinating one. Tippi Hedren plays Marnie, a compulsive thief who cannot stand to be touched by any man. She also goes bonkers over the sight of the color red. Her new boss, Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) is intrigued by Marnie -- to such an extent that he blackmails her into marriage when he stumbles onto her breaking into his safe. Rutland is in his own way as "sick" as his wife because of his fetishist desire to cohabit with a thief. After innumerable plot twists and turns, Marnie is "cured" by a facile but mesmerizing flashback sequence involving her ex-hooker mother (Louise Latham). Among the critical carps aimed at Marnie was the complaint that the studio-bound sets -- particularly the waterfront locale where the film ends -- were tacky and artificial; curiously, this seeming "carelessness" adds to the queasy, off-setting mood that Hitchcock endeavored to sustain. Even when the direction seems to falter, the film is buoyed by the driving musical score of Bernard Herrmann (his last for Hitchcock). Among the supporting actors in Marnie are Mariette Hartley as a secretary and Bruce Dern as a sailor; twelve years later, Dern would star in Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, (more)
A rare glimpse into the mind of the notorious cagey master filmmaker, this documentary was shot on the set of Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. With remarkable candor Hitchcock discusses his career and his passion for movies. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- 1963
Season nine of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (formerly the half-hour Alfred Hitchcock Presents) represented the first season without an episode directed by series host Alfred Hitchcock, who was otherwise occupied with his upcoming theatrical feature, Marnie. Thus, instead of the traditional Hitch-directed opener, the ninth season got under way with "A Home Away from Home" -- which, even without the direct input of The Master, turned out be one of the series' most terrifying efforts. In fact, several of this season's episodes rank as among the finest and most frightening ever seen on any TV anthology. Examples include "The Jar, a chilling Ray Bradbury fable featuring a astonishingly sinister performance by comic actor Pat Buttram, a superb minimalist musical score by Bernard Herrmann, and the knowing direction of longtime Hitchcock associate Norman Lloyd; "Final Escape," a grimly claustrophobic morality tale, and an unusual assignment for director William Witney, hitherto a specialist in fast-action Westerns; and "The Evil of Adelaide Winters," highlighted by the subtly macabre performance of Kim Hunter and the direction of Laslo Benedek (The Wild One). Other episodes included "The Magic Shop," adapted by fantasy specialist John Collier from the H.G. Wells short story, and marking the return to the series of director Robert Stevens after several years' absence; "Nothing Ever Happens in Linvale," a typically low-key "perfect murder" yarn by Richard Levinson and William Link (Columbo); "The Sign of Satan," a felicitous collaboration between horror star Christopher Lee and author Robert Bloch (Psycho); and "Body in the Barn," featuring the indomitable Lillian Gish as a meddling gossip who manages to trap a killer by sacrificing her own life. Finally, season nine offers one of the series' funniest episodes, "How to Get Rid of Your Wife," distinguished by the one-time-only teaming of comedian Bob Newhart and former child star Jane Withers. Seen on Friday evenings at 10 p.m., The Alfred Hitchcock Hour performed better in the ratings than its chief competition, The Jack Paar Program, but in general the hour-long anthology format was tired and played out by 1964. Still, Hitchcock enjoyed enough of a following to prompt NBC -- which had dropped the series back in 1962 -- to pick up Alfred Hitchcock Hour for a tenth season, moving the property to a more advantageous Monday-night slot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alfred Hitchcock
The story begins as an innocuous romantic triangle involving wealthy, spoiled Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), handsome Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), and schoolteacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). The human story begins in a San Francisco pet shop and culminates at the home of Mitch's mother (Jessica Tandy) at Bodega Bay, where the characters' sense of security is slowly eroded by the curious behavior of the birds in the area. At first, it's no more than a sea gull swooping down and pecking at Melanie's head. Things take a truly ugly turn when hundreds of birds converge on a children's party. There is never an explanation as to why the birds have run amok, but once the onslaught begins, there's virtually no letup. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, (more)
- 1962
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, Rovi
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- 1962
The only episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour directed by Hitchcock himself (though he'd previously helmed several of the anthology's half-hour installments), "I Saw the Whole Thing" draws its suspense from the reliability -- or lack of reliability -- of eyewitness testimony. Arrested on suspicions of causing a fatal car accident, mystery writer Michael Barnes (John Forsythe) insists upon acting as his own attorney. Five witnesses insist under oath that they saw Barnes run a stop sign -- and in each case, Barnes discredits their testimony by proving that the witnesses only thought they saw what they saw, based on their own experiences and personal prejudices. Things take an unexpected turn when a sixth witness offers a sixth version of the accident. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1961
The seventh season of the suspense anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents rather surprisingly did not open with an episode directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself, but instead with "The Hat Box," directed by frequent series contributor Alan Crosland Jr. In fact, Hitch helmed only one episode this season -- but it was a knockout. "Bang, You're Dead," starring child actor Billy Mumy as a lonely youngster who gets hold of a loaded gun, is one of the few series episodes in which host Alfred Hitchcock eschews his traditional humorous epilogue, instead delivering a solemn plea for better and more efficient gun control. The bulk of the season's episodes are directed by such "regulars" as Norman Lloyd and Paul Henreid. New additions to the directorial docket include John Newland, fresh from three seasons on the paranormal anthology One Step Beyond, whose best season-seven effort is "Bad Actor," starring a young Robert Duvall as the homicidal title character. Also showing up in the Hitchcock director's chair this season is former Broadway leading man Richard Whorf, a year away from his long directorial association on the popular sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. One of the seventh-season episodes was deemed too gruesome for network play, and was never shown on NBC; however, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," depicting a fateful three-way confrontation between a retarded youth (Brandon de Wilde), a cheating wife (Diana Dors), and an electric buzz saw, was subsequently included in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents syndicated package, and has since popped up frequently on the public-domain home-video market. In its second year on NBC's Tuesday-night schedule, Alfred Hitchcock Presents continued to languish in the ratings, a dilemma attributed to its powerhouse competition on CBS (Dobie Gillis) and the fact that the half-hour anthology format was on its last legs. Thus, when the series returned for its eighth season, it had returned to its original network, CBS, and expanded to a full 60 minutes per week. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- 1961
Alfred Hitchcock himself directed this nailbiter, featuring prolific child actor Billy Mumy. When his uncle Rich (Steve Dunne) returns from Africa, little Jackie Chester (Mumy) is delighted, knowing that Rich has brought him a surprise. Secretly rummaging through his uncle's luggage, Jackie finds what he thinks is a toy gun. Only it isn't a toy, but the real article -- fully loaded. For the rest of the day, Jackie goes all over town, aiming (but not firing) the gun at various human targets...while his frantic parents conduct a desperate search for the boy, hoping to catch up with him before a tragedy can occur. The most memorable (and frightening) sequence in this episode is shot from Jackie's point-of-view as he looks down the barrel of the gun -- a camera angle reminiscent of one Hitchcock had previously deployed in his 1945 theatrical feature Spellbound. As a bonus, Hitch foregoes his usual comic epilogue to deliver a stern warning about inappropriate use of firearms. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1961
Inveterate gambler Sheridan (played by Ed Gardner of Duffy's Tavern fame) is convinced that his recent streak of luck is due to the power of prayer. Accordingly, Sheridan contributes heavily to the church-repair fund of neighborhood priest Father Amian (Claude Rains). Hoping to further extend his generosity, Gardner tips the father off to a "sure thing" in an upcoming race -- and against his better judgment, Father Amian hands over 500 dollars in church funds for Gardner to bet at the track. In the end, the "sure thing" loses -- but the church still comes out the winner. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1960
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alfred Hitchcock
In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock was already famous as the screen's master of suspense (and perhaps the best-known film director in the world) when he released Psycho and forever changed the shape and tone of the screen thriller. From its first scene, in which an unmarried couple balances pleasure and guilt in a lunchtime liaison in a cheap hotel (hardly a common moment in a major studio film in 1960), Psycho announced that it was taking the audience to places it had never been before, and on that score what followed would hardly disappoint. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is unhappy in her job at a Phoenix, Arizona real estate office and frustrated in her romance with hardware store manager Sam Loomis (John Gavin). One afternoon, Marion is given $40,000 in cash to be deposited in the bank. Minutes later, impulse has taken over and Marion takes off with the cash, hoping to leave Phoenix for good and start a new life with her purloined nest egg. 36 hours later, paranoia and exhaustion have started to set in, and Marion decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, where nervous but personable innkeeper Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) cheerfully mentions that she's the first guest in weeks, before he regales her with curious stories about his mother. There's hardly a film fan alive who doesn't know what happens next, but while the shower scene is justifiably the film's most famous sequence, there are dozens of memorable bits throughout this film. The first of a handful of sequels followed in 1983, while Gus Van Sant's controversial remake, starring Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, appeared in 1998. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, (more)
- 1960
Alfred Hitchcock Presents moved from its familiar Sunday-night slot on CBS to a new Tuesday-night berth for rival network NBC to launch its sixth season with this amusingly ironic tale from the pen of frequent series contributor Roald Dahl. Audrey Meadows adroitly suppresses her familiar "Alice Kramden" characterization in the role of Mrs. Bixby, the pampered -- and faithless -- wife of a prosperous doctor (Les Tremayne). When Mrs. Bixby's latest paramour, a colonel (Stephen Chase), decides to break off their relationship, he gives her a costly mink coat as a parting gift. Not wanting to have her husband find out how she really got the coat, Mrs. Bixby works out an elaborate subterfuge involving a "found" pawn ticket. But it turns out that Dr. Bixby is not entirely above a bit of subterfuge himself! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
While having lunch at the Plaza Hotel in New York, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) has the bad luck to call for a messenger just as a page goes out for a "George Kaplan." From that moment, Thornhill finds that he has stepped into a nightmare -- he is quietly abducted by a pair of armed men out of the hotel's famous Oak Room and transported to a Long Island estate; there, he is interrogated by a mysterious man (James Mason) who, believing that Roger is George Kaplan, demands to know what he knows about his business and how he has come to acquire this knowledge. Roger, who knows nothing about who any of these people are, can do nothing but deny that he is Kaplan or that he knows what they're talking about. Finally, his captors force a bottle of bourbon into Roger and put him behind the wheel of a car on a dangerous downhill stretch. Through sheer luck and the intervention of a police patrol car and its driver (John Beradino), Roger survives the ride and evades his captors, and is booked for drunk driving. He's unable to persuade the court, the county detectives, or even his own mother (Jesse Royce Landis) of the truth of his story, however -- Thornhill returns with them to the mansion where he was held, only to find any incriminating evidence cleaned up and to learn that the owner of the house is a diplomat, Lester Townsend (Philip Ober), assigned to the United Nations. He backtracks to the hotel to find the room of the real George Kaplan, only to discover that no one at the hotel has ever actually seen the man. With his kidnappers once again pursuing him, Thornhill decides to confront Townsend at the United Nations, only to discover that he knows nothing of the events on Long Island, or his house being occupied -- but before he can learn more, Townsend gets a knife in his back in full view of 50 witnesses who believe that Roger did it. Now on the run from a murder charge, complete with a photograph of him holding the weapon plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country, Thornhill tries to escape via train -- there he meets the cooly beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who twice hides him from the police, once spontaneously and a second time in a more calculated rendezvous in her compartment that gets the two of them together romantically, at least for the night. By the next day, he's off following a clue to a remote rural highway, where he is attacked by an armed crop-dusting plane, one of the most famous scenes in Hitchcock's entire film output. Thornhill barely survives, but he does manage to learn that his mysterious tormentor/interrogator is named Phillip Vandamm, and that he goes under the cover of being an art dealer and importer/exporter, and that Eve is in bed with him in every sense of the phrase -- or is she? ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, (more)
Rating Systems
Blockbuster
BLOCKBUSTER name, design and related marks are trademarks of Blockbuster L.L.C.
2013 Blockbuster L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Portions of Content Provided by Rovi Corporation. 2013 Rovi Corporation.