Norman Lloyd Movies

The 1922 silent comedy Don't Write Letters was updated to the war years and remade as A Letter for Evie. Marsha Hunt is the title character, a girl who does her patriotic bit by sending affectionate letters to a soldier overseas. The soldier (Hume Cronyn) comes to visit on leave, accompanied by his best friend (John Carroll). Evie wants to be loyal to her pen-pal, but the pen-pal's pal is so doggone cute. Letter for Evie represents one of the earliest feature film assignments for Jules Dassin, who would eventually contribute such notable films as Rififi and Never on Sunday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Myra Jensen (Barbara Baxley) loves her pets more than she does people -- and that includes her long-suffering husband, Hermie (a pre-Dragnet and pre-M*A*S*H Harry Morgan). Ultimately, Hermie plots to exact vengeance against Myra by purchasing a pet that she doesn't already have: a poisonous coral snake. What Hermie hasn't counted on is Myra's thorough knowledge of all animals -- not to mention his utter lack of that same knowledge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While vacationing with his wealthy and much-older wife Gladys (Vivienne Segal), Ray Marschand (Robert Horton) meets and falls in love with Nyla Foster (Anne Francis), the young daughter of trailer-camp owner Floyd Foster (John F. Hamilton). Deciding that he'd be better off trading his wife for a younger model, Ray begins plotting Gladys' demise. The episode climaxes as Ray and Gladys embark on a fateful fishing excursion, with the requisite surprising results. This final episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents' fifth season was originally telecast two days before the series switched networks and time slots for the inauguration of season six. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The wife of Captain Morgan (William Kendall) is missing, and private detective Henry Frute (Eric Barker) is hired to find her. Morgan suspects that his wife has been unfaithful, and that she has run off with her lover. Actually, he turns out to be half right; finally catching up with Mrs. Morgan (Kay Walsh), Frute falls in love with her himself. How the two lovers extricate themselves from this delicate situation provides a suitably ironic coda for the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the best-remembered of all the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes, "Man From the South" is a typically twisted tale from the pen of Roald Dahl. The scene is Las Vegas, where a middle-aged gent named Carlos (Peter Lorre) approaches a brash young gambler (Steve McQueen) with a peculiar wager. If the young man is able to ignite a cigarette lighter ten times in a row, Carlos will give him a new convertible. But if the lighter fails, the young man will have to sacrifice something of his own -- namely, the little finger of his right hand. "Man From the South" was later redone with José Ferrer as an episode of the syndicated anthology Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected, and still later with John Huston as a segment in the multipart pilot film for the 1985 Alfred Hitchcock Presents revival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Much to the dismay of his wife Norma (Virginia Gregg), middle-aged Harry Parker (Henry Jones) is quite smitten by his new neighbor across the hall, sexy actress Lainie Elliott (Barbara Baxley). Thus it is that, when Lainie comes to Harry's door in a panic, he offers to help her in any way he can. It seems that someone fired a shot through Lainie's window, instantly killing her husband -- and rather than be blamed for the murder, Lainie begs Harry to help her dispose of the body. The viewer might conclude that Harry is being set up for a fall by Lainie...but the viewer would be only half right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a short story by John Cheever, this episode stars Gary Merrill as suburbanite Cash Bentley, who despite his business success prefers to bask in his past glory as a college hurdling champ. While at a country club dance, Cash accepts a challenge to run a race with another, much younger man. Fearing for her husband's health, Cash's wife Louise (Patricia Breslin) tries to talk him out of the challenge, but he refuses to listen -- an act of stubbornness for which he will soon pay dearly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The third season of the suspense anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents broke with tradition by opening up with an episode not directed by series creator-host Alfred Hitchcock. Instead, Robert Stevens helmed the brilliant "The Glass Eye," which not only earned an Emmy award for Stevens but also provided an early opportunity for a 27-year-old Canadian actor named William Shatner. However, Hitchcock was amply represented via his directorial work on three other episodes this season. "The Perfect Crime" stands as the one and only collaboration between Hitch and horror-film icon Vincent Price. "A Dip in the Pool," starring Keenan Wynn as a luckless gambler, is one of several playlets based on the works of Roald Dahl. And the best Hitchcock-directed episode of the third season is another Dahl derivation, the unforgettable "Lamb to the Slaughter," wherein harried housewife Barbara Bel Geddes literally cooks up a novel method to dispose of the weapon she uses to bludgeon her husband to death. (Outside the realm of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Hitchcock also contributed this season to a new hour-long anthology, Suspicion.) The remaining third-season installments boast an impressive array of directorial talent. Actor Paul Henreid held the reins for such episodes as "The Silent Witness," "Impromptu Murder," and "The Diplomatic Corpse," the last-named featuring Henreid's Casablanca co-star Peter Lorre. Arthur Hiller, whose later film credits included The Out-of-Towners, Love Story, and Silver Streak, called the shots on such superior third-season Alfred Hitchcock entries as "Post Mortem." And "The Young One," an episode designed to showcase new leading lady Carol Lynley, was directed by none other than Robert Altman. Alfred Hitchcock Presents wrapped up its third season as America's second most popular TV anthology (General Electric Theater was first), ranking in 12th place in the overall ratings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fifth season of the suspense anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents gets off to a rousing start with another episode directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself, the humorously macabre "Arthur," starring Laurence Harvey as a taciturn chicken farmer who devises a unique method for divesting himself of his troublesome ex-wife. This episode is immediately followed by Hitch's only other season-five directorial effort, "The Crystal Trench," adapted by Stirling Silliphant from a story by A.E.W. Mason (The Four Feathers). Of the series' staff directors, Robert Stevens is well represented with a two-part adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's existential Civil War character study "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," starring an up-and-coming James Coburn. Likewise, director Norman Lloyd contributes a minor classic in the form of "Man from the South," an ironic Roald Dahl story featuring Peter Lorre and Steve McQueen. Added to the series' directorial roster this season is John Brahm, whose previous film credits include the 1944 remake of Hitchcock's 1926 silent thriller The Lodger. Brahm's inaugural Alfred Hitchcock Presents is "Dry Run," essentially a two-man tour de force for Robert Vaughn and Walter Matthau. A later Brahm effort, "Insomnia," represents one of the first non-Gunsmoke starring appearances by Dennis Weaver. Other interesting casting choices this season include Stella Stevens and Dick Van Dyke, playing inept would-be murderers (of a dog!) in the comic episode "Craig's Will." And "Road Hog" co-stars Raymond Massey and Richard Chamberlain as father and son, two years before the same actors would be teamed on the TV medical series Dr. Kildare. Ranking 25th in the overall ratings for the 1959-1960 season, Alfred Hitchcock Presents temporarily bade farewell to its Sunday-night CBS slot when it was picked up for a Tuesday-evening berth on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Suburbanites Bill and Cynthia Fortnam (Steve Dunne, Beatrice Straight) are a tad surprised when their 11-year-old son, Tom (Peter Lazer), receives a special-delivery package. The package turns out to contain mushroom seeds, which the industrious Tom plants and cultivates in the cellar. Although Bill is nervous about the quality of the mushrooms, they turn out to be addictively delicious; in fact, it would not be inaccurate to say that the mushrooms are "out of this world." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A short story by best-selling novelist Philip Roth (Goodbye Columbus, Portnoy's Complaint) is the basis for this sensitive -- and remarkably non-lethal! -- episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Unlike his fellow kids at summer camp, Aaron Gold (Barry J. Gordon) wants nothing to do with athletics, but does enjoy attending the ceramics class taught by frustrated artist Bernie Samuelson (played by future film director Sydney Pollack). Despite efforts from the camp's swimming instructor Lefty James (William Thourlby) to "toughen up" the spindly Aaron, Bernie encourages the boy's artistic gifts. Even so, Bernie cannot hide his disappointment when Aaron makes a clay figure of a knight with only one arm. Convinced that the neurotic Aaron simply doesn't want to finish the figure, Bernie secretly adds a second arm himself -- which proves to be a major blunder! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide