Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Three
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: George Peppard, Jack Klugman, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, William ShatnerBrand: Uni
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Dolby, Full Screen, Mono
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1019 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-09
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Three
Movie Review: The best season of the series
Summary: 5 Stars
These episodes are, for the most part, well-acted. Strong acting dominates "The Mail Order Prophet," "Heart of Gold," "Reward to Finder," "Night of the Execution," "The Equalizer," and "On the Nose." "The Mail Order Prophet," which involves a series of prophetic letters, is very much elevated by the engaging performances of Jack Klugman and E.J. Marshall.
Here are my thoughts on other episodes:
THE GOOD
"A Guest for Breakfast": This quirky and entertaining episode is about a fleeing murderer who breaks into a home and takes a bickering husband and wife hostage. The couple is so fixated on one-upping each other with witty put-downs that it takes them awhile to appreciate the gravity of the situation. Later, when the murderer decides to kill one of them and take the other on the road with him, the couple mount a clever, self-serving debate to convince the murderer which one of them should go along and which one should die. This scene is both brutal and funny.
"The Diplomatic Corpse": This episode does a good job of combining comedy and suspense. Peter Lorre is amusing in the role of a sleazy private detective. The ending is disappointing, but it still made me smile.
"Together": This episode, directed by Robert Altman, is one of the better episodes in the collection. The title is a pun. Joseph Cotten goes to an office to meet his mistress, who demands he leave his rich wife so they can be together. Cotten stabs the young woman as she grabs the phone to call his wife. He soons finds himself locked in the office, which leaves him and the bloody corpse trapped together. My only complaint has to do with a drunken friend who becomes involves in the proceedings. The friend's inebriation is played to comic effect, which seems out of place and diminishes the suspense of the story.
"The Return of the Hero": This episode, with its sentimentality and social commentary, offers a nice change of pace for the series.
"The Right Kind of House": This episode stars series regular, Robert Emhardt. Emhardt, who specialized in portraying creepy and sinister characters, fits well into the series and always enhanced the episodes in which he appeared. The strength of this episode comes from solid performances and a well-crafted story.
"The Foghorn": This episode is effective for those who like tragic romance stories in the tradition of Ethan Frome.
"Fatal Figures": A middle-aged man worries that he has done nothing in his life to distinguish himself. While reading the crime statistics in an almanac, he decides to set himself apart by going on a crime spree. This episode is made comical by John McGiver's loopy rendition of the main character.
"Post Mortem": This episode is well-written, well-acted, and well-directed. Directing credit goes to Arthur Hiller, who would later direct "The Out-of-Towners," "Love Story," "Silver Streak," "The In-Laws" and "The Hospital." Joanna Moore (Tatum O'Neal's mom) is delightfully funny in the lead role.
"On the Nose," which involves a housewife addicted to horseracing, is a riveting episode even though it's not as dark or violent as the standard Hitchcock episode. "Silent Witness," which is simultaneously funny and suspenseful, is another good episode. Other worthwhile episodes include "Enough Rope for Two," "The Young One," "The Crocodile Case" and "Little White Frock."
THE BAD
"Last Request": Harry Guardino gives one of his usual hammy performances. Guardino's way of showing that his character is cocky is to breeze into a room and prop his foot up on a chair. It's some all-purpose gimmick he tries in multiple situations. First, he does it when he enters the District Attorney's Office. He then tries it again at a restaurant when he's trying to pick up a woman. I cannot imagine that this dumb move could ever intimidate a District Attorney or charm a woman. This sort of furniture abuse only serves to make the character look brainless.
"The Deadly": The drama starts out creepy and ends silly. Too bad the writer couldn't have come up with a better ending.
"Miss Paisley's Cat": I actually found some moving moments in this story about a lonely old woman who adopts a friendly alley cat. However, I eventually ran out of patience and sympathy as the story meandered on. The old woman has a problem with her cat repeatedly sneaking into the apartment of an ill-tempered bookie, who threatens to kill the cat if he ever comes back. Instead of keeping her cat inside her home, where he'll keep out of trouble, she babbles to herself incessantly about the bookie's bad manners and cruel disposition. The old woman ends up finding her cat dead in a trash can and feels compelled to take revenge. The story could have been easily and neatly wrapped up in fifteen minutes, but the writer has to create some unnecessarily complications to draw it out for another ten minutes. A decent story gets lost in an awful muddle.
"The Percentage": Eddie Slovak, a mob boss, cannot enjoy his riches as he keeps remembering a time during the war when he panicked under fire. The only other person who knows about this is a fellow soldier who saved his life and later gave Slovak credit for the two of them getting out of the battle safely. Slovak figures that he can relieve his guilt if he finds a way to repay his old army buddy, who is now working as a television repairman. The problem is that the old army buddy does not feel that he's owed anything and refuses to accept any form of repayment. Don Keefer and Nita Talbot give strong performances as the principled television repair man and his bored wife. The problem with the episode is that Walter Woolf King, as the mob boss, gives broad and repetitious performance. He is constantly frantic and shouting in sharp contrast to Keefer and Talbot's subdued, believable performances.
"Sylvia": This episode has a significant casting problem. John McIntire plays a middle-aged businessman who is determined to rid his daughter, Sylvia, of her gold digger husband. McIntire was 50 years-old at the time and Ann Todd, who they cast as Sylvia, was 48 year-old. How does that make sense for them to be father and daughter? It's not that more appropriate casting could have helped - nothing suspenseful or inventive comes out of this episode. It's best to skip it.
"The Motive": The climatic murder scene is creepy and the ending has a good twist, but the set-up drags on too long. Also, I was disappointed by William Redfield, who is one of the leads. Redfield, best known as "Harding" in One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest, was a talented actor, but he gives a stinker of a performance in this one.
"Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty": Mildred Natwick, as Miss Bracegirdle, gets herself locked in a room with a dead body much as Joseph Cotten did only three episodes earlier. This show was never shy about recycling ideas. Anyway, Natwick does not seem right for the role of Miss Bracegirdle. She is several years older than the character, who is supposed to be 45 years-old, and the scenes are clearly designed for a younger woman. Natwick, on her way back from her bath, winds up in the wrong room and finds a man who died of a heart attack. The door handle comes off in her hand when she tries to leave the room. A frantic voiceover and funny music tries to hide the fact that nothing happens on screen for the next ten minutes. Miss Bracegirdle, who didn't commit murder, has no reason to be worried about getting caught in the room. The dead man in the bed is icky, sure, but he's certainly no threat. This leaves no possible suspense to her escape efforts - it's just a person trying to get out of a room. It is not an example of high drama, or classic television, to watch Natwick fretting about as she picks a door lock with a bobbypin.
You can skip "The Perfect Crime." The lead, Vincent Price, said that Hitchcock fell asleep while directing this episode. I now know why. Even worse episodes include "Flight to the East," "Bull in a China Shop," "Disappearing Trick," "Death Sentence," "The Canary Sedan," and "Impromptu Murder."
Summary of Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Three
No description available for this title.Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: NR
Street Date: 10/09/07
Wide Screen: no
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
Language: ENGLISH
Foreign Film: noSubtitles: no
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: yes
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve
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