![]() ![]() In these dryly witty sequences written by Hitchcock collaborator James Allardice, Hitchcock helps set up the episode’s premise and often addresses the audience directly, regularly making derogatory comments about the need to cut to commercials. ![]() Alfred Hitchcock shot different host segments for American and international audiences.Īlthough Alfred Hitchcock Presents was an anthology series with a rotating cast, it maintained continuity for the audience by keeping the director front and center for introductory segments. While you build your library, check out some intriguing facts about the series, including its little-known connection with The Twilight Zone and why one episode was deemed too intense to air on 1960s network television. Some seasons were only released on home video overseas. You can find the first four seasons on Hulu or the first seven in syndication on the MeTV channel, but a complete collection may require some DVD hunting and a region-free player. Prior to the series, Hitchcock estimated that he received a dozen fan letters every week. While Hitchcock directed only a handful of episodes, he introduced each one: Those morbidly amusing host segments helped the filmmaker behind Psycho and The Birds become an iconic figure in pop culture. The 10-season anthology series debuted in 1955 on CBS and featured sharp crime tales culled from short mystery and suspense fiction. Before Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone presented cautionary tales of arrogant people behaving badly and getting their comeuppance, there was Alfred Hitchcock Presents. No, this is not unblemished Hitchcock, but neither is it a wash-out.Good evening. Add to that the subversive note about the hidden potential of even the most dependent housewife, and you have an interesting allegory (not an essay, which would require filling in the gaps) on middle-class respectability, -a frequent Hitchcock target, especially appropriate to the conformist 1950's. But that misses the point, which is the insistent Hitchcockian one- that crime turns up in the unlikeliest places. Of course, subjecting the entire screenplay to logical analysis turns up gaps that admittedly could have been improved upon even in a 30-minute format. Couldn't a more plausible motivation for gardening have been concocted. The Hitchcock stamp emerges in showing how larceny lurks beneath even the most ordinary looking people, and, of course, in the twist ending which strikes me, nonetheless, as not very plausible. ![]() Gregg's role is the demanding one since she has to carry the episode's irony, but then she was one of the great TV actresses of the day. ![]() The series wisely used Emhardt in key roles over the years, -even today that combination of baby-faced menace in a middle-aged man remains truly distinctive. The contest of wills between the wily Emhardt, who suspects murder, and the resolute Blackmer makes an interesting contrast. What mastermind Blackmer hasn't counted on, however, is dogged insurance investigator Emhardt or his mousy wife. Gregg balks because she fears seven years of independence after decades as a dowdy housewife. They concoct an insurance scam, where she will disappear for seven years after which she will be declared legally dead, and then they can collect a fat insurance settlement. They're obviously respectable and deeply attached to one another. Blackmer and Gregg are a penniless middle-aged couple who can't come up with rent money. Nothing remarkable here, just patented Hitchcock programming. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |