Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an anthology series that aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It’s been named one of the 100 best TV shows of all time by Time Magazine.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is well-known for its title sequence, which features a line drawing of Hitchcock’s pudgy profile. He served as a “cryptkeeper” of sorts for each episode with an opening introduction and a closing remark.
Many famous performers appeared on the show, including Vincent Price, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Ricardo Montalban. One of the most famous episodes is Man From The South, based on a short story by Roald Dahl (who has his own British anthology series called Tales of the Unexpected) and starring Steve McQueen. The story was also loosely remade by Quentin Tarantino in his segment of Four Rooms.
So, let’s remember the old ways and take a look at a smattering of episodes from our favorite auteur director with a Pygmalion Complex…
An Unlocked Window
Joseph Newman directed this episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also helmed the ambitious 1955 sci-fi film This Island Earth. James Bridges (Colossus: The Forbin Project) and Ethel White (The Lady Vanishes) wrote the teleplay.
An Unlocked Window is about a group of nurses caring for an invalid in a mansion (which is the famous Psycho house) while a killer is on the loose in the area.
This episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents stars Louise Latham, who appeared in one of my favorite westerns (Firecreek), and Dana Wynter. Watching Wynter bugged me. I couldn’t place where I knew her from. I had to look her up and then slapped my forehead. She was Becky in another of my favorite movies, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Curse this dementia!
Newman fills the episode with all kinds of moody expressionistic shadows and camera angles and mostly gets out before the story starts to wear thin. Wynter is a solid protagonist. The camera loves her. She is almost a brunette Grace Kelly, although it looks like she subsisted on lemon juice and carrot sticks at the time. Girl is petite!
Episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents are famous for their twists, and An Unlocked Window likely worked pretty well back in the day in this department. Since I am a child of 2025, I spotted the twist fairly quickly, but I admired how Newman let it play in plain sight.
Plus, to be fair, I asked Mrs. Wrenage if she agreed with my surmise while she browsed articles on creating poison from common household products, and she said…
“You are completely wrong. Why did I marry such a moron? Why don’t you drop dead?”
Then I went and cried myself to sleep on my pillow. All in all, fairly peaceful evening.
Nothing Ever Happens In Linvale
Herschel Daughtery directed this episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also directed two episodes of Star Trek (Operation Annihilate and The Savage Curtain).
This episode stars Fess Parker (Davy Crockett and Old Yeller), Phyllis Thaxter (Superman) and Garry Merrill (every 1950s TV show ever).
Nothing Ever Happens In Linvale is about a woman who thinks her neighbor murdered his wife. She shares her suspicions with the sheriff, and they work to see if she is right…or just nosey.
Nothing about Daughtery’s direction particularly stands out. Nothing Ever Happens In Linvale looks like a standard episode of something like The Andy Griffith Show. Yet, the story and performers carry the day. Parker is the main star as an aw-shucks bachelor; Merrill is sufficiently suspicious as the did-he-or-didn’t-he husband; and Thaxter wrings her hands nicely.
Watching this episode makes one wonder if it served as inspiration for The Burbs. Nothing Ever Happens In Linvale has a lot of the same elements, and it also walks a line between somewhat comical and serious. In the end, the episode comes together nicely.
An Unlocked Window is often held up as a gold standard of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but for my money, I enjoyed Nothing Ever Happens In Linvale a smidge more.
Lonely Place
It is appropriate to mention The Burbs because the final episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that we will look at features a young Bruce Dern. The episode is called Lonely Place.
Director Harvey Hart headed up this episode. He also sat in the boss seat for the Star Trek episode Mudd’s Women. C.B Gilford and Francis Gwaltney wrote the teleplay. Both worked mainly in TV.
Dern has put in some dern-sy performances, like Black Sunday and The Cowboys, but honestly, his turn in Lonely Place might be the most dern-sy that Dern has ever been. He is a full-on slimeball combined with maybe a touch of retardation. The emptiness he manages to project while flashing a dopey grin is unnerving.
Dern plays a drifter who happens along to help a farming couple pick their peaches. The couple is played by Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt) and Pat Buttram (Back To The Future III), who is a poor man’s Andy Devine.
Buttram is great as a beta-man farmer. He simply wants to pick his peaches and make a few bucks, and Buttram gives him a core of earthiness that makes you sympathize with him despite his shortcomings.
Meanwhile, Wright flames bright as a put-upon wife. Despite Dern going maximum dern-sy, Wright is the real star of Lonely Place. Her portrayal of a woman giving her best in an unhappy marriage is heartbreaking.
The only flaw with Lonely Place is that it goes a notch too far. Since it is an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, it feels the need to have a punchy ending. If the episode had ended with Wright’s final realization about the truth of her husband, it would have been more effective.
Truly, I have not felt that bad about a fictional character in a long time. I watched to reach into the LED screen, put my arm around Wright’s shoulders and lead her to a better world than the one she existed in.
To everyone involved with Lonely Place, I salute you…
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
It’s good to remember the old ways. The folks working on Alfred Hitchcock Presents weren’t messing around. They knocked out 39 episodes a season. 39! Now some TV shows are hard-pressed to do eight episodes every couple of years.
With 10 seasons in the bag, that is a treasure trove of television to dive into featuring a lot of great directors, writers and stars. Check out some episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents sometime. They are fairly easy to find. If you are familiar with the show, share some of your favorite episodes below. Until next time, take us out Alfred…
