by Sam Juliano
There are two ways to frame The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. The first is to categorize it as an extension of sorts to the seven-season Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which it immediately followed. the other is to count it as a standalone show with many distinct contrasts, including the obvious running time, temperament and general disavowal of the patented twist ending that was common with its celebrated predecessor. It could be argued that the three season Hour had a more persuasive kinship with Boris Karloff’s Thriller, which ran in 1960-61, even if Gothic horror is only part of the Hitchcock equation in this sadly underrated and under aired television property. In addition to dual categorization there is a similar disagreement among television fans about the quality of the final product. Some prefer the taut, economical and more pointed Presents while others see the successor as the opportunity to expand material and develop stories more comprehensively. While I do appreciate Presents greatly, and consider it one of anthology television’s finest entries, I am with those who find that at its very best Hour eclipses Presents, but there is as there would be with the daunting challenging of maintaining quality every week in a one-hour shows far more duds and shows that simply do not work. To be sure the scripts are generally more complex, and the production values more elaborate and interesting, not to mention character development obviously a stronger thrust with extended duration.
Yet writers for the most part were partial to Presents. Says Henry Slesar: “There was always the possibility of doing what I call ‘gems.’ The half-hours were compact and full of sharp point-making, bringing the audience in at the middle, and then hitting them with the climax. Very clean. This got a little difficult to achieve in the hour shows, which were more like features except that they weren’t, not really. They were actually more like extended half-hours. More was told about the same thing. I think the show suffered because of it, and I think the Hitchcock people felt so too.” Still there were some that disagreed. Gilbert Seldes in TV Guide opined “When Alfred Hitchcock decided to extend his show to a full hour, he ended one of the best series in television history and brilliantly began another which is even better. With more time at his disposal, Hitchcock adds a new dimension to his work. You may call it depth and you may also say that to the mystery of action, of which he is a great master, he now adds to the mystery of human beings.”
The true of the matter is that both positions are accurate. The conciseness of the half-hour format presented greater opportunities for genuinely surprising the viewer at the conclusion of an episode, whereas the stretched-out length of the hour shows frequently resulted in a twist ending being telegraphed way too early, thus destroying its dramatic impact. Generally, the hour episodes were more talky and less action oriented, but they still allow for more time to get into the head of the characters. The episodes in Presents may have been more consistently more suspenseful because of their emphasis on sudden and unexpected turns of plot, but many of the hour shows were just as dramatic because of the very different emphasis they places on psychology over story. This shift in emphasis also allowed the actors greater opportunities to show their stuff, and as a result, there were more than a few tour-de-force performances turned in over the years. Half hour episodes like “Revenge,” “The Horseplayer,” “Bang You’re Dead,” “Breakdown,” “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “Man from the South” remained ingrained because of their diabolically clever plots, but it is perhaps more difficult to remember who was in them, Barbara Bel Geddes and a few others aside. Hour shows like “The Paragon,” “The 31st of February,” and “Hangover” remain just as vivid in the memory because of the powerhouse performances turned in respectively by Joan Fontaine, David Wayne, and Tony Randall–performances which are among the best these actors have delivered in their careers for either the small screen or the large.
Said 103 year-old Hitchcock friend and producer Norman Lloyd: “One must remember that in the early half-hour days, we were getting the cream of the crop–some of the best stories of their type in English literature, such as “The Glass Eye.” In the latter days of the hour show, however, we occasionally had to develop stories from scratch, and the results didn’t always measure up. The half-hour show–which actually ran twenty-two and a fraction minutes – was sometimes a delight in its brevity and its point. But that doesn’t mean it was a better format. With the one hour shows we were able to inject a good measure of humanity.”
My Best Alfred Hitchcock Hour shows:
- An Unlocked Window
- The Paragon
- The Jar
- Annabel
- The Sign of Satan
- The Magic Shop
- I Saw the Whole Thing
- Body in the Barn
- The Life Work of Juan Diaz
- The Dark Pool
Nice shoutout to Slesar, the longtime writer of Edge of Night, who was considered among the best mystery writers of his generation.
Aye Adam, I have long agreed with that position too. Thank you!
Great follow-up review to your Alfred Hitchcock Presents post Sam. I like the earlier series more, but I do remember some excellent shows in the hour.
Frank, the vast majority of television fans prefer ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, but in a good measure because the hour-long shows are difficult to access. Thank you!
Nice work Sam. I’ve never seen the hour long show!
Thanks Ricky! If you desire copies I have them!
Superb and concise essay on a splendid show. Sam. I think ‘The Jar’ is one of the very best they ever did, Norman Lloyd and Hitchcock were of the same opinion. ‘The Unlocked Window’ I didn’t like at all, though it was effective, probably because I’m not a fan of such brutal and sadistic endings.
It reminded me of comment made by Philip K. Dick, that his short stories were motivated by the plot to reveal character, his novels by characters as the engine of the plot.
One advantage the hour episodes had was the musical scores, especially by Bernard Herrmann, who did 17 original and quite brilliant ones.
Bobby, so true on the Herrmann scores, which are certainly on par with those Goldsmith did for THRILLER. Excellent point of comparison with the Philip K. Dick comment! THE JAR is a true anthology episode masterpiece!! Thank you so much my friend, your input here is treasured!!!
Here are my 9 of the best, have still to catch up with the third season…or roughly a third of the series. ‘The Jar’, ‘Water’s Edge’ and ‘Lonely Place’ rank with the very best of ‘The Outer Limits’ and ‘Thriller’.
“Final Vow” dir: Norman Lloyd, wr: Henry Slesar, cast: Carol Lynley, R. G. Armstrong
“The Thirty First of February”, wr: Alf Kjellin, novel: Julian Symons, teleplay: Richard Matheson, cast: David Wayne, William Conrad, Bob Crane, Elizabeth Allen
“Nothing Ever Happens in Linvale” dir: Herschel Daugherty, teleplay: Richard Levinson, William Link, cast: Gary Merrill, Phyllis Thaxter, Fess Parker
“Beyond the Sea of Death” dir: Alf Kjellin, short story: Miriam Allen DeFord, teleplay: William D. Gordon and Alfred Hayes, cast: Mildred Dunnock, Diana Hyland
“The Evil of Adelaide Winters” dir: Laslo Benedek, teleplay: Arthur A. Ross, cast: Kim Hunter, John Larkin
“The Jar” dir: Norman Lloyd, short syory: Ray Bradbury, teleplay: James Bridges, cast: Collin Wilcox, Pat Buttram, George Lindsey, Slim Pickens
“The Return of Verge Likens” dir: Arnold Laven, teleplay: James Bridges, story: Davis Grubb, cast: Peter Fonda, Robert Emhardt
“Water’s Edge” dir: Bernard Girard, short story: Robert Bloch,
teleplay: Alfred Hayes, cast: Ann Sothern, John Cassavetes
“Lonely Place” dir: Harvey Hart, teleplay: Francis Gwaltney, cast: Teresa Wright, Pat Buttram, Bruce Dern
Bobby, your additions here are positively INVALUABLE and I thank you for them! They will serve as a superlative reference for those expecting more from my distinctly rushed and mediocre review above. Even for me I’ll be re-viewing some of these. We of course completely agree on “The Jar” and you are so right to state that the very best of AHH rates with the finest of Thriller and Outer Limits. We do disagree on “The Unlocked Window” but I definitely respect your issues with it. Thank you so much!
Nice to stumble in here and see you writing about AHH, Sam. If “noir” is distinguished from “thriller” by a more sustained and scrupulously obsessive use of interior space, then AHH is par excellence the most “noir” series in the history of television. This sinister usage of space cuts across the varying sub-genres that popped up in the AHH scripts, and pushes a large plurality of the teleplays toward conclusions that, if not always brutal and sadistic, strongly trend toward the idea that evil can indeed prevail over good. (How many times on AHH did Hitch have to assure the audience that the villains were caught in his closing remarks?) AHH is a post-PSYCHO recalibration of “noir” to a particular kind of horror trope that channels dread via an inward-directed “slow drip” of paranoia (a la Boileau-Narcejac, who specialized in this form of character disintegration). It doesn’t always work, as many of the shows are force-fit to that template, but at its best it takes into a startling, forbidden interior landscape that, once entered, is difficult to escape…
Don, thank you so very much! My write-up of course is modest and somewhat of a rush job still aimed at showing proper respect for one of television’s most underrated properties. Excellent point about AHH as “a post-PSYCHO re-calibration of “noir” to a particular kind of horror trope that channels dread via an inward-directed “slow drip” of paranoia. Brilliant stuff my friend!! Yes it doesn’t always work but when it does………..ah yes you framed that superbly too…..”but at its best it takes us into a startling, forbidden landscape that, one entered, is difficult to escape…..” Thank you for this banner comment!!!
Nice review Sam! I need to see more of the hour shows, but they seem to be hard to come by.
I know what you mean. I had poor quality rips of the series from crummy screenings and could not make myself watch them. Then they were released on dvd, a day of celebration. And I started to watch one per day.
Peter, thank you so much! Yes they are hard to track down!
Bobby, nice detective work there! I have the three Australian releases in three box sets, but this Region 2 brings them all in on one box set. Thank you!