Created by
Alfred Hitchcock
Cast:
Various Guest Stars:
Ralph Meeker …. Carl Span
Vera Miles …. Elsa Span
Lane Chandler …. Sheriff
Joseph Cotten …. William Callew
Paul Brinegar …. Mason
John Forsythe …. Kim Stanger
Robert H. Harris …. Mr. Fox
John Qualen …. Insurance Salesman
Jo Van Fleet …. Mrs. Shrike
Iris Adrian …. Macey
Charles Bronson …. Det. Krovitch
Charles Cantor …. Zander
Claire Carleton …. Alice Fabian
Lowell Gilmore …. Mel Douglas
Virginia Gregg …. Riabouchinska (voice)
William Haade …. Stagehand (as Bill Haade)
Claude Rains …. John Fabian
Skip Homeier …. Dick Paine
Steve Brodie …. Steve Grant
Constance Ford …. Ellen Grant
Percy Helton …. George the Building Super
Harry Tyler …. Dan Sill
The Show
Imagine you’re one of the world’s foremost directors, but no one really knows who you are. You’ve directed a Best Picture winner, but you’re not the household name that several others have been. Your films will go on to be considered some of the greatest ever made, but to most of the American public, you’re just another film maker. This is the dilemma Alfred Hitchcock faced in the 1950’s. Even after already directing the 1940 Best Picture Winner Rebecca, as well as masterpieces Rope, Saboteur, Dial M for Murder Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief, “Hitch” had not made the dent with audiences he had wanted to.
To help remedy this problem Hitchcock went to television. With Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the director would be brought into American and British households for thirty minutes a week. Each episode would feature an introduction and closing by the director and in between would be a story that would be in the same vein as Hitchcock’s best thrillers. Amazingly, the formula worked like gangbusters. Hitchcock’s wry sense of humor gained him more and more fans the world over and the stories sucked viewers in for ten years.
The episodes on this DVD set encompass all 39 of the first season. Hitchcock himself directed the series premiere, entitled Revenge. In it, newlyweds Carl and Elsa Span (Ralph Meeker and a lovely Vera Miles), have just moved into a trailer park and are recovery from Elsa’s recent nervous breakdown. Carl goes off to work, but when he returns he finds his wife has been attacked. The man eventually goes for vengeance, but the end of the episode brings an ironic twist. This episode would set the tone for ten years of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and for better or worse the formulaic nature of the episodes would be a staple of the entire series.
What’s amazing is the high class of actors, writers and directors that would work on the show. This first season provides excellent examples of the caliber of performer the series would get. Guest stars on this set for various installments include Joseph Cotton, Cloris Leachman, Barry Fitzgerald, John Forsythe, Peter Lawford, and Joseph Cotton.
Famed Author Ray Bradbury wrote four episodes for the series during its ten year run and two of those episodes appear here. The first, Shopping for Death, has two salesmen discussing how the temperature effects the propensity for people to commit murder. This is actually a side theme in Hitchcock’s own Rear Window.
The second episode is perhaps the best of the entire set. Entitled, And So Died Riabouchinska, the episode begins with the discovery of a dead body in the basement of a vaudeville theater. Detective Krovitch, played by a very young Charles Bronson, suspects Claude Rains’ John Fabian, an odd ventriloquist with a very beautiful dummy named Riabouchinska. The episode is an absolutely marvelous half hour of television brilliance with buckets of pathos and great acting to spare. Claude Raines is absolutely spectacular in this small screen performance in which he elicits sympathy and horror in a masterful role.
Other episodes are just wonderfully entertaining examples of grand television artistry. In The Creeper, a young housewife is tortured by fear as a serial killer stalks lonely females in her neighborhood. The episode is filled with so many “red herrings”, the story could have easily been stretched to a full length film.
In Momentum, Skip Homeier plays Dick Paine, an out of work husband, down on his luck and needing to cash in a favor promised to him three years before. When the scenario turns to murder, Dick goes on the run, desperately trying to get him and his wife out of town before the police can get to them. The episode is of course not devoid of its twist ending.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is the forerunner to classic anthology series such as The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. Its legacy stretches even to today with series like Tales from the Crypt taking many of its queues from Hitchcock’s lead. For a series that’s fifty years old, it feels wonderfully contemporary and should be must own for those fans of the director.
Score 9.0/10
The DVD
The Video
The show is presented in its original aspect of 1.33:1. The Black and White original broadcast looks great here with very little degradation of light and shadow.
Score: 8.0/10
The Audio
The Dolby Digital mono track is not best, but the preservation holds up nicely.
Score: 7.0/10
SPECIAL FEATURES:Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Look Back
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Look Back – This is a 15 minute documentary on the conception of the series as well as its evolution. There are some really nice interviews here with Pat Hitchcock, the director’s daughter and series guest star, Producer/Director/Actor Norman Lloyd, and Hilton Green perennial Hitchcock Assistant Director. Some commentaries would have been nice or perhaps original commercials, but as is, this is a fine feature.
Score: 4.0/10
