Alfred Hitchcock Presents / The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

[BigMack3000]

For those who only want the Hitch-directed episodes, Australia also now has a three disc set with all of Hitchcock's episodes from Presents and Hour plus Incident at a Corner from Ford Startime

Is there any way to still grab these two episodes?

[ando]

For me this is a series to stream, but the 7 seasons seem to be only available through Peacocktv.com with the usual tiered ad/no-ad subscriptions. But I remember it on Netflix (or Prime) at one point (when I had no interest, of course). NBC claims they're in HD so I that's an incentive to sign on.

[domino harvey]

Ten promos of Hitchcock promoting the series’ syndication in the 70s

[Tom Amolad]

Would some kind soul who knows the series well care to recomend a half dozen or dozen episodes of the Alfred Hitchcock Show and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour that strike them as most essential?

[domino harvey]

Three directed by Hitchcock and three not: The Man from the South, An Unlocked Window, Back for Christmas, the Long Shot, Arthur, Lamb to Slaughter - the first and last of these are probably the most iconic episodes of the series

[Tom Amolad]

Thanks. Though I guess I'm going to be hitting physical media. Amazon has most of these on prime, but has managed to omit most of those -- unless I'm missing something, they're not even available for rental.

But, thankfully, I have access to decent libraries.

[domino harvey]

YouTube may have them up, they did at some juncture (also An Unlocked Window is technically from the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, but it's the same series, just with increased screentime in the later seasons (like that one season of the Twilight Zone)

[Tom Amolad]

Thanks -- nearly missed that one.

[fiendishthingy]

All great choices. "An Unlocked Window" was one of the first that sprang to mind for me; I'm less familiar with the hour-long episodes than the half-hours, but that's one that really stood out to me. From Alfred Hitchcock Presents I might also suggest "The Glass Eye," which has always been a personal favorite.

[swo17]

Collective forum recommendations of Hitchcock-directed TV eps (at the bottom of the post)

[therewillbeblus]

Alright, sampled the first three, and it's pretty hit or miss so far

S1E1 - A Piece of Action: A curious start to the show. It's a morality lesson on gambling, but the 'lesson' is pointed all over the place. As an hour-long ep, it's well-paced and compelling enough as fluff, but doesn't come together because the story can never figure out who's 'in the right', while clearly attempting to make pointed claims. Hitchcock explains how everyone learned a different lesson in the end, which I suppose helps a bit, but the way the narrative goes about making that happen is strange and I'm not quite sure the threads are effectively woven together. Feels like it's going to be one thing for 40 minutes, and then the other points are rushed in the end. Featuring a young Robert Redford already showing that Star charm.

S1E2 - Don't Look Behind You: This is more like it tonally, but still feels like an over-acted, predictable tale revolving around a well-tuned Vera Miles.

S1E3 - Night of the Owl: Okay, here we go! The Hitchcockian plotting unravels at a perfect pace over the course of this hour, which begins with a mysterious stranger arriving at an unsuspecting home, and ventures through various twists and turns all the way to its ironic climax. Philip Coolidge brings welcome horror to the tension once escalated, and Brian Keith and Patricia Breslin are believable parents, who each have a few nuanced lines that add to their relatability. While dated in certain areas, this feels like a timeless tale that understands how valuable defaming information is towards the innocent in a social bubble.

[therewillbeblus]

More Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes:

S1E4 - I Saw the Whole Thing: Pretty dull courtroom procedural that ends with a cute little twist. Not much else to say about it.

S1E5 - Captive Audience: James Mason and Angie Dickinson get caught up in a classic noir plot, but the episode's narrative unfolds gradually before then and it's a pleasure to watch for the first half. Once the chess pieces are on the table, we know where this is going and it's not very engaging in familiar, rote context.

S1E6 - Final Vow: Fun mini-adventure of a nun sleuthing around foreign urban underbelly to get back an invaluable object for her superior. Clu Gulager plays an incredibly annoying character but the pathetic lengths he goes to are given room to breathe and this works to sell a foul rather than alluring depiction of the criminal underworld.

S1E7 - Annabel: Dean Stockwell can't save this lame, predictable story of infatuation-gone-too-far. We've seen this a million times before and will again, but this episode has nothing new to add to the equation.

S1E8 - House Guest: Mystery man saves drowning boy and his family feels indebted, leading to an escalating imposition as he freeloads staying in their home. It's a timely episode where fear of public scandal, rather than physical threat, is the primary motivation for many of the ostensibly-good characters in the first half. The back half gets both morally murky and stuffed with exciting turns with new mysterious characters showing up. Karl Swenson's unreadable 'everyman' disposition is a delight, and the final twist feels like Hitchcock's revenge for

Spoiler

losing the bid for the rights to make Les Diaboliques himself

S1E9 - The Black Curtain: An amnesiac runs through the streets all night and day following leads trying to jog his memory while being potentially framed for a crime. Like many of these kinds of noirs, this is hit-or-miss, as there's zero character investment so the story has to be strong and the pace economic to deliver a more surface-level experience, two areas it's inconsistent in producing. I don't think the pieces form a whole that earns its ultimate self-satisfaction, but the episode is still pretty fun - there's even a wild showdown at a little league game!

S1E10 - Day of Reckoning: Man murders wife, and gradually both tries to get away with it and caught simultaneously. It's really interesting to watch the early showboating go beyond reverse psychology and into self-destructive tendencies. The first section plays out with a surprising amount of investment as a procedural, while the last section turns on its antihero with an amusingly inverted premise:

Spoiler

As the murderer tries harder and harder to do the moral thing, the 'innocents' around him behave less and less morally in order to stop him based on various selfish motives, but ironically all leading to the same endpoint - only a madhouse instead of prison.

S1E11 - Ride the Nightmare: Hugh O'Brian and Gena Rowlands get a threatening phone call and all hell breaks loose in what could be the best episode of the series yet. Rowlands takes a backseat for much of the ep, and O'Brian isn't exactly an A-list player, but the suspense feels earned at every step and there's a wonderful sequence involving wildfires that vividly sells the horror of a deadly predicament, causing a shred of sympathy for even the most vile of characters. John Anderson steals every scene he's in as the main baddie behind the scenes, until he's ousted from that position.

[mfunk9786]

Loving the Alfred Hitchcock Hour set and have considered “What Really Happened” to be the standout episode I’ve watched so far… it is plotted thrillingly, placing you in a situation you think you’ve got figured out and then moving chess pieces around until it successfully convinces you to never judge a book by its cover again.

Huge demerit for no subtitles on the set. Insanity for 2025.

Anyway… what is the best home media option for Alfred Hitchcock Presents? Seems like it might be streaming, but there is some new DVD set with 200some episodes on it from Universal? Is that any good?

[Drucker]

For whatever it's worth, I just turned this on for the first time ever on Peacock, and the picture quality and sound seemed excellent.

[mfunk9786]

I’m in a weird place with Peacock where it’s provided free by my internet company, but it’s the ad-supported version ONLY with no upgrade path to the ad-free one. I could pay full price but I chafe against it. Extremely specific problem but Peacock’s out.

[Lowry_Sam]

For whatever it's worth, I just turned this on for the first time ever on Peacock, and the picture quality and sound seemed excellent.

Peacock has had HD presentations of Presents since its debut. I caught a few episodes for free when it debuted, but assumed that they would be coming to blu-ray and so I didn’t try to watch any more before losing access & the rest of the programming didn’t compel me to subscribe. That was probably a decade ago and still no sign of anything. Maybe Imprint can get a hold of them and do an upgrade of the complete Presents on blu.

[domino harvey]

Anyway… what is the best home media option for Alfred Hitchcock Presents? Seems like it might be streaming, but there is some new DVD set with 200some episodes on it from Universal? Is that any good?

A Blu-ray.com member noted that the US release is missing these five episodes (also missing from Peacock) which were included in the Australian DVD sets (in the US only the first five seasons got pressed releases)

S6E7 Outlaw in Town
S6E10 Sybilla
S6E19 The Landlady
S7E27 Act of Faith
S7E30 What Frightened You, Fred?

[therewillbeblus]

Binging the Hitchcock Hour

S1E12 - Hangover: Obnoxious structure where a blackout drinker has flashbacks of stupid stuff he did while drunk on repeat as he accrues consequences in the present. This narrative gimmick has been used in noir before, usually poorly, but this isn't even trying to be in the suspense genre until its final frames. Just flat and superfluous all around, like A Christmas Carol for the alcoholic without dramatic stakes, until they come toppling down with outrageous symptomatology in the closing reveal.

S1E13 - Bonfire: Seedy Columbo is a fun type of character to center an episode around, but this one stalls out when Falk is grooming his target for the bulk of the runtime. Another predictable and unoriginal type of potboiler thriller. The ironic divine intervention at the end is a cute touch, though.

S1E14 - The Tender Poisoner: Interesting case of cryptic plotting, where the the motives and character and degree of capability of the main players become clearer as the story unfolds. I enjoyed this a good amount - it sets up a loose, half-assed idea and watches as things get expectedly out of hand, but never goes completely overboard. There's some surreal Pinteresque depictions of role-playing going on that help create a unique feel in an otherwise simple noir set-up.

S1E15 - The Thirty-First of February: Promising setup leads us into a viewer’s dilemma over the truth behind a crime, the present-told events offering plenty of evidence for and against the protagonist as culprit. Unfortunately instead of playing the game smart, he just digs himself into a hole so it hardly matters what the truth is either way. Plus this gradually becomes 'Gaslight For Men!', and that doesn’t deliver on the ambiguity of the beginning structure. Still, this is a mostly exciting episode due to the zig-zagging of plausibility with an unreliable narrator put through the wringer.

S1E16 - What Really Happened: I’m not quite as high as mfunk on this one, but it is quite enthralling with its various narrative pivots that never cast shadows on any threads within the mystery. An accomplished episode with a rapidly ante-upping final act for the ages.

S1E17 - Forecast: Low Clouds and Coastal Fog: A strong, slow-burn dramatic ep on the consequences of fear, that wisely doesn't choose sides around its moral dilemma - validating everyone's position in the debacle. The second half is overall less interesting but still invites new perspectives in new characters, affirming and challenging Inger Stevens's state to distort comfort levels around the event, until it suddenly descends into terror. I appreciated how the karmic promise is displaced in the end as all comes full circle in an unsuspecting manner.

S1E18 - A Tangled Web: Redford returns! This time as a thief who's ostensibly framed by his running buddy over a woman. This is an open book episode, cards on the table, and so it plays out as expected without many surprising twists or turns. There are little details within scenes that enrich the characters and their dynamics, so I was never bored, but wasn't too compelled either.

S1E19 - To Catch a Butterfly: Silly premise where a new couple arrive in a neighborhood only to find themselves tormented by a sociopathic child. Kind of superfluous to create a 'realistic' version of a boy getting away with murder when something spectacular like "It's a Good Life" already exists.

S1E20 - The Paragon: Joan Fontaine is predictably excellent as a well-meaning but abhorrent housewife, who repels everyone around her with unsolicited advice and backhanded comments. It's a blast to watch her sour her company, one after the other. The second half is less enticing when your classic murder plot kicks in, with a lot of filler talk-talk-talking, but Fontaine keeps one glued to the screen throughout even the dull sections. Pretty dark ending, though!

S1E21 - I'll Be Judge - I'll Be Jury: Classic Hitchcock plot where everyman Peter Graves finds himself playing detective, tracking down his wife's suspected killer in a foreign land. There's a crueler edge of vigilantism than most Hitch projects of this ilk, and I respected the urgency in the principals' activity, particularly as the deed changes hands.

S1E22 - Diagnosis: Danger: Michael Parks leads a manhunt to find the source of an anthrax outbreak. Panic in the Streets, this is not.. It's merely a paint-by-numbers procedural without any flair or tension to rouse the proceedings.

S1E23 - The Lonely Hours: A disturbed woman sets her sights on Gena Rowlands' baby, believing it to be her's, and eventually kidnaps the child. Another episode where you can see what's coming a mile away and it never builds into anything grander or more shocking than its base idea. Nancy Kelly is efficiently creepy as the deranged "mother" though.

S1E24 - The Star Juror: Involving tale of moral weight and consequence, as a murderer gets away with the crime and positions himself closer to the trial of the wrong man, with ambivalent motivations eating at him - to both free the innocent and protect himself. What's striking about this ep is its strong depiction of a small community's functioning and mores, and the repercussions that froth even after assumed finality on a case. Dean Jagger plays the most gentle and passive culprit, playing the part quite close to the chest, which only invites more interest from the viewer as to his psyche's condition throughout the proceedings.

[domino harvey]

S1E14 - The Tender Poisoner: Interesting case of cryptic plotting, where the the motives and character and degree of capability of the main players become clearer as the story unfolds. I enjoyed this a good amount - it sets up a loose, half-assed idea and watches as things get expectedly out of hand, but never goes completely overboard. There's some surreal Pinteresque depictions of role-playing going on that help create a unique feel in an otherwise simple noir set-up.

Believe it or not, Ira Sachs adapted this same source material a few years back. Here’s my write up on his film and this ep

Married Life (Ira Sachs 2008) Handsome adaptation of a pulp novel concerning a meek married man who can't bear to burden his wife with the ache of leaving her for his mistress, so he reasons poisoning her is the more humane act for all involved. Complications ensue. The film is classic noir set up and yet, oddly, director Ira Sachs portrays everything through a glossy sheen of melodrama more befitting a Sirk tribute than a Siodmak. I don't think this is necessarily a problem out of hand, as noirs were considered and labeled "crime melodramas" during their initial run, but Sachs makes the mistake of caring about his characters and as a result he refuses to punish them properly. Chris Cooper and Rachel McAdams are fine as the husband and mistress, though Patricia Clarkson is miscast as the devoted wife. It's Pierce Brosnan who really shines here, though, playing the intermediary figure who withholds key information and takes one look at McAdams' bottle blonde and decides she shouldn't be wasted on his sad sack pal. Brosnan is fun as far as the film lets him be a genial dick, but as mentioned, the last ten minutes of this movie are a colossal miscalculation. The Blu-ray helpfully showcases three alternate endings (though all are variations on the same idea), and while the alternate gets closer to the fatalistic noir ending this material demands, none work.

Curious, I learned an episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour had adapted the same source novel in 1962 as "the Tender Poisoner," with Dan Dailey and Jan Sterling as the husband and wife. Would a more outwardly "noir" take on the material help? While watching the fairly mediocre teleplay I thought not so much… until the conclusion, when the TV show delivered exactly the right ending to the whole affair, set up beautifully from all the component parts already present in both adaptations. It's such a natural and satisfying conclusion to the action that of course it features one of Hitchcock as host's great mea culpas at the end, "I love that ending. Of course, I must tell you that it didn't actually happen like that…" so as to excuse the perfectly cruel and just end (as was the norm on the series).

[therewillbeblus]

Finished off the set, which had a lot of gems in its final quarter:

S1E25 - The Long Silence: A wild turn of events leaves a woman paralyzed, desperate to speak the truth before a family member murders her too. What begins as a peculiar set of quick actions without much context turns into a slow-burn story. It's amusing to watch characterization develop in the aftermath, getting to know this woman as an invalid, once activity has quite literally slowed! There's some strong surreal imagery stressing our heroine's trauma and sensations of feeling trapped in her state, and plenty of extra characters populating the scenes that flesh out this family system well. The climax is underwhelming, but I don't think it could've ended any other way.

S1E26 - An Out for Oscar: I had fun with the episode's tactic of relentless forward momentum accompanied with narrative withholding at the start, as we watch situations unfold rapidly with limited information on character, creating an unsettling vibe. Once we're acclimated to the milieu, the double and triple crosses are gratifying to behold. Lots of fun, sleazy characters and some beautiful, angled, fast photography helps boost this ep's strange flavor. It's a wild, confounding ride - a complicated plot abstracted even further by its style.

S1E27 - Death and the Joyful Woman: I loved the structure to this - it really keeps you at arm's length for what transpires in the second half. The first part is a chamber piece drinking contest, while the second transitions into more nefarious territory (though the first act is certainly vicious in its own right!) I liked getting to know the character before they're off'd, and the 'without warning' attitude to the cruel shenanigans is welcome amidst the more predictable eps with sober foresight. There's almost a reflexive tone to this episode essentially being a messy drunk just like the characters' inebriated states, as the narrative spills into areas unprecedented, learning motives after-the-fact and so on. The WTF thrills work even though they're familiar, simply because of how the events are presented without prompts. New characters keep popping up all the way to the end! Cool stuff.

S1E28 - Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans: Family vacation goes awry when daughter gets in the wrong car and witnesses a murder. This starts with a bang and maintains its suspense with angular close-ups and startling edits reflecting the vulnerable mental state of our heroine in a foreign land, before she ventures into a Wrong Man pic model. A very satisfying episode, and close to the kind of thing Hitch could've made into a feature - just crammed into an hour, so the pacing elevates the tension.

S1E29 - The Dark Pool: A recovering alcoholic's adopted son drowns and his apparent birth mother shows up at the doorstep with wicked intentions. This could've easily been a lame lark, but the inclusion of multiple variables (alcoholic relapse, the stranger's sprawling plans, spooky hallucinations) bolster the material into something deeply weird and disturbing. There's no reliable narrator to ground us, and so we're along for a ride - one of fractured relationships, devastating alienation, and desperate outbursts. The twist is typical but works by including unexpected side characters in the plot, throwing off the balance even when strains are coming together.

S1E30 - Dear Uncle George: This starts with a great premise where an advice columnist realizes that his life is the target of a letter received, though this quickly leads to an obvious murder setup and loses that novel steam. Thankfully, the cover-up and procedural that follows is rather engrossing, as we're learning new information that enriches the story. The reveals and responsive actions that transpire over the course of the ep help tangle the narrative with leisurely surprise and wit. This is one of the more absorbing episodes of the series - really entertaining from start to finish. A somewhat predictable ending, but it still works perfectly.

S1E31 - Run for Doom: Trite femme fatale story, with dumb characters (the principal doctor can't even tell when his father is having a heart attack before his eyes), bad actors, and silly dialogue (the “teacher”-“student” exchange had me rolling my eyes). One of the weakest episodes of the bunch. However, even though the ending requires you to suspend disbelief, it’s kinda neat in a cheeky sort of way.

S1E32 - Death of a Cop: Father Cop seeks out to avenge Son Cop's death by the hands of evil drug dealers. This is pretty paint-by-numbers, but it's involving enough for a cheesy mini-crime movie. I appreciated its pretty brutal ending that robs the audience of catharsis - a pretty fitting note for this season to go out on.

[therewillbeblus]

I'm not sure if I'm going to write up the second season yet (all three seasons of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour are on Amazon Prime currently, in the US at least), but the first episode, A Home Away From Home, is absolutely batshit crazy - just like its characters! I had practically no idea what was going on for the bulk of its runtime, but the content is so alluring that it's not difficult to buy into its twisty ride. The less said about it the better, but I loved how at the halfway mark Hitchcock himself admits that he has no idea what's going on either. It helps to have so many rando side characters intruding in on the action and playing everything straight, which distracts from a potential twofer that would simplify matters too easily. The climax seems deflating at first, but it has a witty final line that caps off the whole piece with some juicy irony.