Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The Legacy Collection
6,847 min. / B&W / 1.33:1 / Dolby 2.0 / SDH
Universal DVD $99.98
Available from Movie Zyng
Well, here’s something that’s going to keep us busy for the rest of our lives, even those of us who are pre-teens: 263 episodes of the greatest, most binge-worthy TV anthology series of all, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
In 1955, it’s not as if the great director had spare time on his hands; from 1954-1956 he produced and directed six feature films, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry, The Man who Knew Too Much, and The Wrong Man. The thought of producing and hosting a weekly television series appealed to his vanity and ego as well as his checking account, and to accomplish the task, he worked closely with his assistant, Joan Harrison, setting up Shamley Productions, acquiring a wealth of radio scripts and short stories that could be filmed quickly and cheaply, and found James Allardice, a writer with an outré and macabre sense of humor that matched Hitchcock’s own, to pen the intro and outro segments. For the first two seasons, Hitchcock paid close attention to the stories and filmed episodes, and directed several himself; thereafter, with the show a solid hit, he trusted Miss Harrison and old friend Norman Lloyd to handle the heavy lifting, although Hitch directed a couple of episodes a year, approved the stories, and screened all the episodes (according to Lloyd, if he liked an episode, he’d compliment them; if he didn’t, he’d say “Thank you”).
Famous for its opening graphic (the shadow of Hitchcock stepping into a line-drawing silhouette, a self-portrait of the portly artist) to the tune of Funeral March of a Marionette for the oft-ghoulish humorous patter from the host, and for teasing the sponsor (see the quote above), Alfred Hitchcock Presents ran successfully for five seasons on CBS, and then moved for its final two seasons to NBC. (But that wouldn’t be all: the show converted to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour for three additional seasons, two on CBS and one on NBC.)
So, what we have here are 263 episodes from the 7 seasons of the half-hour show, complete and looking good. Across the 7 seasons, I counted 19 episodes directed by Mr. Hitchcock, 18 of which are included here, and this is good a time as any to mention that not every episode is included, due to rights issues. The first 5 seasons are intact, but there are three episodes missing from season 6 (including the season opener, Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat, directed by Hitchcock) and two from season 7. Among the Hitchcock-helmed episodes you’ll finds such gems as Revenge (with Ralph Meeker and Vera Miles), Breakdown with Joseph Cotten, both from season 1; One More Mile to Go with David Wayne, from season 2; Lamb to the Slaughter, with Barbara Bel Geddes, from season 3 and arguably the series’ best and most famous episode; Arthur with Laurence Harvey, Hazel Court, and Patrick Macnee, from season 5; and Bang! You’re Dead with Billy Mumy, from season 6.
If you’re looking for past, current and future stars, you’ll find Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Bette Davis, Steve McQueen, Joan Fontaine, Claude Rains, Walter Matthau, Thelma Ritter, and many others, plus Hitch’s daughter Pat. Notable directors included William Friedkin, Robert Altman, Arthur Hiller, and Ida Lupino; Robert Stevens directed the most episodes, including the Emmy winner The Glass Eye, a terrifying episode from season 3. You’ll also want to jump to The Creeper with Constance Ford, season 1; Man from the South with McQueen and Peter Lorre, season 5; and The Right Kind of Medicine, season 7.
Best of all, though, are the delights of seeing Sir Alfred as a chef, a hangman, dodging dropped klieg lights, etc., worth the price of admission all by themselves, and all reports are that he loved doing this vignettes, the ham.
To date, we’ve watched 93 of the 263 episodes in this set; some but not all of our favorites are listed above, and to be sure occasionally you’ll find a clinker (as with The Twilight Zone, the episodes meant to be full-on comedies tend to fall the flattest), but once in a while you’ll simply stumble across an unheralded episode like Together from season 3 and it’ll leave you wanting to watch a half-dozen more episodes before bedtime.
There are two bonus featurettes in the set, one a good background on the show, including talks with Pat Hitchcock and Norman Lloyd, and one on Hitchcock’s “art of murder.”
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Legacy Collection, spread across 34 discs, is a keeper of keepers and as mentioned, we expect to be watching and rewatching it till they carry us out to the tunes of the Marionette’s funeral dirge.
