PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Alfred Hitchcock is an icon for a reason. Well, okay, it’s for more than one reason. One of those is the classic television anthology series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which alternates between his humorous monologues and themes of crime, drama, thrills and horror. In his standard, dry tone, Hitchcock even refers to the series as “fairy stories for grown-up children” in the first season’s 4th episode, “Don’t Come Back Alive.” What a perfect summary! Although the series has some sophistication, make no mistake about Hitchcock’s dark, funny observations. For example, in another season 1 episode, he laments that the characters didn’t die in the episode, saying, “That was disappointing, wasn’t it?” He then assures us that they actually did die later that day of food poisoning from lousy cooking. Pretty funny, right?
Here are some great examples of Hitchcock’s excellent comedic delivery:
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is one of the best anthology series you could ever watch, even if you don’t know it. In fact, if you’re one of those people who never watches old shows because they’re black and white, this series makes you into a damn fool. The question is, am I building it up too much? Will I spoil things by not examining any flaws? Maybe. The point is, you can (and will) do far worse than this. Like most of Hitchcock’s films, these tales tend to be about human behavior, as opposed to something supernatural or science fiction-y. Sometimes, this allows for the darkness to shine brighter (so to speak), and we can perhaps see more obviously human frailty in the characters. (Oh, and it should be noted that the series is now available on Hulu, if you’re into streaming.)
My Favorite Episode (So Far)
I personally never had a chance to see the entire series run of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I only got to see episodes on rare occasions in my youth, and I barely remembered those. As I revisit the first season, my favorite episode so far is “Triggers in Leash.” It’s a pretty simple tale of two cowboy types, Del (Gene Barry) and Red (Darren McGavin), threatening to gun each other down in a woman’s kitchen, The woman, Maggie (Ellen Corby), tries to be the voice of reason, but the two men just won’t leave peaceably. It will end with either a bullet or some gimmick from Maggie to bring them down from their elevated feud. The reason for the hostility? Some alleged dishonesty in a stupid card game!
This is, by no means, a standard horror story or anything particularly freaky, but the tension is definitely there in the unrelenting hatred they have over nothing. It’s a reminder that tension need not come from an obvious monster, alien force or mysterious problem. Sometimes, all you need is an irrational dislike. The tension also isn’t political, racial or religious. There doesn’t seem to be a woman they’re feuding over, either, or even money. It’s just two men who hate each other over something silly. That’s really the power of the story, carried solidly by the acting, and the end is also brilliantly simple. To me, this would be a great introduction to the series overall, although the next episode, “Don’t Come Back Alive” has compelling (albeit simple) character transformations as well.
Stay turned to these Anthology Flashbacks, won’t you? Next time, we’ll be looking at a series called One Step Beyond (1959–1961).
What are your thoughts on Alfred Hitchock Presents? Let us know in the comments!
