The Vine: October 24, 2008
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on October 24, 2008 – 10:06 AM29 Comments
Dear Sars,
I’m hosting an Alfred Hitchcock marathon on Halloween. I was planning onjust screening three films, but tonight I found the first two seasons of AlfredHitchcock Presents and three seasons of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour on hulu.com.
Now I want to show two or three episodes ofthe TV shows instead of the third movie, but I don’t know which episodes tochoose. I’ve never seen the shows, I don’t have time to go through them allbefore Halloween and I can’t seem to find one of those handy ‘best of’ lists tohelp me.
I was hoping you or your readers could recommend the best episodes toshow. The episode must be available on Hulu, and the scarier the better.
Thank you,
black + white = < fright
Dear Fright,
I always liked that show, but don’t remember specific eps, so I’m not much help. Let’s put the readers on it.
Readers: best ep (or handful of eps) of Hitchcock’s shows — scary, and on Hulu. Hit it.
Share!
Tags: Alfred Hitchcock Ask The Readers popcult
What a great idea for a party. I have two that I remember:
Season 1, Ep 20: And So Died Riabouchinska: A ventriloquist with a very lifelike dummy is questioned about a murder that occurred at a vaudeville theater. It was written by Ray Bradbury and has ventriloquist’s dummy – enough said.
Season 2, Ep 2: Fog Closing In
A troubled wife is left alone in her house while her husband travels on business. When she hears strange noises, she goes to investigate…
This one may not be as scary as I remember it being, depends on how afraid of fog you are.
And one that I know is out there about a basement and rats, very large rats, but I can’t find so it may have only been on the radio (it’s a lot scarier on the radio).
Hulu has one with Christopher Lee as a former Satanist trying to play one in a movie (I think it’s second season?)
It’s not one of “the greats,” I guess, but Christopher Lee on Halloween should be mandatory, in my opinion.
The AHP where the wife kills her husband with the frozen leg of lamb is awesomesauce.
@Pope Lizbet – that’s the first one I thought of, too.
I haven’t seen this, though I’ve heard it’s good: “The Man from the South,” which is based on a great Roald Dahl short story (as is the frozen leg of lamb one). Quentin Tarantino does a remake of this–for some inexplicable reason–in Four Rooms, but his version is really crappy.
Oh, what a great find! I loved AHP when it aired on Nick @ Nite – used to stay up for days when they ran marathons. Of the eps available on Hulu, I recommend Toby, Breakdown and The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby. Too bad they don’t seem to have the one where the reporter spends the night in the Wax Museum – that one scared the pee out of me when I was younger.
Season 1, Episode 7, “Breakdown” with Joseph Cotten. Awesome. I’m at work and can’t check to make sure it’s on Hulu, though.
That’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” (by Roald Dahl!). But it’s from Season 3, so not on hulu.
I still to this day consider a frozen leg of lamb to be the ideal murder weapon, and plan on using exactly that should the need ever arise.
I wholeheartedly second the “Leg of Lamb” episode, with Barbara Bel Geddes, and also recommend “Man from the South” starring Peter Lorre AND Steve mcQueen, and written by Roald Dahl! (although I have NOT checked to see if they are on Hulu.)
According to Wiki, that episode (which I actually remember seeing as part of the British series Tales of the Unexpected) was called “Lamb to the Slaughter” and was based on a story by Roald Dahl. (It’s like six degrees of awesome in here.)
I *think* this was an AHP, not a Twighlight Zone, but I’m always chilled by the one where the guy gets in a car accident and is paralyzed entirely so everbody thinks he’s dead. The entire thing is his panicked thoughts as he tries to get them to realize he’s alive before he’s autopsied. It has an nice ending, though, so even if it is available, in might not be scary enough for Halloween :)
This is no help at all, since it is from the 5th season, but the one with Peter Lorre as an elderly man who is addicted to gambling and Steve McQueen as a young man who is inordinately proud of his lighter always stuck with me. It was written by Roald Dahl.
LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER !!!!
fabulous. it is the one with the frozen leg of lamb, it and absolutely should be included.
The episode Pope Lizbet is thinking is based on a Roald Dahl story called “Lamb to the Slaughter”–I believe the episode has the same title, but I’m not certain. There was also an episode with Vincent Price called “The Perfect Crime”…I don’t remember how scary it was, but Vincent Price+Alfred Hitchcock+Halloween seems like a pretty good fit to me.
It’s a great idea–hope you have fun!
Season 1, Ep 20 scarred me for life. Any talking suitcase will be met with a hatchet at my house…axe now, ask later.
Gah, I’m all creeped out now.
If possible, you MUST show “An Unlocked Window”, the one about two nurses caring for a sick man in a creepy house during a storm. Oh, there’s also a nurse-killer on the loose. Jaded audiences might be able to figure out the “twist” before the end, but it’s probably one of the more well known episodes and is still pretty effective.
There’s also the famous episode “Man from the South” with Peter Lorre betting Steve McQueen that he can’t light his lighter 10 times in a row. If anyone saw Four Rooms, the last “room” with Quentin Tarantino and Bruce Willis was basically a copy of this and mentions the episode as well. Plus Roald Dahl wrote the story and he rocks, so that’s a plus.
I second the frozen leg of lamb episode (‘Lamb to the Slaughter’). It’s not particularly scary, but…she feeds the murder weapon to the cops! Genius. I’m so doing that if I ever mur…ahem…nevermind.
There’s another one called ‘Gigolo’ where a man kills his wife and grinds her up in a meat grinder and feeds her to her cats. It was in color…I think it came out in the 80s.
I don’t have a clue as to the episode the title, or who was in it, but I was prone to nightmares as a kid and my mother specifically forbade AHP, so of course I begged my Grandma to let me watch, which she did. The episode had a man trying to kill another man with a poisonous snake, but the snake ended up inside his own pillowcase, which of course bit him on the cheek when he went to bed. I checked my pillow for snakes every night for years.
I doubt the episode holds up these days, but I’d still love to see it again.
There was one from the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which I think was also remade when they relaunched the show in the 1980s, called The Final Escape about a prisoner who tries to escape in a coffin. The twist is such a kicker.
Just putting in yet another vote for the leg of lamb episode. I saw it when I was a kid and than several years ago, my dad and I went to the Museum of Television and Radio to watch it again. So awesome.
@Rbelle: The episode you are thinking of is the one I mentioned, “Breakdown.”
@Soylent: LOVED that one! OMG – such a great twist. That must be on Hulu or whatev.
And I never knew the leg of lamb story was made into an episode – that was one of my fave Roald Dahl tales evah. Now I’ll have to find it.
I love the one with the ventriliquist dummy, those suckers are creepy!
I’m also with Rbelle about the one where the guy was paralyzed (could only slightly move one finger) and they’re going to cut him up because they think he’s dead. Reminds me of Metallica’s song One and the novel Johnny Got His Gun.
I don’t know a title of an episode, but there is one that someone is buried alive. My aunt swears that it is the scariest thing she has ever seen. I’d screen that one.
Oh! “An Unlocked Window!” I’ve never seen this episode, but my aunts have told me about how they watched it as children and they positively shake with remembered fear. Alas, according to IMDb, it’s a season 3 episode. However! The awesome episode called “Final Escape” is a season 2 epsiode and should be available on Hulu. Excellent episode. A must see.
Wait, I take it all back. Both “An Unlocked Window” and “Final Escape” are episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and should both be available on Hulu.
So, last night I watched “An Unlocked Window” on Hulu and I nearly vomited from fear, if that’s the reaction you’re looking for from your guests.
I used to watch Alfred Hitchcock on Nick @ Nite. I definitely remember “Lamb To The Slaughter”, as even my 8 year old self found it greatly amusing. If my husband ever needs killing, that’s my plan.
“Final Escape” is a good one, too….and “Man From The South”, because I love Steve McQueen.