Alfred Hitchcock Presents 1.01

Revenge

Originally broadcast Oct 2, 1955

Carl and Elsa Span are happily married when she gets attacked while he is at work. Elsa gone into shock following the attack. Carl swears he will get revenge on the man who attacked his wife.

Carl takes Elsa out for a drive, once she feels a little better. The doctor said it would do her some good to get a change of scenery. They are driving through town when Elsa sees a man. She says, "that's him!"

Carl parks the car. He leaves Elsa in the car and follows the man into a hotel. He follows the man into his hotel room and bludgeons him to death with a wrench.

Carl returns to the car. He and Elsa continue on their drive. A little further down the road Elsa sees another man and says, "That's him!"

Thoughts

This is one of the few episodes of this show that Alfred Hitchcock directed himself.

The acting by the two leads just didn't do it for me. Ralph Meeker played the part of Carl. This is the first of four episodes of this show in which he appeared. He was in Paths of Glory (1957) which I have seen but not recently.

Vera Miles played the part of Elsa. This is the only episode of this show in which she appeared. She was in Mazes and Monsters (1982) which I saw on TV when it was first broadcast. She was also in an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (The Flight of the War Witch) that I've seen at least once.

I've either seen this episode before or read a comic book version of it. I guessed the ending about halfway through the episode. According to my research the story for this episode came from a short story written by Samuel Blas and has been used more than once as the basis for a comic book story.

I think the twist here is supposed to be the fact that Carl is so eager for revenge that he loses it and kills the first man Elsa points out. He doesn't bother to think about what he's about to do or consider Elsa's mental state when she points out the man.

The episode was a little too straight forward for me. It might have hit me with some weight behind it if I hadn't guessed the ending. I was hoping for something much darker than what I got.