Alfred Hitchcock Presents 1.23

Back for Christmas

starring John Williams

written by John Collier, Francis M. Cockrell

directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Herbert Carpenter (John Williams) and his wife Hermione are getting reading to leave England and travel to the United States where they will spend sometime near Los Angeles. Hermione tells everyone that they will be back for Christmas. Herbert has other plans. He goes ahead with those plans and travels to the United States alone. Everything seems fine until he learns that his wife made some plans that she didn't tell him about.

Thoughts

I enjoyed this episode very much. There's a fair amount of suspense in the early going because Herbert's plans are more or less telegraphed but without any words. How and when he will execute said plans is the real question. I like the scenes with Herbert and Hermione. There were a few other characters in this episode but Herbert and Hermione were the only ones who played major roles in the episode. I didn't see the twist coming. Maybe if I had then I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did.

Notes

This is the second of 10 episodes of this show in which John Williams appeared. The first was 1.09 The Long Shot.

Isobel Elsom played the part of Hermione Carpenter. This is the first of three episodes of this show in which she appeared. She also appeared in two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

The only other name from the cast that jumps out at me is Theresa Harris. This is the only episode of this show in which she appeared. I've seen her in several movies including Cat People (1942) and Out of the Past (1947).

John Collier wrote the story that was the basis for this episode. This is the first of seven episodes of this show that he had a hand in writing. He also had a hand in writing episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and Tales of the Unexpected.

Francis Cockrell wrote the teleplay for this episode. This is the sixth of 18 episodes of this show that he had a hand in writing. He also wrote the teleplays for the first three episodes of this show that Hitchcock directed, plus 1.14 A Bullet for Baldwin and 1.16 You Got to Have Luck.

This is the fourth of 17 episodes of this show that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.