Post by telegonus on Mar 17, 2017 7:42:37 GMT
Steve McQueen and Peter Lorrie provided one of the most memorable viewing experiences of my youth with their roles in the “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episode titled The Man From The South – broadcast on January 3, 1960. McQueen, then the star of the western series “Wanted-Dead or Alive,” was the lead protagonist and probably the main draw at the time. This famous story traumatized an entire generation - and we loved it. Several decades later I showed this program to both my sons and learned that it had not lost its punch. #2 son immediately recognized that this production had been referenced by Quentin Tarantino in his segment of the anthology film “Four Rooms” (1995), which, in my kid's eyes, gave the Hitchcock a little more prestige.
Tarantino titled his own story The Man From Hollywood.A second half-hour episode that I love is Incident In A Small Jail (March 21, 1961). A mild mannered traveling salesman (John Fiedler, the voice of Disney's Winnie the Pooh) is taken to jail for jaywalking by an arrogant sheriff of a small western town. In the cell with him is a thug suspected of being the serial killer of several young women. When the sheriff steps out, a lynch mob shows up. Great action suspense. Tremendous shock of an ending.
I like the way the half-hour series toyed more with sci-fi, the hour longs. There were a fair number of "fantastic" half-hours, while when the hours shifted away from realism they tended to move more toward horror, with Consider Her Ways a standout (sci-fi) exception. Very good, and often surreal.