Mon 22 Mar 2010
A TV Review by Mike Tooney: THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR “Captive Audience.”
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[5] Comments
“Captive Audience.” An episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (Season 1, Episode 5). First air date: 18 October 1962. James Mason, Angie Dickinson, Arnold Moss, Ed Nelson, Roland Winters, Sara Shane, Bart Burns. Teleplay: Richard Levinson & William Link, based on the novel Murder off the Record (1957) by John Bingham. Director: Alf Kjellin.
Victor Hartman (Arnold Moss) publishes mystery novels, but even so he’s unprepared for what’s been developing for the past few days. Victor has been receiving tape recordings from a prospective author named Warren Barrow (James Mason) in which Barrow may be revealing his plans to exact revenge on Janet West (Angie Dickinson) for trying to frame him for murder — OR what he’s saying on the tapes might just be notes for a novel he hopes to place with Victor.
Victor is unsure and calls in Tom Keller (Ed Nelson), one of his best mystery authors. Is Barrow really planning murder, or is he just floating ideas for a novel? Because, if Barrow IS serious, something has to be done — and fast ….
Altogether, the now legendary but then struggling to get established Richard Levinson and William Link were responsible for five Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes, and not a bad one in the bunch: “Captive Audience”; “Day of Reckoning”; “Dear Uncle George”; “Nothing Ever Happens in Linvale”; and “Murder Case.”
Another Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode, “The Tender Poisoner,” was also derived from a John Bingham novel.
Hulu: http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1490550809/
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Mike didn’t include her in the credits, but folk singer Barbara Dane made one of her two TV credits in this episode of HITCHCOCK HOUR.
You can watch the entire program via the Hulu link Mike provided, but for Barbara Dane’s performance, most of two songs, go here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebDRW5xdGFE
PS. Yes, in case you were wondering, it IS that Roland Winters.
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Roland Winters had a long career after Charlie Chan in film and especially television, making his debut in CITIZEN KANE in an unbilled role as a journalist.
This was a good episode that benefited from Mason and Dickinson raising it above the even high levels the series usually achieved.
Alf Kjellin directed almost as many pieces as he acted in. He acted in the Hitchcock episode of DON”T LOOK BEHIND YOU that Mike previously reviewed here. He directed episodes of IRONSIDE, COLUMBO, BONANZA, and HAWAII FIVE-0 among others, and acted in many of them. One of his better film roles was the former U-Boat commander in ASSUALT ON A QUEEN with Frank Sinatra.
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:00 am
One thing that is interesting about these ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR episodes is the crazy and funny introductions that Hitchcock did for each TV show, often attacking the sponsers and commercials. I’m not sure that Mike’s TV station includes these clips, but my bootleg set has them all, including the final comments where Hitchcock is forced to tell the viewers that the villain was arrested and did not get away with murder, etc.
I just saw an introduction where AH goes on a rant against the commercial calling it stupid, boring, ridiculous, silly, etc. No way would they allow him to make such comments nowadays. But AH had a definite gift for comedy.
March 23rd, 2010 at 9:38 am
Walker — I’ve been catching THE HITCHCOCK HOUR on Retro Television, who mercilessly chops the episodes down to fit in the extra commercials. Only Hitchcock’s intros are shown; his half-time and closing comments are completely missing — the Hulu shows and my own faulty memory attest to that. Hitchcock was tapping into the zeitgeist with his arch assaults on the intrusiveness of TV commercials at that time, just ten or fifteen years into the era of regular episodic TV programming. Nowadays it’s even worse.
As for his final comments assuring the audience that the malefactors didn’t get away with it, watch “The Photographer and the Undertaker” and switch off the
recorder just before Hitch appears; that’s just how it was shown on Retro TV. It would be very surprising if Hitchcock didn’t get a memo or two from the censors about that one.
October 31st, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Just saw this episode on the Encore Suspense channel. It appeared to be shown in its entirety. It was part of a Halloween marathon showing of episodes of the series; I don’t know if it’ll continue to be shown on the channel.
Also, the half-hour series is shown on AntennaTV, also apparently uncut.