Tue 13 Dec 2011
A TV Review by Mike Tooney: ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS “Back for Christmas.”
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[9] Comments
“Back for Christmas.” An episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Season 1, Episode 23. First airdate: March 4, 1956. John Williams (Herbert), Isabel Elsom (Hermione). Teleplay: Francis M. Cockrell, based on the story by John Collier (The New Yorker, 1939). Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
While there are eleven speaking parts in this teleplay, only two really matter: Herbert, the put-upon, repressed husband (masterfully underplayed by quintessential British actor John Williams), and his officious wife Hermione (Elsom).
Our first impression is aural: the sound of someone digging. It’s Herbert, ostensibly excavating an area for a wine cellar.
When Hermione comes down to check on him, the camera pans and lingers over her in a subjective POV shot from Herbert’s point of view. Later, Hitchcock will give us another long, lingering POV shot of Hermione as the couple are entertaining friends. In both instances, Herbert’s face all but telegraphs his intentions — but no one, especially Hermione, seems to notice.
Once Herbert hefts an iron pipe, looks sideways at his wife, and — when she has gone back upstairs — checks his passport to confirm how tall she is compared to the hole he’s digging, the audience member who hasn’t caught on by now to what he’s planning really should be ashamed of himself.
Like anyone who has carefully planned to commit a crime, Herbert has been meticulous almost to a fault — but also like most premeditating criminals, Herbert fails to allow for the unexpected….
Not to be confused with the American music composer of the same name, John Williams (1903-83) was one of Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite actors. He appeared ten times on Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1955-59.
Prior to that, he had won a Broadway Tony Award for playing Chief Inspector Hubbard in Dial M for Murder (1953), a role he would reprise for Hitchcock’s film version (1954), in which he delivers the memorable line: “They talk about flat-footed policemen. May the saints protect us from the gifted amateur.”
Williams also had a substantial supporting part in To Catch a Thief (1955), dogging jewel thief Cary Grant for most of the film. And he was a pivotal character in the Thriller series adaptation of Robert Bloch’s “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” (1961), ironically an episode directed by Ray Milland, the killer he brought down in Dial M for Murder.
No suprise that he would be cast as William Shakespeare in a Twilight Zone episode (1963), frequently and ostentatiously quoting … himself.
John Collier (1901-80) has 27 credits on the IMDb, including seven Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956-61), one Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964), and six Tales of the Unexpected (1980-85), among them a remake of “Back for Christmas.”
The original “Back for Christmas” can be viewed on Hulu here. A fairly detailed discussion of this episode can be found at Senses of Cinema here.
December 13th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
It sounds like the Hitchcock episode loses the key subtleties and enjoyment of the Collier story, which doesn’t start out with everything so black and white.
December 13th, 2011 at 9:30 pm
Not having seen this episode (yet, but I’m working my way toward it) nor read the story, I can’t comment directly, but for some reason I can’t explain, I can’t read Collier’s work at all. He’s simply too creepy for me. (“Creepy” is not quite the right word, but it’s as good as I’ve ever come up with.)
December 13th, 2011 at 11:42 pm
How about unsettling, Steve?
That’s how he strikes me, though I enjoy his work.
December 14th, 2011 at 12:03 am
If there was a single word that meant “deeply unsettling,” that might do it. Everytime I look at the cover of the old vintage Bantam edition of FANCIES AND GOODNIGHTS, I get the same feeling, without even opening it.
From the review of the book that appeared in The New York Review of Books:
“John Collier’s edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing…”
December 14th, 2011 at 12:24 am
“Rattling” in at one of its senses (as adjective rather than adverb, as in “rattling good time” in the Other sense) might get at what you want.
He certainly can get across, and as elegantly as anyone, the pernicious evil of the world.
December 14th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Maybe the word for Colliers work is ‘crawly’ ?
Slowly turning from everyday to the hitherto unthinkable.
The Doc
December 14th, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Todd, the sense of pernicious evil? Very appropriate! I like it.
Crawly? That’s a good word, Doc. It’s awfully close!
December 14th, 2011 at 10:31 pm
ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR is now running on Encore Suspense cable channel weeknight with two episodes starting at 10pm Eastern.
February 15th, 2012 at 12:41 am
“Back for Christmas” was a great, understated episode of the series. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who appreciates it. John Williams, who I mostly remembered for playing Mr. French on “Family Affair” for a short period, was terrific. A domineered husband who buries his wife in the cellar, closes up the house, and takes off to possibly accept a job as some sort of consultant in America. He explains he & his wife separated, and his friends in England would assume they just decided not to return. By the end Williams is living the life of a carefree bachelor — he’s living in a high rise apartment and having beer for breakfast. I really wanted to see him get away with it!