Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Three

Executive Producer Alfred Hitchcock
USA 19
57- 58

 

Along with Perry Mason, this is probably my favorite classic TV. Alfred Hitchcock Presents based itself in stories of suspense and mystery. Episodes were often very creative with unexpected twists or revelations. In Season 2 (as in much of the series) the 30 minute episodes were introduced and concluded by Hitchcock himself frequently in a light humorous vein showing his dead-pan fun side.

The series premiered on CBS on Sunday, October 2, 1955 in the 9:30-10:00 PM timeslot opposite ABC's The Original Amateur Hour and NBC's Alcoa-Goodyear Playhouse. In its sixth season the show moved to NBC and was shown on Tuesday 8:30-9:00 PM. When at NBC it preceded two other anthology shows - Thriller and The Dick Powell Show.

 

Season 3 continued to boast performers who would later become much more famous, some who already were, and many strong bit players in Universal camp including - Vincent Price, William Shatner, Joseph Cotten, Jack Klugman, E.G. Marshall, James Gregory, Peter Lorre, George Peppard, Michael Rennie, Jessica Tandy, Pat Hitchcock and more. In 1962, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was expanded to one hour and was shown under the title the The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. We anxiously await!, A true gem of TV gone by. out of

Gary W. Tooze

Opening Sample

Television Premiere: October 2nd, 1955 - USA and Canada

DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Universal (5 single-sided dual-layered discs) - Region 1 - NTSC

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Distribution Universal - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime Each episode is approx 26 minutes X 39 = almost 19 hours of entertainment
Video 1:33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.7 mb/s (sample)
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s   

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Sample Bitrate:

Audio English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby) 
Subtitles English (Hoh), None
Features

Release Information:
Studio: Universal Home Video

Aspect Ratio:
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1

Edition Details:

• see episode listings below

DVD Release Date: October 9th, 2007

3 tired digipak foldout inside cardboard box
Chapters: 4 in each episode X 39 = a bunch

 

Comments:

NOTE: This season has two episodes directed by Robert Altman – Together (with Joseph Cotten) and The Young One.

This represents more excellent value for the money. 19+ hours of classic TV entertainment. This collection includes the entire 39 episodes from Season 3 (1957 -58) on five single-sided, dual-layered discs (packaging image above).

Just like Season 2 and unlike Paramount's Perry Mason (Season 1 / first half) these are transferred progressively and have optional English subtitles. Thank you Universal!

There is niggling damage - usually in the beginning of the episodes in the form of light scratches and dust. It becomes rarely noticeable and never bothersome. Contrast is at acceptable levels and detail, at times, is surprisingly strong. Audio is clean and clear but inconsistent in volume levels from episode to episode. There are no extras at all, which may be looking a gift-horse in the mouth if you consider what you are getting for the price.

Like Season 2 - a huge plus is that these are the complete 25+ minute versions  (syndicated versions often have some removed.) It is nice to have these on single-sided discs and 8 episodes per DVDs is perfect. The 3-disc Season One package had a number of issues with the compression, which thankfully has been further spread out in the Season 2 collection.  I had a ball watching these and raced through them.   out of  

Gary W. Tooze


Sample DVD Menus

 

Episodes (in order - left-to-right)

Episodes synopsis of Season 3 (from IMdb located HERE)

Season Season 3, Episode 1: The Glass Eye
Original Air Date: 6 October 1957
While cleaning out the apartment of his dead sister Julia, Jim Whitely comes across a strange glass eye and tells to his wife the story of how his sister acquired it. Julia had fallen in love with a famous ventriloquist named Max Collodi. She had been to all his performances and had sent letters requesting to meet him. One day, Max agreed to meet her. She arrived to his hotel room and found him sitting in darkness with his small dummy George. As they talked, Julia tried to touch Max. She screamed as his body fell to the floor and one of his glass eyes fell rolling on the carpet. George stood up and angrily asked her to leave. It was Max who was the dummy and George was the ventriloquist.


Season 3, Episode 2: The Mail Order Prophet
Original Air Date: 13 October 1957
One day, Ronald Grimes receives a letter from a Mr. Christianai who says he can predict the future. The letter correctly predicts the outcome of an upcoming election. More letters follow and through gambling, Grimes acquires a large amount of money. A final letter from Christianai asks for a contribution. Grimes gives it quite willingly. Later Grimes finds out that Christiani was a fraud. He was really a con man who sent out thousands of letters half of them predicting one kind of outcome, and the other half predicting another. Grimes was luck: he got the right predictions time after time.


Season 3, Episode 3: The Perfect Crime
Original Air Date: 20 October 1957
An arrogant detective, Charles Courtney, prides himself on never having committed a single mistake in his long and distinguished career. He keeps a shelf of labeled mementos from each of his cases. On the shelf there is an open space and a blank tag for what Courtney calls "The Perfect Crime". One day a defense lawyer stuns Courtney when he confronts him with evidence that the detective helped convict an innocent man who has since been executed. Courtney kills the lawyer, bakes him in a pottery kiln, and places the vase in the open space on his shelf as a memento to his perfect crime.


Season 3, Episode 4: Heart of Gold
Original Air Date: 27 October 1957
Jackie Blake is released from prison after serving time for a bank robbery. A friend from prison arranges for Jackie to stay with his mother. Jackie does this and is accepted into the convict's family. Gradually, his attitude toward life changes. He gets a job and is quite content. Later, he learns that the family's hospitality was merely a front and that they took him in only to find out where he hid the stolen money from his bank job.


Season 3, Episode 5: Silent Witness
Original Air Date: 3 November 1957
Donald Mason is a married professor who wants to end a romance with one of his students. He stops by while she is babysitting. He tries to end the relationship, but she threatens to expose him. He kills her and leaves a witness: the screaming baby she was watching. Later, Mason runs into the infant in a carriage on the street. At the sight of him the baby screams and cries. Haunted by the child's screams, Mason gives himself up. Later, however, he discovers that the baby has only been around women his entire life. It screams whenever any man comes near.


Season 3, Episode 6: Reward to Finder
Original Air Date: 10 November 1957
John Gaminsky finds a wallet containing a lot of money. He sees an ad in the paper asking for its return. His wife tells him to give the wallet back, but John lies to her and tells her he already did so. When she sees the ad again, she realizes he kept the cash for himself. She gives him a choice: either let her shop at an expensive store or she'll call the police. John opts for the former. When she goes on a buying spree, however, he realizes there is not enough to share. His wife comes to the same conclusion.


Season 3, Episode 7: Enough Rope for Two
Original Air Date: 17 November 1957
Joe Kedzie is released from prison after committing a robbery. Only Joe knows where the money is hidden: at the bottom of a mine shaft out in the desert. Maxie and Madge find Joe when he goes to retrieve the money. He agrees to cut them in. Maxie gets greedy and Joe shoots him. Unfortunately, he also puts a hole in their only canteen. Joe lowers himself down the mineshaft with a rope to retrieve the money. He ties the money to the rope and sends it up. When he tries to climb out, Madge cuts the rope and he falls and breaks his leg. Madge tries to get away, but discovers that Joe has the keys to the truck.


Season 3, Episode 8: The Last Request
Original Air Date: 24 November 1957
Gerald Daniels is granted a last request on the eve of his execution. He asks for a typewriter. He writes a letter to a newspaper that recounts his criminal career. In the letter he explains how he once murdered a waitress who was trying to blackmail him, how the D.A. convicted her ex-husband of the crime, and how the man had been executed. He writes that he, now, is in the same position: he is going to be executed for a crime he did not commit. Before his death, he wants to testify that the D.A. is not only a sloppy prosecutor, but also a murderer.


Season 3, Episode 9: The Young One
Original Air Date: 1 December 1957
Janice is a beautiful 17 year old who longs to be free from the influence of her guardian Aunt May. She also wants to get out of the small town she's in. She asks her boyfriend Stan to marry her so that they can run away. Since he doesn't have a job, he keeps putting of the marriage. Janice do something herself. She meets a man named Tex and lures him home for a drink. When she hears a car outside she starts fighting with Tex. She rips her clothes and knocks over furniture. A policeman who sees Janice with Tex enters the house. Upon entering the house, he discovers Aunt May's body. Janice tells the policeman that Tex killed her. The policeman accepts the girl's story. Then, however, Stan arrives. Having gotten a job he had come by the house to take Janice away. He found Aunt May's body lying in the spot where Janice left it after pushing her down the stairs.


Season 3, Episode 10: The Diplomatic Corpse
Original Air Date: 8 December 1957
Evan Wallace and his wife Janet take Janet's wealthy mother on an sightseeing trip to Mexico. Janet's Mother suddenly dies in the back seat of their car. They cover the body and stop at a café for a soothing drink. When they return, they discover that the car has been stolen. Since they need the body to claim their inheritance, they hire a detective. The detective eventually finds the body at a funeral home. He says he will ship the body to Los Angeles for a small "fee". The Wallac'es agree and pay him. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, a doctor pronounces the body dead but he notes that the body is not that of a woman, but an old Mexican Man.


Season 3, Episode 11: The Deadly
Original Air Date: 15 December 1957
A plumber is blackmailing several suburban housewives. When he confronts his latest victim, Margot Brenner, he runs into a dead end. She catches onto his scam and uses his own method to bring him to down.


Season 3, Episode 12: Miss Paisley's Cat
Original Air Date: 22 December 1957
Miss Paisley adopts a stray cat. She names him Stanley. Stanley sneaks into the room of the violent tempered Mr. Rinditch. He tells Miss Paisley to keep the cat out of his room, but she fails. The cat sneaks into his apartment and Rinditch kills it. When Miss Paisley finds out, she grabs a knife to kill Rinditch, but she has second thoughts. She sits down and falls asleep. In the morning she wakes up wearing different clothes. The knife is also missing. She discovers that Rinditch has been stabbed to death and that a janitor has been charged with the crime. She is convinced she is the murderer but the police don't believe her. The janitor is later convicted and executed. Miss Paisley then discovers Stanley's collar. She remembers the murder. She did kill Rinditch and threw her bloodstained clothes and knife into a river. She now does the same thing with Stanley's collar so that no one can trace the crime to her.


Season 3, Episode 13: Night of the Execution
Original Air Date: 29 December 1957
D.A. Warren Selvey learns that he's on bad political ground because of his low conviction rate. He decides to vigorously prosecute a man named Rodman. He wins the murder case and Rodman is sentenced to die. After the sentence, however, Selvey meets a man named Barnes who claims to have committed the crimes. Selvey is now being considered a candidate for Congress. Fearing the repercussions of having convicted an innocent man, Selvey frightens Barnes into silence. The night Rodman is to be executed, Barnes shows up and urges Selvey to call the governor. Selvey refuses and in an ensuing struggle Barnes is killed. Selvey's political ambitions are ruined. Days later Selvey learns that Barnes was a fake. He was a crazy retired judge who would study the evidence of a case and then confess to the crime.


Season 3, Episode 14: The Percentage
Original Air Date: 5 January 1958
Eddie Slovak meets an old Army buddy named Pete who once saved his life. He intends to repay his friend. He offers him money for a business, but Peter refuses. Eddie tries to talk to Pete's wife Louise. Louise falls for Eddie and the two become romantically involved. Eddie eventually kills her. Later he explains to Pete that he did him a favor since she was cheating on him. Pete calls the police and Eddie is arrested. Pete goes to see Eddie's girlfriend and explains that their plan worked. Louise is dead and Eddie is out of the way. Now, the two of them can be together.


Season 3, Episode 15: Together
Original Air Date: 12 January 1958
At an officer Christmas part Shelley calls Tony and tells him he must get a divorce and marry her. She threatens to tell his wife about her if he doesn't. After the party, Tony comes to Shelley's office. When she threatens him again, he stabs her. He tries to leave the office but discovers that the door is locked. He finds the keys but uses the wrong one and jams the door. He tries other ways, but they all fail. Eventually he hears some carolers outside on the streets below. He writes a note and using the keys to weigh it down, he drops it out a window. The keys prove too heavy and the note sinks into the snow.


Season 3, Episode 16: Sylvia
Original Air Date: 19 January 1958
Sylvia is a young woman who is contemplating suicide. Her ex-husband Peter married her for money. When her father discovered this, he forced him to divorce her. Sylvia is in touch with Peter and wants him back. Peter calls her father and tells him that he will stay out of her life for a price. Sylvia's father tells her about his blackmail scheme. She tells him that she bought a gun to use on Peter if they did not get back together. She goes to her room alone and his followed by her father who fears she might kill herself. When he comes in, she shoots him saying that he never let her live her own life.


Season 3, Episode 17: The Motive
Original Air Date: 26 January 1958
Tommy Greer is a crime buff who decides to commit a motiveless murder in order to confuse the police. He selects his victim from a phone book at random. He tracks him down and kills him but his "perfect crime" is unraveled by modern crime-fighting techniques.


Season 3, Episode 18: Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty
Original Air Date: 2 February 1958
Millicent Bracegirdle is a sheltered old woman who decides to go to Paris. Her visit does not turn out well when she accidentally enters the wrong hotel room and gets locked inside with a notorious murderer.


Season 3, Episode 19: The Equalizer
Original Air Date: 9 February 1958
Eldon Marsh is a physically weak man whose wife is stolen by a much larger man, named Wayne Phillips. He sets about a revenge that results in a rooftop confrontation with Wayne. The match seems uneven, but Eldon has an equalizer: a gun.


Season 3, Episode 20: On the Nose
Original Air Date: 16 February 1958
Fran is a housewife addicted to gambling. Her bookie threatens to tell her husband if she doesn't pay up a loan by five o'clock that afternoon. She needs to raise 25 dollars fast. She manages to scrape up five dollars and then tries to shoplift the rest. She is caught by a store detective. As they drive off in his car the detective listens to her story and offers her twenty dollars in exchange for a little romance. She refuses and the car crashes. She flees the scene of the accident but accidentally leaves her purse and the money. She returns home and is surprised to have her purse returned by the police. It now contains twenty dollars which they found in the car and assumed was hers. She now has enough money to pay off the loan. After her husband calls to say that he must go to Chicago on business, Fran calls her bookie. Instead of paying him the money she tells him to put twenty-five dollars on a horse named Chicago Flyer.


Season 3, Episode 21: Guest for Breakfast
Original Air Date: 23 February 1958
Jordon and Eve Ross are a married couple who are constantly fighting. Their latest argument is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a wanted murderer named Lacey. He holds them captive all night. Lacey ends up being an effective marriage counselor. Through the night he convinces the couple to amend their differences. All of this is despite the fact that Lacey is wanted for murdering his wife and her lover.


Season 3, Episode 22: The Return of the Hero
Original Air Date: 2 March 1958
Sgt. Andre is a returning veteran from the French-Algerian war. He heads home to his estate with his crippled friend Marcel. Marcel lost his leg saving Andre's life. Along the way Andre falls for a beautiful girl Teresa even though he is already engaged to be married. Marcel and a good web of lies help Andre out of his problem.


Season 3, Episode 23: The Right Kind of House
Original Air Date: 9 March 1958
Mr. Waterbury in interested in buying a high priced house. Sadie Grimes, the house's owner, invites Waterbury in for a drink. She says the price is nonnegotiable. The place has strong sentimental value for Sadie: her son was killed there over a mysterious bag that has since never been found. She believes the bag contained money which is hidden somewhere in the house. Waterbury says he will buy the house despite its inflated price. Sadie accuses him of being her son's murderer. Waterbury confesses that he is the murderer, but he slumps over dead. His drink had been poisoned.


Season 3, Episode 24: The Foghorn
Original Air Date: 16 March 1958
Lucia meets and falls in love with a man named Allen Bliss at a party that is a celebration of her engagement to another man; John St. Rogers. She decides to break the engagement. She later discovers that Allen is already married. The lovers decide to go for a ride in a sailboat to discuss their plans. They are subsequently lost in the fog and are never seen again.


Season 3, Episode 25: Flight to the East
Original Air Date: 23 March 1958
Ted Franklin is a reporter who is assigned to cover the trial of an Arab leader accused of murder. His stories about the Arab leader's guilt win him international acclaim. When his stories begin to stress the Arab's innocence he loses his prestige. When the Arab is found guilty and executed, Frank is fired and humiliated. Later, Franklin's past is revealed: he killed a German general and stole a number of war souvenirs. Franklin finds himself in the news again, but this time he is on the receiving end.


Season 3, Episode 26: Bull in a China Shop
Original Air Date: 30 March 1958
A handsome homicide detective is befriended by four old ladies who invite him for tea and proceed to play out a variation of Arsenic and Old Lace for his benefit.


Season 3, Episode 27: Disappearing Trick
Original Air Date: 6 April 1958
A bookie asks womanizing tennis player Walter, who's short on cash, to look up an inactive, high-rolling client. Walter discovers the old gambler died when his sailboat sunk, leaving his beautiful young widow with little money. Sparks fly between Walter and the widow, when he finds out the gambler (Raymond Bailey, The Beverly Hillbillies' banker) placed bets 3 months after the accident.


Season 3, Episode 28: Lamb to the Slaughter
Original Air Date: 13 April 1958
When Mary Maloney's police chief husband is found murdered, the police investigate and have a hard time trying to find the murder weapon.


Season 3, Episode 29: Fatal Figures
Original Air Date: 20 April 1958
Harold Goames comes across a book of crime statistics and learns that the most select class of criminals in the country is made up of murderers. He immediately decides to join that class and murders his sister Margaret. His dream of joining the class of murders does not come true because police mistakenly rule that the sister died of natural causes.


Season 3, Episode 30: Death Sentence
Original Air Date: 27 April 1958
Paula Frayne's husband Norman is a chronic worrier who shows her little attention. When an old friend of Norman's shows up and shows too much interest in Paula, Norman becomes difficult. Paula becomes convinced that Norman no longer loves her and moves out of the house. She was wrong, however. Norman really loves her and threatens murder to prove it.


Season 3, Episode 31: The Festive Season
Original Air Date: 4 May 1958
Charlie Boerum has been carrying on a long standing feud with his sister Celia because he believes that she killed his wife. When the family lawyer shows up on Christmas Eve to make an attempt to reconcile the two, he discovers that they are still squabbling. He also discovers that they are also planning each other's murder.


Season 3, Episode 32: Listen, Listen!
Original Air Date: 11 May 1958
No one will listen to a mild-mannered man's theory about a string of local murders.


Season 3, Episode 33: Post Mortem
Original Air Date: 18 May 1958
Steve and Judy Archer are having money problems. When Judy's first husband Harry died of a heart attack, Judy collected on a large insurance police Steve sold him. Judy and Steve were then married and Steve quit his job, but later squandered most of Judy's money. The couple discovers that Harry bought a winning Sweepstakes ticket. Unfortunately, the winning ticket is in his pocket and he is buried six feet under. Judy wants to dig up the corpse, but Steve doesn't. Judy gets help from a reporter who digs up the body and finds the ticket. Later the reporter reveals himself as an insurance detective. He believes Harry was murdered, possibly by Steve. Later while Judy is in the bath, Steve returns and takes the winning ticket. He throws an electric heater in the bathtub. Judy screams and Steve runs, right into the arms of the waiting police. Judy emerges from the bathroom unharmed. The detective removed the fuse so she was not electrocuted. As Steve is led away by the police, Judy takes the winning ticket from him.


Season 3, Episode 34: The Crocodile Case
Original Air Date: 25 May 1958
Jack Lyons is interrogated by the police. He accidentally reveals himself as a murderer when he identifies a crocodile dressing case and the initials engraved on it. Since the initials were engraved on it shortly before the murder and fell off during the murder, only the killer and victim could have known about them. Jack is promptly arrested.


Season 3, Episode 35: Dip in the Pool
Original Air Date: 1 June 1958
William Botibol is a compulsive gambler. While on a cruise he enters a betting pool to guess the number of miles the ship will travel in the course of twenty four hours. William gains some inside information when he learns that the ships is going to slow down to avoid an upcoming storm. Unfortunately the storm passes and the ship continues to speed on its course. He decides to force the ship to slow down by throwing himself overboard. He figures that when word gets out of someone going overboard the ship will slow down to get him. He picks out a witness and jumps overboard. The witness doesn't say a word. She's mentally ill and does not alert anyone to Williams plight.


Season 3, Episode 36: The Safe Place
Original Air Date: 8 June 1958
George Piper is a bank teller and gambler. One day, a gambler named Victor arrives at the bank and makes a large withdrawal. Later, George visits Victor and kills him. He takes Victor's money and hides it in a secret place in his teller's cash drawer at the bank. The police question George, but clear him of any wrongdoing. George's boss, however, fires him. He demands the key to the crash drawer where George hid the money in order to give it to George's replacement.


Season 3, Episode 37: The Canary Sedan
Original Air Date: 15 June 1958
Laura Bowlby is a psychic who wants to visit her husband in Hong Kong. She is picked up by a chauffeur in a black sedan. Laura Bowlby says she does not like the color and would prefer a canary yellow one instead. This remark shocks the driver since the car was once canary yellow before a recent paint job. Inside the car, Laura begins to hear a woman's voice. The voice tells Laura about a passionate affair. Laura longs for such passion in her life because her husband James is quite unromantic and cold. After some research, Laura find the grave of the woman who has been talking to her. She looks at the gravestone and is unpleasantly surprised to see the initials of the dead woman and the initials of her own husband, James.


Season 3, Episode 38: The Impromptu Murder
Original Air Date: 22 June 1958
A woman who once accused Henry Dow of a crime enters the town and he invites her to stay with him and his sister. She tells Henry that she is carrying a large amount of money since she is planning an investment. Henry kills her for the money and dumps her body into the river. Henry then attends a dedication ceremony held on a bridge overlooking the river. When a body floats by, Henry is asked to identify it as the missing Miss Wilkinson. Without really looking at the body, he says it isn't her. A police detective asks Henry's sister to identify the body. Before she can have a look Henry confesses to the murder. Unfortunately for him, the body wasn't Miss Wilkinson's at all. It was someone else.

Season 3, Episode 39: Little White Frock
Original Air Date: 29 June 1958
Colin Brackner is an elderly actor who invites a playwright Adam Longsworth and his wife over to dinner. During dinner Colin talks about a long lost love. The tale deeply effects both Adam and his wife practically reducing them to tears. Colin reveals that the tale is a deception. Recognizing the talent needed to pull off such a deception, Adam invites Colin to be part of his new production.


 

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Distribution Universal - Region 1- NTSC




 

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Gary Tooze