Word: hitchcocks
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Perhaps television, or a newly-found and lamentable boredom with the bizarre, have changed Alfred Hitchcock's movie-making ethic. At any rate, this latest chip from the ingenious block has carved a new grain--the obvious, and very disappointing, situation comedy. The unmistakable Hitchcock touches remain, but the strained and tiresome have displaced the starting and quasiserious...
...infinite complications that develop when they try to cover the misfortune, which they figure is best done by earthing old Harry on top of the hill, are inevitable. The script Hitchcock uses is in the manner of a very garrulous Noel Coward, lacking a great deal of the sponteneity and verve which make salon situation humor tolerable. Funny verbal exchanges might have saved the endless repetition of burying Harry, digging him up, and then burying him again. Poor cold Harry must not have been amused...
...Reginald Owen, Alec Guinness and the late Lionel Barrymore. Christmas drama also resounds with sleigh bells, seasonal cuteness and commercialized brotherhood. A run-through of the titles suggests the content: Christmas 'Til Closing, with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn; Santa Claus and the 10th Avenue Kid, on Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Christmas Story, on San Francisco Beat; Barbed Wire Christmas, on Calvacade Theater; A Christmas Dinner, on Kraft Theater; Silent Night, on Rheingold Theater; Santa Is No Saint, on Matinee Theater; A Kiss for Santa, on Ford Theater; Christmas in Camden, on The Big Story; and 'Twas the Night...
Except for his fine character acting, Hitchcock is too busy making Hollywood movies to bother much about his TV chores. His astringent lines are written for him by Playwright James (At War with the Army) Allardice, who last year was one of George Gobel's team of gagmen. The TV shows are filmed by a staff of four directors and, of the 39 made this season, Hitchcock will have had a personal hand in only six. But, largely for the prestige of his name, he is rumored to have made "one of the most fabulous deals in TV." After...
...date, the Hitchcock shows have been adequately entertaining if not outstanding. But his grand manner and refreshing potshots at the sponsor have gained the program an impressive 29.5 Nielsen rating, a comfortable four points ahead of its NBC rival, the Goodyear-Alcoa program. For a rating that high, Sponsor Bristol-Myers is more than happy to put up with quips about its commercials...