telegonus

This first season Hitchcock half-hour is fairly typical of the earlier episodes of this long running suspense series, as to its cast, ambiance and darker than usual tone of the story it tells. It starts out as a seemingly light tory about an American abroad, a young man, not terribly intelligent, though wealthy all the same (typical Hitch take on Yanks) who has been gambling up a storm in the England of 1940, when the world war was still "phoney", to the English speaking world anyway. Two English gentlemen of medium sophistication, and low on funds, propose a wager to the young man that he cannot spend a night in a bedroom of Hurstwood manor. He is told that he must remain in the room overnight, and is given only a candle, one match, a pistol and, if he pleases, a book that tells the "terrible story" that caused the manor to become haunted. If the Yank stays in the room all night he will win a thousand pounds. Unwisely, the American takes the wager, then proceeds upstairs with surprisingly little fuss or bother.

There is also a bit of information mentioned earlier about a nearby lunatic asylum, and I don't see this as a spoiler, as, while there is some foreshadowing of what shall happen later on in the tale, it's near impossible for a first time viewer to guess the signifacence of it. The prospect, in this story, of gambling, an early wartime setting, a young American abroad, and out of his element, a ghost, and madness, is a tantalizing one even as the first half of the episode is otherwise somewhat prosaic and unremarkable. Things turn, literally, darker, in the second half, yet there's also some confusion for even a seasoned Hitchcock show viewer, as the "set-up", or introduction (as it were) is quite complicated as to the terms of the wager, and how or whether a ghost would react to being shot at. Nor is it made wholly clear who is going to be staying in this large manor house to ensure that the American will stick to his part of the bargain, and if he doesn't, how they can know. The episode pays off in the end, though it could have been a whole lot better with some different players and a better script. Michael Arlen's short story was a good one, yet the epsode, while above average in most respects, feels a bit second tier for this particular television series.