The Hitchcock Project-John Williams Part Six: Banquo's Chair [4.29] and overview

by Jack Seabrook

"Banquo's Chair" is the last episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to star John Williams, and it is an outstanding half hour of television. The title refers to an incident in Shakespeare's 1606 play Macbeth. In Act three, scene three, Macbeth orders the murder of his friend Banquo. In scene four, at dinner, Macbeth learns that the murder has been carried out. The ghost of Banquo enters and sits in Macbeth's chair at the dinner table, but no one other than Macbeth can see the specter. Macbeth denies involvement in the crime and the ghost leaves, but it returns just as Macbeth drinks a toast to his absent friend, whom the others do not yet know is dead. Macbeth gets upset, begging the ghost to "Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves shall never tremble" (3.4.101-02) and the ghost exits. Macbeth has had his friend murdered to further his own ambition and a ghost, either a real one or one in his tortured mind, returns to haunt him.

A similar situation occurs in "Banquo's Chair," which was first published in July 1930 as Banquo's Chair: A Play in One Act by Rupert Croft-Cooke. The action of the play, which is only 15 pages long, takes place in "a large but rather decayed house on Sydenham Hill," which is located in southeast London and which features many large homes from the 1800s. Retired police chief Sir William Brent is setting the scene in order to conduct an experiment, aided by Lane, a butler. Robert Stone arrives in the company of Harold Gandy, a well-known novelist, and Brent reminds them of the Sydenham Murder, in which an old woman named Miss Ferguson was killed a year before and no arrest was made. The police were sure that the culprit was her nephew, John Bedford, but they could not prove it, so they allowed Brent to wait for the anniversary of the crime, in which the old woman was strangled in her chair while having dinner in the very room where the men now stand.

Bedford breaks down and confesses

Brent promises his guests that Bedford will confess tonight. The retired policeman rented the house and convinced Bedford to come to dinner with the promise of meeting the famous Mr. Gandy. Brent reminds his guests of Banquo's chair and promises that Bedford will see a ghost. He has hired actress May Dacklethorpe to impersonate the old lady and appear by candlelight. Bedford arrives and conversation follows; Brent explains that his regular cook left because she thought she saw the ghost of an old woman. The electric lights fail and candles are brought out for a game of cards. Bedford sees the figure of an old woman but the others pretend not to see her. He gradually gets more and more excited until he blurts out a confession of murder and is taken away by the police. To his great surprise, Brent receives a telegram telling him that May Dacklethorpe has the flu and cannot come that evening.

Banquo's Chair is a clever and atmospheric short play where a character is driven to admit his own guilt by what appear to be the machinations of a crafty police inspector. Only after the guilty party is gone do the other participants in the evening's events discover that their silent visitor may have been a ghost after all.

John Williams as Brent

Rupert Croft-Cooke must have known he had a good thing in this little play, because he rewrote it as a short story that was published in his own collection called Pharaoh With His Waggons and Other Short Stories (1937). The story may have been published in a periodical before that but I have not been able to find an earlier source. It was also collected that same year in an anthology edited by Hugh Walpole called A Second Century of Creepy Stories; as the last story in the book, it may have been the newest. The short story follows the action of the play but is in narrative rather than dramatic form. The scene is set with the background of Brent at Scotland Yard before the action gets going; he invites the narrator to dinner and the tale unfolds as in the play.

The author was born in 1903 in England and his first book, a collection of poems, was published in 1922. In a fifty-year career as a writer, he wrote over 100 books, including mystery novels as Leo Bruce. Eight of them featured Sergeant Beef, while another 23 featured Carolus Deene. Croft-Cooke was jailed for six months in 1953 and 1954 under England's laws that criminalized homosexuality; his case was among those that led to a change in the law. He died in 1979 and there is a website about him here. He did not write for film or television; only a handful of his works were adapted for those media and this is the only time one of his stories was adapted for the Hitchcock series.

Reginald Gardiner as Major Cooke-Finch

After its publication in short story form, "Banquo's Chair" lived on, first as a thirty-minute radio play on Suspense, broadcast June 1, 1943, and starring Donald Crisp. (Listen to this version online here.) The play was performed a second time on Suspense, again with Crisp, on August 3, 1944. (This version may be heard online here.) The next year, it was adapted for film as a 65-minute Republic Pictures feature called The Fatal Witness, starring Evelyn Ankers. One of the dinner guests in this film is played by Hilda Plowright, who would go on to play the ghost 14 years later in the version aired on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. (There is a clip from The Fatal Witness online here.)

Suspense expanded the story to one hour and it was presented on radio for a third time, this time starring James Mason. The broadcast aired on March 9, 1950, and may be heard here. The final radio appearance of "Banquo's Chair" came on February 6, 1957, on a series called Sleep No More, where Nelson Olmsted reads the short story aloud, with musical accompaniment. (Listen to the reading here.)

Finally, Alfred Hitchcock Presents adapted "Banquo's Chair" for television and the show was filmed on March 25 and 26, 1959, and broadcast on CBS on Sunday, May 3, 1959, with a teleplay by Francis Cockrell and direction by Hitchcock himself, who was then doing the final editing work on North By Northwest. The show is a triumph, one of the best of the series. The credits say that it is based on a story by Rupert Croft-Cooke, so it is safe to assume that Cockrell had the story and not the play at his desk when he sat down to write.

The opening shot

The show begins with an outdoor shot that represents the point of view of someone traveling by carriage through southeast London. Titles tell us that the scene is set in "Blackheath, Near London," that the date is October 23, 1903, and that the time is 7:20 PM. The street is lighted by gas fixtures and the people passing by wear turn of the century clothes; there is the sound of horse's hooves and the street is wet from rain. The neighborhood is one of large homes and resembles that of the story's Sydenham Hill; both Blackheath and Sydenham Hill are in the eastern part of the city. The decision to move the story back more than two decades from the 1930 play is likely to allow for the use of gaslight rather than electricity.

The scene dissolves to the interior of the house, which is decorated in the Victorian or Georgian style. Inspector Brent arrives to visit Major Cooke-Finch, who lives in the house. Unlike the story, where Brent himself rented the house, in the TV version Cooke-Finch is the resident. John Williams plays Brent in an uncharacteristically brusque manner, unlike his other performances in the series but in keeping with the description of the character in Croft-Cooke's story. Brent drops hints of what is to occur that night and, on three occasions, a surprising word from Brent is followed by a close-up of another character who comments on it. The first time, when Brent utters the word "ghost," the camera focuses on the Major, who exclaims: "Odd, I thought he said ghost!" The Major acts as a stand-in for the viewer, saying aloud what the viewer is thinking.

Max Adrian as Stone

Robert Stone is the next guest to arrive. Here, Cockrell makes a change that allows him to have some fun with the script. Instead of being a famous writer, as in the story (or a female mystery writer, as in the 1943 radio play), Stone is a Shakespearean actor who is currently playing in Macbeth. The Major remarks that he has not seen the play yet and that he prefers the Tivoli and Gertie Gitana. The Tivoli Music Hall was one of London's leading music halls and opened in 1890. Gitana (1887-1957) was a British music hall entertainer who would have been 15 years old at the time this story took place (see a photo here or listen to her sing here); she made her London debut in 1900. Once again, the Major stands in for the viewer, who prefers popular forms of entertainment to highbrow drama.

Once again, Brent utters a key word and the camera moves in for a close up on another character's reaction: this time the inspector says "murder" and Stone's face is seen in close up. The murder occurred two years ago, twice as far removed from the gathering as in the story, and in Cockrell's teleplay Major Cooke-Finch admits that he could afford to "take" the house because the murder lowered its value. Here, it is the Blackheath Murder rather than the Sydenham Murder. Cockrell adds another nice touch: in addition to Miss Ferguson, her little Pekinese dog was also killed. The dog may have known the murderer, since no bark of warning was heard; this recalls the famous incident in Conan Doyle's 1892 Sherlock Holmes story, "Silver Blaze," where a dog did not bark because he knew the murderer.

The third and final time Brent's words elicit a reaction shown in close up occurs when he announces: "I intend to produce Miss Ferguson's ghost" and the camera moves in on the Major once again as he remarks, "He did say ghost!" These tricks help set a somewhat light tone in the first act of "Banquo's Chair" that contrasts with the growing suspense in the second act. Perhaps no one but John Williams could deliver this line as effectively: "We can't bring her on with the soup; that would be pushing it. I'll bring her on with the pheasant," he says, referring to the ghost. One more Shakespearean reference is made, as Stone comments that May Thorpe, the actress hired to play the ghost, had been featured in his version of Hamlet as the queen; of course, her husband also appears in that play as a ghost. Brent admits that he told Bedford that he had new evidence that he wanted to discuss and this is how he lured him to the scene of the crime on its second anniversary; this is a change from the story, where the chance to meet a famous writer was enough to attract the killer. Act one ends with Bedford's arrival, as he enters the dining room and approaches the camera.

The shot that opens Act Two

Act two opens with a shot from above that is unusual for Alfred Hitchcock Presents; it establishes the seating arrangement at the table and recalls a similar overhead shot in "Crack of Doom." For much of the rest of the scene, Hitchcock places his camera at a short distance from the table, shooting between Cooke-Finch and Stone to show Bedford, who asks Stone about Macbeth (another Shakespeare reference), followed by a shot from behind Bedford, showing his point of view of the doorway to the dark room behind the Major. As table talk progresses, the camera focuses on Bedford alone. The banal chatter continues and Bedford reacts as the sound of a dog barking is heard, reminding him of the dog that he killed two years before. There is a cut to a shot in the next room of a sergeant teasing a small dog with a treat in order to coax him to bark; the action of the sergeant underlines the extent of Brent's careful scene-setting and psychological manipulation of Bedford.

Thomas Dillon making the dog bark

The other men at the table claim not to hear the dog and Bedford lets the matter drop. Just then, the flames in the gas lamps go down and the room grows dim, lit only by flickering candlelight and what little remains of the gas flames. This is surely why Cockrell chose to move the date of the events back to 1903, so he could take advantage of the gaslight and its double meaning. Not only is the room lit by gaslight, but Bedford himself is being gaslighted--a term defined as "a form of psychological abuse in which a victim is manipulated into doubting their own memory, perception, and sanity." The term stems from the 1938 play, Gas Light, which was made into a movie with Ingrid Bergman in 1944; it fits perfectly the series of events staged by Inspector Brent to drive Bedford to confess to murder.

Kenneth Haigh as Bedford

There is a loud noise and the front door is blown open, revealing hard rain and driving wind outside, the ideal setting for the arrival of a ghost, who may have been the source of the door's sudden opening. Conversation around the table continues and the camera closes in on Bedford's face, as music begins to play on the soundtrack. From his point of view, we see a ghost walk slowly into sight in the dark doorway behind Brent; she seems to consist of a floating head, hands, and broach as her black dress fades into the dark background. Hitchcock develops a brilliant contrast between picture and sound here; he shows Bedford's agony while the banal conversation goes on around him and the music reflects his inner torment. Bedford looks around surreptitiously and returns to engaging with the others at the table, yet he is interrupted again as the ghost reappears, advancing and retreating from the doorway like a figure on a black movie screen. Bedford squeezes his eyes shut, trying to drive the horror from his sight, as Stone discusses Hamlet; Stone's mention of "the irrational acts of leading ladies" may be read as ironic commentary on what the actress playing the ghost is doing in the next room.

The music, the table talk, and the visions of the ghostly old woman continue; Stone goes on to mention an actress playing Ophelia--who dies in Hamlet--and her belief in astrology; in a way, Stone is laying it all out for Bedford, but the young man is too wrapped up in what he is seeing to pay attention to the clues provided by the actor at the table. Referring to acting, Stone comments that "the rewards are many," but this could also refer to the inheritance Bedford received for murdering the old woman. Bedford snaps out of it for a moment and asks Stone about the audience that keeps "you coming back for one curtain call after another," just as the ghost of Miss Ferguson keeps re-emerging to take center stage in Bedford's line of sight.

The close ups of Bedford's face get tighter and tighter; he is an audience of one, unable to fathom why no one else in the room can see the play being acted out before him and afraid that it is happening only in his mind. As in Hitchcock's Spellbound, a Theremin is used to good effect here, adding an aura of unreality to the proceedings. When Bedford finally loses control, the close up is so tight that the frame cannot contain his entire face. He leaps from his chair, yelling at the ghost and, in his threat to kill her again, he utters the confession that seals his doom. The music suddenly stops and Bedford realizes that he has been tricked. He is arrested and taken away, out into the rainy night and his bleak future which, in 1903, surely means hanging.

George Pelling as the butler

The coda to the show, where the surprise ending occurs, is different than it is in the story, where Brent receives a telegram with news of the actress's unavailability. Here, Cockrell and Hitchcock take a more visual approach by having the actress enter, dressed like the ghost. She apologizes to Brent for the delay that prevented her timely arrival and the music rises again as the men exchange looks. The show ends with another close up, this time of Brent's shocked expression.

"Banquo's Chair" is a bit shorter than the usual episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (only 18 minutes from start to finish), yet it is a brilliant show where the writing, direction, acting and music all work together to make a short film that has a great setup and payoff with a classic twist ending.

Francis Cockrell (1906-1987) wrote for movies from 1932 to 1956 and for TV from 1950 to 1973. He wrote 18 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; "I Killed the Count" was the last one examined here and "Banquo's Chair" was his last teleplay for this series to be aired.

The murderer, John Bedford, is played by Kenneth Haigh (1931- ), who was onscreen from 1954 to 2004. He was on the Hitchcock show twice and also appeared on The Twilight Zone and Thriller.

Reginald Gardiner (1903-1980) plays Major Cooke-Finch; his first film role was an uncredited part in Hitchcock's 1927 silent suspense classic, The Lodger. This was his only appearance on the Hitchcock show; he was also seen in Chaplin's The Great Dictator and he was on screen until 1968.

Shakespearean actor Robert Stone is played by Max Adrian, who was on screen from 1934 to 1971. He only appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents once and was later seen in Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965).

Thomas Dillon (1895-1962) plays the sergeant who gets the dog to bark; in a 23-year career, he played bit parts in many classic films. Hilda Plowright (1890-1973) plays the ghost; in addition to her small role in The Fatal Witness she was on screen from 1938 to 1965. Finally, George Pelling plays the butler; he had small parts in no less than eight episodes of the Hitchcock series.

The music supervisor on "Banquo's Chair" was Frederick Herbert (1909-1966), who was a music mixer in films from 1937 on and who worked in episode TV from 1958 to 1960. His work on this episode is particularly striking.

Watch "Banquo's Chair" on Hulu here or order the DVD here.

Sources:

"Banquo's Chair." Alfred Hitchcock Presents. CBS. 3 May 1959. Television.

Croft-Cooke, Rupert. "Banquo's Chair." 1937. 65 Great Murder Mysteries. Ed. Mary Danby. London: Octopus, 1983. 156-61. Print.

Croft-Cooke, Rupert. Banquo's Chair; a Play in One Act. London: H.F.W. Deane & Sons, 1930. Print. Rpt. 1932 by The Baker International Play Bureau, Boston. Print.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. Churchville, MD: OTR Pub., 2001. Print.

IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.

Mogg, Ken. "Banquo's Chair (episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents)." Senses of Cinema. 21 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.

"Rupert Croft-Cooke." Contemporary Authors Online. Gale, 2003. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.

Shakespeare, William, and G. Blakemore Evans. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974. Print.

Spoto, Donald. The Life of Alfred Hitchcock: The Dark Side of Genius. London: Collins, 1983. Print.

Stephensen-Payne, Phil. Message to the author. 12 Nov. 2016. E-mail.

"Suspense - Banquo's Chair." Escape and Suspense! Web. 12 Nov. 2016.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.

John Williams on Alfred Hitchcock Presents: An Overview and Episode Guide

John Williams was featured in ten episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, all during the first four seasons of the series. In season one, he appeared in "The Long Shot," with Peter Lawford, where he plays a con man with a special interest in facts about London. In "Back for Christmas," he plays a husband who murders his wife. In "Whodunit," he plays a mystery writer who is murdered and then sent back to Earth to try to identify his killer.

Williams appeared in six episodes of season two, his busiest year. In "Wet Saturday," he plays an outsider who happens upon a murder that is being covered up by a wealthy family. In "The Rose Garden," he plays a book publisher who discovers that a murder mystery novel is not as fictional as it seems. "I Killed the Count," the only multi-part episode of the entire series, finds him playing a Scotland Yard inspector with too many people confessing to murder. In "The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater," he plays an unhappy husband with a rich fantasy life.

He did not appear in any episodes in season three, but in season four he made his last appearance, as a retired Scotland Yard inspector in "Banquo's Chair." While the casual viewer might remember Williams as having played one police inspector after another, following his successful role in Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (1954), the truth is that his roles on the Hitchcock series were diverse and demonstrated his acting range. These ten half hours are uniformly entertaining and often mix humor with crime to good effect. Williams continued as a busy actor for another two decades, but his appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents remain among his most memorable.

EPISODE GUIDE-JOHN WILLIAMS ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS

Episode title-“The Long Shot” [1.9]

Broadcast date-27 Nov. 1955

Teleplay by-Harold Swanton

Based on-"The Long Shot" by Swanton

First print appearance-none (radio play aired 31 Jan. 1946 on Suspense)

Notes

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Available on DVD?-here

"The Long Shot"

Episode title-“Back for Christmas” [1.23]

Broadcast date-4 March 1956

Teleplay by-Francis Cockrell

Based on-"Back for Christmas" by John Collier

First print appearance-The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 1939

Notes

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Available on DVD?-here

"Back for Christmas"

Episode title-“Whodunit” [1.26]

Broadcast date-25 March 1956

Teleplay by-Francis and Marian Cockrell

Based on-"Heaven Can Wait" by C.B. Gilford

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 1953

Notes

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Available on DVD?-here

"Whodunit"

Episode title-“Wet Saturday” [2.1]

Broadcast date-30 Sept. 1956

Teleplay by-Marian Cockrell

Based on-"Wet Saturday" by John Collier

First print appearance-The New Yorker, 16 July 1938

Notes

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Available on DVD?-here

"Wet Saturday"

Episode title-“The Rose Garden” [2.12]

Broadcast date-16 Dec. 1956

Teleplay by-Marian Cockrell

Based on-unpublished story by Vincent Fotre

First print appearance-none

Notes

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Available on DVD?-here

"The Rose Garden"

Episode title-“I Killed the Count” [2.25, 2.26, 2.27]

Broadcast date-17, 24, 31 March 1957

Teleplay by-Francis Cockrell

Based on-I Killed the Count by Alec Coppel

First print appearance-play first performed in 1937 and published in 1938

Notes

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Available on DVD?-here

"I Killed the Count"

Episode title-“The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater” [2.30]

Broadcast date-21 April 1957

Teleplay by-Sarett Rudley

Based on-"Three Dreams" by A.A. Milne 

First print appearance-Cosmopolitan, April 1949

Notes

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Available on DVD?-here

"The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater"

Episode title-“Banquo's Chair” [4.29]

Broadcast date-3 May 1959

Teleplay by-Francis Cockrell

Based on-"Banquo's Chair" by Rupert Croft-Cooke 

First print appearance-play published in 1930; short story collected in the 1937 collection, Pharaoh With His Waggons and Other Short Stories

Notes

Watch episode-here

Available on DVD?-here

"Banquo's Chair"

In two weeks: Our short series on Richard Matheson starts with "Ride the Nightmare," starring Hugh O'Brian and Gena Rowlands!

The Hitchcock Project-John Williams Part Five: The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater [2.30]

by Jack Seabrook

Ernest Findlater, a 48 year old bank manager, has a vivid life of daydreams. He fantasizes about spending his time, naked, with a beautiful native girl named Lalage on a Pacific island. He also dreams of arriving home one day to find that his overbearing wife Minnie has suffered a sudden and fatal stroke. A third daydream begins to penetrate his consciousness one day when he finds himself accidentally locked in the lavatory at his club. Findlater notices that there is a window from which he could reach the ground unseen, 30 feet below, and he realizes that the club's porter would never know that he had left and come back.

Weeks later, he gets lost in the country while visiting a client. Coming upon an empty car, he looks in the glove box for a map and finds a gun, which he impulsively decides to keep. Findlater realizes he has means, motive and opportunity to commit the perfect crime and murder his wife. A patient man, he sets his plan in motion and gives himself a year to carry it out. He convinces his wife to make a will and leave nothing to him, eliminating money as a motive for murder. The details of his plan are worked out in imaginary conversations with Lalage. He begins spending Wednesday afternoons at the club and works out a disguise. A week before the day on which he intends to murder his wife, Findlater dons his disguise for a successful dry run, but as the day approaches he begins to doubt his resolve. The day before he is to carry out his plan, he returns home to find that Minnie has suffered a stroke, exactly as he had dreamed it.

"The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater"
was first published here

"Three Dreams" is a delightful story by A.A. Milne that was first published in the April 1949 issue of Cosmopolitan. It was reprinted in Milne's 1950 collection of short stories titled A Table Near the Band, where the story's title was expanded to "The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater," the title it would retain when adapted in 1957 for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The short story is almost all narrative and description with little dialogue, save the imaginary conversations between Findlater and Lalage. A meek man who fancies himself bold, Ernest plays Patience (solitaire), likes crossword puzzles, and has a "childish taste for stories of adventure." Even his discovery of the weapon is fantastic: "he found himself fingering what his detective stories called a gun." Like the detective-story loving man in "Nightmare in 4-D," Findlater is tempted by a sensual woman (both times played by Barbara Baxley), but this time his plan is foiled by a natural event--would he have gone through with the murder? He has read enough detective stories to know what trips up the average murderer and his disguise is a success when he tries it out and fools his own wife and her friend. His dream of his wife's death comes true almost exactly as he imagines it--but what then? What does the future hold for Ernest Findlater at the end of this story? One suspects he will never reach that South Seas island to romp naked with Lalage.

Barbara Baxley as Lalage

Sarett Rudley adapted the story for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and it was broadcast on CBS on Sunday, April 21, 1957. The outstanding cast features John Williams as Findlater and Barbara Baxley as Lalage. As the show opens, we see Findlater playing Patience while Minnie harangues him. Her constant chatter establishes their relationship and he suddenly rises and walks upstairs as if in a trance; mysterious music plays on the soundtrack. In his bedroom, we see travel posters lining the walls and the camera focuses on one for the South Seas. He addresses Lalage and there is a dissolve to the Pacific island, where Ernest interacts with Lalage. The setting is clearly on a sound stage, with rear projection waves lapping at a beach lined with palm trees. Unlike the story, where both are nude, Ernest is in a suit and tie and when Lalage unbuttons his vest he says, "I say, do you think it would be proper to go that far?" The contrast of the buttoned-up Findlater with the sensual and relaxed Lalage adds humor to the basic situation set out in the story.

Rudley's teleplay makes Lalage seem less innocent than she does in Milne's story; she suggests what Ernest's life "might have been like if it weren't for Minnie." Barbara Baxley does not seem like a native girl from the South Seas, except for her sarong; rather, she seems like a noir heroine from Brooklyn who is gently nudging her boyfriend to do away with his nagging wife. In the scene where Findlater relates his second dream to Lalage, Williams does the voices of the maid and the doctor telling him that his wife has had a stroke. When he is left alone in the house, he smiles with delight at the knowledge that he is free. Back on the island, Lalage says "it's a lovely dream" but their reverie is interrupted by knocking and the scene cuts back to Ernest alone in his bedroom. Minnie opens the door and is shot from a low angle, making her seem large and threatening.

Isobel Elsom as Minnie

Instead of getting lost after meeting a client in the country, as in the story, Findlater is taking a stroll through the woods when Lalage appears beside him to discuss his wish that Minnie were dead. He finds the car and the gun, which is in plain sight on the driver's seat; again, Lalage is more a catalyst for murder than she is in the story. At the club, she appears beside him in the lavatory and reminds him that "I only come when you want me." Though he suggests that she might have a life apart from him she tells him that "I'm only part of you." Ernest tries to disassociate himself from his evil thoughts but cannot. She plants the idea of the window and the rope to climb up and down and it is almost like he has dual personalities, one of which is a beautiful, South Seas bad girl.

The second act begins with a scene paralleling the one that opens the show: Ernest plays Patience again as he and Minnie discuss her making a will; this time, however, he is confident and in control of the situation, bolstered by thoughts of his plan to murder his wife. There is a dissolve to the island, where Ernest is more relaxed than before as he plans the murder with Lalage. At home, he tries on an absurd beard and sunglasses with Lalage looking on--he chooses a huge mustache that is barely less ridiculous than the beard. He visits the club and again Lalage appears, yet the other members are asleep in their chairs and Ernest is sure that they will not see her, though we know she's a figment of his imagination. There is another dissolve to his bedroom, where he does push ups to prepare to climb 30 feet of rope to the club's bathroom window; this is a shortcut to show the conditioning that Milne accomplishes in the short story by having Ernest throw himself into gardening.

A.E. Gould-Porter as the doctor

Another cut finds Lalage in the club lavatory, where Ernest successfully climbs in through the window as the native girl times him with a stopwatch; she suggests that he kill his wife the next day but he resists her entreaty. At home, he suggests a vacation together to Minnie in a last-ditch effort to reach her but she rebuffs him cruelly. Up in his bedroom, he packs the gun and the rope with Lalage's help. Finally, the last scene finds Ernest coming home in disguise and the scene from his dream is replayed. He looks ridiculous and no one is fooled. The doctor tells him to "take off that silly mustache; this is no time for playing jokes." Instead of a grin, Findlater slowly turns and looks at the stairs, a look of shock on his face.

The TV show takes its time building up the situation but then resolves it too quickly at the end. The disguise goes too far toward humor and becomes unbelievable, reducing the effect of Milne's clever twist. The casting is perfect and the script does a fine job of dramatizing the story, though Lalage becomes much less of an innocent participant and much more of a catalyst in the murder plot. The direction, by Jules Bricken, uses numerous techniques to move back and forth between fantasy and reality, often blending the two in a manner  both humorous and unsettling. Only the ending fails to satisfy, resolving the show too quickly and puncturing the illusion by having the disguise fail to fool anyone.

John Williams as Ernest Findlater

A.A. Milne (1882-1956), who wrote "Three Dreams," was born in London and fought in WWI. He began publishing verse and essays in 1906 and went on to a long writing career, publishing plays, novels, poetry, short stories and non-fiction. He is the author if the classic novel, The Red House Mystery (1922), and many of his stories and plays were adapted for film and television. Two of his stories were adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Of course, everything he wrote has been overshadowed and essentially forgotten except for the wildly popular and beloved children's stories about Winnie the Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Less information is available about Sarett Rudley, one of a small group of women writing for TV in the 1950s. She wrote a play and has a handful of TV credits, the most well-known of which are the nine teleplays she wrote for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including an adaptation of Fredric Brown's "The Cream of the Jest."

Mollie Glessing as the maid

Only three episodes of the half-hour Hitchcock series were directed by Jules Bricken (1915-1987); he was born in New York, went to Harvard, and served in WWII. He worked for Columbia Pictures for many years and was a producer as well as a director. He also directed three episodes of Thriller.

Barbara Baxley (1923-1990), who plays Lalage, was a product of the Actors Studio whose first film was East of Eden (1955). She had a long career on stage and was on screen from 1950 to 1990, appearing in six episodes of the Hitchcock half-hour series. The last one reviewed here was "Nightmare in 4-D."

Oddly enough, four of the actors in "The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater" had appeared together in a prior episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "Back for Christmas." John Williams plays a henpecked husband both times, Isobel Elsom plays his wife, and Mollie Glessing plays their maid. A. E. Gould-Porter also appears in both episodes.

Isobel Elsom (1893-1981) was born Isobel Reed in England and had a 50-year career on stage and on screen. She was in Chaplain's Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and in Hitchcock's The Paradine Case that same year; she was in five episodes of the Hitchcock series in all and also appeared on Thriller.

A.E. Gould-Porter (1905-1987) plays the doctor; he was in no less than ten episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the last of which was "I Killed the Count."

Walter Kingsford as the porter

Mollie Glessing (1891-1971) plays the maid; she made a habit of this and was in seven episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, always in similar, small roles.

Finally, Walter Kingsford plays the porter; he was in five episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "John Brown's Body."

One could say that "The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater" was a collection of Hitchcock TV regulars, playing variations on roles that they would play over and over.

"The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater" is available for viewing online for a fee through Hulu here and the DVD is available here.

Read the GenreSnaps take on this episode here.

Sources:

"BRICKEN, STOLOFF." Sfgenealogy.com . Marin County Obit Board . N.p., 9 May 2008. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

"The FictionMags Index." The FictionMags Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. Churchville, MD: OTR Pub., 2001. Print.

IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

Milne, A. A. "The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater." 1949. A Table Near the Band. New York: Dutton, 1950. 97-113. Print.

"The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater." Alfred Hitchcock Presents. CBS. 21 Apr. 1957. Television.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

"Women in Television." Detroit Free Press [Detroit, MI] 20 Nov. 1960: 125. Print.

In two weeks: Our series on John Williams wraps up with "Banquo's Chair," directed by Alfred Hitchcock!

The Hitchcock Project-John Williams Part Four: I Killed the Count [2.25] [2.26] [2.27]

The only multi-part episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents was based on Alec Coppel’s I Killed the Count, a play that had its first performance 18 years earlier on December 10, 1937, at the Whitehall Theatre in London. In the brief prologue, a maid named Polly brings morning tea to Count Mattoni at ten a.m. and screams when she finds him dead in his armchair, a single bullet wound in his forehead.

Act One begins an hour later, by which time Inspector Davidson and Detective Raines, both of Scotland Yard, have arrived at Oxley Court to investigate the murder. They speak to Martin, the manager of the apartment building, and question Polly, the maid. Davidson reads a letter from Lord Sorrington and telephones the man to ask him to come for an interview. Louise Rogers, a young woman tenant, tells the investigators that she was asleep all night and never met the count. Renee La Lune, an American showgirl, claims that she came home late and went straight to sleep. Samuel Diamond, an American businessman, reveals that he had to take the stairs when he came home at two a.m. because the elevator was not working, but when he got to the fourth floor he saw that the elevator was there, open and unattended.

John Williams as Davidson

Davidson notices that the door between Mattoni’s apartment and the one next to it is bolted on the other side but not on Mattoni’s. Johnson, one of the elevator operators, says that he brought Mattoni up to his floor around 9:30 p.m. and never left the elevator unattended after that. He mentions having heard of an American whom the count said never to let into his rooms. Davidson begins to suspect that Rupert, a mysterious man who rented the apartment next to Mattoni’s, is the American whom Mattoni feared. A spent cartridge case found on the floor in Rupert’s room adds to his suspicions, as does a letter in Mattoni’s typewriter that implicates another American named Bernard Froy. Mullet, the other elevator operator, claims to know Rupert by sight, and Froy is brought in by a constable.

Roxanne Arlen as La Lune

The first act of I Killed the Count establishes a light, comedic tone while setting up the mystery. Davidson is full of self-importance and Raines is his foil, always ready with a quip when the senior inspector gets too pompous. Polly, the maid, has extensive experience in being interrogated, since corpses keep turning up wherever she works. La Lune’s character is particularly dated; she is a tough-talking American floozy who does not like being addressed by her real name, which is Rosie Lipmann. Diamond is also dated; he is a Jewish businessman who is more interested in money than murder. The first act ends on a suspenseful note, as the audience wonders if Mullet will identify Froy as Rupert.

Act two picks up right where act one ended, as Froy denies having known Mattoni. Johnson, the elevator operator, identifies him as one of the count’s visitors, so Froy must change his story. When confronted with Mattoni’s typed note, Froy explains that the count had been blackmailing him over a gambling debt. He admits visiting Mattoni the night before, seeking a cache of letters. A struggle ensued and he shot and killed the count. Davidson is shocked when Mullet says that Froy is not Rupert. Even more vexing is the fact that important details of Froy’s story do not fit with the evidence found at the scene of the crime.

Alan Napier as Lord Sorrington

Lord Sorrington arrives and, to everyone’s surprise, Mullet identifies him as Rupert! Sorrington is caught in a series of lies. He admits to having killed Count Mattoni, who was his son in law. The count had married Sorrington’s daughter, Helen, and ruined her. Sorrington went to Mattoni’s room and, after a struggle, he shot and killed the count. “And so ends my perfect crime!” he remarks. Davidson and Raines struggle to reconcile the dual confessions. As they review the stories of each person they interviewed, they realize that neither confession entirely fits the physical evidence. They re-interview various people and begin to uncover more lies. Davidson recognizes Mullet as an ex-convict named Lummock and Mullet admits having stolen money from the count’s wallet. When the count caught him, a struggle ensued and he shot and killed the count.

Act two features three confessions to murder, each of which is acted out in flashback onstage. This adds to the excitement of the play by having the actors demonstrate the action rather than describe it. One begins to wonder if Coppel’s play is heading in the direction of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, in which multiple people participate in a murder to prevent discovery of a single culprit.

Charles Davis as Raines

The final act begins as Davidson decides to bring the three men who have confessed to murder together to see if any will try to back away from their stories. He and Raines exit and leave Lord Sorrington, Froy and Mullet alone on the stage. At this point, we learn that they planned the murder in concert, figuring that three imperfect murders would keep the police from deducing the truth. Yet none of them committed the crime, to their great surprise. They all confessed according to plan, not knowing which of them was really guilty.

Louise Rogers is the fourth person to confess to the murder. She reveals that she is Count Mattoni’s widow and Lord Sorrington’s disgraced daughter. She explains how she confronted her husband and, after a struggle, she shot and killed the count. Yet her story also does not fit the physical evidence. Davidson does not know that the actions of the three men to confuse the crime scene served to make Louise’s true story seem impossible. Raines points out a quirk of English law, that “Two or more persons cannot be charged as principals with a crime known to have been committed by only one person.” They realize that they can’t solve the crime and the play ends on a comic note as Diamond rushes in to tell Davidson that he thinks he has killed his business associate.

Louise Rogers, Mullet, Froy, Lord Sorrington

Act three includes one last flashback to the moment when the three conspirators planned the murder of Count Mattoni. I Killed the Count turns on a coincidence that Louise happens to kill her husband on the same night that her father, a man who loves her (Froy) and a man Froy saved in the Great War (Mullet) were going to kill him by means of an elaborate plan to cover up their act. It all works out to be a perfect crime, which is acceptable morally because Mattoni was such an unlikable character. Coppel plays with the conventions of the British murder mystery and, instead of featuring a brilliant detective who unravels the tangled knots of a complex crime, he portrays Davidson, an inspector who is unable to put the pieces of the puzzle together in a coherent way. Instead of the multiple murderers of Christie’s novel, we have multiple confessions, only one of which is true.

Why did Joan Harrison decide to adapt Coppel’s play for Alfred Hitchcock Presents as a three-part episode? According to Patrick McGilligan, Coppel was a member of Hitchcock’s social circle. In late 1956 and early 1957, he was working on a treatment for Vertigo and, during this period, he also wrote the original stories for two other episodes, “The Diplomatic Corpse” and “Together.” I suspect that Hitchcock and Harrison were happy to purchase the rights to Coppel’s first and biggest hit, a play that was a success in London in 1937-38, the last quiet days before storm clouds of war would gather over the city.

The establishing shot of the Thames at daybreak

Francis Cockrell was selected to adapt the play for television. One might suspect that he would take the easy way out and use act one of the play for part one of the show, act two for part two, and act three for part three, but this was not the case. An examination of Cockrell’s script in comparison with Coppel’s play shows that Cockrell made significant changes and used his great skill to maximize the impact of presenting this story in the half-hour television format.

“I Killed the Count” aired on CBS on three successive Sundays in March 1957, on the 17th, 24th and 31st. In addition to Cockrell’s clever reworking of the story, director Robert Stevens uses his considerable talent to open up the action so that the show does not feel like a filmed stage play. The first episode begins with an establishing shot showing Big Ben and the sun rising over the Thames; this immediately tells the viewer that it is early morning in London. The camera dissolves to the prologue, with Hitchcock’s daughter Pat playing Polly, the maid. The next dissolve is to Davidson’s arrival and, in a perfect piece of casting, John Williams plays the senior inspector. The story unfolds in a compressed fashion, with a nice shot early on as high contrast lighting shows Davidson’s face in close-up with Raines behind him in the middle distance. Davidson is bigger and in the upper part of the frame, with Raines smaller and in the lower part, suggesting their relationship as chief and subordinate.

Charles Cooper as Froy

Raines goes over the clues, showing them to Davidson and, by extension, to the viewer. A large chunk of the first act of the play is jettisoned, as Cockrell chooses to omit interviews with Louise Rogers, Renee La Lune, Diamond and Johnson. In fact, Louise, who turns out to be the real killer, is not even introduced until the second episode, and then only in a brief scene. Davidson finds Lord Sorrington’s letter and telephones the man, who is played by Alan Napier, another quintessential TV Brit, who had appeared with John Williams in the first-season episode “Whodunit.” Cockrell’s script is a textbook adaptation for TV, removing unnecessary details, focusing on key events, and building suspense at commercial breaks and the end of the episode. Stevens uses a mobile camera and dissolves to great effect. When Froy arrives, he is played by Charles Cooper as an aggressive, confrontational American. He seems like a transplant from a 1940s movie and does not initially fit well with the rest of the suave British actors who make up the cast.

Stevens continues to set up shots to demonstrate the balance of power between characters: the camera looks up at Davidson in close-up as he looms over the seated Froy, then the camera looks down at Froy, who confesses to murder at the first commercial break. This is quite a departure from the play, in which no confession occurs until the second act. There is no flashback yet to Froy’s version of the killing; this will occur in the second episode. Lord Sorrington arrives and Mullet identifies him as Rupert. Sorrington rapidly confesses to having killed Mattoni and the first episode ends with a close-up of Davidson’s confused face after Sorrington says, “I killed the count.” In short, Cockrell takes the first two confessions and moves them to the first act, using them as cliffhangers at the commercial break and the end of the episode.

If you think this close up is tight . . .

In keeping with the unusual nature of this multi-part episode, part two of “I Killed the Count” begins with Alfred Hitchcock summarizing the first episode and showing clips of the two murder confessions. The episode then picks up with Lord Sorrington explaining his motives, after which his version of the killing is shown in flashback. Robert Stevens uses some tight close-ups to heighten the suspense and Alan Napier provides voice over narration at the beginning and end of the flashback sequence. Davidson then re-interviews Froy, who says that his own love for Mattoni’s wife was his motive for murder. By changing Froy’s motive from one of revenge against a blackmailer to one of love for an unhappily married woman, Cockrell clears up a subtle point in Coppel’s play, since Froy’s relationship with Mattoni’s wife is only mentioned briefly in the play’s third act, during the flashback to the planning of the murder among the three conspirators.

. . . take a look at this one!

Stevens again uses extremely tight close-ups in this exchange, including one that is so close that it shows only about a quarter of John Williams’s face! A second flashback presents Froy’s version of the killing and, once again, Robert Stevens does nice work here. As the flashback begins, we look down the hall where a ceiling light is dark and a window behind it lets in daylight. The shot dissolves to the night before and we see the ceiling light switch on and darkness fall outside the window. The start of the struggle between Froy and Mattoni is filmed with a close-up of both men’s torsos and there is a tricky shot at the conclusion of the flashback: we see Froy exit the room and go down the hall to the left, then the camera pans right as the lights come up and we see Froy in the hall telling the story. There is a very subtle cut as the camera is focused on the door and this is the only way we know how Stevens made it look like Froy exited the screen to the left and then appeared on the right in what looks like a single shot. After this, Raines points out to Davidson that they have too much evidence and there is a break for the first commercial.

Rosemary Harris as Louise

In the second half of this episode, we are finally introduced to Louise Rogers, who denies knowing Mattoni and who says she was asleep in her room all night. By moving her first scene to the mid-point of the trilogy, Cockrell ensures that her character will not be forgotten at the end when she becomes very important. After this, we finally meet La Lune, whose extensive, comic dialogue from the play has been cut almost entirely from the televised version. Unlike the play, where she was a tough-talking showgirl, in the TV show she is soft-spoken and polite, while still quite attractive. The actress who plays her in this short scene is Roxanne Arlen, who was nicknamed “the wiggle” for her physical assets.

Melville Cooper as Mullet

Episode two ends with Mullet’s confession, which dovetails nicely with the end of Act Two in Coppel’s play. Once again, the show ends with Davidson, flustered and angry, unable to accept the situation. Episode three begins with another summary by Hitchcock and clips of the three confessions from the prior episodes. Following these is a flashback to Mullet’s version of the killing, with voice over by the character at the beginning and end and more good camerawork from Stevens. This time, the camera pans down and right from Mullet’s face to the bottom of the connecting door between rooms. A change in the light showing under the door signals that the time has shifted from late morning to two a.m. We see Mullet’s shadow approach under the door and he enters; we see his legs, now clad in the uniform of an elevator operator, and the camera pans back up so we can see his face. After the killing, Mullet exits the room, closes the door, the light again changes to daytime, and the camera pans left back to where Mullet stands in the same place as before, telling his story. If you watch carefully you can see a cut with the door closed, but it looks as if Mullet as exited the room at night and appeared in it by day in one continuous shot. In a sense, Stevens is doing what Hitchcock did in Rope, using tiny cuts at the end of each reel to give the impression of one long shot.

The three conspirators

Cockrell further opens up Coppel’s play near the end of the third episode by having the suspects taken to Scotland Yard for the final confrontation. Similar to the exterior shot of Big Ben at the start of the first episode, the change in locale is signaled by an establishing shot of what is presumably the entrance to Scotland Yard. The camera then dissolves to the interior offices, where Davidson leaves Froy and Mullet alone. They whisper to each other and we learn for the first time that Mullet staged the scene by putting the corpse in the armchair. In an update to make some sense of the timing, Mullet says that Sorrington saved his life in Burma, rather than in the Great War. Burma, which is now Myanmar, had been part of the British Empire since 1886 and was invaded by Japan in December 1941, so we can assume that Mullet and Sorrington were fighting for England there, 16 years before this episode aired in 1957. In another change from the play, Cockrell chooses not to present a flashback to the three men planning the murder of Count Mattoni. Instead, the entire plan is reduced to a comment by Mullet about having drawn the black Ace. The commercial break comes after the three men huddle privately at Scotland Yard and realize that none of them knows who killed the count.

A brief moment of enthusiasm

The final segment of the trilogy finds Louise arriving at Scotland Yard, confessing to the murder and divulging her real identity. Hers is the only version not portrayed in flashback and this gives it a more factual feeling than the three other versions, which seemed more like stories. Her version does not fit the physical evidence because she says that she left the body on the floor and everyone knows it was found in the armchair, so we are faced with a situation where the viewer and the four suspects all know the truth of what happened but the inspector does not. Raines shows the legal point to Davidson and Davidson realizes that the whole thing was a conspiracy. In Coppel’s play, he understands that the crime will go unpunished and then Diamond provides a comic ending with his own confession to a new murder. In the TV version, Raines speaks last and says, “It’s lucky he deserved killing, isn’t it, Sir?” The show ends with a close-up of the exasperated Davidson.

Note the composition and lighting of this shot

Between December 10, 1937, when I Killed the Count premiered on the London stage, and March 17, 24 and 31, 1957, when it appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Coppel's play was a popular story. After 185 performances in London, it opened on Broadway in New York City on August 31, 1942, but this time it was not a hit and ran for only 29 performances. Perhaps the comic murder mystery that worked so well in peacetime London did not translate to wartime New York. Coppel had turned his own play into a novel that was published in 1939, and it was filmed in England in 1939 as well. The film, titled I Killed the Count in the U.K., was re-titled Who Is Guilty? for its release in the U.S. in 1940.

The play was also performed on radio in Australia, Coppel’s native country, in 1941, and it was performed on BBC radio in England in 1945 and again in 1948. It was performed on Britain’s ITV in 1956, before the Hitchcock version was shown in the U.S., and again on Belgian TV in 1959. But it is the Alfred Hitchcock Presents version that has run in syndication for nearly 60 years and which was released on DVD, so that is the version that is most familiar today. The film version is not available and I have not been able to locate any recording of the radio performances or the other TV plays. The novel was never reprinted but can be found on the used book market. The play is still in print and can be purchased from Samuel French, the famous play publishing company; it is possible that some theater group somewhere in the world could even now be considering a revival of Coppel’s play.

"The wiggle"

Alec Coppel (1907-1972) wrote stories that served as the basis for this trilogy and two other episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as well as an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. An overview of his career appeared in my review of “The Diplomatic Corpse.”

Francis Cockrell (1906-1987) wrote 18 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; the last one I reviewed was “Whodunit,” also starring John Williams.

Director Robert Stevens (1920-1989) put his distinctive stamp on 49 episodes of the Hitchcock series, including “The Glass Eye” and “Place of Shadows.”

Joining John Williams in the cast is Alan Napier (1903-1988), who was eight episodes of the Hitchcock series. The last one reviewed here was “Whodunit.”

The actor who seems so out of place in the first episode as Froy, the American, is Charles Cooper (1926-2013), whose career on screen stretched from 1950 until his death. This was his only appearance on the Hitchcock series but he did play a role in The Wrong Man (1956).

Patricia Hitchcock as Polly

Giving a wonderful performance as Mullet, the elevator man with the hangdog face, is Melville Cooper (1896-1973). He started out on stage before fighting in World War I and spending some time as a prisoner of war. He was on screen from 1930 until 1961 and among his many roles were parts in Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940) and Sturges’s The Lady Eve (1940). This was his only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show.

Another enjoyable performance is given by Charles Davis (1925-2009) as Raines, the junior inspector who serves as a foil for Davidson. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Davis was a busy stage actor who began appearing on screen in 1951. He appeared in four other episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and also on Night Gallery.

Anthony Dawson as Count Mattoni

Hitchcock’s daughter Patricia (1928- ) plays Polly, the maid who has seen it all before, with a good comic delivery. She appeared on screen starting in 1949 and was in some of her father’s films and ten episodes of the half-hour TV series.

Poor Anthony Dawson (1916-1992) does a lot of rolling around on the floor (when not replaced by stunt doubles) as Count Mattoni and finds himself shot three times in flashbacks. He was born in Edinburgh and was on screen from 1940 to 1991. He had an important role in Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder (1954) but this was his only appearance on Hitchcock’s TV show. Other roles included appearances in three James Bond films, twice as Blofeld: Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965).

Raines is ever so helpful

The two notable female roles in “I Killed the Count” were played by Rosemary Harris
(1927- ) and Roxanne Arlen (1931-1989). Harris began on stage in 1948 and moved to film and TV in the early 1950s; she was also in “The Glass Eye,” which was directed by Robert Stevens. Her most memorable role in recent years was as Peter Parker’s Aunt May in the three Spider-Man films starring Tobey Maguire. Arlen was born in Detroit and later was crowned “Miss Detroit”; she was on screen for about ten years from the mid-1950s until the mid-1960s. There is a very entertaining overview of her life and career here.

“I Killed the Count” is on DVD here and you can read the GenreSnaps take on these episodes here.

Sources:

Coppel, Alec. I Killed the Count, a Play in Three Acts. London: William Heinemann, 1938. Print. Reprinted by Samuel French, NY, n.d.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. Churchville, MD: OTR Pub., 2001. Print.

"I Killed the Count." Alfred Hitchcock Presents. CBS. 17 Mar. 1957. Television.

"I Killed the Count." Alfred Hitchcock Presents. CBS. 24 Mar. 1957. Television.

"I Killed the Count." Alfred Hitchcock Presents. CBS. 31 Mar. 1957. Television.

IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

League, The Broadway. "IBDB.com." IBDB. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. New York: Regan, 2003. 541-44. Print.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.


In two weeks: “The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater,” starring John Williams and Barbara Baxley!