Body in the Barn

Like everybody else, I loved Lillian Gish's performance as the annoying busybody who sets off a crazy chain of fatal consequences in a bucolic bit of the American countryside. The two-wrongs-make-a-right plot is bitterly ironic, as befits the bitterly ironic lady played by Miss Lillian.

The problem, as one reviewer sourly notes, is that the plot turns on a ridiculously mistaken identification of, yes, the body in the barn. I know this was before the days of DNA analysis, but a glance at dental records would have easily confirmed that the corpse couldn't be the hen-pecked husband. There's some hand-waving about "quicklime," but that would have had no effect on those pesky little teeth. What can you say? Sometimes you really do have to suspend disbelief.

Meanwhile, the body count piles up pretty high for such a cozy drama, which in a way is also appropriate to bring out the nastiness underlying the pastoral surroundings. Lillian Gish easily dominates the proceedings, though the other actors also turn in fine performances. And thanks to one reviewer for reminding me of who Maggie McNamara resembled. Audrey Hepburn! Just couldn't quite put my finger on the resemblance as I watched the episode. Sorry to hear from other reviewers that she committed suicide.

Hitch as the scarecrow was also a funny bit. I wonder how he would have contributed to The Wizard of Oz.

In spite of what one reviewer states, this is a superb Hitchcock Hour episode. Seeing it reminds me of how poor television writing is today. This is superior story telling with all of the actors giving excellent performances. Patricia Cutts is a stand-out as the domineering wife Samantha but it is Lillian Gish's brilliant performance that is most memorable. This episode is a master class of what great television could be. There isn't an single episode of either Alfred Hitchcock Presents or The Alfred Hitchcock Hour that disappoints me. Yes, some are better than others but all are outstanding compared to any of the scripted junk on tv today.

The Body In the Barn is a genteel entry of the Hitchcock hour and features, as another reviewer noted, a pitch perfect performance by Lillian Gish as a sick old biddy whose prying ways cause a lot of trouble in her sleepy, woodsy community when the body of a local working man is found in a barn.

The Hitchcock hours tend to fall into different categories. Some have comic undertones. This one doesn't. Quite a few are either outright horror tales or feature suspense ratcheted up to such a level that they may as well be horrors. Body In the Barn doesn't have that level of intensity. There are rural episodes and urban ones. And some feature people who possess a measure of refinement and education that allows for easy identification for the sophisticated viewer. Body definitely falls into that category. Another somewhat looser category is that of the domestic episode about people who know each other quite well, who either lives under the same roof or are close neighbors. This one is of the domestic variety.

I found Body In the Barn more a good character study than a strong story, featuring very good actors, not especially suspenseful or dramatically compelling. The characters are strong but the plot isn't. It held my interest yet failed to engage my sympathies. The good manners of the principals, some slightly better than average dialog and decent plot twists kept me watching till the end. It was pretty much Miss Gish's show, though it also features good work from Maggie McNamara, Kent Smith and, especially, Peter Lind Hayes. With a lesser player in the lead it would merely average.

The narrative's as twisty as a mountain road, nonetheless stick with the hour since the ironies do pile up. It's quite a cast of characters. There's an ice queen neighbor (Cutts), her meek and mild husband (Hayes), an Audrey Hepburn look-alike (McNamara), and above all, a feisty old matriarch (Gish). Hayes thinks mean wife Cutts might kill him. So when he disappears and a decomposed body turns up in their barn, it looks bad for the wife. Meanwhile Gish doesn't trust anybody-- always a wise move in a Hitchcock story.

I can't believe it, but is that really a 70-year old Gish dashing up the road in the opening scene. I think it is. Anyone seeing that energy burst ought to know her character is no one to mess with. And isn't that former RKO leading man Kent Smith as the doctor. Good to see him picking up a payday. Too bad McNamara quit the business after this outing. I guess she had trouble acceding to Hollywood's commercial demands. And on a really somber note, both she and Cutts died by their own hand at age 48. Something like the downside of the celebrity ladder, I guess. On a lighter note, Gish survived to age 99, and after seeing this, I'm not surprised

Anyway, the entry holds interest by not telegraphing where it's going. And unless I missed something, the scales of justice don't exactly balance out at hour's end. So see what you think.

There is a lot to this story...even more so than most other one hour installments of the series. And, as a result, it feels more like a movie than a TV show.

When the story begins, Bessie (Lillian Gish) is upset because her husband died....and it might have been due to a new fence installed by her very grouchy neighbor. Through most of the rest of the episode, Bessie and this lady fight and later, Bessie becomes friends with the nasty woman's mild mannered husband. However, when he disappears, Bessie is convinced her neighbor killed her husband and she works hard to prove it. What's next? Well, a whole heck of a lot...that's for sure!!

This is a good episode but there is so much more to the plot because it's quite the complicated show. Now this is NOT a complaint...just an observation. In fact, I give this one an 8...it's well made and it was a treat to see Lillian guest starring in this series.