Body in the Barn

Lillian Gish is delightful to watch any time, but this storyline was so absurd, it ruined the experience. I really don't want to get into spoilers, so let's just say that the way the justice system is portrayed is rather more like how a sixth grader perceives it than anything actually related to reality. It was so far off base, it totally ruined the concept of "willing suspension of disbelief" for me. By far, one of the worst of the Alfred Hithcock Hour presentations--in fact, a good argument could be made that it is the all-time worst. Worth watching for Lillian Gish, but nothing else.

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.

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.

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.

I agree with the last reviewer, there is so much material, this clever story could have been a tv movie. A fascinating whodunit starring legendary Lillian Gish (as Bessie) who suspects something's up with her neighbor. Possibly murder? It may remind you of an Agatha Christie or a Miss Marple mystery; Gish playing a spinster with a very suspicious eye.

She is complimented by the likes of veteran Kent Smith, playing the country doctor. He is best remembered for the noir-ish soap opera NORA PRENTISS for(1947), opposite Ann Sheriden. Gish, of course, had a career that topped most everyone in Hollywood, working for director DW Griffith in the early days of motion pictures as a teenager. One of a handful of actresses from silent films to cross into sound films and then tv, matched by Gloria Swanson. Her beautiful sister Dorothy was also an accomplished actress.

The final screen appearance of Maggie McNamara (who died far too young) and in a very good role as Camilla. Maggie guested in THE CARDINAL for Otto Preminger prior to this part, along with Gish's sister. Based on a story by Margaret Manners, who wrote many mysteries for Hitch.

PS: Listen to the rich violins, the music takes on a real creepy feel. Not to be missed. SEASON 2 EPISODE 32. CBS dvd box set.