Into Thin Air

The story is pretty intriguing and remind me of Lady Vanishes in some way and i still enjoyed the episode. We are wondering what happened and where is the mother? We just want the explanation and now we just wait for answers for all our questions. A very good investigations story that is pleasant to follow.

When I watched "Into Thin Air", I felt annoyed. First, a similar sort of plot was used in "The Midnight Warning" back in 1932 and "The Lady Vanishes" (a Hitchcock movie) in 1938. But, as I watched, I noticed that "Into Thin Air" wasn't just a reworking of these old films but an actual remake of the 1950 movie "So Long at the Fair"! This is weird...why only five episodes into "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" would they forego making an original story and just did a retread of a 1950 film! I felt rather annoyed by this....though you might not if you haven't seen these movie.

Two British women arrive in Paris from India in order to see and experience the 1889 World's Exposition....the same international expo that debuted the Eiffel Tower. Soon after checking in to the hotel, the mother begins feeling sick. A doctor arrives and sends the daughter to get medicine. When she returns with the medicine, the hotel employees behave a if they've never seen her and they say that a her mother NEVER was in the hotel. And, the more the woman digs, the more it appears that either the daughter is insane OR there's some conspiracy afoot. What's really going on here?

As I mentioned above, this is based on a good story...it's just that if you've seen the movie, then none of this will be worth seeing. If you haven't, by all means see it...it's very interesting and the basic story is quite sound. So, a 4 if you've seen the film and an 8 if you haven't. I'll just split the difference and give this one a 6 overall.

By the way, I also really love Alfred Hitchcock's comment at the end...considering the leading lady in the episode is his daughter, Patricia.

When a young woman leaves her ill mother in a Paris hotel room and comes back later, she finds her mother is missing, and all the hotel's employees deny she and her mother were booked in.

Patricia Hitchcock is quite endearing as a daughter who finds her mother missing. You can feel her desperation. The story is a reworking of 'So long at the Fair' and the Lady Vanishes. It's quite impressive how the plot and good characterisation can be efficiently condensed into 25 mins. It's a watchable thriller with a satisfying twist.

Hitch warns us in his introduction that this tale has been told many times and in many forms, and that is the problem. Other than the chance to see his daughter as the damsel in distress, this version is way too obvious and a one-trick loser.

The best version is undoubtedly "So Long at the Fair", though of course Hitch is proud of his similar "The Lady Vanishes". Pat Hitchcock checks into a Parisian hotel with her mom, who feels ill, and suddenly everyone covers up the fact that mom ever existed.

I suppose if one has never encountered this particular story gimmick it might prove suspenseful, but once it becomes apparent, the trip to the final reveal is just boring.

No, you're not the only person who noticed similarities between "Into Thin Air" (Season 1, Episode 5) and Hitchcock's own 'The Lady Vanishes (1938).' Indeed, Hitch himself openly acknowledges the mutual source for both works, humbly referring to the director of the latter in the third person. This episode, directed by Don Medford, is certainly inferior to its cinematic counterpart, but it effectively creates a sense of paranoid mystery from a familiar story. Daughter Patricia Hitchcock, who had previously appeared in small roles in 'Stage Fright (1950)' and 'Strangers on a Train (1951),' is given the lead role – she does a fair job, but certainly wasn't the next Ingrid Bergman or Grace Kelly. Pat Hitchcock has a slightly-whiny voice that she shows off when asked to sound panicked, the sort of hysterical performance that wasn't uncommon among actresses in the 1940s. Her father, of course, seems rather proud of the effort, and mischievously remarks "incidentally, I thought the little leading lady was rather good, didn't you?"

When Diana Winthrop (Hitchcock) books herself and her sick mother (Mary Forbes) into a Paris hotel, she doesn't give a second thought to her own mental health. However, after being sent away to collect some medicine for her mother, Diana returns to find that her mother is missing, and, worse still, nobody in the hotel claims to remember her. Beginning to doubt her sanity, she seeks help from the British embassy, but they have a hard time taking her word over that of half a dozen hotel employees and a sign-in register from which the name Winthrop has disappeared. The story fits snugly into the half-hour time-slot, though the conclusion is not as satisfying as it might have been. "Into Thin Air,' just like 'The Lady Vanishes,' toys with the intriguing question of how one can maintain confidence in their own sanity if everybody is scheming against them. After all, as Orwell put it, perhaps a lunatic is simply a minority of one.