Into Thin Air

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.

This is both a solid version of the story idea here titled "Into Thin Air", and a nice opportunity for Pat Hitchcock to take a starring role that, for the most part, also plays to her strengths. The story is an interesting one, and has been used from time to time in various forms, with Alfred Hitchcock himself having used a variant of the basic idea in "The Lady Vanishes". Here, it fits the half-hour anthology format pretty well, using the running time to draw out the mystery just long enough, without building up undue expectations for the resolution.

Pat Hitchcock plays a young woman traveling in Paris with her mother, and experiencing a series of disorienting and frightening events when her mother becomes ill and then disappears. Everyone around her insists on denying facts that she knows to be true, and indeed they always have convincing ways of proving her wrong. If you look at the story from a coldly clinical perspective, there are perhaps a couple of holes in it, and the resolution is perhaps not completely satisfying, but while it lasts, it succeeds quite well in establishing a convincing atmosphere of baffled fear.

In his closing appearance, Alfred Hitchcock plays the proud father, at least to the degree that his dry nature allows him to. Pat Hitchcock was never going to be a star, but she obviously shared her parents' enthusiasm for making good movies, and she always gave solid, believable, sympathetic performances in the various character roles in which she appeared. For Hitchcock fans, it's very nice to see her get this chance to take the spotlight herself for a little while.

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.

A variation on a common theme, this episode from "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" attempts to provide another take in a half-hour format. Unfortunately, it falls short.

Hitchcock's daughter, Pat, plays the primary character, Diana Winthrop-a young lady traveling with her mother. Their stop at a Parisian hotel turns into a mystery. Or does the young woman suffer from a mental malady? Pat Hitchcock is convincing as the distraught daughter who may be the victim of gaslighting, but the half-hour formula can be blamed for an abrupt ending that offers no surprise, merely resolution.

Of course, it is not a surprise to find such a plot in ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS tv show, he who already gave us THE LADY VANISHES, back in 1938; the very same scheme but aboard a train instead of a Parisian hotel, as it is the case here. And this scheme will also be used many times after, since, with movies such as BREAKDOWN ( 1997), R. I. F (2011), THE VANISHING (1988), DYING ROOM ONLY (1973).... But this scheme will never get old, it will always work for generations, whatever the contry it comes from, whatever the period or settings. It is an unavoidable episode for anyone who is interested in Alfred Hitchcock's atmosphere.