Breakdown

Hitchcock traverses the macabre into pure existential terror. The stasis of the camera combined with the sparse mise-en-scene imprisons the spectator in the director's subjective and absolute control. This episode is a primer on minimalist horror and also reveals Hitchcock's internal mechanisms, which we now know were not just idiosyncratic but transgressive.

Exceptional episode, directed by Hitchcock himself and starring an old Hitchcock familiar (Cotton), about a businessman on his way back from a vacation. He ends up in a terrible accident and essentially is left for dead. When his body is finally retrieved from the wreck, he is taken to the nearest county morgue. There's only one problem: he isn't dead, just paralyzed, the result of the steering wheel crushing his chest (remember those days?) and the force of the impact breaking his neck. Cotton spends most of the episode with eyes open, unblinking and mouth agape, as we listen to his anguished thoughts via voice-over. This is an absolutely unnerving episode, and has to be among the 10 best from this series.

This has to be one of the creepiest films I've ever seen. It's a good thing that Hitchcock had his TV series where he could direct this episode. To run this story any longer than the 25 minutes would have seemed to drawn out but this story fits just perfectly in the allotted time. It's a chilling and suspenseful story that is imaginatively shot from one person's perspective. I won't say more; just see it.

(Even being a big Hitch fan I had never seen any of his TV shows; now it's so easy to see just the episodes he directed through iTunes. This was the first episode I've seen and it definitely lives up to the Hitchcock brand.)

Hitchcock, of course, understood exactly how to create suspense. His typical explanation involved a bomb under the table: if it explodes out of nowhere, then that's surprise. If the audience knows that the bomb is under the table but not when it will go off, that's suspense. Thus, the secret for mastering suspense was to allow the audience to know something that the film's characters didn't – for, whatever we may know, we are absolutely helpless to do anything. Hitchcock occasionally transferred the elements of this director/audience interaction to his own characters, as we see in 'Rear Window (1954),' in which Jimmy Stewart sits immobile and helpless in his apartment. "Breakdown" (Season 1, Episode 7) was the second episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" to be personally directed by the host, and, tellingly, it's also the best of the series so far. Hitchcock once again utilises the premise of a central character who, like the audience, is powerless to influence the events of the story.

Joseph Cotten plays William Callew, a callous businessman with little regard for human emotion. After a long-time employee weeps uncontrollably after losing his job, Callew unsympathetically condemns his lack of self-control. However, poetic justice is about to ensue. After becoming involved in a ghastly car collision with a truck of chain-gang prisoners, Callew wakes up paralysed from head to toe, but conscious enough to thinking logically. The fleeing prisoners offer hope of rescue, but instead – believing him to be dead – seize the opportunity to loot his clothing. Despite regaining slight movement in a single finger, nobody seems to recognise that Callew is still alive, and he seems destined to be buried that way. Hitchcock uses point-of-view shots to powerful effect, and Cotten – though not called upon to do much in the way of acting – delivers a creepy monotone voice-over that communicates his overwhelming paranoia. Though a lesson is proposed by the conclusion, its presence seems to be tongue-in-cheek, with Hitchcock spelling out the necessity of a "moral" in his introduction.

After firing an employee who gets choked up about it(practicing for his acceptance speech for the Academy, perhaps... or, more likely, his identity is closely tied to his job) and briely discussing the matter with Mr. Ed(not a horse, of course), William Callew goes for a drive. He is forced to take a detour, and crashes on a rural road, where not many come by. This leaves him paralyzed, and several of the few that come by mistake him for dead, and present a revealing look into how uncaring and callous some people can be. I'm not certain if this is meant to be a sort of Karmic retribution(since our lead is not established as a real jerk, just someone uncomfortable with others losing control of their emotions), though there is a kind of moral lesson. And even if you don't enjoy that aspect, this is incredible. The acting is phenomenal; Cotten, who portrays our protagonist, is literally limited to his voice in getting across every single feeling(and the lines are impeccably written, they hit the nail on the head for what one would be thinking, and make for some of the best monologing in this medium) he experiences for most of this(and yes, that's slightly less than half an hour, but it is still an accomplishment... and the pacing is spot-on, and kudos to them for adapting this to this length, it would have been excessive otherwise... rather than perfect). For the duration, this remains on his "lifeless" body, the camera not leaving his side(and only showing a minimal amount that he himself does not see or otherwise realize), forcing the desperation, isolation and absolute hopelessness of his situation to sink in completely. This is extremely creepy and builds suspense expertly. There is a bit of disturbing and violent content in this. I recommend this to anyone who can handle it. 10/10