The Canary Sedan

The Canary Sedan is a very well plotted tale from the half-hour Hitchcock series, third season. It's set in an exotic locale (Hong Kong), and it features no American characters.

After all the Hitchcock domestic strife and wife murdering episodes this is something completely different. Jessica Tandy plays the lead character, Mrs Bowlby the wife of a British banker in Hong Kong, still a part of the rapidly declining British empire of the time.

Miss Tandy's character has a gift, can guess past and future events, as we learn when she'll still on ship (yes, it's that long ago, though modern feeling for the Fifties); and one wonders what ailment kept her away in England so long. Psych issues? I don't recall this being mentioned.

The plot thickens when, at the urging of her very busy husband she acquires a sedan, and a driver to go with it, wishes that it had been canary yellow instead of a darker color and,--lo!--this was precisely its color before its previous owner sold it, and then it was repainted; there's no reason given for the paint color change; and this gives one pause.

Mysteries abound in this episode, and presented, intriguingly, as little mysteries, some of which make the viewer wonder if Mrs Bowlby is losing her mind. She hears voices when being driven around the city, begins to determine the names of the people she hears.

The story is aided by eerie background music similar to that used in the later TV anthology series One Step Beyond, which dealt with the paranormal, also a feature in this episode. Or is it? Its main character may be hearing messages from Beyond, and yet she could also be having a nervous breakdown.

Tandy is superb in the lead, and she plays her character with dignity and class. Her performance has hints that the character she's portraying may be either confused by the sounds of the city or perhaps a little sick in the head. Or perhaps more than a little.

The ending, which I shall not give away or even hint at, is disturbing in its quietude, possesses a dark calm that does not feel like a conclusion. This is a brilliant entry in the series, and it's not one for the children; nor even, for that matter, teenagers; and not because it's shocking or sensational but because it's so adult

Rather slender episode that really serves as a showcase for Tandy. Laura (Tandy) is the genteel wife of an Englishman (Matheson), traveling to meet him at his post in Hong Kong. Nothing unusual here except she's also gifted with psychic powers made clear in a good setup scene aboard ship.

Once in the Orient, she begins to hear a woman's voice inside a rented car formerly owned by the mysterious woman. The woman speaks of a passionate affair that soon arouses Laura's envy since her own marriage is relatively loveless. But who is this mystery woman and what does her disembodied voice portend.

The entry makes good use of exotic Hong Kong locales to frame the strange occurrences. However, I wish director Stevens had aimed at creepier visuals in place of a more conventional style. To create an appropriate atmosphere, the weird sound of a theramin is used instead. But to me, that woo-woo is just too cheesy and obvious, especially for a quality series like Hitchcock.

Anyway, the 30-minutes ends in a strongly ironical payoff, and is also a good chance to catch one of the most respected actresses of the period.

It's a psychic ghost story. Seeing Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy, et. al.) at her youthful best is quite a treat. Along with husband, Hume Cronyn, they are masters of the American stage. This is a simple tale of a woman who begins to be invaded by psychic experiences (voices from the past, in this case). She meets her husband in Hong Kong. He appears distant and cold, considering the time that has passed since last they met. This would have made a very good movie with some more sophisticated writing and a bit more soul searching on her part. She is really left to her own devices and must sort things out herself. The scenes of 1950's Hong Kong are really pretty striking. Still, the episode seems somehow a bit cheap and underproduced.

Or TWILIGHT ZONE, if you prefer; but I think OSB is a bit closer than TZ show. That's the first AH PRESENTS episode which is so close to unexplained and "ghost" scheme. The music is so similar to OSB show that only an idiot - who has already seen the eerie show - could not see the link. But that doesn't prevent this episode to be good, effective and I highly recommend it.

You got a colourful chinese background in black & white and a great actress in Jessica Tandy. Sad to say that is all there is. A dull story told in a pedestrian way. I wonder why this episode is so different from all the others which are mostly brilliant.