The Hands of Mr. Ottermole

A solid, rather modest Hitchcock entry, The Hands Of Mr. Ottermole delivers the goods in its own solid way, rises to the occasion, of being an engrossing "Ripper tale" thanks to its slow, steady presentation and some first rate acting. Somehow, for all the pussyfooting around in the London fog, the ending manages to feel shocking. The Hitchcock crew knew how to make something out of what might have at first glance seemed like nothing. It's how the tale was told that makes this one work more than the tale itself.

Fairly suspenseful episode. We wonder who's behind the hands of a strangler throttling the latest victim, hands and head being all we see from the camera set-up. That way the anguished grimaces of the victim fill the screen in riveting fashion. Meanwhile, London bobbies have no clues to the strangler, even as public panic mounts. The crimes seem unrelated and motiveless. And darned if this isn't about the foggiest studio set on record. No wonder the cops are having a hard time.

It doesn't help the stoical precinct sergeant (Bikel) that annoying reporter Summers keeps riding him and his men about their lack of progress. Then too, why does the nosy newspaperman keep turning up at the murder sites before the cops. Clearly, there's more to the case than meets the eye. Of course, there's the London fog on- screen. But now, there's a mental fog kicked up by the story since we can't be sure where it's going. I like the solution. It's a little on the philosophical side. Sill it's an interesting idea that raises, in its own way, the conundrum of mind versus matter. All in all, a thought-provoking Hitch entry.

Hitchcock sends us to England for a Jack the Ripper type tale. I think they overdo the Britishness a bit for the sake of American audiences ("Wonder what she's got for Tea? Kippers.")

The killing(s) are shot from the perspective of the strangler, which is a nice directorial touch. However, it's tough doing a whodunit in 25 minutes, because there's no time to introduce many characters. Of course, it also may be that the killer isn't someone we see.

But this isn't primarily a story of suspense (the title kind of hints at that). Instead, it is atmospheric and somewhat talky, with some philosophical discussions added in. I thought the ending was OK.

The episode is set in London in 1919. A spate of stranglings have occurred and no one seems to be able to get to the bottom of it. This is likely because there seems to be no rhyme nor reason for them....no apparent motive. A reporter (Rhys Williams) is an odd one as again and again, he seems to come to the scene of the crime before the police...and naturally you can't help but wonder if he's the murderous psychopath.

This is an excellent episode for many reasons. The atmosphere is very good, the acting very good and the story has the twists you would hope an episode of the series would have...though too often they didn't. Well worth seeing.

And the answer to it wasn't adequate... heck, he wasn't even the cop murdered... they're literally just talking about English serial killers, but noooo they can't possibly do it according to Dunce Cop. One other episode where xenophobia was displayed ended in the death of the person, so at least there's that (it's not like this series isn't full of death, of course). Also, not sure if this was their intention, but perhaps he had some faux Scottish accent for some xenophobic reason too (even though, for now and back then, Scotland is part of the UK, but you know little England and all.........)