User Reviews

In "Death Scene" a very young James Farentino plays an ordinary fellow who falls for Vera Miles, the daughter of a famous old-time movie director, played with panache by John Carradine. Ms. Miles and Carradine live in one of Hollywood's glittery mansions and Farentino is convinced that he can gain a fortune if he can only win Ms. Miles' hand in marriage. Crumpy Carradine doesn't like the arrangement and believes that Farentino must show some kind of "net worth" in order for him to give his consent. It's apparent to him that the young guy only wants to jump into some easy money by marrying his beautiful daughter. But Farentino works as an ordinary driver/mechanic. What could he possibly have to offer a woman as wealthy as Ms. Miles? Plenty, as it turns out.

"Death Scene" take viewers for a ride through old Hollywood so that they can see that it's not all glamour and riches. Unfortunately, Farentino also gets "taken for a ride", and it's down a one-way street. The performances here are all top notch, particularly Carradine as one of Hollywood's elder statesmen (which is what he was in real life). Miles is outstanding as his loving daughter, who's actually a bit older than Farentino realizes. And speaking of Farentino, this was one of his better early roles that established him as a fine actor. He's still on the scene today but works far less frequently.

Right from the start, this feels like a tribute to Sunset Blvd (and perhaps Whatever Happened To Baby Jane): a crumbling mansion holding the remains of a giant of the silent screen, and a young outsider looking to exploit the situation to get rich.

Obviously, being a 60s TV show, it's nowhere in the same league as Billy Wilder's timeless classic, but it's a great premise to play with, even if the execution could have been a lot better handled, especially the scene showing the film screening.

Once the $50,000 insurance is taken out, the ending becomes obvious but still intriguing as to how it's going to happen. The very final twist is also a surprise, but too-far fetched to be at all believable: a wrinkly old woman with a turkeyneck would not be able to fool a young man into believing she's in her 20s for weeks on end, out in the bright sunshine with just a little pancake make-up.

Other than that, it's one of the better episodes of the series.

Actually an intriguing idea with Vera Miles, definitely supported by John Carradine, and an interesting look at a very young James Farentino and Buck Taylor, this program is unfortunately a bit scratched up by Farentino's channeling James Dean.

Buck Taylor likewise is a distraction as he favors a very young Burt Reynolds (tho I suspect the look of both was to emulate Brando).

The program is a solid piece of work however, delivering a fine bit of goods.

If you are distracted by Farentino's behavior, then it succeeded beyond words.

The worst scene, mainly for execution, is Taylor and Farentino laughing at the old movie. In clips, Farentino isn't even looking at the screen, or nothing was really going on in the movie for him to be laughing.

Obviously not an actual old movie, rather telling bit when the late wife's face is obscured in the movie, as if anyone would tell who she really was.

In the end, a fun program.

More than half the reviews for this episode refer to Gavin and Nicky Revere as father and daughter, so I wonder if the closing scene failed to make an impact. I doubt whether an aging star of the silver screen would have been physically able to keep up with a much younger man in his twenties, making this story something even the 'Mission Impossible" series of the Sixties would have found hard to pull off. I thought the insurance scam aspect was credible enough, and fifty grand would have gone a long way to help Gavin Revere (John Carradine) with the upkeep on 'Mon Vere'. But the idea of his wife posing as his daughter Nicky (Vera Miles) was rather ridiculous, and could only work in a program like this that asks the viewer to suspend disbelief for the eventual twist ending. As other reviewers have pointed out in comments for this and other episodes of Hitchcock's third season of hourly programs, the scripts were coming from the bottom of the barrel and were relying on viewers good will to ride out the series to its conclusion.

I am a huge fan of Hitchcock and the suspense/thriller type of stories shows like this one tell. I have seen a lot of the episodes of this particular show because of those two things, but not every single one. I can't help but voice my disappointment in this one, though. I suppose it's quality being lower than other episodes I have seen makes sense, since this was made late in the last season. Although, that's not enough reason to make me think it's alright. I don't enjoy any type of show/movie that involves and accepts low quality plot lines, performances, and so on, especially when they are done intentionally. This episode seemed a lot like that type of episode. Where they all knew the story wasn't that great, but made it due to some sort of commitment or as a filler. Don't get me wrong, it isn't terrible, but compared to the series as a whole this is a blemish that would have been better left off not airing. The character who plays the role that seems like the "bad guy" but ends up being the victim at the end is so overboard in his effort to play an unbearable person that it makes watching him unbearable. For example the scene where they are watching the film and he is meant to heckle it. He goes so over the top in that scene that it leaves you wishing you could be there to go ahead and have him be the one killed. Luckily, that wish is granted at the end when the "twist" with the lady and her supposed father kill him, but that just helps in lowering the quality of the episode. To make this particular ep. better it should have been written having the mechanic, (while still planning to kill the father, get the house, and marry the daughter), not having every scene involving him near the drop-off including an extended moment where he stares down it, the bottom is shown, cuts back to him, and eventually ends with him smiling. He should also do his best to suck up to the father to, what he believes, convince him into liking him and being alright with him marrying his 'daughter'. He could still have been able to be open about the hopeful murder to his roommate and oped with the female about his dislike of her 'father'. As for the two who end up doing the killing, the father didn't do a bad job in his role and neither did the woman, really. Their parts could have benefited purely from the story itself not causing the viewer to already wish for the mechanics death. It would have made the conclusion of the story incredibly harder to predict (as it became increasingly easier as the episode progressed), the viewer more likely to be caught off guard when the mechanic is killed and they two end up actually being married instead of father and daughter, and just a better story overall. So, in my opinion, if you are someone who isn't watching the series as a whole and is just looking for one of this genre to enjoy, stay away from this episode. It would be terrible if this was the first you saw of the show and come to the conclusion the rest of the series' stories are of the same low quality.