Reviews

The Scene is nighttime London in 1919. A serial killer is terrorising the streets, strangling his or her victims apparently at random.

It's a little difficult to say too much about this story, because so much contributes to the clever ending, when we may or may not get answers to the two important questions: Who is the killer, and What is his/her motive? British actors contribute to the London setting, although the police sergeant's phony Scottish accent is a little unpleasant.

The characters are very well played, especially the two main roles (Theodore Bikel and Rhys Williams), and the imagery is very clever, giving us genuine clues and red herrings alike.

I found this episode engrossing.

A practical joke that turns out not to be so amusing...

The practical jokers convince someone that the world is going to end in 3 hours. All his efforts to make his life and the lives of others better in those final hours go horribly wrong.

This episode has a relatively large cast, all of whom fit their parts very well. We see the real cruelty of the practical joke. Our lead character is totally convinced that he and everyone else on the planet has only a short time left, but we know different.

Hitchcock was a great lover of practical jokes - he once bet a man that he couldn't spend a night in handcuffs, then gave him a nightcap of cocoa with added laxatives. The joke in the story initially seems more harmless, but has much worse consequences.

This is an absorbing episode that has an unexpectedly satisfying ending.

Many of the comments here attempt to evaluate this film as a serious Hitchcock offering. Don't make that mistake. It's an hour of fluff, in two acts. The first one is full of atmosphere and suspense. Too full to be serious. It takes place mainly on a staircase. The second involves a speeding train chased by a speeding bus. To ridiculous to be serious.

Stairs and trains are both very important in many of Hitchcock's films. It's interesting that he uses both prominently in what is probably the one film where we really see him enjoying himself.

Hitchcock was near the end of his contract with British International Pictures when he was given the play "Number 17" to adapt, and virtually no budget (10,000 GBP). He chose to make this as a parody, and on that basis I think that it works very well.

As usual with Hitchcock's British offerings, the character actors are very entertaining. The two female leads are both lovely. Others have commented on the not-so-special special effects, but considering the age of the film, they're not bad, which makes them seem impressive when you consider how cheaply the film was made.

During the chase scene, Look out for the sign "See the countryside by Green Line". I don't know if that was put in intentionally or not, but it made me laugh. Like the passengers in the bus, hang on and enjoy the ride.