Reviews

. . . Actually, I don't get most IMDb reviews, but all the love for this lame teleplay I REALLY don't get. This was cornpone from the unhinged nurse who kept screaming to the constant shots of the slamming window. Given the fact that this came after "Psycho," the ending was meh as well.

Hitchcock was a genius film director, but with rare exceptions, his TV shows got a little "pandery." I think the Twilight Zone was vastly superior for its time. (I also watched the John Forsythe episode about the hit-and-run accident that Hitch directed-that just seemed insultingly improbable). Yep, TV is much better now.

Yeah, yeah, I know that this isn't an original conceit, been done a gazillion times, yada yada. Just wanted to point out that when I first saw this ep, about 45 years ago, I was mightily shaken up by the nasty grin on George Murdock's face as the ending's empowered Willie. Even though he didn't have any serious dialogue, he certainly had presence. No wonder he became so prolific on TV-and this was his first shot. He later became a great "grump" in innumerable guest roles-lived him as Yuri Testikov in the Seinfeld ep "The Marine Biologist"-but this was the only time I thought of him as scary.

Someone else said he did the voice of Willy through this ep, but I always thought that was Cliff Robertson.

Thought this ep was great fun, and I loved that the writers, or whoever had their hand in this, were careful to remember that-while the central trio are very astute-they're still not the smoothest of crime solvers. (The slo-mo gambit was hilarious and painful at the same time.)

I do have some lingering questions though:

How did the murder weapon and copy of the painting get into Charles' apartment, given that the crime apparently occurred in proximity to Mabel's? I gather that Poppy/Becky planted them later, but that was never confirmed.

Now I'm curious: Was that plant deliberate or random? I'm assuming the former, and I'm wondering if it will play into the next season, in which it looks like Charles is being set up.

We still don't know for sure who poisoned Winnie in season 1, and while not every detail will necessarily get explained, that seems too important to drop. I hope the show is getting to that in the future.

I'm sure I'll think of other q's on repeat viewing . . .

I'm not really interested in analyzing or critiquing this movie-that's been done enough- but I would like to express a few words of appreciation for Buddy Rogers. I had never really encountered his work before this film, and I have to say that for a novice actor, he was pretty amazing. When you consider he had never flown before, his work on the aerial sequences-running a camera while in the air-was surprisingly expert. Beyond that, he had one of the most expressive faces I seen in silents, a grin that could melt stone, and amazingly fluid ability to transform from a callow flyboy to sadder-but-wiser veteran while remaining totally convincing-the ending of this movie would be a hard turn for any actor, but he pulled it off. I even enjoyed watching him in the "bubbles" scene, where he was totally inventive (it's fun to learn that he was drunk for real in that scene-talk about method acting).

The only thing he didn't have the talent to do was remove the stick from Richard Arlen's ass. For the most part, Arlen would have lost a contest with a wax dummy. He only seemed to show signs of life towards the end, when he was about to be killed. Otherwise, he was mainly tediously earnest. I have to laugh when viewers insist David and Jack are lovers, because David is no match for Jack's bounding vitality. Arlen doesn't even seem to have much chemistry with Jobyna Ralston (Sylvia), who he married.

I really wonder why Rogers didn't have a more significant career. Maybe the parts weren't out there, maybe he enjoyed being a bandleader or Mr. Mary Pickford (yes, even if he was gay) too much to push for acting opportunities. In any case, it seems like our loss.