Alfred Hitchcock presents
Television series | |
---|---|
German title | Alfred Hitchcock presents |
Original title | Alfred Hitchcock Presents The Alfred Hitchcock Hour |
Country of production | United States |
original language | English |
Year (s) | 1955-1965 |
length | 30 or 60 minutes |
Episodes | 266 (268) (Alfred Hitchcock Presents) 93 (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour) |
genre | Thriller , crime , mystery |
production |
Alfred Hitchcock , Joan Harrison , Norman Lloyd (Alfred Hitchcock Presents) Joan Harrison , Norman Lloyd , Gordon Hessler (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour) |
First broadcast | October 2nd, 1955 (USA) on CBS |
German-language first broadcast |
1959 on German television |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Original title: Alfred Hitchcock Presents , from 1962 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ) was a weekly television series produced by Alfred Hitchcock , which ran from October 2, 1955 to 1965 on the US television channel CBS (from 1960 to 1962 and 1965 by NBC) was broadcast. In total, there were 266 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 268 half-hour episodes (a story aired in three episodes), and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour had 93 one-hour episodes.
From 1985 to 1989 a new edition of the series was broadcast.
background
The series began with a stylized silhouette of Hitchcock's face, to which Charles Gounod's funeral march for a puppet in D minor was played as the theme music . Crime stories were shown in the Edgar Allan Poe tradition, often with a melodramatic or mysterious character and often with a macabre punch line , which were usually based on literary models, mostly short stories. Each episode began with an appearance by Alfred Hitchcock, who addressed the audience and gave a short story, joke, anecdote or commentary on the following story or even the following commercial. These appearances always had a humorous, often macabre touch. These short appearances were all written by the playwright James B. Allardice .
Alfred Hitchcock gave the series his name, played the short appearances and personally directed 18 episodes between 1955 and 1962. Otherwise, he took off the scripts, but left the day-to-day business to the executive producer, his former personal assistant Joan Harrison , and the respective directors. The series was co-produced by actor Norman Lloyd , who had worked for Hitchcock years earlier. Harrison and Lloyd were responsible for selecting the fabrics. Lloyd directed several episodes of the series himself and was succeeded by Joan Harrison in 1963 when she quit the series as executive producer after marrying writer Eric Ambler .
Between 1955 and 1960, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was one of the most popular television shows in the United States.
The episode "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" did not appear in its original broadcast on NBC at the request of a sponsor, but it was licensed to local television networks.
Episodes directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock directed a total of 18 episodes in the series himself, usually choosing the scripts himself after Joan Harrison had made a preselection. In contrast to his movies, Hitchcock did not work on the script. One episode directed by Hitchcock took two or three days to shoot (all other episodes usually take a day or two).
(until 1961: Alfred Hitchcock Presents ; 1962: The Alfred Hitchcock Hour )
- 1955: Revenge (Revenge) - with Vera Miles
- 1955: Breakdown - with Joseph Cotten , Aaron Spelling
- 1955: The Double / A Double for Mr. Pelham (The Case of Mr. Pelham) - with Tom Ewell
- 1956: Customization (Back for Christmas) - with John Williams
- 1956: Wet Saturday - with Cedric Hardwicke , John Williams
- 1956: Mr. Blanchard's Secret / The Mysterious Neighbor (Mr. Blanchard's Secret)
- 1957: The body in the trunk / One More Mile to Go
- 1957: The Perfect Crime - with Vincent Price
- 1958: Murder weapon: Lamb to the Slaughter - with Barbara Bel Geddes
- 1958: A Dip in the Pool / Dip in the Pool - with Keenan Wynn , Fay Wray
- 1958: The Snake in Bed (Poison) - with Wendell Corey
- 1959: Banquo's Chair - with John Williams , Reginald Gardiner
- 1959: A meal for the chickens (Arthur) - with Laurence Harvey , Patrick Macnee
- 1959: The Crystal Trench - with Werner Klemperer , Patrick Macnee
- 1960: Loyalty for Loyalty (Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat) - with Howard Caine
- 1961: The Horseplayer - with Claude Rains
- 1961: Bang! You are dead! (Bang! You're Dead)
- 1962: The Last Witness (I Saw the Whole Thing) - with John Forsythe
Rod
actor
The following well-known actors appeared in the series, some several times:
- Edward Andrews
- Ed Asner
- Charles Bronson
- Kind Carney
- Barbara Bel Geddes
- John Cassavetes
- Patricia Collinge
- Joseph Cotten
- Bette Davis
- Mildred Dunnock
- Judith Evelyn
- Peter Falk
- Joan Fontaine
- John Forsythe
- Lorne Greene
- Edmund Gwenn
- Cedric Hardwicke
- Robert H. Harris
- Charles Herbert
- Patricia Hitchcock
- Peter Lorre
- Patrick Macnee
- Walter Matthau
- Steve McQueen
- Vera Miles
- Roger Moore
- Mildred Natwick
- Robert Newton
- Leslie Nielsen
- Jeanette Nolan
- Vincent Price
- Claude Rains
- Robert Redford
- William Shatner
- Dick Van Dyke
- John Williams
- Joanne Woodward
Director
Within the series there were a number of directors who staged a number of episodes over a period of time. Among them was the actor Paul Henreid , who played the resistance fighter Victor Laszlo in Casablanca . The directors with the most contributions to the series were:
- Robert Stevens (42 (or 44) episodes for Alfred Hitchcock Presents )
- Herschel Daugherty (24 episodes for Alfred Hitchcock Presents , 3 episodes for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour )
- Paul Henreid (28/1)
- Norman Lloyd (19/3)
- Alan Crosland junior (16/3)
- Arthur Hiller (17 / -)
- John Brahm (9/5)
- Alf Kjellin (11/1)
- James Neilson (12 / -)
- Bernard Girard (3/8)
- Justus Addis (8 / -)
- Robert Stevenson (7 / -)
- Don Taylor (7 / -)
In addition to Paul Henreid, another star of classic Hollywood cinema, Ida Lupino, directed two episodes of the series.
In addition, individual episodes were staged by directors unknown at the time who subsequently became successful Hollywood directors, for example by Sydney Pollack (two contributions for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ), Robert Altman (two contributions for Alfred Hitchcock Presents ) and William Friedkin (one contribution for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ).
Literary templates, script
A total of 41 films in the series were based on templates by the author Henry Slesar . Slesar also wrote the script for most of his stories , as well as for five other episodes in which he did not originate. Other authors who used stories several times were Roald Dahl , who also wrote the screenplay for one of his stories - Mordwaffe: Lamb to the Slaughter -, Cornell Woolrich and Robert Bloch , who also served as the literary source for Hitchcock's feature film Psycho had written. Also by Eric Ambler and Patricia Highsmith , author of filmed by Hitchcock 1951 novel Strangers on a train , ever filmed a short story. By Thomas Burke , the template came hands of horror (The Hands of Mr. Ottermole) for the same result on 5 May 1957 and directed by Robert Stevens.
Awards
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents was nominated for eleven Emmy Awards , including four times for Best Series. Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for an Emmy for the director of "Mordwaffe: Lammkeule" ( Lamb to the Slaughter ). The series received an Emmy three times.
- In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock Presents received a Golden Globe for best television show.
- In 1955, 1956 and 1960, Alfred Hitchcock Presents received a Television Champion Award for Best Mystery Program , The Alfred Hitchcock Hour 1963 , a television prize awarded by the choice of American television critics.
Web links
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985–1989) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Sound carrier with the theme music of the series and other Hitchcock films
- Another sound carrier with the theme music
Individual evidence
- ^ The Sorcerer's Apprentice . In: snopes.com , August 16, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2013.