![]() I could not have been more than three at the time. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour was one I never considered, however, since I wasn't aware that it ever delved into the supernatural. Since the advent of the internet, I've made attempts to track down whatever it was I saw, looking through the episode descriptions of various older anthology series. At best, I only saw a couple minutes, and yet that was sufficient to stick with me to this day. However, I didn't see the entire episode or even most of it. Judging by most of the reviews I've seen, this episode made an indelible impression on a lot of people when they watched it as children. I'm not going into plot points there are plenty spread across other reviews, but trust me, you won't easily forget this episode. And the fact that a young white blonde girl is so attached to her African-American doll only adds to the dissonance and disconnect between niece and her aunt. The story is set in early 1960's South (probably Lousiana or Mississippi) where racial segregation was the policy. There is strong character support from Juanita Moore (remember 1959's "Imitation of Life"). (There is something that's too creepy about lonely little girls interacting with their doll and invisible playmates.) The lead, Margaret Leighton, an actress trained on the British stage who won two Broadway Tony Awards, was spot-on convincing portraying the caring-but-baffled "spinster" aunt and primary caregiver of her overly imaginative young niece. I felt four separate cases of chills crawl up my spine and settle on my neck. Saw this two nights ago (May 18, 2014) on MeTV and WHOA - I wasn't familiar with the episode and didn't know where it was leading the viewer. Well acted, well written, disturbing and haunting, as the saying goes " they just don't make them like this anymore " The dolls' resemblance to the little girl and facial expression at the end were so eerily accurate and creepy they will haunt your mind forever. This is definitely an atypical episode for Hitchcock, you half expect Rod Serling to walk out from behind the bushes and give his epilogue at the end because this was definitely more in the wheelhouse of a Twilight Zone episode than a Hitchcock. I first saw this episode when I was only 10 yrs old ,I didn't remember if it was Hitchcock, Twilight Zone, or Outer Limits, then I had been TIVOing the Alfred Hitchcock Hour off the Encore Suspense channel and watched this episode the other night, first time in over 30 yrs and it all came rushing back to me after the scene with the umbrella poking under the couch for her imaginary friends ,it was like a tidal wave of memories and I remembered the twist ending before they even showed it, it haunted me for years as a kid. And for those who care, I suspect there's an allegory about race relations in the Jim Crow South lurking somewhere in the subtext. ![]() Still and all, it's a haunting 60 minutes, one that's likely to stay with you. There's a really creepy undertone to the story that could have been heightened by a more Gothic approach, instead of the straightforward, high-key lighting which drains the visuals of the kind of shadowy atmosphere that would complement the script. Little Eileen Baral, on whom the episode turns, is wonderfully natural, with no hint of artificial emotion- I suspect that when a child actor performs this well, a lot of credit must go to the director (here, Alf Kjellin). Watch the subtle progression of facial expressions as she moves from normalcy to genuine trauma over the obsessive state of her young niece. Suspense builds nicely, helped along by an exquisite performance from Margaret Leighton as the anguished aunt. Excellent script makes good use of hour format, something the other 60-minute episodes by and large could not do.
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