"The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" is one of the better shows from the second season, featuring veteran stage actress Patricia Collinge, whose most memorable role was as young Charlie's mother in Hitchcock's favorite film, "Shadow of a Doubt." She portrays wealthy Adelaide Snow, who allows her young niece Lorna (Jessica Walter) and her husband of three months, Bruce Richmond (Don Chastain), to live in her expansive home, along with a multitude of cats. Adelaide is a widow who wants to do right by Lorna, and gets Bruce a job after bailing him out of a gambling debt her niece remains unaware of. Problems arise when Bruce gets caught by her aunt forging checks to cover further losses at the track, not wanting his loving wife to learn about his indiscretions. Adelaide turns her back on the unscrupulous Bruce, only to be suddenly locked in her own private vault, with no hope of escape, as everyone else has gone away for the weekend, including Bruce, who immediately leaves to join the already departed Lorna. Things look bleak for Adelaide, as her oxygen is running out, and only her beloved cat to keep her company. The fitting climax evokes memories of a certain Poe story, supported by an excellent cast, including George Macready, Anna Lee, and June Vincent. Patricia Collinge had only two dozen screen and television credits, of which this was followed only by a 1967 episode of N.Y.P.D. (she died in 1974). The always stunning Jessica Walter was only 23, and making just her sixth television appearance, still seven years away from her most famous role in 1971's "Play Misty for Me," opposite Clint Eastwood.
10 Reviews
A Storm for the Snowe Woman ***
edwagreen16 February 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I would have the rated the movie even more, but the ending appeared to be abrupt.
Hitchcock seemed to focus on old ladies caught up in serious situations and this episode is no exception.
Wealthy Adelaide's niece has married a young man who has a gambling problem and begins forging her name to checks that he has written in order to pay off his gambling debts.
When Adelaide finds out what is occurring, he locks her in a room with no ventilation. The rest of the show deals with her desperate attempts to get out, while others are unaware of her plight.
Collinge is very good. I remember her fondly as Aunt Birdie, the alcoholic aunt, in "The Little Foxes." She was nominated along with Teresa Wright for best supporting actress (1941. Both would lose to Mary Astor's "The Great Lie."
Hitchcock seemed to focus on old ladies caught up in serious situations and this episode is no exception.
Wealthy Adelaide's niece has married a young man who has a gambling problem and begins forging her name to checks that he has written in order to pay off his gambling debts.
When Adelaide finds out what is occurring, he locks her in a room with no ventilation. The rest of the show deals with her desperate attempts to get out, while others are unaware of her plight.
Collinge is very good. I remember her fondly as Aunt Birdie, the alcoholic aunt, in "The Little Foxes." She was nominated along with Teresa Wright for best supporting actress (1941. Both would lose to Mary Astor's "The Great Lie."
One Of My Favorite Hitch's
ellenirishellen-6296215 April 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Watched again,didn't remember much of the action.Remembered the cat lady,didn't remember the forgery.Knew Macready was an ally of Patricia Collinge.She was terrific,as usual.Thought Ruth,Hillary's wife was Ruth Warrick,soon to be a co-star of MacGeorge's in Peyton Place,but she was a June Vincent.The niece and her sleazy husband,Jessica Walter,pre-Play Misty For Me and Don Chastain,bound for soap opera stardom.Definitely an Edgar Allen Poe feel,what with the locked-in vault.Had thought Mrs Snow perished,glad she didn't.Will definitely review often,great show!
Solid
dougdoepke7 May 2015
Superior Hitch, tight, suspenseful, and ironical. Wastrel son-in-law Bruce (Chastain) has forged checks against his mother-in-law (Collinge) to pay a gambling debt. Now she's found him out and wonders what to do since it's a family matter. Meanwhile likable daughter Addie (Walter) knows nothing about what's going on. So what's Mom going to do, and maybe more importantly, what's a desperate Bruce going to do.
It's a real nail-biter once the suspense kicks in. Actor Chastain is new to me with not many credits (IMDB). Still, he's quite good here as a no-goodnik schemer whose sweat almost shows. Also, Walter's lovely with lots of décolletage, and catch their bedroom scene in swim clothes that I'll bet pushes the TV envelope even for 1964. Collinge is a long-standing Hitch favorite, especially for TV. Here it's easy to see why. Plus I like the irony with the blowing scraps of paper. Anyway, it's an hour that doesn't disappoint, with the great George Macready picking up an easy payday. Meanwhile, I'm suddenly off to give my cats a big bowl of goodies.
It's a real nail-biter once the suspense kicks in. Actor Chastain is new to me with not many credits (IMDB). Still, he's quite good here as a no-goodnik schemer whose sweat almost shows. Also, Walter's lovely with lots of décolletage, and catch their bedroom scene in swim clothes that I'll bet pushes the TV envelope even for 1964. Collinge is a long-standing Hitch favorite, especially for TV. Here it's easy to see why. Plus I like the irony with the blowing scraps of paper. Anyway, it's an hour that doesn't disappoint, with the great George Macready picking up an easy payday. Meanwhile, I'm suddenly off to give my cats a big bowl of goodies.
When She Married Mr. Snow
sneedsnood18 July 2015
Mrs. Snow, also known as Aunt Addie, is so rich she has a walk-in safe. She is a kind, pleasant lady played by the excellent Patricia Collinge, but she doesn't really care for her niece Lorna's brand new husband Bruce. He is played by the excellent Don Chastain, who never achieved quite the stardom people had anticipated -- he is a talented actor with a strong presence and chiseled, photogenic features, but luck and timing play their part. New wife and niece Lorna is played by Jessica Walters, beautiful of course, but always a little strong of jaw to be playing 1960's ingénues. This viewer enjoyed cocktails with Ms. Walters many decades ago, and of course she was very pleasant, but nothing could erase the indelible impression she made in her performance as frigid, bitchy Libby in "The Group," also made around this time. But back to Mrs. Snow, who finds herself in a claustrophobic situation thanks to the evil Bruce. As her ordeal unfolds, she is given to soliloquies that are delivered persuasively to her cat. These scenes are artfully handled, and Patricia Collinge pulls the viewer into sharing her mounting panic. This is neatly juxtaposed with scenes of sophisticated couples enjoying a stylish cocktail party, blissfully unaware of poor Mrs. Snow's ongoing ordeal. These scenes are also sharply photographed, and you may enjoy the 1960's cocktail dresses on display. It's all very chic, but it ends too abruptly, on a note of sudden revelation. That's all very arty, of course, but we really want the cathartic scene where we see what happens to Bruce. Nevertheless, this is one of the best written, best acted and best directed episodes of the series.
The Cat's Meow
volare1210 August 2022
"The Ordeal Of Mrs. Snow" is a good entry in the AHH series: suspenseful but not overly melodramatic, with interesting character conflicts and believable plot twists resulting from them. And, for animal lovers, it has cats! - two beautiful Siamese felines named Jack and Martha who are introduced at the very start as the pampered pets of wealthy widow Adelaide Snow. Adelaide (or Addie) is allowing her newly-married niece Lorna and nephew-in-law Bruce to live in her ritzy New York townhouse, but the situation is a bit awkward: Lorna is the beneficiary of her late father's will but does not have access to her inheritance for another year, while Bruce is from a humble background and, we learn, came into the marriage with some gambling debts, which Aunt Addie was willing to pay off for him, keeping it a secret from Lorna. Bruce currently works for Addie's financial advisor Hillary, but is anxious to move up in the world, and Lorna is frustrated at seeing him have to prove himself.
That's the initial setup, but things get really sticky when Bruce gets in financial straits again and Addie discovers he has forged her signature on checks in order to pay off his creditors. When she threatens to blow the whistle on him, he takes an impulsive action which puts her in real jeopardy. The subsequent suspense stems from seeing how it all will play out, and whether Addie will survive the life-threatening ordeal of the episode's title.
The writing and direction are very well done. A nice touch is that we experience the pivotal plot turn from Adelaide's POV only, making it more of a shock and heightening her realization of her circumstances. The tension is ratcheted up by cutting back and forth between Adelaide's desperate efforts to cope with her situation, and Bruce and Lorna partying with friends in the Hamptons (Lorna is unaware of her aunt's predicament but gradually begins to suspect that something is amiss back home). Also clever is how the cats' presence, incidental at first, becomes a crucial part of the story. And in a neat reversal, we get the climactic denouement from Bruce's POV. The ending, although fairly expected, still manages to hold a surprise and the resolution is left somewhat up in the air, which I actually like.
The acting is generally up to the series' high standard: Patricia Collinge is excellent as Adelaide, displaying the character's backbone as well as her fragility, and Jessica Walter adeptly navigates Lorna's slowly dawning realizations about her new husband. My one criticism is that Bruce is written a bit one-dimensionally as a villain, and Don Chastain's portrayal doesn't really add much depth. Still, this episode is very effective overall, and it's well worth catching.
That's the initial setup, but things get really sticky when Bruce gets in financial straits again and Addie discovers he has forged her signature on checks in order to pay off his creditors. When she threatens to blow the whistle on him, he takes an impulsive action which puts her in real jeopardy. The subsequent suspense stems from seeing how it all will play out, and whether Addie will survive the life-threatening ordeal of the episode's title.
The writing and direction are very well done. A nice touch is that we experience the pivotal plot turn from Adelaide's POV only, making it more of a shock and heightening her realization of her circumstances. The tension is ratcheted up by cutting back and forth between Adelaide's desperate efforts to cope with her situation, and Bruce and Lorna partying with friends in the Hamptons (Lorna is unaware of her aunt's predicament but gradually begins to suspect that something is amiss back home). Also clever is how the cats' presence, incidental at first, becomes a crucial part of the story. And in a neat reversal, we get the climactic denouement from Bruce's POV. The ending, although fairly expected, still manages to hold a surprise and the resolution is left somewhat up in the air, which I actually like.
The acting is generally up to the series' high standard: Patricia Collinge is excellent as Adelaide, displaying the character's backbone as well as her fragility, and Jessica Walter adeptly navigates Lorna's slowly dawning realizations about her new husband. My one criticism is that Bruce is written a bit one-dimensionally as a villain, and Don Chastain's portrayal doesn't really add much depth. Still, this episode is very effective overall, and it's well worth catching.
"It's hard enough to tell yourself you're a thief."
classicsoncall14 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
No real twist ending to this episode, we know Bruce Richmond (Don Chastain) locked Adelaide Snow (Patricia Collinge) in her rather large walk-in safe, and even though it was airtight, it didn't seem a stretch that she could survive up to a weekend through the ordeal. But what was he thinking anyway, like he could get away with the attempted murder? Good luck explaining how Mrs. Snow locked herself in, you had to spin the dial on the safe on the outside to get it locked. There were two close-ups of actor Richmond in which his face and brow were sweating profusely under conditions that didn't warrant it, so I guess you'd have to say his guilt over forging Mrs. Snow's personal checks were bearing on his conscience. The closing scene rather abruptly seals Bruce Richmond's fate, but unlike most of Hitchcock's programs, there was no irony to it. The thief got caught just as sure as if he wrote those checks in front of witnesses.
Another Cad Marries an Heiress
Hitchcoc21 May 2023
Once again a beautiful young woman marries a total jerk who is only after her money. She has a kind aunt who will be giving her her inheritance in a year, but the husband wants it now. He is gambler with people after him to pay off debts. He begins forging checks found in the aunt's desk. She doesn't like him but for the sake of her niece has tolerated, even helped him. When she discovers the forgeries she is going to blow the whistle. He locks her up in a personal safe which has no escape function. I have to say, I was always taken with Jessica Walter. She is so gorgeous as a young woman and even as an older one. I remember her being a hot to trot businesswoman on The Big Bang Theory. Many remember her as Clint Eastwood's adversary in Play Misty for Me.
Ho hum material, well done, botched TV safe ending
HEFILM15 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Another of producer Joan Harrison's high on soapy melodrama low on suspense episodes though this one moves better than some of her other ones. Adapted, in nothing special fashion, by future god-like writer Alvin Sargent and directed in better than usual fashion by director Robert Stevens but it's just not very good material. There is another Hithcock Hour episode that involves part of the same premise-trapping a character then leaving them to die-- but with a twist that's missing here.
Don Chastain did later become a soap opera actor and has that look, but he makes a good villain despite ultimately not really being given much to be a villain about, and Walter is good too, but there isn't much for them to do in the ball-less ending that belongs on a much more routine TV show than the Hitchcock shows usually were. All the acting is good as is typically the case on this series.
The show is tracked with music from other shows and there is one very melodramatic cue in the safe with the Aunt. It's Herrmann music but I don't think he would have ever used that music in that scene.
There are some nice expressive shots, and early on one nice long take involving Chastain that is effective, either these were called for in the script or by the director but they help for awhile anyway. However there is also a sort of fantasy sequence involving a toy boat that is poorly done. And the challenge to the show is to make the trapped in the safe scenes claustrophobic and visually interesting and that challenge isn't met very well. It probably doesn't help that we keep cutting away from the safe to various party and drinking scenes.
The ending is too abrupt and doesn't really make sense. To explain I will add a spoiler below.
SPOILER ALERT-- we don't really believe that the old lady is really dead so it's no surprise that she isn't and the fact that she leaves a clue that vanishes also then doesn't have any dramatic weight. It is also a bit like the black cat, in the resolution, but that just makes it more a lame ending. Too bad.
Don Chastain did later become a soap opera actor and has that look, but he makes a good villain despite ultimately not really being given much to be a villain about, and Walter is good too, but there isn't much for them to do in the ball-less ending that belongs on a much more routine TV show than the Hitchcock shows usually were. All the acting is good as is typically the case on this series.
The show is tracked with music from other shows and there is one very melodramatic cue in the safe with the Aunt. It's Herrmann music but I don't think he would have ever used that music in that scene.
There are some nice expressive shots, and early on one nice long take involving Chastain that is effective, either these were called for in the script or by the director but they help for awhile anyway. However there is also a sort of fantasy sequence involving a toy boat that is poorly done. And the challenge to the show is to make the trapped in the safe scenes claustrophobic and visually interesting and that challenge isn't met very well. It probably doesn't help that we keep cutting away from the safe to various party and drinking scenes.
The ending is too abrupt and doesn't really make sense. To explain I will add a spoiler below.
SPOILER ALERT-- we don't really believe that the old lady is really dead so it's no surprise that she isn't and the fact that she leaves a clue that vanishes also then doesn't have any dramatic weight. It is also a bit like the black cat, in the resolution, but that just makes it more a lame ending. Too bad.
Next time, if there is one, call the cops FIRST!
planktonrules27 May 2021
The IMDB summary is not quite correct....the man involved is NOT the niece's fiance but her husband, Bruce. It seems that Bruce married into a rich family and they don't realize that he's quite the rogue. Not only is he a gambling addict, but he's willing to do just about anything to satisfy this addiction. So, when Aunt Adelaide (Patricia Collinge) discovers that Bruce has been forging checks with her name on them in order to pay off gambling debts, she foolishly tells Bruce she's going to call the police. So, it's no surprise when he responds by trying to kill her by locking her into a walk-in-safe in her home. Nearly all of the episode consists of her being stuck and what happens during this time.
The idea of the episode is good....quite sound. But there are two big problems with it. First, this episode easily could have been one of the older half hour ones....at an hour, it just seemed drawn out and padded. Second, to help pad it, often they show the old lady in this safe talking to herself...again, obvious padding. As a result, they took what could have been an exceptional episode and made it a rather tepid one instead. In addition, at the end, why does Bruce act like he did? It didn't make a lot of sense.
The idea of the episode is good....quite sound. But there are two big problems with it. First, this episode easily could have been one of the older half hour ones....at an hour, it just seemed drawn out and padded. Second, to help pad it, often they show the old lady in this safe talking to herself...again, obvious padding. As a result, they took what could have been an exceptional episode and made it a rather tepid one instead. In addition, at the end, why does Bruce act like he did? It didn't make a lot of sense.
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