Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series)

Momentum (1956)

Alfred Hitchcock: Self - Host

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Alfred Hitchcock : Did you ever have the feeling that you were being watched?

  [Hitchcock glances behind at a large eye above him on the wall] 

  Alfred Hitchcock : Observe closely. No eyelid. He never sleeps. Obviously, an ideal audience. Unfortunately, he doesn't watch television. That's true. He isn't watching me, he's watching you, to see if you're watching me. Please don't misunderstand. I love television, as a performer, that is.

  [gestures briefly with his finger] 

  Alfred Hitchcock : But I feel the wrong person is being paid. Actors receive salaries, but their viewers, the people who do the really hard work, don't make a cent. It seems to me that television is exactly like a gun.

  [Hitchcock pulls out a revolver and points it at the camera] 

  Alfred Hitchcock : Your enjoyment of it is determined by which end of it you're on.

  [holds the gun in both hands] 

  Alfred Hitchcock : Tonight, we plan to tell a story about this gun and what a very ordinary man did with it in the course of 24 hours.

• [last lines] 

  Alfred Hitchcock : Very educational. Next week, we shall return with another story.

  [camera pulls out to show the large eye on the wall behind Hitchcock] 

  Alfred Hitchcock : I suggest you join us. It might be unwise to disappoint Big Brother.

  [Hitchcock glances back at the eye nervously]