Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series) Mother, May I Go Out to Swim? (1960) User Reviews

Doesn't fall flat

[hte-trasme · 7/10 · 22 May 2010]

This "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode stars a young William Shatner as a character who in some ways is a little reminiscent of a version of Norman Bates from Hitchcock's own "Psycho," except that his mother is still alive and disapproves of his new fiancée.

Shatner gives a very good and somewhat indirectly creepy performance as a naive, rather childish fellow who is fiercely loyal to his mother and distraught over her disapproval of the girlfriend. In fact, a very satisfying sense of intangible unease is achieved in this teleplay; it plays well on the contrast from the facts that we know Shatner's character is a murderer from the start, and that we immediately pick up on his harmless good-boy character.

It's paced very well overall in its half-hour, and though the jump to the consideration of murder towards the end seems to happen too fast to be very believable, the twist at the end was good: I didn't expect it but it made perfect sense once I saw it. Jessie Royce Landis is clear without being broad as Claire, but Gia Scala seems rather stiff to me as the girlfriend, and her Italian accent doesn't really come off as very German. In all, though, a good piece of crime-anthology television.

Mom I want to get married!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 25 August 2018]

This "AHP" episode from 1960 is clever and it takes a twist at the end that you as the viewer might not see coming! Also it's special for it features some of the early works of the legendary William Shatner("T.J. Hooker"). Anyway Shatner stars as John a man who's attached to mom he's a mamma's boy, yet all of a sudden when John meets an international lady a new attractive woman named Lottie all of a sudden John wants away from mom. So after mom finds out about John's girlfriend a plan and a trip is thought up only things don't go as planned! Overall this episode take a twist it's memorable and clever with wit proving life is not always as it seems!

"Women sometimes do resent mothers of eligible young men."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 13 December 2021]

It's great catching William Shatner in TV programs prior to his breakout role as Captain Kirk in "Star Trek". I've seen him in episodes of 'Thriller', 'One Step Beyond' and 'Twilight Zone'. In this one he almost plays against type as a mamma's boy, in a creepy role that starts out with a sequence showing him at a coroner's inquest that could very well decide his fate in a murder investigation. Earlier he found himself caught between two women, his overbearing mother Claire (Jessie Royce Landis), and someone he could conceivably have spent the rest of his life with. When his fiancee Lottie (Gia Scala) puts her foot down on making some hard choices, the three of them agree to meet in a nice, serene location to come to an understanding. I have to tell you, the sight of the two women looking over the side of that steep hill had you wondering which one of them was going to push the other one over. As it turns out, John Crane (Shatner) made the decision for them, and in my case, I would have guessed wrong. To find out who, and the result of the inquest, you'll just have to watch the story. (Or read some of the other viewer comments).

Beam Her Up, Scottie

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 1 May 2023]

Having watched so many of these shows, I knew exactly what happened. William Shatner (John) is sitting, waiting for a decision on an indictment for murder. We then go into flashback. John lives with his mother in the most Oedipal of ways. She has latched on to him after the death of her husband. They have an intense (not sexual) relationship. He is comfortable and she makes sure he has what he wants. One day he goes to a gift shop to get some film for his camera and meets Lottie. She is pretty and mature and a survivor of the war. He falls for her but every time they're together, he needs to contact his mother. She knows what is going on and knows this will not work out. It's a really uncomfortable to watch. By the way, an enraged Shatner has a nearly Satanic look about him.

What's wrong with Lottie?

[glitterrose · 10/10 · 21 August 2022]

This is another enjoyable episode but veers into some bizarre directions at the same time. Our episode features on three characters: John, Claire, and Lottie. Claire is John's mother and they have an insanely close relationship that's more bizarre to me than anything. This episode is the right opposite of another episode that features Phyllis Thaxter's character dealing with issues concerning her mental health and she just feels more comfortable having her parents close to her. I can sympathize with that character while John and Claire just struck me as being on the odd side. I don't want to write it off as John's a momma's boy.

The episode has depth to it because it also shows the mother/son relationship in this episode isn't a healthy one in so many ways. Take notice of John limping when he's near his mother versus when he's not limping around Lottie. John was getting a taste of independence being away from his mother and being around Lottie.

I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself because I haven't talked about Lottie. Lottie is a lady John met and they're supposedly falling in love with each other. I don't really buy it tbh. Lottie's a very nice, smart and lovely looking lady. I don't see somebody that's the full package dealing with John for very long. Example: Lottie's spending time with John and he's constantly talking about Claire or being bothered that he's missed another phone call from Claire. I type all this and it makes me laugh thinking how this story would be in today's times with everybody having a cell phone. John would absolutely ignore Lottie completely in order to talk on his cell phone with his mom!

Claire's supposed to meet up with John after she's done visiting with her daughter, son in law and grandkids. I point out the scene where Claire's having her reunion with John and she looks bothered by wanting to know what John's been up to. Again, a lot of people will write this off as a mother NOT wanting to let her grown son grow up and live his own life. I feel like the mother was acting like a dumped girlfriend upset that her boyfriend has moved on and found another love. Claire even manages to track Lottie down at her place of employment and act very rude and dismissive to Lottie. At the time Lottie didn't even realize Claire is John's mom. Lottie's not too impressed when she finally meets Claire officially.

John and Lottie are talking about marriage. Lottie does at least know what's up during the episode. She talks about her feelings of John still living at home, the phone calls with Claire, etc. And this marriage? John can't even tell his mother he wants to marry Lottie! Lottie correctly tells John that he'll only get his freedom after Claire dies.

Earlier in the episode Lottie proudly shows off a waterfall she enjoys coming to. The three characters go to this waterfall at the end of the episode and John ends up pushing Lottie to her death. I really don't get a murderous vibe from Lottie. It might be a divided point between viewers but I don't think Lottie was planning on pushing Claire to her death or expecting John to do it either. The end of the episode features Lottie's death being ruled an accident. John looks to be limping worse than ever in this scene.

I appreciate the symbolism in this episode. Sometimes a parent can be quite toxic to a child, whether or not the child ever realizes it or not. John had it pointed out to him and he'll never act on it on his own in order to be anything other than Claire's adoring son.

COME SIT BY THE WATERFALL, PLEASE!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 15 February 2023]

William Shatner, in an early role, proved he was a fine actor and definitely had fun with this one. He made a smooth bad guy for one thing, (check out his appearances on such shows as COLUMBO and BARNABY JONES). You can chalk this up to early training, long before his heroic STAR TREK days.

The story behind it all is also intriguing. James Cavanagh wrote this episode, a total of 15, and may have had a few suggestions from Hitchcock himself. Popular actress Jessie Royce Landis plays Shatner's over protective mother, a very similar role she played (as Cary Grant's mom) in NORTH BY NORTH WEST a year earlier. I think what Hitch wanted to do was "experiment" with Jessie's role, pushing it up a notch. He accomplished his mission.

In this case, mother warns her homebody son of troubled waters ahead should he mix and mingle? Heaven forbid! In steps beautiful Gia Scala as the "new" lady in his life and comes the proverbial question.... who stays? Mother or friend?

Interestingly, Cavanagh originally wrote the first draft of PSYCHO for Hitch, all about a "mother complex," though he later turned the project over to horror specialist Robert Bloch.

An early role for Gia Scala, who was actually part Irish. She next appeared in the GUNS OF NAVARONE.

Watch this dynamic trio in action. There is no better casting.

SEASON 5 EPISODE 26 remastered CBS dvd box set. Keep an eye on prices for the box sets as they tend to fluctuate, particularly the later seasons, but they are out there.

Shatner is fine...the script is lackluster

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 12 April 2021]

John (William Shatner) is a mama's boy in every sense. Instead of moving out and getting on with his life, his mother had an apartment added on to the house. And, when he talks about his mother (Jessie Royce Landis) throughout the show, it seems very creepy, as he refers to how beautiful she is and calls her by her first name. This could pose a problem when John falls for Lotte (Gia Scala), as you just cannot imagine him or his mother letting go so easily when the subject of marriage is broached.

Although William Shatner is one who has been made fun of for his staccato delivery on "Star Trek", here he's very good and natural. The problem with the show actually has nothing to do with the acting but the plot...which had little in the way of a twist. An interesting story but with a poor resolution.

The loving Son

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 29 September 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Like a previous reviewer brought out the fact that William Shatner's John Crane is a lot like Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates' "Psycho" in this Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode. In that he's an uncontrollable mama's boy who has to choose between his control freak mother Claire, Jessie Royce Landis, and his "It's either my way or the Highway" girlfriend Lottie Rank,Gia Scala, a recent immigrant from West Germany. It's Lottie who John met while he was on vacation with his mom selling men's jewelry in Vermont and fell heads over heels for her. But it's his overbearing and over protective mom who wants to keep her boy John all to herself and share him with on one, man or women, else.

Mama goes so far out of way to cause friction and mess things up for John by her going to the store where Lottie works and bust her chops about how crummy the cuff-links are that she's displaying which Mama was looking to buy John for a birthday present.Things got so out of hand between Mama & Lottie that her son John prepared for them to meet at the waterfall that he and Lottie spent most of their time to make a peace settlement between the two and stop their fighting each other.

***SPOILERS***We already saw at the beginning of the episode that John was at an inquest in the death of someone that he claimed was an accident. By the end of the episode we finally get to see who his victim was due to process of elimination. And in him being the good and obedient son that he is it wasn't all that hard to see who his victim was and even more why he was acquitted of causing her death! In this case it didn't really matter who got killed since both-Mama & Lottie-were cut from the same cloth in trying to get the what seemed like feather and lame brain John to do their dirty work for each other. And it didn't matter whom John did in since either one of them deserved everything that they got.

Predictable and dull

[stevenfallonnyc77 · 3/10 · 27 November 2020]

You don't often find an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" that is so paint-by-numbers, but "Mother, May I Go Out to swim?" definitely fits that category.

William Shatner (whose TV work pre-Trek is always fun to watch) plays a pathetic spoiled mama's boy who can't seem to do anything without momma's approval. He meets a gorgeous woman working in a gift shop and they become tight, despite her doubts since he is a mama's boy after all. And mama herself, is an uppity, unlikable pretentious snob.

The "happy" couple have to tell mama that they are getting married, which of course leads to a "shock" ending. Only thing is, this "shock" ending is so predictable and something that you can see coming from miles away.

It's fun to watch Shatner act, and Gia Scala is absolutely gorgeous as his bride-to-be, she's the main reason to watch actually, she's stunning. Just don't expect too much else at all.