The most horrifying aspect of this story is speculating that college professor Donald Mason (Don Taylor) would actually strangle a fourteen month old baby. Bad enough he killed his student lover when she threatened to expose him if he didn't marry her. You couldn't have put two and two together any easier if you were a cop investigating the murder, but somehow police sergeant Waggoner (Harry Bellaver) was poor at math. Mason would have been a prime suspect in anybody else's book considering all the clues the detective had to work with. I'm surprised he took Mason's confession at the end of the story. That whole business about the baby being able to identify Mason as a killer was way too much of a stretch for any semblance of credibility. What would authorities have done - put the kid on a witness stand at two years old?
9 Reviews
Don Taylor: Not Shaped For Sportive Tricks.
rmax30482318 April 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Taylor is an English professor and we meet him while he's reading excerpts from Richard III to his class. He lends the lines no drama but that doesn't prevent the innocent and lovely Dolores Hart from waiting until the other students have left the room and telling him that she'll meet him at "the usual place" tonight.
This isn't as unusual as it may sound. I was a professor and this happened to me all the time. Beautiful young girls would throw themselves at my feet and beg to be my slaves. But, unlike Don Taylor, I had probity enough to send them packing. Good thing they didn't all look like Dolores Hart or I might have weakened.
Taylor meets Hart at the house next door to his, where she is baby sitting. He wants to break it off but she wants him to marry her, and her plea sounds desperate enough to make one wonder if she is, how you say, "in trouble"? Not that it matters because he strangles her anyway, and right in front of the little baby in its crib, who starts crying during the act.
Then it gets a little silly. Taylor gets the idea that the baby has seen the murder and, when he's old enough to talk, he's going to blab to the cops. Then one day the baby utters its first word -- "Dada." That's silly too. More likely it was a labial like "Mama" or "Ama." That's a linguistic universal. In any case, it seems the baby is beginning to talk.
Throughout, Taylor has worn this dyspeptic expression, sometimes adding an additional twinge, as if bothered by an ulcer. He drips with guilt. Finally he surrenders himself to the police. From a practical point of view, not a moral one, he needn't have. A baby that's only a few months old doesn't yet have the neural network that allows it to remember anything much until about the age of four or five.
Dolores Hart was usually a "good girl" in the few movies I saw her in, but extremely appealing in her fresh-faced beauty. She dropped out and became a nun. I hope she found spiritual fulfillment because it was a loss to movie audiences.
This isn't as unusual as it may sound. I was a professor and this happened to me all the time. Beautiful young girls would throw themselves at my feet and beg to be my slaves. But, unlike Don Taylor, I had probity enough to send them packing. Good thing they didn't all look like Dolores Hart or I might have weakened.
Taylor meets Hart at the house next door to his, where she is baby sitting. He wants to break it off but she wants him to marry her, and her plea sounds desperate enough to make one wonder if she is, how you say, "in trouble"? Not that it matters because he strangles her anyway, and right in front of the little baby in its crib, who starts crying during the act.
Then it gets a little silly. Taylor gets the idea that the baby has seen the murder and, when he's old enough to talk, he's going to blab to the cops. Then one day the baby utters its first word -- "Dada." That's silly too. More likely it was a labial like "Mama" or "Ama." That's a linguistic universal. In any case, it seems the baby is beginning to talk.
Throughout, Taylor has worn this dyspeptic expression, sometimes adding an additional twinge, as if bothered by an ulcer. He drips with guilt. Finally he surrenders himself to the police. From a practical point of view, not a moral one, he needn't have. A baby that's only a few months old doesn't yet have the neural network that allows it to remember anything much until about the age of four or five.
Dolores Hart was usually a "good girl" in the few movies I saw her in, but extremely appealing in her fresh-faced beauty. She dropped out and became a nun. I hope she found spiritual fulfillment because it was a loss to movie audiences.
Teacher's Pet
sol-kay12 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** Trying to break off his hot and heavy affair with one of his sexy students Claudia Powell, Dolores Hart,English Professor Donald Mason, Don Taylor, tries to get her to see the situation that he's in if he drops his old lady-wife-Nancy played by Pat Hitchcock in order to marry her. It would mean both career suicide as well as disgrace among his colleagues in the field of higher education.
It's when Claudia, who's baby sitting next door at the Davidson house, threatens to expose his affair with her to Pat, who's away at the time, that Prof.Mason loses it. With a crazed and wild look in his eyes Mason attacks and strangles Claudia to death! It's later that Mason realized that the Davidson's 14 month old daughter saw him murder Claudia! And in his crazed and unbalanced mind Mason is sure that the child when she grows up can finger him in Claudia's murder! Where did Mason get this crazy idea from in the first place? From non other then the policeman in charge of the murder investigation Sgt.Waggoner, Harry Bellaver.
Not knowing what to do Mason starts to snoop around, like thief in the night, the Davidson residence in an effort to find out exactly what the Davidson's 14 month old daughter knows about the crime that she saw him commit. At one point Mason bakes into the house and is almost caught by the police when Mrs. Davidson, Mercedes Shirley, called them reporting a prowler. With both his conscience as well as fear of soon getting arrested working on him Mason finally does the right thing and turns himself over to the police to face the music in his killing of Claudia Powell.
***SPOILERS*** What convinced Mason that the 14 year old Davidson infant knows that he murdered Claudia was that she started to cry uncontrollably whenever he got near her! It's only later that we realize that the baby starts to cry whenever anyone but her mother came near her! Even her father Capt. Davidson, William Boyett, who was away all this time overseas since she was born!
P.S Ironically cast in this "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode are actors Don Taylor and Harry Bellaver. Both were in the movie as well as TV series "The Naked City"! Taylor in the 1948 film noir classic and Bellaver in the hit TV series of the late 1950's and early 60's and both played policemen!
It's when Claudia, who's baby sitting next door at the Davidson house, threatens to expose his affair with her to Pat, who's away at the time, that Prof.Mason loses it. With a crazed and wild look in his eyes Mason attacks and strangles Claudia to death! It's later that Mason realized that the Davidson's 14 month old daughter saw him murder Claudia! And in his crazed and unbalanced mind Mason is sure that the child when she grows up can finger him in Claudia's murder! Where did Mason get this crazy idea from in the first place? From non other then the policeman in charge of the murder investigation Sgt.Waggoner, Harry Bellaver.
Not knowing what to do Mason starts to snoop around, like thief in the night, the Davidson residence in an effort to find out exactly what the Davidson's 14 month old daughter knows about the crime that she saw him commit. At one point Mason bakes into the house and is almost caught by the police when Mrs. Davidson, Mercedes Shirley, called them reporting a prowler. With both his conscience as well as fear of soon getting arrested working on him Mason finally does the right thing and turns himself over to the police to face the music in his killing of Claudia Powell.
***SPOILERS*** What convinced Mason that the 14 year old Davidson infant knows that he murdered Claudia was that she started to cry uncontrollably whenever he got near her! It's only later that we realize that the baby starts to cry whenever anyone but her mother came near her! Even her father Capt. Davidson, William Boyett, who was away all this time overseas since she was born!
P.S Ironically cast in this "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode are actors Don Taylor and Harry Bellaver. Both were in the movie as well as TV series "The Naked City"! Taylor in the 1948 film noir classic and Bellaver in the hit TV series of the late 1950's and early 60's and both played policemen!
But She Smiles So Sweetly
dougdoepke5 May 2009
Warning: Spoilers
The plot device here seems pretty far-fetched-that a baby would be able to articulate what it had seen before it learned to talk or that crying in the presence of the culprit (Taylor) would necessarily tip off his guilt. If you can get past those stretches, the episode has some interest. Tall, handsome Don Taylor is a college professor with a rather dowdy wife Pat Hitchcock, so it's not surprising that he hooks up with winsome young student Dolores Hart. The trouble is Hart's not content with after-school playtime and wants to become the new Mrs. In Taylor's life. That of course would ruin his career. So, this being Hitchcock, Taylor takes a rather un-professorial way out by wringing Dolores' lovely neck. Too bad there is a witness.
Actually, my interest was sparked by seeing professional good girl Hart in what may be her only villainous role before eventually leaving Hollywood to become a real professional good girl, a Catholic nun! There's a reason producers paired the then controversial Elvis with Ms. Hart in two of his first starring roles (Loving You, 1957; King Creole, 1958). Few young actresses of the day were able to project the sweet, unforced wholesomeness that she could. She made Elvis appear available to any girl in the audience, and more importantly, in a way parents would approve. Thus, seeing her here smiling sweetly while threatening to ruin Taylor's career is like seeing Mary Poppins shake-down a sidewalk Santa. But she does it well, looking wholesomely innocent the entire time. Somehow, I suspect she enjoyed the departure.
Actually, my interest was sparked by seeing professional good girl Hart in what may be her only villainous role before eventually leaving Hollywood to become a real professional good girl, a Catholic nun! There's a reason producers paired the then controversial Elvis with Ms. Hart in two of his first starring roles (Loving You, 1957; King Creole, 1958). Few young actresses of the day were able to project the sweet, unforced wholesomeness that she could. She made Elvis appear available to any girl in the audience, and more importantly, in a way parents would approve. Thus, seeing her here smiling sweetly while threatening to ruin Taylor's career is like seeing Mary Poppins shake-down a sidewalk Santa. But she does it well, looking wholesomely innocent the entire time. Somehow, I suspect she enjoyed the departure.
COULD SOMEONE PLEASE CHECK ON THE BABY?
tcchelsey9 December 2022
Robert C. Dennis wrote this cult episode, long time writer for Hitch, who later would move on to Warner Brothers/ABC tv to write many classic tv shows, such as 77 SUNSET STRIP. He could spin a tale.
A salute here to Mother Dolores Hart, who a few years later, would set Hollywood upside down and give it all up to become a nun in Connecticut. She said it was her calling, even if one of her leading men was Elvis.
An exercise in shear paranoia, all about a college professor (Don Taylor) who has an affair with a student, resulting in that dreaded soap opera word -- BLACKMAIL. If that would be his only problem of the day. He has no choice but to kill his mistress, and almost gets away with it, if not for a crying baby and his imagination? Watch how all this all unfolds in true Hitchcock style. A work of art.
The opening with Hitch behind bars (and in stripes!) is a hoot.
Pat Hitchcock plays Taylor's wife caught up in the scandal and is very good. Pat was a respected actress in her own right.
Watch her in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951), in a small but excellent role.
Superbly directed by Paul Henreid (CASABLANCA) who gets the most from this cast, even the child in question.
As of (2024) Mother Dolores is now in her mid 80s, and made a special appearance at the 2012 Oscar ceremonies when a short film all about her life was nominated for an Academy Award. She also made a special trip to Hollywood in 2006 to shed light on a neorological problem that affected her in later life.
SEASON 2 remastered Universal dvd box set. 5 dvds. 17 hrs. 2007.
A salute here to Mother Dolores Hart, who a few years later, would set Hollywood upside down and give it all up to become a nun in Connecticut. She said it was her calling, even if one of her leading men was Elvis.
An exercise in shear paranoia, all about a college professor (Don Taylor) who has an affair with a student, resulting in that dreaded soap opera word -- BLACKMAIL. If that would be his only problem of the day. He has no choice but to kill his mistress, and almost gets away with it, if not for a crying baby and his imagination? Watch how all this all unfolds in true Hitchcock style. A work of art.
The opening with Hitch behind bars (and in stripes!) is a hoot.
Pat Hitchcock plays Taylor's wife caught up in the scandal and is very good. Pat was a respected actress in her own right.
Watch her in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951), in a small but excellent role.
Superbly directed by Paul Henreid (CASABLANCA) who gets the most from this cast, even the child in question.
As of (2024) Mother Dolores is now in her mid 80s, and made a special appearance at the 2012 Oscar ceremonies when a short film all about her life was nominated for an Academy Award. She also made a special trip to Hollywood in 2006 to shed light on a neorological problem that affected her in later life.
SEASON 2 remastered Universal dvd box set. 5 dvds. 17 hrs. 2007.
Could This Guy Be any Dumber?
Hitchcoc21 June 2013
I was fine with the two-timing professor and his little sociopath student fling. This story has been told a million times. The murder is certainly a solution since he has done everything he can to get his sorry butt out of this situation. He would have been a suspect (he had contact with the girl; she was next door when it happened) regardless of his stupid belief that the baby would turn him in once she started talking. There's an old joke about people who were taking French lessons so they would be able to understand their adopted French baby when she began to talk. When the investigator plants the absurd seed that the observances of an infant can be absorbed and articulated have no basis in any science that I know. What does the guy plan. Is he going to strangle the baby or poison it? He almost gets caught on the neighbor's porch, hovering over the child. I'm sorry. This is one of those episodes where the writer must have turned in his manuscript after thinking things over for a total of five minutes.
Witness of death
TheLittleSongbird7 September 2022
Paul Henreid was the second most prolific director for 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', the most being Robert Stevens. None of the regular directors for the series were consistent, with pretty much all of them having a mix of very good and more and not particularly good episodes. As well as the second most prolific director, Henreid was also one of the more variable in terms of episode quality. This is obvious in his previous two entries, both in Season 2, with the disappointing "Vicious Circle" and the very good "A Little Sleep".
"Silent Witness" unfortunately returns to the disappointing standard and is closer to the quality of "Vicious Circle" (except with a far sillier premise) than to "A Little Sleep". It is the first disappointment of Season 3, which was actually very good up to this point with me really liking to loving all the previous episodes, and one of the weaker episodes of the first quarter of the season. It does nothing to make a not particularly plausible premise any more probable and is even less interesting than it sounds. The acting is on the whole fine but the story execution just wasn't there.
The best aspect is the acting. Dolores Hart allures and Patricia Hitchcock is a strong presence too. Don Taylor's role can be preposterous and not as sinister as it ought to have been, but he does do his conscientious best and is suitably intense. Hitchcock's bookending is suitably ironic and he delivers it drolly.
It is moodily and slickly filmed and the audio has the right amount of atmosphere. The theme music is great. It starts off quite well.
For all those good things, "Silent Witness" could have been so much better than it turned out. The script is too talky and the pace could have been a lot tighter. Henreid's direction is undistinguished and fails to generate any tension.
Worst of all is the story, it is not an appealing or easy to swallow premise to begin with but the storytelling is beyond far fetched and silly for reasons already given and lacks any kind of tension and suspense. There are a lot of vague and what the heck-inducing character decisions, and the way Taylor's character behaves is dumb and borderline improbable. Which really trivialises any menace the character could have had. The ending is a real let down, such a shame that the season went from the previous episode's knockout twist to one of the series' most far fetched copouts.
Overall, didn't really do it for me. 5/10.
"Silent Witness" unfortunately returns to the disappointing standard and is closer to the quality of "Vicious Circle" (except with a far sillier premise) than to "A Little Sleep". It is the first disappointment of Season 3, which was actually very good up to this point with me really liking to loving all the previous episodes, and one of the weaker episodes of the first quarter of the season. It does nothing to make a not particularly plausible premise any more probable and is even less interesting than it sounds. The acting is on the whole fine but the story execution just wasn't there.
The best aspect is the acting. Dolores Hart allures and Patricia Hitchcock is a strong presence too. Don Taylor's role can be preposterous and not as sinister as it ought to have been, but he does do his conscientious best and is suitably intense. Hitchcock's bookending is suitably ironic and he delivers it drolly.
It is moodily and slickly filmed and the audio has the right amount of atmosphere. The theme music is great. It starts off quite well.
For all those good things, "Silent Witness" could have been so much better than it turned out. The script is too talky and the pace could have been a lot tighter. Henreid's direction is undistinguished and fails to generate any tension.
Worst of all is the story, it is not an appealing or easy to swallow premise to begin with but the storytelling is beyond far fetched and silly for reasons already given and lacks any kind of tension and suspense. There are a lot of vague and what the heck-inducing character decisions, and the way Taylor's character behaves is dumb and borderline improbable. Which really trivialises any menace the character could have had. The ending is a real let down, such a shame that the season went from the previous episode's knockout twist to one of the series' most far fetched copouts.
Overall, didn't really do it for me. 5/10.
An okay episode.
planktonrules8 March 2021
Professor Mason (Don Taylor) has been a bad boy....a VERY bad boy. It seems that he's been having an affair with one of his college students...and Claudia (Delores Hart) is starting to make demands on him. This is a serious problem, as the Professor is married...and wants to keep his marriage to Nancy (Patricia Hitchcock) intact. So, he does what a philandering scum-bag does in a situation like this...he decides to kill the girl! And, it turns out the only witness is a toddler.
Pat Hitchcock appeared not only in this episode but quite a few others in the series. And, although some might see it as nepotism, she usually did a very good job in the ten episodes in which she appeared. She also appeared in a few films and TV shows not associated with her famous father, Alfred.
So is this any good? It's only okay. The notion that a 14 month-old could identify a killer is pretty far-fetched. And the twist, well, isn't all that interesting. An okay episode that SHOULD have been more interesting.
Pat Hitchcock appeared not only in this episode but quite a few others in the series. And, although some might see it as nepotism, she usually did a very good job in the ten episodes in which she appeared. She also appeared in a few films and TV shows not associated with her famous father, Alfred.
So is this any good? It's only okay. The notion that a 14 month-old could identify a killer is pretty far-fetched. And the twist, well, isn't all that interesting. An okay episode that SHOULD have been more interesting.
alfred h., come on
tdero26 May 2022
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