The Canary Sedan

Episode aired Jun 15, 1958
TV-14
30m

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

609

YOUR RATING

Jessica Tandy in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)

Crime Drama Mystery Thriller

A psychic buys a sedan after replacing its black exterior with canary yellow-which happened to be its original color. She soon discovers, however, there's much more to the sedan than just it... Read allA psychic buys a sedan after replacing its black exterior with canary yellow-which happened to be its original color. She soon discovers, however, there's much more to the sedan than just its hidden color.A psychic buys a sedan after replacing its black exterior with canary yellow-which happened to be its original color. She soon discovers, however, there's much more to the sedan than just its hidden color.

Director
- Robert Stevens
Writers
- Stirling Silliphant
- Ann Bridge
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

609

YOUR RATING

Director
- Robert Stevens
Writers
- Stirling Silliphant
- Ann Bridge
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Jessica Tandy's husband, Hume Cronyn, starred in the next episode, The Impromptu Murder.

Quotes
[introduction - Hitchcock stands in front of a dusty screen]
Self - Host: Good evening, ladies and - Please don't adjust your sets. I think the picture tube needs... little dusting.
[Hitchcock wipes the dust off the screen when a gong rings and another Hitchcock appears]
Alfred, Genie of the Lamp: What is your wish, o master?
Self - Host: Who are you?
Alfred, Genie of the Lamp: I am Alfred, the genie of the lamp.
Self - Host: Why, my name's Alfred, too!
Alfred, Genie of the Lamp: Why is it, master, that when you can have any wish you desire, you prefer small talk?
Self - Host: Any wish I desire?
Alfred, Genie of the Lamp: If you want me, rub the lamp.
[Hitchcock rubs the screen again and, at the sound of the gong, Genie Alfred reappears]
Self - Host: How long have you been in that tube?
Alfred, Genie of the Lamp: Master, you have a mania for the unimportant. I have been there for years. No one ever dusts and whoever heard of a genie conjured up by a vacuum cleaner? And now, master, the wish. And remember the words of Allah: "Think big."
Self - Host: But what I want is priceless.
Alfred, Genie of the Lamp: Nothing is too great. Diamonds. Rubies.
Self - Host: This will be too much to ask.
Alfred, Genie of the Lamp: Master! The wish! The wish!
[Hitchcock rubs the screen again]
Self - Host: Give me a commercial! Give me a commercial!

Connections
Remade as Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Canary Sedan (1986)

Soundtracks
Funeral March of a Marionette
Written by Charles Gounod

User reviews11

Featured review

5/10

A mystery in Hong Kong

Robert Stevens' Season 3 episodes were mostly solid, with three great ones in "The Glass Eye", "Heart of Gold" and "The Motive". Only "Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty" didn't do much for me as far as his previous episodes for the season go. "The Canary Sedan" is also the third and last outing for Jessica Tandy, the others being "Toby" and "The Glass Eye" (both of which she was marvellous in and both also directed by Stevens). Did like the premise here, which is very Hitchcockian sounding and that is a great thing.

"The Canary Sedan" however could have been better than it was. It is far from being one of the worst episodes of Season 3 (a season that started off incredibly strongly but became inconsistent a third of the way in), but it is also a long way from being one of the best. Did think though that it was one of the more disappointing ones in how it did not near enough with the great potential it had, such a good premise and the execution was not fully realised. Of Stevens' Season 3 episodes, only "Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty" was weaker.

Certainly there are good things. Tandy is truly excellent, alluring, tense and affecting and her character was very interesting psychologically. Hitchcock's bookending is amusingly ironic. The episode does start off very intriguingly.

Did also find the settings very striking in one of the better looking episodes of Season 3, and while the photography is conventional it is also slick and framed with a lot of care. The audio is atmospheric enough and "Funeral March of a Marionette" is such an inspired and haunting choice of theme music.

However, "The Canary Sedan" could have been better. Story-wise, it never really came to life and was in real need of a lot more suspense, the second half sounded from the synopsis that it was going to be full of it but actually felt a bit dragged out and safe. More could have been done with the psychological aspect of it, the set up is intriguing and neat but it isn't fully explored and is not insightful enough.

Stevens' direction is competent but also undistinguished. The script could have been tauter, as it can be too talky, and not felt as over-heated. The ending, while not expected, was to me too abrupt and inconclusive in an episode that had a story in need of a resolution, instead of the incomplete feeling damp squib one we got.

Overall, watchable but a bit mixed. 5/10.