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Laura Bowlby is a psychic who wants to visit her husband in Hong Kong. She is picked up by a chauffeur in a black sedan. Laura Bowlby says she does not like the color and would prefer a canary yellow one instead. This remark shocks the driver since the car was once canary yellow before a recent paint job. Inside the car, Laura begins to hear a woman's voice. The voice tells Laura about a passionate affair. Laura longs for such passion in her life because her husband James is quite unromantic and cold. After some research, Laura find the grave of the woman who has been talking to her. She looks at the gravestone and is unpleasantly surprised to see the initials of the dead woman and the initials of her own husband, James. Written by
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Rather slender episode that really serves as a showcase for Tandy. Laura (Tandy) is the gentile wife of an Englishman (Matheson), traveling to meet him at his post in Hong Kong. Nothing unusual here except she's also gifted with psychic powers made clear in a good setup scene aboard ship.
Once in the Orient, she begins to hear a woman's voice inside a rented car formerly owned by the mysterious woman. The woman speaks of a passionate affair that soon arouses Laura's envy since her own marriage is relatively loveless. But who is this mystery woman and what does her disembodied voice portend.
The entry makes good use of exotic Hong Kong locales to frame the strange occurrences. However, I wish director Stevens had aimed at creepier visuals in place of a more conventional style. To create an appropriate atmosphere, the weird sound of a theramin is used instead. But to me, that woo-woo is just too cheesy and obvious, especially for a quality series like Hitchcock.
Anyway, the 30-minutes ends in a strongly ironical payoff, and is also a good chance to catch one of the most respected actresses of the period.