The Glass Eye (6 Oct. 1957)

While cleaning out the apartment of his dead sister Julia, Jim Whitely comes across a strange glass eye and tells to his wife the story of how his sister acquired it. Julia had fallen in ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Stevens

Writers:

Stirling Silliphant (teleplay), John Keir Cross (story)

Stars:

Alfred Hitchcock, Jessica Tandy, Tom Conway

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Alfred Hitchcock	...	Himself - Host
Jessica Tandy	...	Julia Lester
Tom Conway	...	Max Collodi
Rosemary Harris	...	Dorothy Whitely
William Shatner	...	Jim Whitely
Patricia Hitchcock	...	Saleslady (as Pat Hitchcock)
Arthur Gould-Porter	...	Hotel Manager (as A.E. Gould-Porter)
Billy Barty	...	George
Nelson Welch	...	Emcee
Colin Campbell	...	Old Man
Paul Playdon	...	Allan

Storyline

While cleaning out the apartment of his dead sister Julia, Jim Whitely comes across a strange glass eye and tells to his wife the story of how his sister acquired it. Julia had fallen in love with a famous ventriloquist named Max Collodi. She had been to all his performances and had sent letters requesting to meet him. One day, Max agreed to meet her. She arrived to his hotel room and found him sitting in darkness with his small dummy George. As they talked, Julia tried to touch Max. She screamed as his body fell to the floor and one of his glass eyes fell rolling on the carpet. George stood up and angrily asked her to leave. It was Max who was the dummy and George was the ventriloquist.

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Plot Keywords:

dummy | glass eye | ventriloquist | theater poster | tip | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 October 1957 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Republic Studios - 4024 Radford Avenue, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shamley Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Twilight Zone: The Dummy (1962)

User Reviews

A lonely spinster falls in love with a ventriloquist

I think this is the best episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." It shows Hitchcock's mastery with lighting and staging. Unlike the previous reviewer, I did not find Jessica Tandy too attractive for the part of a lonely spinster. The ventriloquist, Tom Conway, is managed so that he becomes a plausible object onto which a lonely woman might project her romantic illusions. As the narrative builds, the point of view is quietly shifted to conceal the reversal on which the climax depends. The framed tale-within-a-tale tacitly contrasts to the bizarre love story in the main plot and unobtrusively negotiates the distance between the viewer and the upsetting revelation that effects the turn. My one quarrel is the facile attempt by voice over at pathos in the last scene, but this brief coda does not detract from the power of the main sequence.