"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" The Older Sister (1956)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Robert Stevens

Writers:

Robert C. Dennis (teleplay)
Lillian de la Torre (story)

TV Series:

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955)

Original Air Date:

22 January 1956 (Season 1, Episode 17)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

One year after Mr. and Mrs. Borden were brutally murdered, a reporter tries to interview Lizzie Borden and her sister Emma about the killings.

Plot Keywords:

Sister | Reporter | Newspaper | Interview | Female Reporter

Cast

Alfred Hitchcock	...	Himself - Host
Joan Lorring	...	Emma Borden
Carmen Mathews	...	Lizzie Borden
Polly Rowles	...	Nell Cutts
Patricia Hitchcock	...	Margaret (as Pat Hitchcock)
Wendy Winkelman	...	Little Child (as Wendy Winkleman)
Kay Stewart	...	Grace

Runtime:

USA:30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Shamley Productions

Quotes:

Himself - Host: Did she seem a trifle overwrought to you? She did to me. But then I react in precisely the same way whenever I hear a child singing Davy Crockett. Being more civilized than Lizzie, I don't go about hitting tables. I hit the child instead, not with the ax of course but in a nice way.

A Tense & Very Interesting Take on the Lizzie Borden Case

This episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" offers a tense and very interesting take on the notorious Lizzie Borden case, with a good cast and a carefully-crafted script. The gruesome, fascinating historical mystery is in itself a natural for the series, but this episode also adds psychology and depth to the story. Even though Hitchcock himself did not write or direct the episode, it is one of many examples of the keen eye that he and his associates had for material that would work especially well in the anthology show's format.

Adapted from a story by Lillian De La Torre, the plot picks up a year after the bloody killing of Mr. and Mrs. Borden. Lizzie and her sister Emma, still living in the same house, are visited by a pushy reporter who is determined to get something new for her paper. The story then uses this setup to present its own interesting theory about the crime.

It's pretty resourceful in using the reporter's ruthless badgering of Emma to review the historical facts of the case, rather than presenting them in a dry exposition. The reporter also clearly relishes each horrifying detail, an interesting way of 'allowing' the audience to experience a macabre thrill along with her, even as they sympathize with the panic-stricken Emma.

The small, all-female cast performs quite well, with Carmen Mathews giving Lizzie an icy self-control, and Joan Lorring even better as the delicate, troubled Emma. Pat Hitchcock also appears in a smaller role as their frightened housemaid. The episode is quite interesting, both for the tense situation that it sets up and for the well-conceived psychological portraits of the two sisters.