Sometimes an episode seems so dumb. Of course, before long you come to realize that the whole thing was done tongue in cheek. This is about the crazy frenetic daughter of a wealthy family. She has murdered her "lover," a schoolmaster and now the family has to deal with it by covering it up. As far as basic morality goes, there's not much to go around in this presentation. They eventually invite a beloved family friend and decide to set him up for the crime. Meanwhile, the daughter, who gyrates and howls, continues to make outrageous statements, bothering everyone. If you want a primer on overacting, watch this. Still, she steals every scene she's in. Don't take this one very seriously and you'll enjoy it a lot more.
17 Reviews
Weak start to Season 2
Archbishop_Laud3 July 2013
AH Presents has a handful of settings it rotated through, and this is one of them: upper class twits on the prowl. It becomes apparent early on that a Father is coaching his family on how to cover up a socially-inconvenient murder. The daughter is an irritating pool of tears. IMDb shows the actress as having only about half a dozen jobs in her life. Understandable.
But Cedric Hardwicke isn't bad as faah-ther (AH used him in Rope), and the great John Williams appears. I kind of like the calculating mendacity of the dad. I didn't get the ending at first as my attention was drifting.
Not a good start to Season 2.
But Cedric Hardwicke isn't bad as faah-ther (AH used him in Rope), and the great John Williams appears. I kind of like the calculating mendacity of the dad. I didn't get the ending at first as my attention was drifting.
Not a good start to Season 2.
"Just a theoretical little murder, you know."
classicsoncall3 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
When it takes Alfred Hitchcock himself to explain the outcome of the story in his epilogue, you know it wasn't a satisfying episode. The same was the case for a Season One entry titled 'Whodunit'. All the while watching, I'm asking myself why Tita Purdom was cast as the killer of an unrequited suitor; her performance was extraordinary on the bad side. Hitchcock must have wanted to get this one over quickly because he actually directed the episode, but you have to wonder what he was thinking. At the finale, the meticulous Mr. Princey (Cedric Hardwicke) stated that he successfully didn't leave any loose ends dangling, but apparently he wasn't let in on Hitch's sidebar. Smollett (John Williams) talked to the police, Millicent (Purdom) broke down, and this would have been cool to see on screen, clubbed her father with the croquet mallet! I wonder if they slid him down the sewer drain.
A Strange One
telegonus22 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Wet Saturday is a strange entry from the Hitchcock Present series, especially as it was the first episode of the second season as well as directed by the Master himself. I can't say it's one of the better episodes of the series but it's an awfully peculiar one, played for laughs; but British laughs are different from American ones, and Americans might be put off by its, well, dryness, the title and climatic conditions featured in the episode notwithstanding.
The story is both complex and slight, and has to do, as Hitchcock stories so often do, with the transference of guilt, in this case more literal than figurative, as the character upon whom the transference is done is innocent of the crime he is being set up to have been the perpetrator of. That he is also a policeman must have been a major attraction for the director when he chose to adapt John Collier's story, as Hitchcock was famously afraid of the police.
There's a tongue in cheek undercurrent to this episode, as is evident in the way over the top performance by the obscure young actress who plays the guilty party, whose overacting could make Bette Davis look like a sleepwalker. Not for all tastes, this entry itself seems to have had its tone transferred from the work of another British director, James Whale, who was still alive when it was made but long since retired from making films.
The story is both complex and slight, and has to do, as Hitchcock stories so often do, with the transference of guilt, in this case more literal than figurative, as the character upon whom the transference is done is innocent of the crime he is being set up to have been the perpetrator of. That he is also a policeman must have been a major attraction for the director when he chose to adapt John Collier's story, as Hitchcock was famously afraid of the police.
There's a tongue in cheek undercurrent to this episode, as is evident in the way over the top performance by the obscure young actress who plays the guilty party, whose overacting could make Bette Davis look like a sleepwalker. Not for all tastes, this entry itself seems to have had its tone transferred from the work of another British director, James Whale, who was still alive when it was made but long since retired from making films.
The perfect crime framed by a prime mind falls apart just for left loose ends!!!
elo-equipamentos23 December 2022
Extremely sarcastic Hitchcock opening the episode suggesting an American trademark displaying a teapot, teacups and sugar blow that comprising actually a great British hallmark, whereof the viewers will understanding at closing when Hitch returns and tricks us in usual manner.
The episode has Sir Cedric Hardwicke and the regular guest John William about a murder committed by a disturbed girl Millicent Princey (Tita Purdom) daughter of the powerful and wealthy Mr. Prince (Hardwicke) against a schoolmaster when he reveals his engagement with a local girl, seized by great wrath Millicent killed him due she had a secret love for him, upon learning of such rowdiness the cold Mr. Prince gathers the whole family to set up a plan aiming at avoid Millicent's guilt.
When appears the Captain Smollet (John Williams) that fits perfect as scapegoat due he had love interest in the schoolmaster's bride suggesting some payback, under this point Mr. Prince rehearse the crime scene as your purposes, nonetheless the prime mind that Mr. Prince alleged has everything falls apart just for left loose ends.
Thanks for reading.
Resume:
First watch: 2022 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.
The episode has Sir Cedric Hardwicke and the regular guest John William about a murder committed by a disturbed girl Millicent Princey (Tita Purdom) daughter of the powerful and wealthy Mr. Prince (Hardwicke) against a schoolmaster when he reveals his engagement with a local girl, seized by great wrath Millicent killed him due she had a secret love for him, upon learning of such rowdiness the cold Mr. Prince gathers the whole family to set up a plan aiming at avoid Millicent's guilt.
When appears the Captain Smollet (John Williams) that fits perfect as scapegoat due he had love interest in the schoolmaster's bride suggesting some payback, under this point Mr. Prince rehearse the crime scene as your purposes, nonetheless the prime mind that Mr. Prince alleged has everything falls apart just for left loose ends.
Thanks for reading.
Resume:
First watch: 2022 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.
One of my favorite episodes
JANMAYFEB13 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I was surprised at all the negative reviews that panned this episode. I think it is a showcase of the brilliance of the director, Alfred Hitchcock himself. I suspect everyone has encountered a real life person just like Millicent. There were so many subtle touches to highlight what a wealthy, awkward, eccentric, not-so-popular girl does. You may notice the soiled handkerchief tucked into the sleeve of her sweater. She cowerered and shuffled as she walked. She oscillated between shrinking back from her father and rising up at him. Surely the viewers can remember that one girl in high school who looked and talked like Millicent. It took a lot of guts for Tita Purdum to visually portray a homely, repugnant murderess. She was at the time married to Hollywood heartthrob Edmund Purdom. She exhibited the same type of guts Bette Davis showed in her realistic portrayal of an overly made-up neurotic in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. The episode captured a realistic type of person who is often shut away, shunned by society. A true type of histrionic misfit. This was a no holds
barred portrait of a personality type that really exists.
Talking the Viewers to Death
jackbuckley-0504931 January 2021
The real-crime here is the episode's talkiness. From start to finish, it's talk, talk, talk, without relief, set in only 2 connected-rooms, one of which is a garage, I think, with a floor-grate leading to a sewer. Eventually, I realized the plot, such as it was, was meant as a dryly-brittle, tongue-in-cheek farce. It's hard for a viewer to stay focused, though, because virtually-nothing happens, it's just talk--the family-patriarch trying to coach his family on how to explain an embarassing, inconvenient-murder, likely, if discovered, to ruin their social-prominence among the gentrified-elite. Cedric Hardwicke's always worth-watching, though, an actor who conveys dignity & authority, speaking in a mellifluous, dulcet-tone. His restrained-style of physical-movement lends the proper-air to his calm, unflappable presence. The finale is ambiguous. If detectable at all, it flits-by without impact or clarity. I kept thinking the story would evolve into a more-compelling scenario but it never did--and all the talking tried my attention-span. Perhaps this wasn't an issue among the audiences of the 1950's. I believe viewers DID have longer attention-spans in past-decades. Usually, I can overcome this obstacle, as I now actually prefer, at my current-age, conversational-scenes, as opposed to today's hyper-paced action & smarmy-humor. This episode made it tough, though. In short, I'd say watch it for Mr. Hardwicke's droll-performance, as well as John Williams' expressions in reactive-shots, two old-pros interacting with aplomb. The tale itself, sadly, is nothing.
Utterly Perfect Obnoxiousness
garykettas26 August 2023
Well I feel that Tita Purdom's extremely obnoxious acting quality was essentially & utterly perfect for the story's miserable wet Saturday's theatrical intentions & purposes of capturing & inducing an extremely irate memorable revulsion of "wet Saturday's" in many viewing audiences' lives, I would think as certainly memorably reflective in my own life of disgusting revulsive wet Saturdays regardless of the clever tantalizing titillating absence of any deep sense of morality for common ordinary murders in general of various types of atrociousness while extremely ultimately obsessed with the total absolute avoidance of criminal pain & punishment thereby boiling down to Utterly Perfect Obnoxiousness I feel overall!!!!
Tita Purdom's performance ruins this one...
planktonrules29 December 2013
The episode begins with learning that Millicent Princey has murdered someone. Her father (Cedric Hardwicke) insists that for the sake of the family name they MUST hide the murder. However, considering how much Millicent simpers and overacts, I was surprised he wanted to cover up the killing. So, he decides to pin it on a convenient scapegoat, Captain Smollet (John Williams).
Considering that "Wet Saturday" was the premier episode of season two, you'd think it would be a particularly good show. Well, it wasn't. Most of the problem was that Tita Purdom (who played Millicent) was just awful--overacting horribly. You cannot entirely blame her, as the director SHOULD have elicited a different sort of performance with at least SOME subtlety. And, considering that Hitchcock himself directed it, I certainly expected more. A HUGE disappointment.
Considering that "Wet Saturday" was the premier episode of season two, you'd think it would be a particularly good show. Well, it wasn't. Most of the problem was that Tita Purdom (who played Millicent) was just awful--overacting horribly. You cannot entirely blame her, as the director SHOULD have elicited a different sort of performance with at least SOME subtlety. And, considering that Hitchcock himself directed it, I certainly expected more. A HUGE disappointment.
SHE ONLY KILLED SOMEBODY, THAT'S ALL...
tcchelsey26 August 2023
Sir Cedric Hardwick, who reminded me a bit of Alfred Hitchcock at times, is just right as the calculating patriarch of a prominent family who is in a bit of a dilemma.
Yes, only Hitch could have directed this dark comedy, and he gets some good performances from the cast. Hardwick (as Mr. Princey) discovers that his overly protected daughter (Tita Phillips Purdom) has killed her school teacher (and a gentleman unworthy of her social status). Now how to cover it all up? All set during a particularly depressing rainy afternoon. How awful is that?
Series regular John Williams (as the law) has an amusing scene, complete with a shotgun. You know Hitch was having a lot of fun, and in a way similar to something out of the ADDAMS FAMILY, minus the homicide. Credit writer Marian Cockrell, later associated with BATMAN, writing some over the top episodes.
Tita Phillips at the time had just divorced her husband, distinguished British actor Edmund Purdom, who she had two children with. She appeared in some tv shows of the 50s, such as SUSPICION, and then retired from the industry. This episode perhaps brought her the most acclaim.
One to watch for the old masters at work, and the first episode of SEASON 2. (1956) Universal remastered dvd box set. 5 dvds total/16 hrs. Released 2006.
Yes, only Hitch could have directed this dark comedy, and he gets some good performances from the cast. Hardwick (as Mr. Princey) discovers that his overly protected daughter (Tita Phillips Purdom) has killed her school teacher (and a gentleman unworthy of her social status). Now how to cover it all up? All set during a particularly depressing rainy afternoon. How awful is that?
Series regular John Williams (as the law) has an amusing scene, complete with a shotgun. You know Hitch was having a lot of fun, and in a way similar to something out of the ADDAMS FAMILY, minus the homicide. Credit writer Marian Cockrell, later associated with BATMAN, writing some over the top episodes.
Tita Phillips at the time had just divorced her husband, distinguished British actor Edmund Purdom, who she had two children with. She appeared in some tv shows of the 50s, such as SUSPICION, and then retired from the industry. This episode perhaps brought her the most acclaim.
One to watch for the old masters at work, and the first episode of SEASON 2. (1956) Universal remastered dvd box set. 5 dvds total/16 hrs. Released 2006.
Mediocre debut to season two.
b_kite5 May 2021
Hitchcock returns to direct the pilot for season two as he did with season one, sadly this is no "Revenge". It's not the best or worst effort I've seen in the series even though I'm not sure if this is played for laughs or if where suppose to take this seriously. Sir Cedric Hardicke and John Williams do fine as usual. The surreal odd performance of the obscure actress Tita Purdom is what makes this so interestingly bad though, I'm not sure if she's overacting like this on purpose or if she's just this bad or why she was cast as she is so out of place, looking more like a poor country girl then a rich upper class one. She returns in another episode two years after this so I guess I'll have to wait and see then.
Dull Saturday
TheLittleSongbird20 April 2022
After an interesting and generally solid if inconsistent Season 1, there were high expectations for Season 2. Which in general was most watchable and interesting, with enough good and more episodes, but the quality was similarly inconsistent. And of course there are always high expectations when watching any season opener and there were for Season 2's first episode "Wet Saturday". Especially considering the director, two members of the cast and because the previous season ended so wonderfully.
"Wet Saturday" sadly turned out to be a very disappointing start for Season 2 and doesn't leave one with a good feeling of how the rest of the season will map out. There are good things and it has its moments, but "Wet Saturday" should have been much better. Actually found it hard to believe that it was directed by the master of suspense himself and that it came from the same director responsible for one of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' best episodes "Breakdown". Not a good sign.
It looks pretty good, with some nice atmosphere in the photography. The main theme has a devillish quality and irony. Hitchcock's bookending is suitably droll.
Cedric Hardwicke gives by far the episode's best performance, in a restrained, nuanced turn with moments of suitable dryness. John Williams is similarly very expressive and doesn't overdo or underplay and his face tells a lot.
Tita Purdom however is another story entirely, am going to agree with everybody that thought she was awful and bad enough to completely unbalance the episode. Have not seen such painful overacting in a long time and she comes over as really irritating (as does her character, who becomes unbearable quite quickly). One of the worst performances of the entire series and that is saying quite a bit. Hitchcock's direction lacks suspense and any kind of atmosphere, actually got the sense that his heart wasn't in it and that was unlike him at this stage of his career where he was making some of his best films. If you compare this and "Breakdown" for example, it is like a completely different person directed them.
Also think that "Wet Saturday" is far too heavy on the talk and too much of it felt like padding. Some of it is very over-heated and hammy. Am aware that it was aiming for the tongue in cheek approach, but this wasn't done very well in my view. Coming over as unintentionally funny and overboard on the silliness. The story lacks any kind of suspense or tension, is rather slow going, is pretty silly and feels too thin for the length. The conclusion is forgettable at best and felt anti-climactic.
Very disappointing overall. 4/10.
"Wet Saturday" sadly turned out to be a very disappointing start for Season 2 and doesn't leave one with a good feeling of how the rest of the season will map out. There are good things and it has its moments, but "Wet Saturday" should have been much better. Actually found it hard to believe that it was directed by the master of suspense himself and that it came from the same director responsible for one of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' best episodes "Breakdown". Not a good sign.
It looks pretty good, with some nice atmosphere in the photography. The main theme has a devillish quality and irony. Hitchcock's bookending is suitably droll.
Cedric Hardwicke gives by far the episode's best performance, in a restrained, nuanced turn with moments of suitable dryness. John Williams is similarly very expressive and doesn't overdo or underplay and his face tells a lot.
Tita Purdom however is another story entirely, am going to agree with everybody that thought she was awful and bad enough to completely unbalance the episode. Have not seen such painful overacting in a long time and she comes over as really irritating (as does her character, who becomes unbearable quite quickly). One of the worst performances of the entire series and that is saying quite a bit. Hitchcock's direction lacks suspense and any kind of atmosphere, actually got the sense that his heart wasn't in it and that was unlike him at this stage of his career where he was making some of his best films. If you compare this and "Breakdown" for example, it is like a completely different person directed them.
Also think that "Wet Saturday" is far too heavy on the talk and too much of it felt like padding. Some of it is very over-heated and hammy. Am aware that it was aiming for the tongue in cheek approach, but this wasn't done very well in my view. Coming over as unintentionally funny and overboard on the silliness. The story lacks any kind of suspense or tension, is rather slow going, is pretty silly and feels too thin for the length. The conclusion is forgettable at best and felt anti-climactic.
Very disappointing overall. 4/10.
Useless Muddle
karenstar11 September 2019
Two great actors wasted
gregorycanfield4 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The great actors were Cedric Hardwicke and John Williams. This episode is a major disappointment, considering that it was one of the very few that Hitchcock directed himself. The story is a bore. As it opens, we learn that Hardwicke's incredibly annoying daughter has murdered someone. Being the wealthy, arrogant socialite that he is, Hardwicke's only concern is to save the family's reputation. So, the story goes. John Williams, as the man Hardwicke tries to frame for the murder, has a particularly thankless role. Williams' dry sense of humor doesn't come through here, at all. I absolutely hated Tita Purdom as Hardwicke's stupid looking, neurotic, incredibly annoying daughter. She should have been on the other side of the gun. Overall, the episode is almost a complete waste. I don't even remember how it ended! I wonder if this even matters.
OK, I only watched ten minutes
Ripshin13 February 2024
HITCHCOCK directed this mess???????
Ok, the performance of "Millicent" is one of the worst for I've seen in this series. It is cartoonish, ridiculous, and obnoxious. How did this even happen?
Unfortunately, I now must think of more to say. 400+ more characters?
OK, how is it possible that Hitchcock headlined this slop?
My parents used to watch this series, after they got married in 1958. It was apparently a ritual. I wonder what they thought of this particular episode. The problem with this show, is that it is so inconsistent. An occasional great episode, surrounded by many that are barely tolerated.
Ok, the performance of "Millicent" is one of the worst for I've seen in this series. It is cartoonish, ridiculous, and obnoxious. How did this even happen?
Unfortunately, I now must think of more to say. 400+ more characters?
OK, how is it possible that Hitchcock headlined this slop?
My parents used to watch this series, after they got married in 1958. It was apparently a ritual. I wonder what they thought of this particular episode. The problem with this show, is that it is so inconsistent. An occasional great episode, surrounded by many that are barely tolerated.
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