Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans

Katherine Crawford and her parents are traveling through Arizona and stop for tea in a roadside cafe. (They're English.) Sleepy Katherine says she's going back to sleep in the car and wait for Mom and Dad. She gets into the wrong car! The car belongs to a couple of crooks and Katherine wakes up just in time to witness a murder, escape from the car, and find herself adrift in a small town across the Mexican border, pursued by the two murders, unable to speak Spanish, and -- well, I don't know, everything is just WRONG. Even the chili a kind lady gives her is "poco piquante." She meets a nice boy, Randy Boone, and he tries to help her get straight.

Katherine has no business being in the little village of La Cucaracha or whatever it is. If you can't stand the chili, get out of the cocina. Furthermore, how drowsy must you be to go to sleep in the back seat of someone else's car after mistaking it for your own? Any normal person would have to be stoned out of her mind.

On the other hand, Katherine Crawford, a blond teen ager, is cute enough in a thoroughly conventional way, and Michael Wilding and Anna Lee as the parents are accomplished actors. Randy Boone may be a splendid country singer. As an actor, he comes across as simple minded. He knows that they are being chased by two murderers as he drives Katherine to border, but he insists on pulling off the road to "think about it" and maybe have a little lunch. Not very bright.

Hitchcock was notoriously "mean", as the British put it, meaning he was tight with his pennies. The series as a whole always had a parched look. The rooms seemed barely furnished, the set dressing perfunctory. This episode is a bit more expansive. The Mexican village looks like a Hollywood version of a Mexican village, but it at least covers some territory and is colorful. Maybe it was a standing set, left over from some other production. I applaud it for getting us out of the usual middle-class kitchens.

First of all, the whole set-up is a bit much. These Britishers are running around not knowing what's going on. The girl falls into the wrong car and ends up with a bunch of murderers in Mexico, being chases by them, on and on. Then she happens to meet a young American boy who has been camping. Eventually they wind up back with the bad guys. Several incompetent idiots. Oh well. The girls is cute. The young guy is cute. They make a connection. There is one thing I thought was hard to take. When the young girl is running around the small Mexican town, each person she runs into looks like a caricature out of a bugs bunny cartoon. Big teeth. Sombrero. Macho talk.

If Alan Crosland directed, it's darn good. Wait and see.

For one thing, two veterans, Michael Wilding and Anna Lee cast as the worried British parents of a teen (played by Katherine Crawford) who disappears on a stopover in Arizona.

Loren is so tired, due to their cross country trip, she happens to get into the wrong station wagon and falls asleep. Anything could happen in Hitchcock land. The story takes off from there; Loren discovers she's in a car that belongs to a couple of killers. Fairly exciting, while Wilding and Lee frantically track her down.

The late night atmosphere (which we love) and the moody background music a winner.

Some very good supporting actors, who also deserve credit, exceptionally directed by Crosland, taking after his famous father. FYI; If you know the terrain, you'll recognize the sprawling Universal City back lot, used for years for westerns and tv shows.

Prior to this episode, Anna Lee appeared in two film classics, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE and WHATEVER JAPPENED TO BABY JANE (as the next door neighbor).

PS; Michael Wilding lands a solid knock out punch in the end. It WAS coming. Best remembered for STAGE FRIGHT, directed by Hitch.

SEASON 1 EPISODE 28 remastered Universal dvd box set. According to Amazon, the set was produced in Europe and may not play on American made dvd players. Best to check with the seller.

The scope of the story is pretty large and the Mexican village is pretty detailed and filled with some extras and realistic Spanish language. It's got some mood from Psycho DP John Russel too, the best shot being a shadowy close up of the girl in the car when she first realizes her dangerous situation.

The whole story involves a conspiracy which is interesting and credible--a preview of the modern cross-border crime series THE BRIDGE and other real-life stories.

Wilding and Lee are too old to be her parents and neither of them overcome the perfunctory nature of their roles. Also director Crosland does a fairly poor job with the key moments of plot twist and a couple of pretty poorly staged fight scenes--the first of which features a really poor stunt double.

The young leads come off best but they do have to act pretty stupid at one key moment to keep the story going.

Outgoing Hitchcock bit even includes a bit of slop as an off stage director can be heard saying "Action" and you see Hitch quickly get into character, all this mistakenly on screen--for a few frames.

It's fast paced but another weak entry from producer Joan Harrison which is routine of 50's/60's TV on all levels, including story, than anything else.

"Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans" is a harrowing episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", though I must admit that it has quite a instances where there are plot problems...serious plot problems.

An English family is driving across America and decide to stop at a cafe in a tiny Arizona town. However, their young daughter goes back to the car to sleep before the parents finish their food....and she gets into the wrong car! The one she's in is being driven by crooks...and she ends up being accidentally driven into Mexico. Once there, she awakens....to witness seeing them kill a man! Through the rest of the episode, she tries to evade the ruthless gang and the parents desperately look for her.

As I mentioned above, several things in the episode don't quite work...such as bursting across the Mexican border into America late in the show. It just doesn't make any sense for several reasons. But the show is riveting and exciting to watch...and I generally was able to ignore a few instances where it didn't seem especially plausible nor well thought out.