In his career as a film director Alfred Hitchcock frequently turned to real life crime for his stories. The Crippen Case is suggested in REAR WINDOW, in the murder of Mrs. Thorwall by her husband, who claims his wife has gone on a trip. In the first version of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH he brings up the 1910 Siege of Sidney Street. In doing Joseph Conrad's THE SECRET AGENT as SABOTAGE Hitch is looking at the attempt (in 1894) of an anarchist to blow up the Greenwich Observatory. The same thing in this 1959 episode of Hitch's television series. It is a look at a crime (or presumed crime) of 1926, which is still a matter of debate to this day.
Lawrence Harvey was at the point in his career where his reputation was on the rise. In 1959 he made his best remembered film, ROOM AT THE TOP. He had made a version of ROMEO AND JULIET a few years earlier. The following year he would be sharing big billing with John Wayne and Richard Widmarck in THE ALAMO. But this was the only production directed by Alfred Hitchcock he ever appeared in.
SPOILER WARNING: Harvey is a farmer named Arthur, who is romancing Hazel Court. But Court's interests in him are slowly turning him off. She suspects he has met another woman, and goes to confront him. There is an argument, in the course of which Court is killed. Harvey has done this in a relatively isolated space, and considers his options. At the end of the episode, he is being visited by the police (Robert Douglas and Patrick Macnee) and they can find nothing to really bring up suspicions against him. They leave, and we see Harvey feeding his chickens. We now realize what has happened to the remains of Court.
It is a clever, ghoulish ending - typical of Hitchcock's warped sense of humor (and a type of variant to his most famous television directing stint: LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER).
It was all suggested by the Norman Thorne - Elsie Cameron tragedy at Crowsborough, in Sussex England, in 1926. Thorne, a chicken farmer, had a relationship with Cameron, but it was souring. She said she was going to see him to settle this, claiming that she was pregnant. She left for their meeting at his home, but nothing further was heard of her. Thorne actually sent her telegrams demanding to know why she had not come. The police visited Thorne, but he was plausible about not having any idea of what happened to Elsie. Then a local photographer took his picture on the farm, and he posed over a spot near the chicken coop.
Thorne might have gotten away with it, but for the return to Crowsborough of a neighbor. She had not been reading the newspapers much, but now she caught with the story. She went to the police and said she saw Elsie headed for Thorne's farm on the day she was last seen alive. Thorne was revisited by the police, who made a more thorough search. Someone recalled the posing for the picture, and found the spot. In digging they found the cut up remains of Elsie's body.
Thorne explained there had been an argument, and he left the shack he lived in while Elsie threatened suicide. When he returned he found her hanging. Thorne panicked and cut up the body to hide it. He stuck to this suicide story through the entire trial. The prosecution put the matter into the capable hands of Bernard Spilsbury. The forensic expert studied the remains and came to the conclusion that the body showed signs of shock, normally found in people who are hanged by other people - and not prepared for such a conclusion. But the defense put together ten experts, one of whom (Dr. Robert Bronte of Ireland) produced slides. These suggested certain markings on the neck that were more in line to a suicide theory. Spilsbury (who had a low view on Bronte's abilities) said that the slides were improperly made, and they showed a staining agent at work, not so-called markings.
Thorne's previous lies and his posing over the remains and Spilsbury's reputation convicted the chicken farmer. He was hanged later in 1926. But the matter of his real guilt or innocence remains.
Hitchcock allows Arthur to momentarily hide the traces of his victim's death - far more effectively than Thorne ever did. The episode is a nice example of Hitchcock's efficiency in handling dramatic material well, even in a short running time.
Lawrence Harvey was at the point in his career where his reputation was on the rise. In 1959 he made his best remembered film, ROOM AT THE TOP. He had made a version of ROMEO AND JULIET a few years earlier. The following year he would be sharing big billing with John Wayne and Richard Widmarck in THE ALAMO. But this was the only production directed by Alfred Hitchcock he ever appeared in.
SPOILER WARNING: Harvey is a farmer named Arthur, who is romancing Hazel Court. But Court's interests in him are slowly turning him off. She suspects he has met another woman, and goes to confront him. There is an argument, in the course of which Court is killed. Harvey has done this in a relatively isolated space, and considers his options. At the end of the episode, he is being visited by the police (Robert Douglas and Patrick Macnee) and they can find nothing to really bring up suspicions against him. They leave, and we see Harvey feeding his chickens. We now realize what has happened to the remains of Court.
It is a clever, ghoulish ending - typical of Hitchcock's warped sense of humor (and a type of variant to his most famous television directing stint: LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER).
It was all suggested by the Norman Thorne - Elsie Cameron tragedy at Crowsborough, in Sussex England, in 1926. Thorne, a chicken farmer, had a relationship with Cameron, but it was souring. She said she was going to see him to settle this, claiming that she was pregnant. She left for their meeting at his home, but nothing further was heard of her. Thorne actually sent her telegrams demanding to know why she had not come. The police visited Thorne, but he was plausible about not having any idea of what happened to Elsie. Then a local photographer took his picture on the farm, and he posed over a spot near the chicken coop.
Thorne might have gotten away with it, but for the return to Crowsborough of a neighbor. She had not been reading the newspapers much, but now she caught with the story. She went to the police and said she saw Elsie headed for Thorne's farm on the day she was last seen alive. Thorne was revisited by the police, who made a more thorough search. Someone recalled the posing for the picture, and found the spot. In digging they found the cut up remains of Elsie's body.
Thorne explained there had been an argument, and he left the shack he lived in while Elsie threatened suicide. When he returned he found her hanging. Thorne panicked and cut up the body to hide it. He stuck to this suicide story through the entire trial. The prosecution put the matter into the capable hands of Bernard Spilsbury. The forensic expert studied the remains and came to the conclusion that the body showed signs of shock, normally found in people who are hanged by other people - and not prepared for such a conclusion. But the defense put together ten experts, one of whom (Dr. Robert Bronte of Ireland) produced slides. These suggested certain markings on the neck that were more in line to a suicide theory. Spilsbury (who had a low view on Bronte's abilities) said that the slides were improperly made, and they showed a staining agent at work, not so-called markings.
Thorne's previous lies and his posing over the remains and Spilsbury's reputation convicted the chicken farmer. He was hanged later in 1926. But the matter of his real guilt or innocence remains.
Hitchcock allows Arthur to momentarily hide the traces of his victim's death - far more effectively than Thorne ever did. The episode is a nice example of Hitchcock's efficiency in handling dramatic material well, even in a short running time.