Not only does "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" give viewers TV of the highest standard from the past, where else would you be able to see two superlative actors in the same half hour show!!
Everett Sloane brought class and talent to the early days of TV - his ruthless boss in Rod Serling's "Patterns" was powerful stuff. Here he portrays a different type altogether. His Ralph is convinced from the start that his new cook (Beulah Bondi) is Mrs. Andrews, the poisoner police are looking for. She is dour, taciturn, doesn't fold his newspaper properly and keeps a huge pot of cocoa ever at the ready to give to Ralph morning and night. He is constantly unwell and often has stomach aches so he lets no grass grow under his feet when he sees a picture of the wanted woman in the paper and reasons it could have been his cook 10 or 15 years before. He takes his cocoa in to be analyzed and the results startle him. He promptly fires the cook but a conversation on the stairs with her makes him realise he may have got rid of his only ally.
Beulah Bondi has brightened up many a movie for me, whether it is her grim Emma Jones from "Street Scene" (1931) to "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine"(1936). Among the poker players are also names from the past - Gavin Gordon and Walter Woolf King.
Everett Sloane brought class and talent to the early days of TV - his ruthless boss in Rod Serling's "Patterns" was powerful stuff. Here he portrays a different type altogether. His Ralph is convinced from the start that his new cook (Beulah Bondi) is Mrs. Andrews, the poisoner police are looking for. She is dour, taciturn, doesn't fold his newspaper properly and keeps a huge pot of cocoa ever at the ready to give to Ralph morning and night. He is constantly unwell and often has stomach aches so he lets no grass grow under his feet when he sees a picture of the wanted woman in the paper and reasons it could have been his cook 10 or 15 years before. He takes his cocoa in to be analyzed and the results startle him. He promptly fires the cook but a conversation on the stairs with her makes him realise he may have got rid of his only ally.
Beulah Bondi has brightened up many a movie for me, whether it is her grim Emma Jones from "Street Scene" (1931) to "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine"(1936). Among the poker players are also names from the past - Gavin Gordon and Walter Woolf King.