Breakdown

Episode aired Nov 13, 1955
TV-14TV-14
26m

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

1.7K

YOUR RATING

Joseph Cotten in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)

Comedy Crime Drama

William Callew is involved in a bad traffic accident on a rural road, that leaves him so paralyzed he appears lifeless, and when help arrives they think he's really dead.William Callew is involved in a bad traffic accident on a rural road, that leaves him so paralyzed he appears lifeless, and when help arrives they think he's really dead.William Callew is involved in a bad traffic accident on a rural road, that leaves him so paralyzed he appears lifeless, and when help arrives they think he's really dead.

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

1.7K

YOUR RATING

See more at IMDbPro

Director
- Alfred Hitchcock
Writers
- Francis M. Cockrell(teleplay)
- Louis Pollock(teleplay)
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

Photos

Forrest Stanley in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
This won Edward W. Williams the 1956 Primetime Emmy for Best Editing of a Television Film.

Goofs
When watching current film-transferred versions on a modern definition television, one can see William Callew (Joseph Cotton) blinking his eyes even though it was established earlier that he could not move anything, including his eyelids. This is especially noticeable when the two escaped convicts are moving his body and disrobing him in the car. This would not have been noticeable at the time of first broadcast due to the poor resolution of the televisions.

Quotes
[last lines]
Alfred Hitchcock: Well, that was a bit of a near thing. He reminded me of my own situation. Imagine, if you can, the terror of being inside a television set, knowing that any moment, the viewer may shut you off, and being powerless to prevent it. And I go through this every week. My only consolation is that some portions of our program are so fascinating, that they hold the viewer spellbound. Such an episode follows immediately. And then I'll be back again.
[commercial break]
Alfred Hitchcock: There, now, that really held you in suspense, didn't it? For more of the same, I recommend you tune in next week at this time. I shall see you, then. Bonsoir.

Connections
Featured in Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006)

Soundtracks
Funeral March of a Marionette
Written by Charles Gounod

User reviews25

Review

Top review

Why Don't They Hear Me

A "water-cooler" entry-- I expect people all over the country were talking about this tense 30 minutes the next day. Big-wig executive Joseph Cotton is mistaken for dead, and he better figure out a way to let the authorities know before they begin the slice and dice of the coroner's table. Trouble is that he's totally paralyzed except for gradual movement in a little finger. Will that be enough? We suffer bucket-loads with him as the gurney edges ever closer to the coroner's scalpel.

Really off-beat and well-thought-out premise with fine ironical ending. Don't overlook the first five minutes even though it's an uneventful set-up for what follows. Because there we understand that Cotton really does deserve to suffer some poetic justice, extreme though it is. If you think about it, there's a moral here. Anyway this is one of the initial episodes that really put the series on the TV map and continues to pack a wallop fifty years later.

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