![]() She visits her sister Madge, who admits that she has had to let her maid go for financial reasons. After hectoring the maid, Ethel, about the state of the house, Alice finds a drug, hexitone, in her lawyer husband John's belongings. In this episode, Alice Pemberton experiences bizarre visions and nightmares while visiting her mother, but soon dismisses the incident and decides to return home ahead of schedule. One in this series of macabre dramas presided over by the "master of suspense," film director Alfred Hitchcock. A Nip of Elderberry Wine, Mr.ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR, THE: THE PARAGON (TV) Summary.The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries ( 1977-1979 ).The Alfred Hitchcock Hour - An Unlocked Window ( 1.In addition to these talents, Bernard Herrmann, a Hitchcock favorite, composed the subtle score for this episode and James Bridges, who penned the teleplay, won an Edgar Award the next year for this adaption. In several key sequences, he uses tilted shadows to create a feeling of approaching danger. ![]() But applause must also go to the great cinematographer Stanley Cortez ( The Magnificent Ambersons ). ![]() The Hitch himself directed a few episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour but in this case all honors went to Joseph Newman ( This Island Earth ), whose taut direction kept the story at an edge-of-your-seat suspense level and claustrophobically confined to the house. This episode is dripping with MacGuffins and old dark house horrors and the exterior sets for the Bates Motel ( Psycho ) were appropriately used as the Baker residence. Other elements that Lina White liked to include in her novels echoed that of the devices American mystery authoress Mary Roberts Rinehart used : lonely country houses, mysterious men on the prowl, night scenes and nurses. This once again reinforced the idea that women, especially forgetful women like Stella, were helpless without the protection of a man. Surely three women in a house - not counting an ill man in the upstairs bedroom - would not be considered "alone". When a frightened Maud anxiously turns on all of the lights in the house Stella quickly hushes her and shuts them off, remarking that "the darkness protects us, now if there is someone outside he can see in, and see that we are alone". ![]() In one scene we see Stella, Miss Adams and Maud cowering in corners for fear of their lives, suspecting that the killer has snuck inside the house. The concept of the defenseless female reverberates throughout "An Unlocked Window". This theme was emphasized brilliantly in Robert Siodmak's adaptation of White's novel, "Some Must Watch", re-titled The Spiral Staircase ( 1945 ), where our heroine is not only a young, timid woman needing protection but a mute as well. Many of Ethel Lina White's books focused on the vulnerability of women. Alfred Hitchcock had previously used one of White's novels, "The Wheel Spins", as a basis for The Lady Vanishes ( 1938 ). "An Unlocked Window" was based on a short story written by Welsh novelist Ethel Lina White in 1939.
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