Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season #4 (1958)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season #4 (1958)

💎💎Episode #1: Poison💎💎 – Two partners discover their real feelings for one another when one is bitten by a poisonous snake and it’s up to the other to save his life. Harry Pope has been stuck in bed for hours because there is a venomous snake on his stomach. His friend Timber Woods calls a doctor but is flippant about the danger and makes fun of Harry. When the doctor arrives, they help Harry stand up and there is no snake to be seen. Timber mocks Harry for his fear, but as soon as the doctor is gone, he gets bitten by the snake instead. Harry Pope is an alcoholic plantation owner. One day he awakens with a deadly snake in his bed. It lies sleeping under the blanket right on his chest. Afraid to move, he calls for help and Timber Woods arrives and later gets a doctor. Woods attempts to knock the snake out by using chloroform poured under the blankets through a rubber tube. When they pull back the blankets, they find no snake. The doctor leaves angrily. Woods laughs at Harry and jumps onto the bed. The snake comes out from behind a pillow and bites him right on the face. An alcoholic lies petrified in bed thanks to a snake that only he can see. Harry Pope is an alcoholic and he is stationed in remote Malaya in a cabin with his arch-rival Timber. Timber finds him wide awake and petrified in bed with a deadly snake sleeping on his chest. Unable to see it, Timber believes the snake to be a figment of Harry’s booze-drenched imagination. Timber takes his time calling for a doctor. In the meantime, he tortures an already mind-numbed Harry by telling him that he is unworthy of the woman they both love and that he’s going to tell her all about what an alcoholic Harry really is. The doctor at last arrives and attempts to knock the snake out by using chloroform poured under the blankets using a rubber tube. Finally, after fifteen agonizing minutes, they pull back the blankets slowly. They find no snake, even when Harry jumps up and down on the bed. The doctor leaves angrily. Woods laughs at Harry, taunting him and jumps onto the bed. The snake comes out from behind a pillow and bites him right on the face. Harry watches, refusing to call the doctor as his rival dies.

💎💎Episode #2: Don’t Interrupt💎💎 – Silence may be golden, but it also proves lethal when a young boy witnesses an escaped mental patient and can’t tell anyone about it. Radio warns of a mental patient escaped from a hospital into a severe New Mexico blizzard. At the rail stop near the sanitarium, a huge, old cowboy boards the train and calms a rattled family with tall tales of the West, as the besieged train grinds to a halt. Totally entranced is the family’s young boy, dressed as a gunslinger. Is the patient the old cowpoke? The Templetons are on a train with their young son, Johnny, who they have trouble controlling. The Templetons offer Johnny one silver dollar if he can be quiet for 10 minutes while elderly cowboy Mr. Kilmer tells a story. When the train stops Johnny sees a man outside the window, caught in the blizzard and begging for help, but Johnny cannot speak up, having promised not to. Mr. and Mrs. Templeton are on a train with their delinquent eight-year-old son named Johnny. Outside it is snowing. A blizzard is raging. An announcement reveals that someone has escaped from a nearby asylum. He is not dangerous but is in need of help because he is caught in the blizzard. Johnny annoys some passengers on the train. His parents get angry with him and tell him to be quiet. The train breaks down and Johnny notices a man outside scratching at the window. Listening to his parents, he doesn’t say a word and leaves the mental patient outside to die in the blizzard. A child is urged to silence by his parents, resulting in deadly peril. Mr. and Mrs. Templeton are on a train with their problematic son Johnny, who has had some behavioral issues doubtlessly resulting from a passive father and a cold, unaffectionate mother. Outside it is snowing. Another passenger meets the Templetons and shares a drink with them. This man claims to be a former cowboy and he proceeds to tell them stories of his days on the range, delighting young Johnny. A radio announcement reveals that someone has escaped from a nearby asylum. The escapee is not dangerous but is in need of help. The blizzard outside increases its fury, forcing the train to a halt. Meanwhile the old gent continues his storytelling and Mr. Templeton offers Johnny a silver dollar in exchange for ten uninterrupted minutes of the man’s time. However, as he listens to the story, he doesn’t say a word about what he sees at the window behind his mother: A man’s hands clawing at the windows. Torn between wanting to earn the coveted silver dollar and telling them what he sees, he leaves the man outside to die in the blizzard. As he walks away, the dollar slips out of his pants and one of the staff picks it up, pocketing it. The man says, “What can a silver dollar mean to a kid anyway?”

💎💎Episode #3: The Jokester💎💎 – A morgue attendant gets the last laugh when he finally has enough of a man who has been provoking him. Practical joker Bradley pulls a prank on easily confused morgue attendant Pop Henderson by pretending to be a corpse and “coming alive”. When Bradley is later brought to the morgue presumed dead (but only actually paralyzed), Pop refuses to believe that Bradley’s moaning is real and puts him inside the freezer. Mr. Bradley decides to play a joke at a mortuary. He pretends to be a corpse and scares an attendant named Pop Henderson. Later, Mr. Bradley is knocked unconscious by a victim of another of his practical jokes. He winds up at the morgue. He wakes up and tries to explain to Pop that he is just paralyzed. Pop doesn’t believe him and locks him up in his slab. Newspaperman Bradley’s habit of playing practical jokes puts morgue attendant Pop Henderson in danger of losing his job. A practical joker plays one joke too many and is punched and knocked unconscious. To the concerned bar owner he appears dead so he makes plans to dump the body in a bad part of town. But considering the jokester’s reputation his demise might not be quite true. A man fools a morgue attendant one too many times. Mr. Bradley decides to play a joke at a mortuary. He pretends to be a corpse and scares an attendant named Pop Henderson. Later, Mr. Bradley is knocked unconscious by a victim of another of his practical jokes. He winds up at the morgue. He wakes up and tries to explain to Pop that he is just paralyzed. Pop doesn’t believe him and locks him up in his slab.