"Nightmare in 4-D," which aired on CBS on Sunday, January 13, 1957, is less than the sum of its parts. Imagine a noir mystery involving a middle-aged man who likes to read lurid pulp paperbacks before bedtime and who gets involved in a murder with the beautiful blond downstairs! Add Henry Jones, Barbara Baxley, Norman Lloyd, Virginia Gregg and Percy Helton to the mix, and you should have the ingredients for a classic episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Unfortunately, this one is a disappointment.
The story begins one evening as Harry Parker comes home to his apartment building and helps pretty Lainie Elliott with her packages as she waits for the elevator. She tells him with excitement that she just got cast in her first role in a Broadway show and they flirt with each other. Along with her bags of groceries, she carries a bottle of champagne and she tells Harry that a friend is coming over to help her celebrate the good news. Harry leaves her at her apartment door and goes upstairs to his apartment, where his wife Norma teases him about helping the pretty neighbor and offers him some cooking sherry in place of champagne.
Barbara Baxley as Lainie |
Harry tells Lainie: "I can't get involved in murder, I'm a married man!" Yet she convinces him to carry the body down to the basement, afraid that its discovery in her apartment might endanger her acting career. Lugging the body to the basement, Harry dumps it behind a trunk before Lainie empties Bill's wallet to make it look like he was robbed. They take the elevator back upstairs and the door closes just as she is telling him how grateful she is. We do not see what happens next; instead, we see Harry staggering back into his apartment some time later. This time, he hungrily gulps down the cooking sherry.
Virginia Gregg as Norma |
Harry goes back to his own apartment and tells Norma what happened. Orsatti arrives and discloses that Norma had been seeing Neilson while Harry was away at work. She claims that she was lonely and that she had nothing to do with the murder. Orsatti has deduced that the killer had to climb down the fire escape from their window, since the retractable ladder at street level had not been lowered and the only neighbor above them is elderly. Arresting Harry for the crime, Orsatti explains that Harry was jealous and killed Neilson while Norma was on the telephone with a neighbor who was complaining that the volume on their TV set was turned up too loud.
Norman Lloyd as Lt. Orsatti |
The mystery itself is straightforward and clues are fairly provided, though the speed with which Lt. Orsatti investigates and solves the murder boggles the mind. As for the direction, there are a couple of nice tracking shots as characters walk down the hallway to and from the elevator early in the show, and the lighting as Harry watches TV late at night is ominous. Best of all is the cast, which is made up of actors and actresses who are favorites of those who savor classic television. Henry Jones is wonderful as Harry; when Lainie asks him to help her remove the corpse from her apartment his eyes wander down to her cleavage and then back up to her face before he agrees to assist. Neither he nor the woman, played to perfection by Barbara Baxley, seem to care a bit about the dead man!
Harry watches the late show |
In The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion, Grams and Wikstrom write that "Occasionally, writers . . . would write short, one, two or three-page drafts based on original ideas they had, and they would be added to the pile of proposals." I submit that this is what Stuart Jerome (1918-1983) did in this, his only credit on the Hitchcock series. Jerome had been an errand boy at the Warner Brothers studio in the late 1930s and wrote about his experiences in a 1983 book called Those Crazy Wonderful Years When We Ran Warner Bros. He was drafted and served in WWII; later, he began to write scripts for radio and quickly moved into TV, with script and story credits stretching from 1952 to 1965 that also include an episode of Thriller. He also is said to have been a script doctor for TV and film.
Jones and Percy Helton |
The great actor Henry Jones (1912-1999) was only 44 years old at the time this episode was filmed. He was onscreen for over 50 years, from his 1943 film debut until his last TV role in 1995. He was in just about every series one could name and appeared six times on the Hitchcock show, including John Collier's "De Mortuis." He also appeared on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, Night Gallery, and The Night Stalker, as well as playing a role in Hitchcock's 1958 classic, Vertigo.
The book Harry puts aside |
Slinky Barbara Baxley (1923-1990) was only 33 when she flirted with Jones in this episode. She was an Actor's Studio graduate who started out on stage and also had a long career on screen from 1950 to 1990. She was on The Twilight Zone and can be seen in six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including Ray Bradbury's "Design for Loving" (with Norman Lloyd), John Collier's "Anniversary Gift" and Henry Slesar's "The Case of M.J.H."
Hitchcock regular Norman Lloyd (1914- ) is still alive at age 101 and has had a long career on stage and screen. This was the first of his five acting appearances on the Hitchcock series; later episodes to feature him included "Design for Loving" and John Collier's "Maria." He directed 22 episodes of the series and produced many more.
The book that causes a nightmare |
Finally, Percy Helton (1894-1971) began his career in vaudeville and worked on stage and screen for over 60 years, from 1915 until 1978. Among his seven appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents was Henry Slesar's "The Horse Player."
The 4-D in the episode's title refers to the number of Parker's apartment. Lainie lives downstairs in 3-D and the unfortunate Mr. Nielson lived another floor down in 2-A. The cover art from Night of Horror, the fake paperback that Harry reads in bed, was reused for the cover of a fake paperback called The Bashful Killer in the 1960 episode, "Insomnia,"
"Nightmare in 4-D" is available on DVD here or may be viewed for free online here.
Sources:
IMDb. IMDb.com. 7 Dec. 2015.
Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. Churchville, MD: OTR Pub., 2001.
"Nightmare in 4-D." Alfred Hitchcock Presents. CBS. 13 Jan. 1957.
In two weeks: "One for the Road," starring John Baragrey, Georgann Johnson and Louise Platt!
An uncredited actor as the corpse |
11 comments:
Speaking of his unmistakable voice, I'm pretty sure Percy Helton is the drunk Santa Claus at the start of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET. If not, the actor certainly sounds a lot like him, which seems unlikely.
IMDb says you're right! Merry Christmas, Grant!
Another very fine post. I really appreciate all the information about what other works the cast and crew were involved in.
I am pleased to see the phrase "the great actor Henry Jones". Jones was one of the reliable actors who gave so many fine performances without ever having the reputation he deserved. I recently saw him in an episode of a series called Channing, in which he had the continuing lead role. The series was on in 1963-1964. I don't recall having ever heard of it before and didn't know Jones had ever starred in a dramatic series. He was, as always, very good. (That particular episode had two guest stars, Agnes Moorehead and a very young James Earl Jones.)
Happy New Year!
Thanks, Steve! I think Henry Jones was terrific and I was always glad to see him turn up on a TV show. I love his slow drawl.
I'm still not sure what happened. Who killed the guy??
Same here, Anonymous. I didn't care for this one, nor for those domestic murder type episodes generally focusing on husbands and wives, whether in apartments or in the suburbs. It's like Hitch & Friends were drawn to these kinds of stories. There were way fewer in the hour long show.
Harry killed him.
I believe Harry's wife killed the piano player. She was jealous of Laine, the pretty actress, because Laine was spending time or having an affair with the piano player. Harry's wife had admitted to having an affair with the piano player because Harry wasn't spending enough time with her. Harry's wife was jealous and angry, and she didn't want to lose the piano player to Laine. Harry's wife was also tired of Harry because Harry's snoring kept her awake at night, and Harry wasn't making enough money to make her comfortable. (No champagne, like Laine had, just cooking sherry.)Remember that Harry's wife had slipped Harry some sleeping pills so that he would be in deep sleep while she committed the murder. Harry would not hear the gunshots or know his wife was home at the time. Laine was more concerned about her acting career than any of the people involved, and her main intention was to distance herself from any of involvement in the crime, which is why she wanted to make it look like a robbery. Notice how she stuffed the money she taken from the piano player's wallet into Harry's pocket.
Thanks. That's a new perspective on this episode!
I think the husband was innocent; he just sacrificed himself to protect his wife. The clue is when his wife told him: "the window could have been broken from the inside", to which he replied: "how did you know about the window?". Although he was helping his sexy neighbor, he never went beyond that. He even trusted his wife with the murder details as he woke up in horror and confessed he was involved. He loved his wife. On the other hand, we have a full confession of the wife that she was seeing the pianist and that she was jealous of the blonde. These are strong motives; the blonde had her husband and her lover, so she decided to kill the lover and get the blonde arrested as the criminal. The phone call with the elderly lady took few seconds so this very short call cannot be a convicing alibi. The husband also told his a wife in the last scene that he would still get her a lawyer because she is still his wife, which proves he loved her regardless of her cheating. The last shot as he was leaving the apt with the inspector he gazed at his wife in a way that implies blame and helplessness. As if he wanted to say: "I know you killed him and I know you cheated on me, but I can't see you hurt; I will take the charges to protect you". He also felt guilty not caring about his wife for years while giving his attention to other women. It is a mix of love and self-blame.
Thanks for your long and thoughtful comment! The ending certainly is open to interpretation.
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