Not a surprise since it was directed by Hitchcock himself.
It has many of the features we associate with the best of Hitchcock: extensive and suspenseful use of silence; the use of a trivial object (in this case, an automobile tail light) to heighten the terror, horror or suspense; monologue voice-over of the criminal's thoughts (we'll see this again but in an expanded form --many voices-- when Janet Leigh is escaping in 'Psycho' in 1960); the use of camera shots outside windows looking in; the list could go on and on. While watching this we are right away dropping our jaw exclaiming, "This is pure Hitchcock!"
David Wayne, in an outstanding performance, kills his wife, puts her in the trunk of his car and drives off to bury her. Steve Brodie, who appears in a total of four AHP episodes, is the motorcycle policeman pursuing him to tell him that his back tail light is out.
Watch and see what happens. You'll start sweating the way David Wayne does. As others have noted, Hitchcock makes us feel sympathetic to the murderer! So I'll give this an 8. Easily the best episode of Season Two, which was from September 30, 1956 to June 23, 1957! Other top episodes of the second season were: "My Brother Richard" (Jan 20, 1957) with Harry Townes and Inger Stevens; "Bottle of Wine" (Feb 3, 1957) with the wonderful Herbert Marshall and an appropriately spineless Robert Horton; and "Number Twenty-Two" (Feb 17, 1957) with an amazing performance by Rip Torn as a 'juvenile delinquent'.
It has many of the features we associate with the best of Hitchcock: extensive and suspenseful use of silence; the use of a trivial object (in this case, an automobile tail light) to heighten the terror, horror or suspense; monologue voice-over of the criminal's thoughts (we'll see this again but in an expanded form --many voices-- when Janet Leigh is escaping in 'Psycho' in 1960); the use of camera shots outside windows looking in; the list could go on and on. While watching this we are right away dropping our jaw exclaiming, "This is pure Hitchcock!"
David Wayne, in an outstanding performance, kills his wife, puts her in the trunk of his car and drives off to bury her. Steve Brodie, who appears in a total of four AHP episodes, is the motorcycle policeman pursuing him to tell him that his back tail light is out.
Watch and see what happens. You'll start sweating the way David Wayne does. As others have noted, Hitchcock makes us feel sympathetic to the murderer! So I'll give this an 8. Easily the best episode of Season Two, which was from September 30, 1956 to June 23, 1957! Other top episodes of the second season were: "My Brother Richard" (Jan 20, 1957) with Harry Townes and Inger Stevens; "Bottle of Wine" (Feb 3, 1957) with the wonderful Herbert Marshall and an appropriately spineless Robert Horton; and "Number Twenty-Two" (Feb 17, 1957) with an amazing performance by Rip Torn as a 'juvenile delinquent'.