Richard Paine decides to steal money from his boss that he has owed him for months, and it turns into an unnecessary and ironic murder.Richard Paine decides to steal money from his boss that he has owed him for months, and it turns into an unnecessary and ironic murder.Richard Paine decides to steal money from his boss that he has owed him for months, and it turns into an unnecessary and ironic murder.
- Charlie
- (as Billy Newell)
- Martin the Janitor
- (as Frank Krieg)
- Man at Bus Stop
- (as John Lehmann)
- Motorist
- (as Joseph Gilbert)
- Radio Announcer
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOne of the few times where Hitchcock does not end with "goodnight".
- GoofsDuring Richard's ride in the taxi cab, inside shots show the gear shift lever in the "park" position while being driven.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Alfred Hitchcock: Did you ever have the feeling that you were being watched?
[Hitchcock glances behind at a large eye above him on the wall]
Alfred Hitchcock: Observe closely. No eyelid. He never sleeps. Obviously, an ideal audience. Unfortunately, he doesn't watch television. That's true. He isn't watching me, he's watching you, to see if you're watching me. Please don't misunderstand. I love television, as a performer, that is.
[gestures briefly with his finger]
Alfred Hitchcock: But I feel the wrong person is being paid. Actors receive salaries, but their viewers, the people who do the really hard work, don't make a cent. It seems to me that television is exactly like a gun.
[Hitchcock pulls out a revolver and points it at the camera]
Alfred Hitchcock: Your enjoyment of it is determined by which end of it you're on.
[holds the gun in both hands]
Alfred Hitchcock: Tonight, we plan to tell a story about this gun and what a very ordinary man did with it in the course of 24 hours.
- SoundtracksFuneral March of a Marionette
Written by Charles Gounod
What a wonderful way to end Season 1. Although "Momentum" is one of those episodes that is not going to be for all, it certainly did it for me and it is up there among the best. Whether it does the original story justice is up for debate, but as somebody who has always judged adaptations on their own terms rather than dismiss adaptations when they deviate in any way from the source material. While it may not quite have the same atmosphere as the original story, "Momentum" is bleak and unsettling in its own way.
It looks fine, with some suitably eerie and bleak imagery that matches the story's very well indeed. "Funeral March of a Marionette" has a devillish yet ironic quality that is in perfect keeping with the tone of the series. Have always gotten a kick out of Hitchcock's bookending, did say in my first couple of reviews for the series that the quality of his bookends varied but in the case of Season 1 that opinion has changed.
Robert Stevens does one of his better directing jobs of Season 1, and his best since "Never Again", another unsettling episode. Especially towards the end, where some suspenseful touches can be seen. The script intrigues and doesn't ramble and the story is disturbingly bleak and very creepy, really did get the chills towards the end (which is one of the best ones of Season 1).
Furthermore, Skip Homeier and especially Joanne Woodward do great jobs in their psychologically fascinating roles. The psychology of their characters adds a lot to the unsettlement.
My one complaint is moments of lagging pacing in the middle.
Otherwise, to me this was wonderful. 9/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Apr 13, 2022
Details
- Runtime30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1