Tonight's Saturday Night Special welcomes the 'Master of Suspense' Alfred Hitchcock back to The Dungeon one more time, and trust me, it won't be the last!
"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" was on for some seven seasons and 268 stories which amounts to a 30 minute show almost every week for seven years! I've got some serious catching up to do!!
Tonight's feature was from Season 03, Episode 01, and is a very interesting tale titled "The Glass Eye!"
Yes, as Alfred does the introduction, he is indeed, holding "The Glass Eye," and seems to be enjoying himself quite nicely!
No shit, it's The Shat, in one of his earliest appearances on television, and a full nine years before he achieved immortality as Captain James Kirk! Bill is a gentleman, and the narrator of the story named Jim Whitely! His cousin Julia has died, and while he's cleaning out her apartment, he finds a glass eye in a little box, and he goes on to tell his wife the whole story of why she had it! Mrs. Whitely was played by Spiderman's Aunt May, Rosemary Harris!
Jessica (The Birds, Cocoon, *Batteries Not Included, Fried Green Tomatoes) Tandy is Julia Lester. I guess you could call her a spinster. Does anyone make quilts anymore? I sure hope so!
I don't know about you, but I love this whacked out makeshift stove!
Looks dangerous as all Hell!!
For lack of anything better to do, Julia tries to be nice to a neighbor kid, and take him out to do things like this show, even though he's a little shit!
Okay, it was already weird, but once the show starts, that's the biggest dummy I've ever seen! Seven years ago, I did a write up on another ventriloquist movie called "Dead Of Night" that got us nominated for a Rondo award for two years in a row, so maybe this post will catapult us back to the top again! In the "I Think This Is Pretty Weird" Department, there was another completely unrelated German movie made in 1969 with a ventriloquist in a major role that was titled "Der Mann Mit Dem Glasauge" or "The Man With The Glass Eye!"
This dummy named George also reminds me too much of Devo's Booji Boy!
While I'm perplexed, Julia is having the time of her life!
Julia has turned into THE biggest ventriloquist groupie in history!
She just cannot get enough of Max Collodi and his show, and follows him all over the place from city to city, but always staying in the shadows!
Julia has now fallen completely head over heels in love with Max, and is seen here putting together a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about him! Does anybody put together scrapbooks or make collages anymore??
Julia's become so obsessed that she finally breaks out of her shell, and contacts Max. He writes her back, but tells her the meeting will only last five minutes, and his dummy George will also be there, so when the time comes she rushes to go meet this man she has become so thoroughly entranced with! It's a fairy tale romance!
Julia is so in love, you might think Max was a hypnotist, instead of a ventriloquist!
The magnificent Max Collodi was played by the even more magnificent Tom Conway! Here's just a couple of Tom's credits that will floor you, "Bride Of The Gorilla," "The She-Creature," "Voodoo Woman," and "The Atomic Submarine!" He was also The Falcon in ten films! He is obviously a lady killer!!
But not in Alfred Hitchcock's world..........In Alfred's world, he's just a big dummy, and Julia is completely mortified!!
Get out of here and don't come back!!!!!!
One of the most famous of all the little guys of all time, Billy Barty was really the one pulling all the strings! All Julia got out of the deal was a broken heart and the dummy's glass eye, and that's the end of the story! Billy Barty racked up 194 acting credits between 1927 and the year 2000, and that's pretty darn amazing, and a story all into itself!
