Saturday, June 8, 2013

Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season 4, episodes 19-36

Episode 19 - The morning of the bride

Cast:

Barbara Bel Geddes ... Helen Brewster
Don Dubbins ... Philip Pryor
Patricia Hitchcock ... Pat
Helen Conrad ... Mrs. Beasely

Description: A lonely woman is anxious to marry her long-time fiancé, whose mother she's never even met. She waited through his military service in the Korean War, the mother's illness, all the while worried that her younger, wealthier fiancé will find someone who's his equal. How long must the less educated woman wait to move from her small, furnished apartment to his family's mansion - and why the delay?


Episode 20 - The diamond necklace

Cast:

Claude Rains ... Andrew Thurgood
Betsy von Furstenberg ... Mrs. Rudell
Alan Hewitt ... George Maynard
Stephen Bekassy ... Dr. Anton Rudell
Selmer Jackson ... Henry
Peter Walker ... Jewelry Salesman

Description: Jewelry firm casts out the last of a family who've been employees for 117 years - the company won't hire of the last of the line, because she's a woman. Faithful service goes unrewarded when her father is given a week to finish up, but he'll show how much he'll be missed via selling the firm's most expensive gem by his last day of 37 years service.


Episode 21 - Relative value

Cast:

Denholm Elliott ... John Manbridge
Torin Thatcher ... Felix Edward Manbridge
Tom Conway ... Inspector
Frederick Worlock ... Mr. Betts
Walter Burke ... Benny
John Trayne ... Tom Crockett

Description: John Manbridge likes the good things in life, including betting on the horses. With no real means of support, he's taken to forging cheques in his cousin, Felix Manbridge's account. Felix knows what is going on and warns his cousin that should it happen again, he would have no option but to prosecute. In any event, Felix reminds him that with his own current state of ill-health, John will soon inherit everything. John decides to accelerate the process, not realizing that Felix has decided to do the same, with unintended consequences.


Episode 22 - The right price

Cast:

Eddie Foy Jr. ... Burglar
Allyn Joslyn ... Mort Barnhardt
Jane Dulo ... Jocelyn Barnhardt

Description: Jocelyn and Mort Barnhardt are married but are also business partners who bicker constantly about who contributes more to the business. One night, their home is broken into and the burglar goes about methodically looking for their valuables. When Mort investigates, he finds a chatty crook who offers him a deal: if they work together, they can get a nice fat insurance settlement in the bargain. Mort doesn't have much that's valuable so he proposes that the burglar kill Jocelyn. It doesn't quite go as planned however.


Episode 23 - I'll take care of you

Cast:

Ralph Meeker ... John Forbes
Russell Collins ... Dad
Elisabeth Fraser ... Dorothy Forbes
Ida Moore ... Kitty
Arthur Batanides ... Police Detective
James Westmoreland ... Lester (as Rad Fulton)

Description: John Forbes own a used car lot and business has been very slow. He only has one employee, whom he calls Dad, and has always assured him that no matter what, he will always take care of him. John's real problem is his extravagant wife who has just told him that she will be going on an expensive trip. When the opportunity presents itself, he takes care of the matter in a decisive way and with Dad's assistance, covers up his deeds. As the police bear down on him, John must determine who he will take care of first.


Episode 24 - The Avon emeralds

Cast:

Roger Moore ... Inspector Benson
Hazel Court ... Lady Gwendolyn Avon
Gertrude Flynn ... Aunt Catherine Sedley
Alan Napier ... Sir Charles Harrington
Ralph Clanton ... Mr. Saunders

Description: Scotland Yard is tasked with ensuring that the recently widowed Lady Gwendolyn Avon doesn't smuggle an expensive necklace known as Avon emeralds, out of England. Most of her late husband's estate was given up in death taxes and the police are sure she could sell them at a premium abroad. Inspector Benson is tasked with ensuring the jewels' safekeeping but when they are stolen from the hotel safe, it appears Lady Avon has a perfect plan.


Episode 25 - The kind waitress

Cast:

Rick Jason ... Arthur
Olive Deering ... Thelma Tompkins
Celia Lovsky ... Sara Mannerheim
Robert Carson ... Grand Jury Foreman

Description: Thelma Tompkins is a waitress in a hotel restaurant. She's a good waitress and has always been kind to old Mrs. Mannerheim who eats in the restaurant every evening. Thelma is shocked when Mrs. Mannerheim tells her that she is her closest friend and has left her a considerable legacy in her will. In the interim, she gives Thelma a brooch. Over the following months, Mrs. Mannerheim becomes ever more demanding and Thelma's musician boyfriend Arthur suggests that maybe the time has come for the old lady's demise to accelerated somewhat. Thelma poison's her tea but without any obvious effect. Thelma takes matters into her own hands and the subsequent coroner's inquiry reveals some interesting information about the poison she was using.


Episode 26 - Cheap is cheap

Cast:

Dennis Day ... Alexander Gifford
Alice Backes ... Jennifer Gifford
Fred Essler ... Arthur
Jack Lambert ... Hitman
Gage Clarke ... Doctor

Description: Alexander Gifford has to be the cheapest skinflint on the planet. He chides his wife for leaving a light turned on and he reads his neighbors newspaper rather than buy his own. When his wife discovers he has bank accounts totaling $33,000 she starts spending money on herself and he decides he has to do something about it. He tries to hire a hit man, but recoils when he's told that the fee would be $500. The hit man refers him to a chemist to buy poison, but again recoils at the cost. He decides to find a low-cost way to proceed, but even when he's successful is taken aback when the doctor tells him that the funeral will likely cost at least $160. Even with that, he finds a way to avoid the costs.


Episode 27 - The waxwork

Cast:

Barry Nelson ... Raymond Houston
Everett Sloane ... Mr. Marriner
Shaike Ophir ... Bourdette
Charles Davis ... Museum Guard

Description: A writer must spend a night in a wax museum's murderer's gallery, to make good a gambling debt knowingly paid with a bad check to a testy Englishman. The museum's owner is so obsessed with the accuracy of his replicas, he's as scary as they are. Especially so to the magazine writer from the U.S., who's already facing deportation or a stretch in a London gaol.


Episode 28 - The impossible dream

Cast:

Franchot Tone ... Oliver Mathews
Carmen Mathews ... Miss Hall
Mary Astor ... Grace Dolan
Suzy Lloyd ... Young Lover
Irene Windust ... Myra Robbins

Description: Oliver Mathews was once a major movie star, but is now an over-the-hill has-been with only limited movie roles and with few fans. He's also being blackmailed by Grace Dolan whose daughter once had an affair with Mathews. He's now broke and decides to get rid of Dolan but finds that his personal assistant Miss Hall, who is infatuated with him, saw him commit the deed. Her price for not going to the police is to make her one dream come true.


Episode 29 - Banquo's chair

Cast:

John Williams ... Inspector Brent
Hilda Plowright ... Mae Thorpe / Miss Ferguson's ghost
Max Adrian ... Robert Stone
Kenneth Haigh ... John Bedford

Description: John Bedford is suspected of being the murderer of his wealthy aunt, Miss Ferguson, but the police are unable to break his alibi. Now, exactly two years after the crime, a retired Scotland Yard investigator named William Brent, puts together a plan that he hopes will make the nephew confess. Brent invites the young man to a dinner in the home that once belonged to the late aunt, and secretly hires an actress to pretend to be the ghost of the dead woman. Everyone at the dinner is in on the scheme, and when the apparition appears, no one claims to see anything - but Bedford, that is.


Episode 30 - A night with the boys

Cast:

John Smith ... Irving Randall
Joyce Meadows ... Frances Randall
Sam Buffington ... Smalley
Joe De Santis ... Police Lieutenant
David Carlile ... Manny

Description: After Irving Randall loses his weekly paycheck in a poker game with friends from work, he can't bear to tell his wife the truth so he tells her he was mugged on his way home. The tale gets complicated when she insists that he report it to the police. The police subsequently inform him that they have arrested the mugger and return his money to him. It's only the next day when he finally figures out exactly what is going on.


Episode 31 - Your witness

Cast:

Brian Keith ... Arnold Shawn
Leora Dana ... Naomi Shawn
William Hansen ... Henry Babcock
Brian G. Hutton ... Kenneth Jerome
Gordon Wynn ... George Vogel
John Harmon ... Al Carmody

Description: Naomi Shawn is unhappily married. Her husband Arnold, a successful defense attorney, is having an affair with a younger woman and it's apparent that he's no longer interested in her. He also refuses to agree to a divorce, liking the freedom he already has. In court she sees her husband in action. He is defending a hit and run driver and demolishes the prosecution's chief witness by challenging his his visual acuity. During the lunch recess, Naomi decides to take action to end her marriage and fortunately has the correct eye witness to back her up.


Episode 32 - Human interest story

Cast:

Steve McQueen ... Bill Everett
Arthur Hill ... Howard Wilcox
Tyler McVey ... News Editor
William Challee ... Barney Welch - Bartender

Description: Newspaperman Bill Everett is told by his editor to go to the bar across the street and interview a man who claims to be a Martian. There, Everett meets Howard Wilcox who spins a long tale about how he woke up one morning to find that his fellow Martians had all disappeared. He traveled to Earth and found himself in Wilcox's body. Everett convinces him to go home to his wife and even offers to accompany him. He nearly convinces Wilcox to keep his story to himself, but when he decides to tell his wife the whole story, Everett must take drastic action. All is explained when Everett provides a complete report to his editor.


Episode 33 - The dusty drawer

Cast:

Dick York ... Norman Logan
Philip Coolidge ... William Tritt
Wilton Graff ... Mr. Pinkson
J. Pat O'Malley ... Colonel Binns
Almira Sessions ... Mrs. M. Merrell

Description: Norman Logan and William Tritt both live in the same boarding house. Tritt is a teller at a local bank and Logan is convinced the Tritt cheated him out of $200 on a deposit he made a year ago. Since that time he has been harassing Tritt in an attempt to get him to admit his error, but to no avail. Logan then hatches a plot to discredit Tritt in the eyes of his superiors at the bank. He buys a fake gun and pretends to rob the bank but by the time Tritt has raised the alarm, Logan has hidden the gun in an unused and nearly impossible to see drawer in an old table. He continues with these charades until he finally gets what he feels is his due.


Episode 34 - A true account

Cast:

Jane Greer ... Mrs. Cannon-Hughes
Kent Smith ... Gilbert Hughes
Robert Webber ... Paul Brett
Jocelyn Brando ... Alice
Madge Kennedy ... Mary Hughes

Description: Paul Brett is a top notch criminal attorney who is consulted by Mrs. Cannon-Hughes. She was a nurse by profession who tended to the bedridden wife of Gilbert Hughes until her death. In the time since then, she married Mr. Hughes only to come to the conclusion that he murdered his first wife. Brett advises her that there is little that can be done without evidence but he takes quite a liking to her and they eventually become lovers and marry when Gilbert takes his own life. Little does he realize the consequences of the choices he has made.


Episode 35 - Touché

Cast:

Paul Douglas ... Bill Fleming
Hugh Marlowe ... Philip Baxter Sr.
Robert Morse ... Philip Baxter Jr.
Dodie Heath ... Laura Fleming
King Calder ... Atty. George Faber

Description: Bill Fleming is upset that his wife is having an affair with Philip Baxter, the most recent of a long line of lovers. Bill is an ex-boxer and an outdoors man and nothing would give him more pleasure than to wring Baxter's neck. When he mentions to his fishing pal that he has a large collection of dueling weapons, his buddy suggests that he challenge Baxter to a duel. He tells Bill that under California law, you get special treatment in the courts if you kill someone in a duel. Little does Bill realize that his fishing pal had a purpose in giving Bill the advice he did.


Episode 36 - Invitation to an accident

Cast:

Gary Merrill ... Joseph Pond
Joanna Moore ... Virgilia Pond
Alan Hewitt ... Albert Martin
Ernestine Barrier ... Mrs. Bedsole - Aunt

Description: A scaffold falls on a new bride, after her husband accuses her of rendezvousing with an old flame. Another former suitor suspects the husband faked the accident, and urges her to cut off the affair. When she persists, he fears the unbalanced husband will again try to kill her, so he devises a plan to protect her.



Download link (torrent file) with English subtitles included

https://ufile.io/pxwo6kcf

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Call Northside 777 (1948) - semi-documentary drama based on true story, directed by Henry Hathaway, starring James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb and Helen Walker

Rating 7.4/10
Runtime: 112 min
Language: English
Country: USA
Directed by: Henry Hathaway
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040202/

Cast

James Stewart ... P.J. McNeal
Richard Conte ... Frank W. Wiecek
Lee J. Cobb ... Brian Kelly
Helen Walker ... Laura McNeal
Betty Garde ... Wanda Skutnik
Kasia Orzazewski ... Tillie Wiecek
Joanne De Bergh ... Helen Wiecek

Description: In 1932, a cop is killed and Frank Wiecek sentenced to life. Eleven years later, a newspaper ad by Frank's mother leads Chicago reporter P.J. O'Neal to look into the case. For some time, O'Neal continues to believe Frank guilty. But when he starts to change his mind, he meets increased resistance from authorities unwilling to be proved wrong.

Screens: (to be added later)

Download link (torrent file):

https://ufile.io/r0jkx6pr


Audio and video information: (to be added later)

Video :
Audio :


Subtitles, posters and screenshots (to be added later)