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Reviews
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Final Performance (1965)
it doesn't get any better
This is a phenomenal piece of work by all concerned. Everyone delivered in every department, from the writing, acting, directing, to the sets, music etc. There's a kind of Andy Griffith/Mayberry meets "Psycho" vibe to the piece that is deliciously unsettling. I don't think it would be a stretch to say that genius director, David Lynch, in all possibility, could have seen this episode and been inspired by it. In fact, I'm jealous that I didn't write it and direct it. Director, John Brahm deftly directs, convincing veteran actor Franchot Tone and the excellent Sharon Farrell, Roger Perry, and Kelly Thodsen who all do a superb job with the great script by Clyde Ware and Lee Kalcheim based on a wonderfully twisted story by Robert Bloch. A young, screenwriter's road trip back to Hollywood is inadvertently cut short, causing him to become involved in the lives of a washed up vaudevillian, (who runs a ramshackle motel/coffee shop somewhere in the sticks), and the old man's teen age fiancé. The tension builds beautifully throughout this tale of desperation. A true gem, with a great ending. -Dan Kessel-