The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962) s01e02 Episode Script

1
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,
and welcome to the Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
I trust you will excuse
my startled expression,
but this is what I just
pulled out of my hat.
It's rather a shock when one is expecting
a rabbit. However, I suppose it isn't as
traumatic as it would
be if I were expecting her
and got the rabbit. Since
my hand is not quicker
than the eye, I think
she will be quite useful
in diverting your
attention. This evening,
I shall attempt several
feats of legidimine.
One is to make an hour
disappear without you realizing it.
That will not be easy
considering this first minute.
Oh! Daphne! Did I startle you, my dear?
Yes. Where's your young man Harold? Oh,
he had a department meeting. I waited, but
then I came on. You walked from the campus
through the wood? Yes. You
must have pretty good nerves.
Dr. McFarland, I think
somebody followed me.
Are you sure?
Yes. I saw branches
and bushes moving. That must
have been the wind, my dear.
Come on in. Oh, please don't say
anything inside. My wife gets hysterical.
There's been too much
talk already. Come on.
Yes, of course. You'll
very soon learn to
take these department meetings with greater
Patience after you've married Harold and
become a faculty wife. Daphne, how nice
to see you. Oh, hello. How lovely you look.
Thank you. Hello, Wanda.
Hello. Where's Paul?
Oh, my husband deserted
me on the way over here.
He's a great bird lover. Yes, he jumped out
of the car and ran after a hermit thrush.
You mean he's in the woods chasing a bird?
Yes. Oh, that's all it was? All what was?
Nothing. Nothing at all.
Oh, Edwin! Come in, Edwin.
You know Edwin
Vogt, don't you? Yes.
We've never had anyone so brilliant in
the music department, have we, Edwin?
Oh, I wouldn't say that.
Daphne, it's so nice to see you again.
How do you do, Wanda? Oh, I do very well.
Thank you. Hello, Edwin. Have a cocktail.
Thank you. Oh, thank you.
Thank you. Cheers. Cheers.
Harold!
Good evening, Ms. McFarland, doctor.
That girl deserves a good spanking. This
is your girl. Spank her. What has she done?
She walked over here alone,
took the shortcut through the wood.
I waited half an hour for you.
I left you a note.
Yes, I know what you did, darling,
but I was still anxious about you.
Why in heaven's name did you take a
shortcut? Did you come through the wood?
Oh, wild horses couldn't get me
through there. You had me worried.
I apologize for charging in like that
with the way things are around here.
Please, please.
Don't have to talk about it.
May I?
Paul! Sorry to be late.
You're not late, Paul.
Help yourself to a drink.
Thank you.
How are you? Fine. I think
we almost met a little earlier.
This evening? When?
Weren't you chasing a bird?
Oh, a hermit thrush. People don't realize
how beautifully that bird sings, angelic.
I thought someone was
chasing me through the woods.
I took the shortcut over from the campus.
I guess it was you I heard.
My thrush was in the trees by the
cemetery, nowhere near the shortcut.
Oh. Well.
So it couldn't have been me.
No, I suppose not.
Well, probably just something
running through the undergrowth.
Probably.
I'm Dave Fulton.
I've noticed you quite often on the campus.
You're in med school, aren't you? Yes.
I asked Dr. McFarland to invite
me here when you were coming.
I was warned you're more or
less engaged to Harold, but.
you are allowed to talk
to other men, aren't you?
As a matter of fact, Harold
is cross with me now.
I walked here through the woods.
Alone? Were you being brave or something?
Well, it's such a long way the other
way around.
In any way, it wasn't really dark.
It wasn't really wise either.
May I tell you, you're much too
attractive to take such chances.
One of those girls was killed in that
moment, you know.
I doubt if they'll ever get him.
There's nothing to go on. There may be.
Next time. You're so sure
there's going to be a next time.
Thank you. Harold believes
that the killer is deranged.
A sadist. Maybe
somebody's not found yet.
Why should it be deranged?
It could have been a thief.
Perhaps a girl screamed
and he lost his head.
Edwin, thieves don't use
a knife the way he did.
If you'd only seen the body we found.
Terrence, please.
Will you not discuss the details? When my
husband and Harold get together, they're just.
.. It's all very horrible.
But that's what makes it fascinating.
I once knew an awful old man who had a
couple of books on torture.
Covered in human skin.
This killer might have cleared out.
He isn't necessarily a local man.
But I think he is, Edwin.
You may remember that Jack the Ripper
stuck to one section of London.
And the French Bluebeard, Landroux,
stayed in Paris. Fritz Harmon, who's he?
I never heard of him.
A foul creature in Hanover. He murdered
more than 40 men in his butcher's shop.
Harold, you can't
make me believe that a
college town like Woodside
would even be likely
to harbor a mass murderer. On the contrary.
College community is
an ideal place, for one.
I agree. Yes.
You see, there are a lot of
high-strung individuals here.
Many are frustrated. Some very curious.
Easily apt to be well up
on the literature of murder.
Don't you couple that with
the power of suggestion?
Well, now, you take an intelligent man who's
even slightly off balance, for example.
Say that he's dissatisfied.
He's building up grudges.
I suppose he's been reading
about these multiple killers.
Harmon writes in the
Beth Smith, Gilles Duret.
He was a man who was very artistic.
A scholar.
The Marquis de Sade? You're pretty
well up on murder yourself, aren't you?
Or he may be a specialized
kind of madman who.
is only occasionally seized
by these compulsions.
He could be someone in
the university atmosphere.
He could easily be one of us.
Oh, now really, help. Surely that
doesn't include us girls, I hope.
No, I'm inclined to think it's a man.
If you ask why he
does this, I think it's a
pathological distortion
of something normal.
Something that's already
there, waiting in all of us.
Sane, insane. It's all a matter of balance.
Haven't any of you ever felt
that when you were terribly tired or
worried sick about something,
that keeping your sanity was like.
walking a tightrope stretched
across a great chasm, and that
if the slightest thing
went wrong, it toppled off?
It never stopped falling?
Have you ever felt like that, Harold?
I think anyone who hasn't
is extremely fortunate.
You have surgery early tomorrow
morning, don't you? Oh, yes.
And he likes to take a
walk before he goes to bed.
I think it's time we all went home.
What a marvelous moon. It's lighter
than when I came through earlier.
You know, I could have
sworn something was
following me when I came
through here before dinner.
I don't know exactly how to explain it,
except that it stopped when I stopped
and went on when I went on.
When it finally made a rush towards me,
you should have seen me.
I practically ran the rest of the way.
It wasn't some mischievous
child, was it? Oh, no.
No children would be in here that
time of night. It was dark and spooky.
Well, maybe it was a dog.
Maybe. Probably was.
Oh, you are on edge, aren't you?
Why in the world didn't you tell me?
We needn't have come back this way.
No, I wanted to come through. I wanted
to come through with you and feel safe.
Do you know what I mean? I know.
Where are you?
Where are you?
He was trying for the heart.
Give me your towel, quickly.
Thank you.
All right.
She's fainted. We hadn't frightened him.
He might have killed her.
Maybe it was you he was after.
If she was only a
substitute, he may try again.
If the woman hadn't had any of his
attention, she'd have bled to death.
But she was doing very
well when I came along.
I'm lucky you heard her scream.
Well, I usually take a walk the last thing.
I thought the man might still be there.
What has she said about the attack?
It seems she went out to mail
a letter and he sprang on her.
She was on that back road.
No, not actually in the woods.
He seemed terribly strong, she said,
and dragged her in among the trees.
She couldn't describe him.
She doesn't remember much, really.
Oh, hello, Harold.
Did the police say anything?
Well, no, just that she may
remember more a little later.
Oh, I doubt if she will.
Looking at the hospital,
Daphne, she'd like to thank you.
Yes, of course I will.
Goodbye, doctor.
The police still think
that it isn't necessarily
the same man
after the other killing.
But I said that it had to be a particular
kind of man in a particular state of mind.
And that they might need the help
of a psychologist in running him down.
Anyway, I told him I'd do
anything I could to help.
Oh, don't get mixed up with this, Harold.
Darling, you know how
interested I am in these
things, these strange
twists of the mind.
That's why I went into
psychology in the first place.
It's a wonderful
opportunity for me to test out
some theories I've had
in abnormal behavior.
The only problem is
I'm going to have to work
alone because the police
don't go along with me.
I think you should stay out of it.
Daphne, you want this
man caught, don't you?
You know, I can't forget that it
might have been you he was following.
Why would he try to get me?
I don't know, but I'm going to
make sure that he never does.
Oh, hello, Dave.
Well, you're always creeping
up behind me, aren't you?
I stopped by to see how you
came through all the excitement.
Well, I have a lecture to give.
I'll call you later for dinner, darling.
That was a terrible thing last night.
If I'd walked home that
way, I might have caught him.
I thought you rode home with Paul.
No, I stayed talking with Mrs. McFarland.
Then I walked home the long way around.
Alone? At that time of night?
Now, why should he walk when he could ride?
Do you want me to tell you?
Well, remember how you felt
listening to Edwin at the piano?
That's how I felt after you'd gone.
I just wanted to walk and think about you.
You pay the most curious compliments.
First, you ask Dr. McFarland
to invite you to dinner.
Then you tell me I'm too
beautiful to be married.
And now the moonlight.
I didn't know you were out there.
Edwin, that was beautiful.
Stay there. I'll join you.
Oh, no, I can't stay.
That was the moonlight
sonata you were playing?
Yes.
I'll play you some of those
French melodies you seem to like.
If you'd care to come in for a while.
No, I'm expecting Harold to call.
They're all dance tunes, really.
Do I make them sound sad?
Yes.
There is a sort of sorrow in them.
Not in them.
It's in me.
Music always gives away one's
feelings, especially loneliness.
That's the universal human
predicament, isn't it? Loneliness.
I think in very talented people
like yourself, it helps to create.
Well, I must go. Goodbye.
Oh, am I glad you're still awake.
I thought you were going to call.
Oh, I know it, honey. I'm sorry,
but I had such a hectic day I forgot.
Have you had any dinner?
No, I didn't even have time to eat.
But you know something? Here.
I think I'm finally making some progress.
Of course, the police
think I'm just another crazy
professor, but they don't
understand what's going on.
You remember last
night I said that the killer
might be sitting there
at the table with us?
Well, I was right.
He was. You know how I know?
The police went out there and they searched
that whole area where they found the girl.
Nothing.
I went out on my own.
I found a cocktail napkin with
the McFarland's name on it.
Oh, well, that doesn't mean anything.
People are at the McFarland's all the time.
Somebody could have dropped
it or it could have flown there.
No, that's what the
police said, but I disagree.
They say that this assault
isn't like the rest of them.
Darling, we know
everybody at the McFarland's.
Whether we know them or not
hasn't got the slightest bearing on this.
Now, this killer gets a great
satisfaction out of terror and destruction.
And as children, we have much the
same impulses, but we grow out of them.
Now, either he hasn't or
they've reoccurred in him.
Horrible.
Yes, it is horrible.
We're moving in a region of horror.
Now, the police have got
everybody pinned down.
They're pretty good at that, you know.
Dr. McFarland was out last
night on his nightcap stroll.
Edwin walked home alone.
I know it, and so did Dave.
I had lunch with him today.
Oh, he did?
Paul, however, was not.
He jumped out of the car to look
at a screech owl or something.
I don't know what it was.
Besides, I don't think it would be
Dave because he's much too normal.
You'd rather have it anybody
than Dave, wouldn't you?
I'd sooner he never got caught
than have it be somebody we know.
But, honey, it is someone we know.
Now, you heard the way that girl screamed.
I want this fellow caught
before he makes you scream.
He isn't after me.
Daphne, I know this man's secret mind.
I've studied these people.
I know how they think.
It's frightening sometimes
how you know people.
He watches you.
To him, you're like a living Jewel.
You're your perfection.
You're irreplaceable, and to
destroy you would be a triumph.
Now, he followed you,
but he didn't get you.
The other woman was just a substitute,
but he didn't succeed with her either.
So he's going to come
back to his first choice.
We can catch him through
you and only through you.
I want you to be a decoy.
I want you to walk through
the woods again alone.
No.
I'll be there, but I'll be out of sight.
I have a gun.
Well, how do you know you
can catch him even with a gun?
Use a police decoy.
They have people who do that sort of thing.
But it's you he wants,
don't you understand?
It's not going to be
any more of a risk than
you're running right now
every day, every minute.
Don't walk through that woods again.
I don't know how you can
ask me to do such a thing.
Daphne, besides protecting you,
we may save the lives of others.
Now, how would you feel if
some morning you woke up and
there was another girl had been strangled
and slashed when we could have stopped it?
This has to be done at once, darling.
Well, this periodic
excitement is still with him.
We could drop into the
McFarland's tomorrow night,
and I'll let it be known that we'll be
over there, but not what we're going to do.
Nobody would ever believe
I'd go through that woods again.
Not now.
Yes, he will, because that's
what he wants to believe.
And he'll wait until you do.
He'll never stop watching you.
I know this kind of mind.
I can't, Harold.
Don't ask me again.
I can't.
All right.
All right.
Talk about it tomorrow.
I won't change my mind.
Hello, Harold.
Yes, I'm sorry to call you this time of
night, but somebody tried to break in here.
No, no, he climbed the tree.
No, I only got a glimpse of him.
Didn't look like anybody I knew.
No, no, please come over
when it's light, will you?
You can see for yourself.
Yes, and Harold, I'll go through
that woods again, whenever you say.
Yes.
I shall begin my act immediately following
the station break, so please hurry back.
I warned you not to stay so long.
You can hardly expect rabbits to simply sit
around waiting for a station break to end.
Now it is time for the
second half of our story.
Perhaps after that, there
will be time for a few tricks.
Well, it's been a lovely evening, doctor.
I'm afraid we've stayed too late.
Not at all.
Delighted to have you,
and thank you for the reports.
Can't I drive you back?
Oh, no, thank you.
We'd rather walk.
Well, there's no need to tell
you, stay clear of the wood.
Ah, the police haven't got a
thing on the killer yet, Paul.
But if they get on to you, a bird lover
who's seen at odd times and odd places,
you'll be a hot suspect.
Well, if I were the murderer, I think I
could guarantee that I'd never be caught.
When this one's caught, you
may find that it's only the beginning.
Whatever you mean by that, good night.
Good night, Daphne and Harold.
Look after her.
Good night, my dear.
Good night.
It's always a delight to see you.
Good night, Harold.
All you have to do is keep walking
in a natural pace like you are now.
Do you mind if I hope he's not there?
Ah, but he will be.
I told you he watches you.
He knows you're out here.
He'll be waiting for you.
Maybe he'll guess it's a trap.
I know, but he won't believe that
because he wants you so much.
And then when he sees you, he won't be able
to hold back because it's a compulsion.
I'm going to slip away in a moment.
Oh, darling, I'm frightened.
Shouldn't we get the help of the police?
I tried to, but they don't
go along with my theory.
You'll keep me in
sight, won't you, darling?
You won't be able to see me,
but I'll be near you all the time.
I'm glad there's a moon.
Clouds, though.
My heart is pounding.
You'll come immediately
if I call, won't you, Harold?
Harold?
Oh.
Who is it?
Who is it?
Did I frighten you?
Yes, you did a little.
Only a little? That's good.
It seemed to me that I frightened
you quite badly the other evening.
The other evening?
On your way to dinner at the McFarland's.
You began running.
Why did you follow me then?
Oh, it's a habit of mine.
There was nothing to be afraid of.
Not then.
But I only wanted you to
know that you were not alone.
You certainly must feel
that you're not alone now.
This would be different.
I'm glad you like my music.
But that's not all there is, you know.
That's not the best-
Shut up! No, no, no, no.
No, you mustn't go now.
You mustn't go now!
No!
It worked, Taffney.
It worked.
Is he dead?
No.
No, he's not dead.
You know, Edwin reads music
like you and I might read a book.
He hears the sounds in his head.
Having his music there at the home
should be some consolation to him.
Why don't you come in, darling?
No, I don't like being here.
But I wanted you here.
I know it's a little untidy, but
the police have searched it.
Edwin's apartment is exactly the
place for something I have to tell you.
Yes, I think I know what it is.
You want to tell me that you
don't think the attacks are over
and that they may be after me.
Who told you that? Dave.
Dave is always popping up, isn't he?
On the campus, in the wood.
He said you told him the
night you caught Edwin.
I reminded them all that some crimes
come in waves as if they're contagious.
The ceremonial knife, blood sacrifices,
that appeals to some mentalities.
But this may have spread
already in the town, on the campus.
You mean you think he may
have associates or imitators?
Men with the same ideas as
Edwin, the same objectives.
Who do you think? I don't know.
I wouldn't want to point a finger at
anyone, but Daphne, look around this room.
You remember how you felt
about Edwin, his music, his charm,
and yet in his heart he hated all women.
He would have strangled you
and sliced you with that knife.
But Daphne, you mustn't trust anybody.
Dave, not anyone.
Well, I'll take the music to Edwin.
He and I were very close friends, you know.
Poor soul.
Hello, Edwin.
How are you?
I brought you most of your music.
I thought maybe you'd like
to play it when you feel better.
There's a piano in the lounge.
That time with the girl in the wood,
when Daphne and I interrupted you,
that was all for nothing, wasn't it?
We came too soon, and you began it wrong.
You tried to take
the life without the
ceremonial, so the
compulsion stayed with you.
Then you had to try again with Daphne.
Well, I must be going now, Edwin.
I'll come and see you again.
I know you will.
I'm looking forward to it.
Are you going to be
roaming around again tonight?
I have some more
clothes I want to follow up.
Harold, why don't you
leave this up to the police?
I have to continue on my own.
I've been studying Edwin's analysis.
Digging into his mind, and
here is the smell of blood still.
It's fascinating.
His ideas go far back in time.
They run deep, and he's not
so non-sane as one might think.
Will you have dinner with
me, darling? No, I can't.
I have a special class
tonight, added biochemistry.
That's the one that Dave teaches, isn't it?
The small class.
And afterwards, I suppose he'll ask
you to have dinner with him or a supper.
Now, don't go, Daphne.
Don't go.
Darling, what's gotten into you?
What's gotten into
everyone? Me, you, Dave.
What got into Edwin?
We'll never know.
Edwin, you poor dear.
You're worn out.
It's this terrible business with Edwin.
Standing guard over me,
and working half the day, and
hunting heaven knows what half the night.
What if I were to go away?
I'd be sure nobody ever found Edwin.
No, no, no, no.
Don't do that.
Don't go.
Especially don't go now.
Darling, why don't you lie down and rest?
I have some things I better do.
Harold, I'm sorry about dinner.
That's all right.
You have a good time with Dave.
Did you have dinner this
evening? No, not really.
How about coffee and
something with me? No, thank you.
I'm going straight home.
Harold waiting?
I begin to wonder whether all his talk
about you being in danger is imagination.
He was right about Edwin.
He was, wasn't he?
You know, a man like Edwin never realizes
he's committing an abominable crime.
He's merely yielding to an urge.
Such men worship dark and nameless gods.
They act out the fantasies that
obsess their unbalanced minds.
You really can't blame somebody like Edwin.
That doesn't make them any less dangerous.
That's exactly why Harold
is so absorbed in this.
Yes, deeply.
It absorbs him when he
should be absorbed in you.
Harold has been working night and day trying
to prevent anything else from happening
to me or to anyone else.
Daphne, I'm going to say this.
I think there's a lot of
pretense about you and Harold.
There always has been, hasn't there?
You're not really in love.
That's what I mean by pretense.
Harold may be in love with
you in his way, but you're not.
How dare you say such a thing to me.
You're ducking away from the truth.
I'm very fond of Harold.
I think I may owe him my life.
He certainly deserves my loyalty.
That's a poor substitute for love.
Are you jealous of Harold?
No, but he is of me.
Good night, Dave.
Oh, Daphne.
Hello, darling.
I saw your light.
Oh, you know, I never realized
how beautiful you're looking.
You look like a bride.
Oh, you must have come straight down here.
Yes, I did.
Sit down, darling, sit down.
I want to celebrate.
I made my mind up about something.
Oh, this is wine that I keep
for very special occasions.
Faculty birthdays.
It's wonderful the way
you just walked in here.
I never expected that.
Yes, I just been talking with Dave.
I'll always remember you as
you are at this moment, darling.
Smiling at me across a glass of wine.
Cheers.
Cheers.
You came from Dave to me.
I like that because I
have something to tell you.
About Dave?
No, no, I know how you feel about him.
I'm not blind, you know.
Harold, if you're jealous of Dave, I
can assure you it's quite without reason.
Without reason, you
said? Without reason.
No, that isn't what I
wanted to talk to you about.
There's something else, and
this is the perfect place to do it.
You said you'd made up
your mind about something.
Yes, my darling.
I have, and we won't be interrupted here.
Now, I don't want you to be
frightened by what I have to say.
and run away as you did with Edwin.
But he intended to.
Edwin killed those women
in hatred and revenge.
But I've decided tonight to make
you completely my own for love.
In the full aesthetic moment.
of final sacrifice.
Pain is only a secret name
for pleasure, my darling.
And there can be no true
sacrifice, no complete feeling of love.
Unless the victim dies.
You're mine, Daphne.
Just mine.
He really caught this contagion,
this spirit of killing from Edwin.
A strange and ancient
illusion that by blood sacrifice,
you can reach a more intense communion.
Jealousy unbalanced his
mind, but you're safe now.
Harold is here.
I knew he would be.
I've been looking forward to it.
Next week, we should
be back with another story.
Now, there is just time
enough for my escape act.
Good night.