Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Film Festival Episode One: "Annabel"

The Internet is an amazing place. It is a spider web of interesting (and uninteresting) information and cool stuff. It is especially brilliant when it comes to entertainment. I discovered the old television series The Alfred Hitchcock Hour a few weeks ago when I went on a hunt for Richard Matheson films--Matheson wrote two episodes and both are online!

Which got me thinking about all the fabulous writers of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s--a period when writers could seemingly mix-and-match a career of both film and fiction. I went on a hunt and I was impressed with what I found. I also decided I would share some of the better episodes and films here at Gravetapping.

A sort of online film festival of television and film written-by, or based on the work, of popular paperback writers of this era. A few of the writers on the horizon: John D. MacDonald, Richard Matheson, Henry Slesar, Charles Beaumont, William F. Nolan, Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis, Leigh Brackett and many, many more.

The first installment is from The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. It is an episode written by Robert Bloch and based on a Patricia Highsmith novel. The title: "Annabel". It is the seventh episode of season one, and it originally aired November 1, 1962. It stars an amazingly young Dean Stockwell and it was directed by Paul Henreid--a television director who actively worked from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think if you are so included.

A technical note
: There are five commercials, four that you must watch; the fifth is at the end, well after all the action is over. A few of the commercials are placed a little awkwardly. To watch the episode full-screen hover the cursor over the screen and click the small rectangular box in the top-right corner.

4 comments:

Blue Tyson said...

Nifty idea. Remember that hulu only works in the USA, though.

Ben Boulden said...

I didn't realize Hulu only works within the USA. It makes sense I guess when one considers distribution rights, etc.

Hmmm...thanks for letting me know.

Gonzalo B said...

Hi Ben,

Great idea. You'll probably enjoy this DVD:

http://www.raunchytonk.net/goldenagenoirinf.html

Ben Boulden said...

Gonzalo! It's been far too long. Thanks for the link. The DVD looks like something I would like.

I have absolutely fallen for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. The endings have a tendency to be a bit heavy handed from time-to-time, but there are really some great stories.