The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: An Unlocked Window
I’ve been back on an Alfred Hitchcock kick lately, and last night I re-watched one of my all time favorite episodes (perhaps of ANY TV show). If you haven’t seen The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: An Unlocked Window, the full episode is on YouTube for free and I highly recommend it.
A group of nurses, caring for an ailing patient, are trapped in an old manor on a stormy night with a notorious nurse killer on the loose outside of the house.
And someone left the basement window unlocked…
Leave it to Hitchcock to take a subject as potentially cliche as “killer on the loose during a storm” and, through masterful direction, lighting and dialogue, turn it into a story no viewer will soon forget. It’s perfectly crafted…and even more amazing the second time with the insight of retrospect illuminating how carefully these scenes were constructed.
This episode should be shown in every film writing class. Watch for yourself!
SheWalksSoftly 
June 8, 2015 at 2:00 am
!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!
What a treat this was to watch. Hitchcock demands a comfortable spot on the couch, paying close attention, even more so that you highly recommended it. Nothing like a good ole b &w mystery-horror-thriller-romance movie, huh, like freshly-strangled chicken soup for the soul. I really thought the guy patient ( Linn?) would come bursting out of bed against all odds to save his Stella. Why didn’t she scream? And why didn’t they tell him about the killer? I laughed when Stella ripped open the killers shirt and saw two hairy breasts. Hitchcock brilliantly fooled the audience (me) focusing our attention on the open window gimmick. And he used Maude’s booze scene to blatantly give away the killer, “Do I look like a nurse, no…no. Thank goodness he’s in the house” she said, gazing right into the “killers” face. The scene Maude screams laying in bed hearing a sinister laugh, I think she experienced a haunting because the “killer” was with Stella. Unless I missed something. Remember Linn mentioned how would’ve liked if the house was haunted? I had a feeling Gus’s wanting back inside would remind Stella the basement window was open. Dana Wynter who plays Stella also has your name, how cool. Thoroughly enjoyed this, great recommendation Dana.
October 16, 2016 at 7:02 pm
Absolute Travesty: the 80’s Revision. Cannot do justice to the Classic Hitchcock.
February 24, 2017 at 11:02 am
A dark stormy night, an old, isolated, spooky house and a killler on the loose. True, this combination is often the setting most novice writer of murder mysteries might go for, but there is nothing commonplace here. That is because audiences know to expect the unexpected from the master of the genre, Hitchcock!
March 4, 2017 at 4:25 am
#1 Hitchcock episode its psycho on steroid’s. I should know I invented nurse terror. I’m the real Jamie Lee Curtis Halloween, TV Julia daughter