Superior Hitchcock fare. Excellent script makes good use of hour format, something the other 60-minute episodes by and large could not do. Are little Eva's playmates real or not. She seems so convinced and convincing. Suspense builds nicely, helped along by an exquisite performance from Margaret Leighton as the anguished aunt. Watch the subtle progression of facial expressions as she moves from normalcy to genuine trauma over the obsessive state of her young niece. Little Eileen Baral, on whom the episode turns, is wonderfully natural, with no hint of artificial emotion-- I suspect that when a child actor performs this well, a lot of credit must go to the director (here, Alf Kjellin). There's a really creepy undertone to the story that could have been heightened by a more Gothic approach, instead of the straightforward, high-key lighting which drains the visuals of the kind of shadowy atmosphere that would complement the script. Still and all, it's a haunting 60 minutes, one that's likely to stay with you. And for those who care, I suspect there's an allegory about race relations in the Jim Crow South lurking somewhere in the subtext.
Review of Where the Woodbine Twineth
