User Reviews

You know when I realized it was a scam? When Grace Renford (Diana Hyland) went to see the schlock psychic Dr. Shankara (Abraham Sofaer). The guy was a bug-eyed hoot! Did you get a load of the way he collapsed when he spun out his tale for Miss Renford? I get how the vulnerable woman nearly fell apart when news of her husband's death arrived, but instead of dealing with her grief in a rational manner, she turned to the phony seer. The tipoff there was when he quoted from the same poems that Keith Holloway (Jeremy Slate) did when setting up his latest victim. Unfortunately, the good hearted Aunt Minnie Briggs (Mildred Dunnock) didn't get what she deserved when the truth finally came to light. It's sad to think that someone could actually react that way when faced with a shattering reality. As for the serial gold digging Holloway, wouldn't it have been a good idea to change his story and tactics even the slightest little bit? Granted, it would have seemed impossible to make a connection between any two of his victims, except for the fact that Lucy Barrington (Ann Ayars) and Miss Renford must have lived in the same town, or at least within some proximity of each other for them to seek out the same bogus con-man in league with Holloway. But it was a good story waiting to see how it all played out, with more than its share of victims, both intended and unintended.

Diana Hyland stars as a lonely young and very wealthy woman searching desperately for love in 1964's "Beyond the Sea of Death." She finds just what's she looking for in handsome adventurous Jeremy Slate. He's working his way up through the ranks as a coal mining engineer, and the two fall madly in love. He even recites poems to her about how their love will last forever and "beyond the sea of death." Mildred Dunnock, Ms. Hyland's suspicious aunt, senses that slick Jeremy may be a con-man after her niece's money and is wary of the relationship. She becomes even more distressed when she finds out that the two have married in secret. When the poor fellow is killed in a Bolivian mining accident, however, she sympathizes with the totally bereaved Ms. Hyland. But that's only half of the story.

Inconsolable from her loss, the distraught Ms. Hyland turns to a swami called Doctor Shankara (Abraham Sofaer) who convinces her that he can communicate with her dead husband. Soon he's reading her poems from the beyond, and wouldn't you know it, they're the same exact ones that Jeremy was reciting when he was alive and well. In no time at all, Doctor Shankara has another message for her from Jeremy; he wants her to give huge chunks of money to the good doctor's "foundation." After finding out her niece is signing some gigantic checks over to this charlatan, Ms. Dunnock decides to do some investigating. She discovers that there are a slew of widows who are similarly signing over cash and property to Dr. Shankara at the behest of their late husbands. Likewise, these "beyond the sea of death" husbands were all killed in Bolivian mining accidents. Yes, it's all been a big con job and Ms. Dunnock now has to tell her niece to save what's left of her rapidly dwindling fortune. Mr. Slate isn't even dead, but instead he's in seclusion counting his money and courting new potential "widows." He and the phony doctor have been partners-in-crime from the beginning. When finally confronted with the truth about the whole conniving scenario from her aunt, Ms. Hyland just can't accept it---and displays her displeasure with reality.

"Beyond the Sea of Death" is well-acted by the entire cast and the story serves as a warning to all viewers regarding scam artists and their ilk. Of particular note is the performance of Diana Hyland. As always, she's excellent in this episode and watching her here makes one acutely aware of how tragic her early death was.

She is supposed to be, for the record, a Tippi Hedron lookalike not one of Princess Grace. Her male co-star is just another fella who like all men is unworthy of name and note (to the misguided poster on here who very wrongly made a comment on him). Back to Hyland. She is amazing in this part. She is sexy, amazing, vulnerable, beautiful, sophisticated and human all at the same time. This was like her second time on AHH and she should have been on even more. As for predictability of storyline. Because the story is told in flashback it is a safe bet to presume that it will be a scam rather than the real thing (also this is AHH not TZ and mostly AHH was more straight-forward). Nonetheless, Hyland personally makes this ep so very worth your time. Watch multiple viewings of it just to catch her. (Hyland also vastly outranks her usually good co-star Mildred Dunnock in interest, beauty, and sex-appeal by far. Hyland is the best!)

A sucker is born every minute but that can be overcome. Sadly Grace(Diana Hyland) would rather pine and mourn for a man(Keith) who actually conned her and several other women for their money. He isn't actually dead but he and his partner play on the rich,lonely and guliable and rely on the supernatural to guide them. Her wiley aunt is the one who exposes the plot and what does Grace do ? Murders her aunt ?????!!!! Grace could have gone on and had a good life she doesn't lose her money but she has lost her marbles. She would rather think he loved her and thrown her money away to supposedly be close to him. She doesn't even seem to realize there was nothing there no important work to be a part of. She would have just lost money while Keith goes on scamming .

The ending with Grace and her poor aunt who was only trying to help is absurd .I kept waitng for someone to stop Grace. It's also rather oddly acted by Hyland . Overall not one of the better hour long Hitchcock episodes.