In spite of what one reviewer states, this is a superb Hitchcock Hour episode. Seeing it reminds me of how poor television writing is today. This is superior story telling with all of the actors giving excellent performances. Patricia Cutts is a stand-out as the domineering wife Samantha but it is Lillian Gish's brilliant performance that is most memorable. This episode is a master class of what great television could be. There isn't an single episode of either Alfred Hitchcock Presents or The Alfred Hitchcock Hour that disappoints me. Yes, some are better than others but all are outstanding compared to any of the scripted junk on tv today.
12 Reviews
Lillian makes this memorable
jjnxn-13 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Lillian Gish, that expert of subtle conveyance of mood and texture, drives this sturdy mystery tale. Using all the gestures learned over the long years of her experience she is by turns exasperated, exasperating, dogged and bewildered drawing the viewer into the story.
It's a straightforward tale of duplicity and deception but played well by the cast all taking Lillian's lead. Effiencently directed the story moves at a brisk clip which was customary of these early TV dramas.
In a sad touch of coincidence in this tale of murder and suicide three of the main players, Patricia Cutts who plays the vicious neighbor, Doodles Weaver who plays Gregg and Maggie McNamara, in the final role of her career as Lillian's niece Camilla would all ultimately end as suicides.
A tale of double crosses and corrected justice with a legend at its core this is well worth a look.
It's a straightforward tale of duplicity and deception but played well by the cast all taking Lillian's lead. Effiencently directed the story moves at a brisk clip which was customary of these early TV dramas.
In a sad touch of coincidence in this tale of murder and suicide three of the main players, Patricia Cutts who plays the vicious neighbor, Doodles Weaver who plays Gregg and Maggie McNamara, in the final role of her career as Lillian's niece Camilla would all ultimately end as suicides.
A tale of double crosses and corrected justice with a legend at its core this is well worth a look.
Genteel Entry
telegonus12 April 2011
The Body In the Barn is a genteel entry of the Hitchcock hour and features, as another reviewer noted, a pitch perfect performance by Lillian Gish as a sick old biddy whose prying ways cause a lot of trouble in her sleepy, woodsy community when the body of a local working man is found in a barn.
The Hitchcock hours tend to fall into different categories. Some have comic undertones. This one doesn't. Quite a few are either outright horror tales or feature suspense ratcheted up to such a level that they may as well be horrors. Body In the Barn doesn't have that level of intensity. There are rural episodes and urban ones. And some feature people who possess a measure of refinement and education that allows for easy identification for the sophisticated viewer. Body definitely falls into that category. Another somewhat looser category is that of the domestic episode about people who know each other quite well, who either lives under the same roof or are close neighbors. This one is of the domestic variety.
I found Body In the Barn more a good character study than a strong story, featuring very good actors, not especially suspenseful or dramatically compelling. The characters are strong but the plot isn't. It held my interest yet failed to engage my sympathies. The good manners of the principals, some slightly better than average dialog and decent plot twists kept me watching till the end. It was pretty much Miss Gish's show, though it also features good work from Maggie McNamara, Kent Smith and, especially, Peter Lind Hayes. With a lesser player in the lead it would merely average.
The Hitchcock hours tend to fall into different categories. Some have comic undertones. This one doesn't. Quite a few are either outright horror tales or feature suspense ratcheted up to such a level that they may as well be horrors. Body In the Barn doesn't have that level of intensity. There are rural episodes and urban ones. And some feature people who possess a measure of refinement and education that allows for easy identification for the sophisticated viewer. Body definitely falls into that category. Another somewhat looser category is that of the domestic episode about people who know each other quite well, who either lives under the same roof or are close neighbors. This one is of the domestic variety.
I found Body In the Barn more a good character study than a strong story, featuring very good actors, not especially suspenseful or dramatically compelling. The characters are strong but the plot isn't. It held my interest yet failed to engage my sympathies. The good manners of the principals, some slightly better than average dialog and decent plot twists kept me watching till the end. It was pretty much Miss Gish's show, though it also features good work from Maggie McNamara, Kent Smith and, especially, Peter Lind Hayes. With a lesser player in the lead it would merely average.
Sensational Starring Role For Lillian Gish in Her Sixties!
HarlowMGM31 August 2008
The great Lillian Gish, one of the legends of the silent screen, was a superlative actress throughout her life. This fantastic episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR from 1963 showcases Miss Lillian as good as anything she ever did in the sound film era. Miss Gish stars as a cranky, nosy old gal in ill health who has long feuded with her neighbor and blames her for the death of an elderly man who plummeted off a cliff thanks to a fence the neighbor put up. Lillian's niece Maggie McNamara lives with her in her large farmhouse and Maggie tries to make peace with the neighbors, particularly with the woman's mild mannered hen-pecked husband Peter Lind Hays. Gossip-loving Lil takes in all of Peter's private confidences to Maggie, that his wife once attempted to murder him and he fears she will try again should he ever leave her. And when Peter shows up missing and the days turn into weeks and months and the woman refuses to give any information about his whereabouts, Lillian is convinced after spying on the woman with binoculars that something fishy is going on at her barn.
This fantastic mystery/suspense has echoes of REAR WINDOW - and HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, although the latter film hadn't even been made yet - and Miss Gish is simply superb in this film, cast against type as a not always very likable woman. The whole cast is good but this is Lillian's show. "Body in the Barn" is one of THE ALFRED HITCHOCK HOUR's finest hours.
This fantastic mystery/suspense has echoes of REAR WINDOW - and HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, although the latter film hadn't even been made yet - and Miss Gish is simply superb in this film, cast against type as a not always very likable woman. The whole cast is good but this is Lillian's show. "Body in the Barn" is one of THE ALFRED HITCHOCK HOUR's finest hours.
Don't Mess with the Geritol Crowd
dougdoepke10 May 2015
The narrative's as twisty as a mountain road, nonetheless stick with the hour since the ironies do pile up. It's quite a cast of characters. There's an ice queen neighbor (Cutts), her meek and mild husband (Hayes), an Audrey Hepburn look-alike (McNamara), and above all, a feisty old matriarch (Gish). Hayes thinks mean wife Cutts might kill him. So when he disappears and a decomposed body turns up in their barn, it looks bad for the wife. Meanwhile Gish doesn't trust anybody-- always a wise move in a Hitchcock story.
I can't believe it, but is that really a 70-year old Gish dashing up the road in the opening scene. I think it is. Anyone seeing that energy burst ought to know her character is no one to mess with. And isn't that former RKO leading man Kent Smith as the doctor. Good to see him picking up a payday. Too bad McNamara quit the business after this outing. I guess she had trouble acceding to Hollywood's commercial demands. And on a really somber note, both she and Cutts died by their own hand at age 48. Something like the downside of the celebrity ladder, I guess. On a lighter note, Gish survived to age 99, and after seeing this, I'm not surprised
Anyway, the entry holds interest by not telegraphing where it's going. And unless I missed something, the scales of justice don't exactly balance out at hour's end. So see what you think.
I can't believe it, but is that really a 70-year old Gish dashing up the road in the opening scene. I think it is. Anyone seeing that energy burst ought to know her character is no one to mess with. And isn't that former RKO leading man Kent Smith as the doctor. Good to see him picking up a payday. Too bad McNamara quit the business after this outing. I guess she had trouble acceding to Hollywood's commercial demands. And on a really somber note, both she and Cutts died by their own hand at age 48. Something like the downside of the celebrity ladder, I guess. On a lighter note, Gish survived to age 99, and after seeing this, I'm not surprised
Anyway, the entry holds interest by not telegraphing where it's going. And unless I missed something, the scales of justice don't exactly balance out at hour's end. So see what you think.
More like a movie than an episode.
planktonrules31 May 2021
There is a lot to this story...even more so than most other one hour installments of the series. And, as a result, it feels more like a movie than a TV show.
When the story begins, Bessie (Lillian Gish) is upset because her husband died....and it might have been due to a new fence installed by her very grouchy neighbor. Through most of the rest of the episode, Bessie and this lady fight and later, Bessie becomes friends with the nasty woman's mild mannered husband. However, when he disappears, Bessie is convinced her neighbor killed her husband and she works hard to prove it. What's next? Well, a whole heck of a lot...that's for sure!!
This is a good episode but there is so much more to the plot because it's quite the complicated show. Now this is NOT a complaint...just an observation. In fact, I give this one an 8...it's well made and it was a treat to see Lillian guest starring in this series.
When the story begins, Bessie (Lillian Gish) is upset because her husband died....and it might have been due to a new fence installed by her very grouchy neighbor. Through most of the rest of the episode, Bessie and this lady fight and later, Bessie becomes friends with the nasty woman's mild mannered husband. However, when he disappears, Bessie is convinced her neighbor killed her husband and she works hard to prove it. What's next? Well, a whole heck of a lot...that's for sure!!
This is a good episode but there is so much more to the plot because it's quite the complicated show. Now this is NOT a complaint...just an observation. In fact, I give this one an 8...it's well made and it was a treat to see Lillian guest starring in this series.
Not bad
caseyabell13 August 2020
Like everybody else, I loved Lillian Gish's performance as the annoying busybody who sets off a crazy chain of fatal consequences in a bucolic bit of the American countryside. The two-wrongs-make-a-right plot is bitterly ironic, as befits the bitterly ironic lady played by Miss Lillian.
The problem, as one reviewer sourly notes, is that the plot turns on a ridiculously mistaken identification of, yes, the body in the barn. I know this was before the days of DNA analysis, but a glance at dental records would have easily confirmed that the corpse couldn't be the hen-pecked husband. There's some hand-waving about "quicklime," but that would have had no effect on those pesky little teeth. What can you say? Sometimes you really do have to suspend disbelief.
Meanwhile, the body count piles up pretty high for such a cozy drama, which in a way is also appropriate to bring out the nastiness underlying the pastoral surroundings. Lillian Gish easily dominates the proceedings, though the other actors also turn in fine performances. And thanks to one reviewer for reminding me of who Maggie McNamara resembled. Audrey Hepburn! Just couldn't quite put my finger on the resemblance as I watched the episode. Sorry to hear from other reviewers that she committed suicide.
Hitch as the scarecrow was also a funny bit. I wonder how he would have contributed to The Wizard of Oz.
The problem, as one reviewer sourly notes, is that the plot turns on a ridiculously mistaken identification of, yes, the body in the barn. I know this was before the days of DNA analysis, but a glance at dental records would have easily confirmed that the corpse couldn't be the hen-pecked husband. There's some hand-waving about "quicklime," but that would have had no effect on those pesky little teeth. What can you say? Sometimes you really do have to suspend disbelief.
Meanwhile, the body count piles up pretty high for such a cozy drama, which in a way is also appropriate to bring out the nastiness underlying the pastoral surroundings. Lillian Gish easily dominates the proceedings, though the other actors also turn in fine performances. And thanks to one reviewer for reminding me of who Maggie McNamara resembled. Audrey Hepburn! Just couldn't quite put my finger on the resemblance as I watched the episode. Sorry to hear from other reviewers that she committed suicide.
Hitch as the scarecrow was also a funny bit. I wonder how he would have contributed to The Wizard of Oz.
WATCH LILLIAN GISH GET THE JOB DONE
tcchelsey30 June 2023
I agree with the last reviewer that there is so much material, or at least directions it may have gone, this could have been a tv movie. This is a fascinating whodunit as the legendary Lillian Gish (as Bessie) suspects something's up with her neighbor, shall we say a case of homicide? It reminds me of a Agatha Christie or a Miss Marple
mystery (a la Hitchcock) as Gish plays a fidgity, complaining spinster with a very suspicious eye.
Gish is complimented by the likes of veteran Kent Smith, playing the country doctor. He is best remembered also playing a doctor in the famous noirish soap opera NORA PRENTISS (1947), opposite Ann Sheriden. Gish, of course, had a career that topped most everyone in Hollywood, working for iconic director DW Griffith in the early days of motion pictures as a teenager. She was one of a handful of actresses from silent films to cross into sound films and then tv, matched only by the likes of Gloria Swanson or ZaSu Pitts, who she resembled to a degree. Bottom line, Lillian Gish was a natural, who adapted to whatever role was handed her. Her beautiful sister Dorothy was also an accomplished actress, who specialized more in comedy and retired early in her career, though made brief appearances in the 50s and 60s.
Also co-starring popular Peter Lind Hayes and Maggie McNamara. Listen to those rich violins, as the music takes on a creepy feel. Don't you love it? Not to be missed, especially for devout fans of Miss Gish. SEASON 3 EPISODE 32. CBS dvd box set.
Gish is complimented by the likes of veteran Kent Smith, playing the country doctor. He is best remembered also playing a doctor in the famous noirish soap opera NORA PRENTISS (1947), opposite Ann Sheriden. Gish, of course, had a career that topped most everyone in Hollywood, working for iconic director DW Griffith in the early days of motion pictures as a teenager. She was one of a handful of actresses from silent films to cross into sound films and then tv, matched only by the likes of Gloria Swanson or ZaSu Pitts, who she resembled to a degree. Bottom line, Lillian Gish was a natural, who adapted to whatever role was handed her. Her beautiful sister Dorothy was also an accomplished actress, who specialized more in comedy and retired early in her career, though made brief appearances in the 50s and 60s.
Also co-starring popular Peter Lind Hayes and Maggie McNamara. Listen to those rich violins, as the music takes on a creepy feel. Don't you love it? Not to be missed, especially for devout fans of Miss Gish. SEASON 3 EPISODE 32. CBS dvd box set.
"Good belt of applejack two or three times a day, you wouldn't be so darn mean!"
classicsoncall23 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
That whole early business about the fence really bothered me. Wouldn't you think a fence would keep someone on the inside, and away from the cliff and roaring rapids of the river below? All the arguing of the principals about that fence was just totally lost on me. I don't see how it would have made any difference if some clumsy fool got too close to the edge of that drop.
And apparently it didn't. Because somehow, unexplained, Ephraim Judge's body wound up buried in the barn of Henry (Peter Lind Hayes) and Samantha (Patricia Cutts) Wilkins, although a troubling lack of forensics had the local authorities believing it was poor Henry in the shallow dug grave. This on the best, interfering advice of Bessie Carnby (Lillian Gish), whose meddling into her neighbors' affairs were something of a passion. The dire evidence pointing to Samantha killing her husband had her wind up executed, and wouldn't you know it - Henry pops up some time later as a rejuvenated world traveler, straight into the arms of Bessie's niece Camilla (Maggie McNamara).
With Bessie remorseful over the wrongful death of Samantha Wilkins, and distraught over the idea that Henry would waltz right into ownership of Summerfield Farm by marrying Camilla, she dissolves a handful of sleeping pills into a bottle of applejack brandy. Near death anyway, she sets up Henry for murder when he pours a glass for Aunt Bessie and she passes in her sleep. Chalk up execution number two when Henry is convicted of murdering the old biddy.
I'm not sure how all of this makes any sense, but it was dubiously fascinating in the telling. More so than anything else, I had to sit up and take notice in that opening scene when Lillian Gish at seventy, comes barreling along the dirt track to find out what happened with Ephraim Judge. Hardly breaking a sweat, it says a lot for the former silent screen star who wound up living for three more decades to just shy of a hundred years old!
And apparently it didn't. Because somehow, unexplained, Ephraim Judge's body wound up buried in the barn of Henry (Peter Lind Hayes) and Samantha (Patricia Cutts) Wilkins, although a troubling lack of forensics had the local authorities believing it was poor Henry in the shallow dug grave. This on the best, interfering advice of Bessie Carnby (Lillian Gish), whose meddling into her neighbors' affairs were something of a passion. The dire evidence pointing to Samantha killing her husband had her wind up executed, and wouldn't you know it - Henry pops up some time later as a rejuvenated world traveler, straight into the arms of Bessie's niece Camilla (Maggie McNamara).
With Bessie remorseful over the wrongful death of Samantha Wilkins, and distraught over the idea that Henry would waltz right into ownership of Summerfield Farm by marrying Camilla, she dissolves a handful of sleeping pills into a bottle of applejack brandy. Near death anyway, she sets up Henry for murder when he pours a glass for Aunt Bessie and she passes in her sleep. Chalk up execution number two when Henry is convicted of murdering the old biddy.
I'm not sure how all of this makes any sense, but it was dubiously fascinating in the telling. More so than anything else, I had to sit up and take notice in that opening scene when Lillian Gish at seventy, comes barreling along the dirt track to find out what happened with Ephraim Judge. Hardly breaking a sweat, it says a lot for the former silent screen star who wound up living for three more decades to just shy of a hundred years old!
I Agree With Nearly All the Comments
Hitchcoc23 May 2023
First of all, the performance by Lillian Gish is excellent. She made the transition from D. W. Griffith to the modern screen beautifully. As others have said, however, the believability of the plot and the justice system's treatment of people is pretty ridiculous. To make such assumptions about the body in the barn with such flimsy, possibly planted evidence would lead to someone's execution is a monumental stretch. We know how rare executions are. Then off goes that wimpy jerk, returning after his wife has died for his supposed murder, getting sympathy from everyone. And then, how did they prove he was responsible for the old gal's death, also getting him executed? It's all about revenge, of course. An eye for an eye. We are left with the note where someone is in for quite the surprise.
Gish's Delightful Performance Ruined By a Ridiculously Implausible Story
mehfre8 October 2018
Lillian Gish is delightful to watch any time, but this storyline was so absurd, it ruined the experience. I really don't want to get into spoilers, so let's just say that the way the justice system is portrayed is rather more like how a sixth grader perceives it than anything actually related to reality. It was so far off base, it totally ruined the concept of "willing suspension of disbelief" for me. By far, one of the worst of the Alfred Hithcock Hour presentations--in fact, a good argument could be made that it is the all-time worst. Worth watching for Lillian Gish, but nothing else.
Watch it for Gish
Ripshin20 April 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Gish is really in top form - her performance sets the perfect tone, without going over the top, something many actors fall victim to in this series. The supporting cast is also quite good.
My only complaint would be the second half, when the plot gets a bit outlandish. Yes, typical Hitchcock Hour, but it might have been manipulated a bit better.
I would need to watch it again, but I don't remember when the people in the town all found out that the body in the barn wasn't Mr. Wilkins. Obviously after Mrs. Wilkins was executed - Gish is listening to the news report about it, when Mr. Wilkins suddenly appears. I assume at that point.
I also had difficulty "buying" that Gish's niece is part of the deception - that seems contrived. Did they "fish" Efram out of the rapids?
Definitely a worthy episode.
My only complaint would be the second half, when the plot gets a bit outlandish. Yes, typical Hitchcock Hour, but it might have been manipulated a bit better.
I would need to watch it again, but I don't remember when the people in the town all found out that the body in the barn wasn't Mr. Wilkins. Obviously after Mrs. Wilkins was executed - Gish is listening to the news report about it, when Mr. Wilkins suddenly appears. I assume at that point.
I also had difficulty "buying" that Gish's niece is part of the deception - that seems contrived. Did they "fish" Efram out of the rapids?
Definitely a worthy episode.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
