User Reviews

This is an almost unbearably tragic story, in my opinion one of the very darkest in the entire hour-long series.

'Driver' Arthur (Robert Loggia) has just returned from military service, bringing home with him his young Asian wife, Mickey (Pilar Seurat) and some severe psychological problems.

To pay off the debt on the family farm, he takes a job in the local sawmill. Stopping off one evening at the local tavern for a drink after work, Driver runs into an old flame, Betty Rose (Carmen Phillips), who clearly wants to turn the heat up again. He tells her he's married now, that it's all over between them, but Betty Rose isn't about to let him go. She follows Driver as he walks home through the woods, confronts him and swears she'll destroy his marriage. Big mistake: In a sudden explosion of insane rage Driver kills her, just a few hundred yards from the lonely farmhouse where Mickey waits for him, worried because he's usually not this late coming home from work.

And because he tries to hide what he's done, Driver ends up destroying everything he holds most dear.

What makes this episode truly poignant are Loggia's and Seurat's performances. Even though he's just committed a brutal murder, Driver's love for Mickey and desire to protect her are evident. But his good intentions are no match for his rising panic, as the lies he tells her quickly fall apart. Ms. Seurat invests her character with marvelous dignity and a sweet vulnerability; she's a stranger in a strange land, a woman very much in love with her husband, whose only friends are the little dog who's her constant companion, the storekeeper Mrs. McCleod (Kathleen Freeman) and Mrs. McCleod's mute, half-wild daughter, Ruby (Sondra Blake).

And of course, the original Bernard Herrmann score elevates this story to a whole new level. I know I'm getting kind of monotonous about this in these reviews, but there is simply no composer remotely comparable to him working in this medium nowadays. For my taste, the music he wrote for these episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour embody some of his best work, and this is no exception, evoking shades of mood and moments of emotional intensity which perfectly complement both the horror and the terrible pathos of this prime slice of Appalachian Gothic.

Apparently, Driver Arthur's (Robert Loggia) penchant for bright shiny objects led to his own undoing. One really has to question why he would have taken the distinctive button from Betty Rose's (Carmen Phillips) blouse when it would have been so easy to connect him with her. The look on Driver's face when he realized that the dog chain he was holding gave it all away, contained all the pathos the story had to offer of this man who started out trying to do the right thing but succumbed to the rage and anger that came with an inability to control his emotions. The wild card in this story was the mysterious, mute woman Ruby (Sondra Blake), slinking around the windows of the Blackbird Tavern and nearby woods, who eventually lowered the boom on Driver, knowing that he had to be with Mickey (Pilar Seurat) at the time of her death. All in all, a well laid out story that was bound to end in tragedy once the initial accidental death took place.

I just finished watching this episode and would rate it in my top five Hitchcock Hour favorites. The plot is tight and the acting by everyone (including Rags) is superb. The character of Driver embodies a man beginning anew whose past intrudes to put a roadblock between him and happiness. Rational at first, his fear and rage grow and eventually blind him as to how great is his strength and how vulnerable his victims. I could feel his anguish after each killing. I could also feel the uneasy feeling in the pit of Mickie's stomach when certain facts came to light and her eventual terror when she realizes what has happened. Granted, there were times in the play when I could accurately predict what was going to happen next, but the pacing and interesting characters (particularly that of Ruby) kept me glued to the tube to the very sad end. Excellent piece.

This was an excellent episode of The Alfred Hitchcock hour with some great performances. Robert Loggia is Driver, a mountain man with a brand new wife and a jealous ex-girlfriend. When his ex (played by the stunning Carmen Phillips) keeps trying to seduce him he goes into a rage and strangles her. After he returns home to his wife Mickey (Pilar Seurat) she finds a gold button in his jacket. She becomes suspicious especially after a visit from a policeman. Eventually she confronts Driver and he ends up strangling her too. It seems like he is going to get away with both murders until the towns death mute notices the dog leash Driver could only have had if he was with his wife when she died.

Frankly, every time one of the episodes of this series is set in a small town, most of the actors speak with a ridiculously fake, twangy hillbilly accent. It is distracting, and pointless. Couldn't they find actors with natural accents? Plus, it is so unnecessary to the plot. I'm surprised that they aren't playing banjos, with stalks of straw in their teeth.

Loggia's performance is weak. Basically yelling a large percentage of his lines.

He threw the button on the ground for somebody else to find? With his FINGERPRINTS on it?

Why would "Driver's" wife put herself in danger with questions, if she really believes he killed Bette Rose? Especially with his temper. Also, why didn't she scream LOUDLY when she had the chance?

I'm not convinced that the mute character was essential.

Another one to skip.