A man who reads too much pulp fiction finds himself playing Sir Galahad to the blonde in the apartment downstairs. It seems she's burdened with a corpse.A man who reads too much pulp fiction finds himself playing Sir Galahad to the blonde in the apartment downstairs. It seems she's burdened with a corpse.A man who reads too much pulp fiction finds himself playing Sir Galahad to the blonde in the apartment downstairs. It seems she's burdened with a corpse.
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Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsWhen Harry and Miss Elliott lift Bill Nelson's dead body, the corpse bends its leg at the knee to help them.
- Quotes
[introduction]
Alfred Hitchcock: Good evening. Tonight's play is entitled, "Nightmare in 4-D." It will be presented in only two dimensions, however. We could present it in 3-D. In fact, we did in America, but the viewers kept getting involved and during one of the more violent scenes, we lost half our audience. We wouldn't want that to happen here. In this case, 4-D indicates the number of an apartment. And "Nightmare in 4-D" concerns the goings-on in that apartment. The goings-on will begin going on in just a moment.
- Alternate versionsTwo different versions of Hitchcock's wraparound commentary exist; one concerning a disastrous 3D airing of the episode in America, the other about commercial interruptions (with a voiceover by Paul Frees).
- SoundtracksFuneral March of a Marionette
Written by Charles Gounod
Potential that is never really lived up to. Will agree that "Nightmare in 4D" starts off quite well, but rapidly goes downhill and quite badly. It has a few good things, such as the acting, but overall it is a bland, dull and far fetched episode. As far as Season 2 goes, "Nightmare in 4D" is definitely for me one of the weakest and when it comes to 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' overall it is also towards the bottom. Season 2 was uneven but did have some great episodes, but this is the anti-thesis of this.
"Nightmare in 4D" is not all bad. The best aspect is the acting, which is quite good all things considered. Henry Jones and Norman Lloyd are very good in their roles, Jones making a conceptually dull character much more interesting than deserved, and their dynamic together is delicious. Barbara Baxley makes much of relatively little, her role is underwritten but she is a far from bland presence.
The production values, while not exceptional, did have some atmosphere in particularly the way it's shot. Hitchcock's bookending is typically ironic while the theme tune for the series is suitably macabre. The episode does start off well, with some nice intrigue and subtle tension.
However, a lot doesn't work. The story is hugely flawed and at worst a mess. Too much of the time it's pedestrian in pace, suffers badly from a lack of tension and suspense from too much predictability, can be very confusing from too much being too vague and it gets ridiculous in the latter stages. The ending is not believable for a milli-second and even for an episode with a lot of ridiculousness and implausibility it's one of the more far fetched endings of the season.
Despite the efforts of Jones, Lloyd and Baxley, the characters are not very well fleshed out at all, and their motivations are vague at best and at worst downright confusing or not given. Some truly silly character behaviour going on where it is easy to question the character's intelligence. The script lacks tautness and can be too talk heavy. Addiss' direction is disappointingly uninspired.
Overall, very underwhelming episode that fails in too many important categories. 4/10.
- TheLittleSongbird
- Jun 1, 2022
Details
- Runtime30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1