I know I’ve occasionally been a bit harsh on Hitchcock as a director, but he does have a wonderful knack, and one can pick it up (even faintly) in all his work for the show. It’s nicely shot, capturing the essence of Father Amion’s problems in a matter of seconds, without seeming too heavy-handed or too forced. It’s a nice little sequence that manages to make it clear just how deeply in trouble this branch of the Catholic Church must be. Hitchcock frames a rather wonderful introductory sequence, illustrating just how bad things are in Father Amion’s church. It’s not too difficult to imagine many modern priests in a situation quite similar to Father Amion, unable to pay for necessary repairs to church property, managing congregations that seem much less enthusiastic than they once were. Sure, the Catholic Church has arguably been in decline since the Second World War, at least in the United States and Western Europe, but it is much more pronounced now. Indeed, I’d argue that it’s even more timely now than when it originally aired. In fact, one can almost judge how good a story it is by how relevant it remains today, half-a-century after it was originally broadcast. On the other hand, it’s not necessarily as heavy as one might expect a drama to be. The Horse Player is a bit difficult to catalog. Pelham, comedy in Back for Christmas and lots of others deviating between thriller, drama and comedy. We’ve had noir-tinted stories like Revenge, existential fantasy in The Case of Mr. It seemed like Hitchcock allowed for virtually any story that could be told within a half-an-hour. I’m constantly impressed with the versatility of the format of the show. Instead, The Horse Player is an enjoyable and engaging meditation on those cardinal virtues of faith, hope and charity. It was the second last half-hour show that Hitchcock personally directed, but is generally agreed to be much stronger than his final effort, a morality play titled Bang! You’re Dead. It aired in 1961, towards the end of the sixth season of the anthology show, a year before the show would be rebranded The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. The Horse Player actually makes for a nice conclusion to our run of Alfred Hitchcock Presents reviews. It’s a very worthwhile cause and you can donate here. The “For the Love of Film” blogathon this year is raising money to keep one of Hitchcock’s earlier works, The White Shadow (which he wrote, edited, designed and assistant-directed), available on-line and streaming for free. I’ll be looking at some of the episodes of the classic show that he directed. As part of the “For the Love of Film” blogathon, I’ll be taking a look at Alfred Hitchcock’s contributions to his celebrated anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
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