IT WAS IN the Autumn of 1955. Being present here on Planet Earth only since the first full Post World War II period, our 10th birthday was one celebration that made us feel really grown up and "old" even. By this time, perusing the annual Fall Lineup on the TV Networks had become a tradition, much like Halloween Trick & Treating and Opening Day at the Ballpark.THE ONLY QUESTION that we had this year was; "Who is Alfred Hitchcock, anyway?" The announcement had been made that he was joining the CBS Network family of weekly shows. Well, our folks told us that this was a big name and well known maker of the movies that we saw at the Ogden, the Highway or the Peoples theatres in Chicago.THE SERIES DID of course premiere and quickly established itself as a staple of our video diet. What we found it to be was a weekly anthology of half hour mystery plays. Their content varied from the very alarming (THE GLASS EYE with Jessica Tandy & Tom Conway) to the serio-comic (CHEAP IS CHEAP with Dennis Day). Every mood in between was featured. There was and is (in reruns)a favourite flavour for everyone.EITHER BY DESIGN or with the good fortune of dumb luck, the half hour time slot proved to be the perfect length for these mystery plays. It is a case of size mattering; although in the diminutive sense rather than the greater.WE LATER SAW this proved to be true. The cases in point are both the ALFRED HITCHCOCK Show and THE TWILIGHT ZONE expanded to a full hour each; which proved to be detrimental to the shows. Instead of more being better, we found the expanded episodes of these shows to be heavily padded and filled with scenes that never would have been included otherwise.NO MATTER WHAT one's preference in these half hours, the greatest and most unique feature of the series was the relationship that developed between the audience and the series M.C., being Sir Alfred Hitchcock, himself. He displayed a previously unknown ability with a unique brand of very dry, deadpan humour.

This episode was first broadcast in 1965 on the Alfred Hitchcock Hour. I watched it with my grandmother, and it scared the bejesus out of us! It's called "the Unlocked Window". Apparently the house from "Psycho" is used as the nursing home. There was a remake of this episode in the eighties with Annette O'Toole playing the part of nurse Stella. A nurse is murdered in the first scene. As I remember, she was dragged from the sidewalk into some hedges. The suspense is consistent throughout the story, with ominous radio reports of a killer on the loose, and a violent thunderstorm that has the resident nurses, Stella and Betty (nurse Ames) quite on edge. Killer ending!

Check out the Alfred Hitchcock Hour in the 1965 season (episode 17 season 3). This is the episode you're talking about. I just saw it on TV a few nights ago. There are two nurses and a drunken housekeeper. You got most of the story right. The hefty one, Nurse Betty, and the pretty one, Nurse Sheila are at a rich man's house. The rich man is in an oxygen tent over his bed and is an invalid. The electricity goes out during a storm and the three women stumble around in the dark, carrying candles. The housekeeper keeps hearing a man's voice telling her that she has a pretty neck. The two nurses sedate her and then hear a noise downstairs. Nurse Betty goes down to check it out. Turns out the male gardner is trying to get back in the house. Nurse Betty is heard screaming. Nurse Sheila grabs a fireplace poker and descends the staircase to help out. Betty is found cowering by the wall, but very much alive. Sheila sees a man behind the door and throws the poker at him. She sees that it is the gardner and knows something's wrong. Nurse Betty hovers over Sheila and peels off "her" wig to reveal "herself" as the man you describe. The ending is one of the eeriest in the Hitchcock series.

I was introduced to Hitchcock as a kid at 11 in 1985 for the short-live colorized version back on NBC, five years after his passing. But I am kind of an old-fashioned person myself. And love it being in black & white. Even though the show was way ahead of its time and the scripts were good and the acting was superb. It made Alfred Hitchcock a star as he climbed from behind the scenes to center stage. He was the main reason for the show's success! Thanks to his jokes and puns. Hitchcock's wit and charm carried the show. And proved he wasn't just being "serious!" Hope that Nick At Night or TV Land will unleash this baby one day. In Black & White because I love the original. The original is the original.