Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Wendy Hiller's arch articulation as a spinster schoolmarm is not a little grating on our ears, but that's all too appropriate to this odd, offbeat episode. There's something just a little strange about this teacher, something that prevents one from feeling too much sympathy for her - but this alienation rebounds on the viewer, for the fate that befalls lonely Miss Siddons is out of all proportion to her failings. The progress of the story is shackled by 1950s censorship - one suspects that matrimony would never be so shocking a thing as the climax of this story makes it out to be - and it's a very cruel tale; still, Hiller keeps one watching.