Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Robert Bloch, the original author of "Psycho", had a fascination with the seedy end of American showbiz, and this dark tale of small-timers in a travelling carny show is very typical of him, right down to its predictably gruesome end. (The ending was far too gruesome for the US networks in 1961 - it was banned back then.) Typical of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", in turn, is the idea that unnecessary incivility can have shocking consequences - as scheming Jezebel Diana Dors finds out when she tries to manipulate the strange young man who adores her into killing her husband. Her comeuppance was too strong for the censor-ridden sixties, but it's worth noting that Ms. Dors suffered the same horrid fate in the 1967 horror film "Berserk!"