Episode: “The
Jar”, in which a good ol’ boy buys a jar containing a mysterious object at a
carny show and become a local celeb when all his friends and neighbors swarm to
his house to take a gander at the bizarre thing. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
usually delivered clever, twisty murder mysteries, but “The Jar” is kind of
something else. Directed by Norman Lloyd (who played the weasley title character
in Hitchcock’s Saboteur), its story
and execution are much weirder than usual. Lloyd’s queasy blend of the farcical and
the utterly grotesque make it something special and the ideal hour for
Halloween season.
