"Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
Our Cook's a Treasure (1955)

Director:

Robert Stevens

Writers:

Robert C. Dennis (teleplay)
Dorothy L. Sayers (story)

TV Series:

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955)

Original Air Date:

20 November 1955 (Season 1, Episode 8)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Shortly after having a quick breakfast with his wife and the new cook whom they have recently hired...

Plot Keywords:

Amateur Actor | Husband Wife | Chemist | Housekeeper | Suspicion

Cast

Everett Sloane	...	Ralph Montgomery
Beulah Bondi	...	Mrs. Sutton
Janet Ward	...	Ethel Montgomery
Elliott Reid	...	Earl Kramer
Gavin Gordon	...	Mr. Brooks
Doris Singleton	...	Secretary
Walter Woolf King	...	Card Player
Olan Soule	...	Chemist (as Olan Soulé)

Runtime:

USA:30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Company:

Shamley Productions

Well-Crafted Mini-Thriller

This well-crafted mini-thriller adapts a Dorothy L. Sayers story very nicely into the half-hour television show format, and it is also helped considerably by Everett Sloane's leading performance. It sets up the tension efficiently, adding some good touches as things play out. Hitchcock's opening and closing remarks, full of his morbidly dry sense of humor, also contribute to a very good episode.

The story stars Sloane as an easygoing businessman who starts to experience unexplainable attacks of indigestion, at about the same time that authorities are on the lookout for a deranged, murderous housekeeper. Sayers's story makes perceptive use of human psychology, and Sloane's performance is important in bringing this out. The last part features some good twists that work quite well. If you watch it a second time, you can then follow the ways that viewer perceptions are cleverly steered in one direction, while keeping open some other possibilities that are less obvious, but just as well-founded.

It's a good combination of story, adaptation, direction, and acting, making for an above average episode of this classic anthology series.