Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series) Across the Threshold (1960) User Reviews

Predictable, sure. But still most enjoyable.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 11 April 2021]

Hubert (George Grizzard) is a pampered mama's boy who, despite his age, still lives at home with his widowed mother. However well she treats him, however, Hubert is NOT a good son...and he can't wait for her to kick the bucket. So, after she casually talks about possible taking an overdose to join her husband, he decides to help her along. Hubert has a secret girlfriend who is an actress...and he convinces her to pretend to be a medium. The plan is that during a séance, she'll pretend to be the dead husband...and he's lonely and wants her to join him. And, the plan ends up working well and she's more than eager to take her own life....and then, there's the twist!

Although I clearly saw the twist coming, despite this it is still a very good and enjoyable episode...mostly because Hubert really ends up getting his. Well written, well acted.

"Well I do believe I have thought of everything now."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 5 December 2021]

Regular viewers of this series won't have any problem predicting the twist for this episode. You just have to keep your eye on the schemer instead of the intended victim. I don't know why Hubert Winter (George Grizzard) had his girlfriend (Barbara Baxley) go into that whole Princess Artiti business; any psychic worth their salt wouldn't need a cover like that. This story strays from the usual formula a bit when Miss Coulette (Baxley) gets cold feet and is horrified by the idea of Hubert killing his mother. For her part, maybe Sophie Winter's (Patricia Collinge) plan was a little too perfect, and might have worked if Hubert's gal pal hadn't called the police. I guess she wasn't quick enough to down her own glass of wine, as Hitchcock's epilogue suggested she got hauled up short by the cops who arrived too late for Hubert, but just in time to arrest his Mom for murder.

One trivia note regarding actor George Grizzard. For some reason, I'm able to recall that I saw him in the very first episode of Boris Karloff's "Thriller" program. That series debuted only a few months after this Hitchcock episode aired, and in the story titled 'The Twisted Image', Grizzard portrays a mentally disturbed man who unravels bit by bit until by the end of the story, he's pretty much convinced that he's the character portrayed by Leslie Nielsen!

Pretty Hitchcocky!!

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 30 April 2023]

George Grizzard is a shiftless, pretty much worthless little cad. He lives off his mother, but is unhappy with his lot because she controls everything. His hope is that she will die and he will get all her money and property. So he enlists his girlfriend to play the part of a medium so she can talk to her late husband. She is quite convincing and everything seems to be working out just fine. But we know, don't we, that shiftless, worthless grifters don't always get their wishes. This is about as typical an Alfred Presents episode as there is. We know what is going to happen half way through but it is still fun to see it play out.

More mommy issues

[glitterrose · 10/10 · 21 August 2022]

Our three main characters in this episode are Sofie, Hubert and Irma. Sofie and Hubert are mother and son. Irma is Hubert's girlfriend. I'll be the first to say this is another episode I thoroughly enjoy but I feel like a lot of people might be dismissive of it.

Hubert is the opposite of William Shatner's character where he also has mommy issues. That character enjoyed his life and enjoyed being eerily close to his mother. That character was also warned that the only way he'd get his freedom would be after the death of his mother. Again, that character enjoyed the way his life was turning out. Hubert isn't that way. Hubert seems irritated by all of it. Yes, he's irritated but not enough to lay down the law to mommy and say he's an adult and he'll be moving out and having a life of his own.

There's some murkiness on some of the details. Hubert sounded like he did have a job but it's unknown if he quit of his own free will, was fired or if mom made him give up the job. I say all this because Hubert doesn't have a checking account. Sofie doesn't want him having one. Sofie's the one handling the finances. Again, Hubert looks irritated more than anything.

Some talk rolls around to Hubert's deceased father. Sofie's a believer in being able to contact spirits and she's worried if her dead husband is okay or not. Hubert's rather dismissive but all this talk leads Hubert into getting an idea. Sofie had revealed she still has some of the medicine that Hubert's father was taking and it sounds like she's totally open to the idea of overdosing on the pills in order to reunite with her husband. Hubert takes all this and ropes his actress girlfriend (Irma) into "contacting" the spirit of Hubert's father so the "spirit" can reveal he's lonely, wants to be with Sofie again, etc. Irma plays along to begin with and puts on this charade. But later on she has a moment of clarity and tries to confront Hubert that what he's doing is wrong, you're talking about murder, etc. Hubert won't have any of it and basically tells Irma she's just as involved as he is.

Meanwhile, Sofie's ready to take her own life to reunite with her husband. But Sofie seems to be taking a long time and Hubert's very impatient. She's wanting to make sure all her affairs are in order. Hubert's ready for his freedom but he's not going to get it. Hubert proposes a toast dedicated to his father and he's assuming that Sofie would naturally drink her own poisoned drink to honor him. Instead she finds an excuse to not drink while she's looking rather curiously at Hubert. Hubert's starting to feel funny and that's when Sofie proudly boasts she's poisoned Hubert! Sofie absolutely wasn't going to let her son be in life alone without mommy and daddy! Hubert dies and Sofie hears police sirens that prevent her from drinking her own poisoned drink. Irma was trying to right the wrong she had done by alerting the cops to what Hubert had planned.

Hitchcock once again explores mommy issues

[sheepandsharks · 8/10 · 27 August 2023]

This is an all-around enjoyable episode with great performances, and it's not quite the standard "mommy issues" parable we've come to expect from Hitchcock.

For one thing, the women actually get some depth of character (not typically Hitchcock's strong suit) and the actresses get a chance to shine. Patricia Collinge doesn't play the overbearing mother as a cliche. She actually makes us like her, and it's even quite obvious that her childish son needs a bit of looking after. Barbara Baxley, likewise, isn't the gold-digging or henpecking girlfriend -- she wants to be part of her boyfriend's family and isn't after money or a ring. I was happy to learn that she wasn't in on the murder plan and ended up calling the police. Not only does it reflect positively on her character, but it provides tension at the end as we wonder when the police will arrive and who exactly is going to be going down for murder.

There were only a couple possible endings, so the resolution isn't a huge twist, but it is a satisfying one that feels appropriate to all characters involved.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: ACROSS THE THRESHOLD (Arthur Hiller, 1960) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 5/10 · 23 January 2010]

Despite the episode's mystical subject (a theme it shares with The Master Of Suspense's own last feature, FAMILY PLOT [1976]), the link to the horror genre is pretty tenuous and the end result merely adequate. An elderly woman (Patricia Colinge) obsessed with contacting her dead husband gets a chance when her son (George Grizzard) convinces an old flame (an actress, played by Barbara Baxley) to pose as a medium. He actually intends to have his possessive mother kill herself so that he can be free but his ex-girlfriend does not go along with his plan…while the old woman has her own idea of how her afterlife should be. As with most entries in the series, the ending provides a satisfying (if, in this case, predictable) twist.