The review title really isn't a spoiler because we know Masters is a wrong'un from the start as he terrifies a bedraggled, bedridden old woman in the pre-credit sequence.
I saw this entry in the 'Thriller' series when it was first broadcast in 1973 (to us Brits it was 'Ring Once for Death') and it has lingered with me ever since. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I just watched it again for the first time in 46 years and it still held me gripped. Admittedly TV filming techniques have changed enormously but suspense is still suspense. Hitchcock said the secret of suspense was the audience having information unknown to the characters they were watching, being desperate for them to find out and wondering when and how they would.
In this case the suspense is reinforced by excellent performances from Michael Jayston and Nyree Dawn Porter - he is icily cold and calculating, she evokes our sympathy and conveys her character's weakened, half-dead state superbly.
If you can bear to watch a drama which doesn't unfold in 30-second bite-sized scenes, filmed with a hand-held camera to evoke 'realism', if you want to watch a story and characters evolve, and if you like giving your nerves a bit of a stretch, watch this episode, it's a belter!
I saw this entry in the 'Thriller' series when it was first broadcast in 1973 (to us Brits it was 'Ring Once for Death') and it has lingered with me ever since. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I just watched it again for the first time in 46 years and it still held me gripped. Admittedly TV filming techniques have changed enormously but suspense is still suspense. Hitchcock said the secret of suspense was the audience having information unknown to the characters they were watching, being desperate for them to find out and wondering when and how they would.
In this case the suspense is reinforced by excellent performances from Michael Jayston and Nyree Dawn Porter - he is icily cold and calculating, she evokes our sympathy and conveys her character's weakened, half-dead state superbly.
If you can bear to watch a drama which doesn't unfold in 30-second bite-sized scenes, filmed with a hand-held camera to evoke 'realism', if you want to watch a story and characters evolve, and if you like giving your nerves a bit of a stretch, watch this episode, it's a belter!