The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (TV Series) Diagnosis: Danger (1963) User Reviews

ambitious but plays like a pilot to another series

[HEFILM · 6/10 · 14 September 2013]

Parks and McGraw make a good sparing team of energetic youth and crusty professional but in a way so typical of television, then and now. There is a lot of scope to this episode, location work on LA roads, beaches and a large cast. It's mostly impressively shot by Lionel Lindon but several exteriors have distracting camera shadows clearly in view. Pollack, as director, keeps things moving--of not escalating-- and has a few nicely blocked and framed shots but the script just isn't great and it all winds up as things usually would on television. The focus on the bongo drum as plague carrying device is kind of novel but also gets pretty silly. The music score, by Murray, also frequently features the bongo, sort of hinting at danger--which is a nice try but also, especially now, kind of silly in a dated way.

Production details of the sets are feature worthy and how they did all this in 4 days is impressive, but more so than the story itself which is still being done from time to time. I usually like these kind of Plague spreading stories but can't say this was the best, or the worst of the genre. There is one nice subplot involving a woman--don't want to spoil it.

This plays more like a TV pilot than an episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour".

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 9 May 2021]

My summary isn't meant to be a complaint. But in so many ways, it doesn't seem much like "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour". Instead of being about murder or other crimes, it's about an outbreak of anthrax and the public health department's reaction to this.

When the story begins, a man in dying in the back of a vehicle. Oddly, when the driver swerves, the body goes flying out and down an embankment. Now you'd THINK she'd notice! The problem is that the body is of a guy who just died from anthrax...and the strain is so virulent that even being near the body could easily infect you. So, it's up to some public health workers to locate everyone who's come into contact with the dead man and, believe it or not, a bongo he bought in Mexico.

There are two public health workers in the show....a very headstrong and intense young doctor (Michael Parks) and his much calmer and more pragmatic boss (Charles McGraw). Now it was an unusual casting decision, as McGraw hardly ever plays anyone who isn't angry and intense! Regardless, the show is interesting....and plays like an all new show or an installment of the 1970s show "Quincy". Well made and never dull.

Not very accurate from a public health perspective

[will304 · 6/10 · 28 January 2022]

I'm a physician residency trained in public health.

It's not the Anthrax bacillus/bacteria that would have been a concern, but the spores. The bacillus doesn't live for very long outside the body, but the spores do.

Person-to-person transmission of Anthrax is not that common.

The spores are commonly found in very small quantities in soil and certain livestock. But people almost never get sick because our bodies have natural immunity which can take care of small amounts of almost anything. The doctor should have been wearing masks to prevent spore exposure, well known even back then.

The "weaponized anthrax" that was mailed after the 9/11 Terror text was actually Anthrax spores specially treated to allow them to remain Airborne for longer periods of time. And to be breathed deeply into the lungs.

In other words, the show greatly exaggerated how deadly that hide would have been. In fact, the hide would have been tanned and therefore not contagious.

Amazing relevance to today

[ben-448-275145 · 10/10 · 12 October 2020]

This story is not the usual mystery-type episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, but rather a lesson in how a pandemic can be launched or avoided. The writers of this story had to be aware of the social implications of disease spread, to the extent that the storyline follows exactly the kind of challenges we face with the spread of COVID-19. Here are some of the parallels: a) The disease came from a foreign source b) Much of the story was around the need to track who the anthrax victims encountered prior to their death -- in other words, contact tracing (although the term was not used in the script). c) The one person who survived, thanks to a penicillin shot after a misdiagnosis of her condition, does not want to speak about her contacts since it would reveal her identity in a scandal. d) The person in charge of the City Health Dept. was a doctor who turns politician -- and he admits it. His main goal is to suppress any leaks to the press about the spreading contagion out of the need to prevent panic. d) Front line workers, especially the police who handle the anthrax-infested victims and their clothing, are considered the next to fall ill, although this is prevented with a shot of penicillin (we can only wish that anybody could prevent or be cured of COVID-19 in such a manner). e) The health care worker who discovers the infection faces an uphill battle to protect the public through notifications to the press, police, etc., only to be silenced by his politician boss.

Do watch this fascinating episode.

I'm a cop not a doctor I don't bury my mistakes

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 16 March 2014]

***SPOILERS*** The police as well as L.A medical services are out to prevent an anthrax epidemic before it really gets out of hand. It all started when Mrs. Fletcher gave drummer Harry Slater a ride from south of the border in Mexico to L.A. Having contracted anthrax from a bongo drum he bought off a local street peddler caused Slater to die from the illness. That after he fell off the van that Mrs. Fletcher was driving. But now with the cat or anthrax out of the bag or bongo drum all of L.A is in danger of being infected by it. And it's now up to Dr.Dana and the entire LAPD to track down the anthrax carriers and prevent the deadly disease from spreading.

In a race against time Dr. Dana and the LAPD lead by assistant sheriff Judd have their hand full in preventing anthrax from spreading. It's by the time the disease was finally identified it already infected some dozen persons. By isolated those infected by anthrax and tracking down those who still have it was the only way to keep it in check. But that's a tall order in that the three main anthrax carriers a trio of surfer and good time boys, who were infected by the late Harry Slater's bongo drum, Dough Gordy & Alf have no idea what their carrying: The deadly disease! And are also wanted by the police for assaulting, just for fun, and almost killing a man who left a local bar leaving him in a coma. But what they face if they don't get immediate care is a whole lot worse then them not turning themselves into the police.

Not the usual "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode and more like something out of "Ben Casey" has James Dean lookalike Michael Parks as Dr. Dana at his best trying to keep the lid on in what's about to spared like wildfire first in L.A then the entire continental USA. It was by listening to his boss the head of L.A Health Department Dr. Simon P. Oliver in keeping the story from making the headlines that prevented the panic that would have happened and made what was already a deadly situation even far more deadlier.

Panic In the Streets

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 7 January 2021]

As I have already said before again and again concerning series, in the sixties, seventies and eighties, there has always been an episode for nearly each Tv show speaking of the topic of a spreading disease, infection, contamination, because of a man or woman on the loose. No surprise, only a more than predictable climax and a boring suspense that actually doesn't really exists. In nearly every series, even the initially crime oriented Tv shows. This of course since Elia Kazan's feature PANIC IN THE STREETS. No crime at all, no good or evil dude in question, only the disease to prevent to spread out. Without me, I can't bear this, especially with this f...COVID on rampage everywhere on earth and which everyone speaks about whereever you are. Back to this episode, only maybe for the atmosphere, score, settings....And also an early Sid Pollack's piece of work. Not that bad, as you can imagine.

"I don't bury my mistakes!"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 15 September 2022]

This is a fairly relevant episode given the last couple of years dealing with Covid-19, though on a much smaller scale. I agree with a handful of viewers who comment that this doesn't feel like a Hitchcock program, but more like one of the era's TV shows featuring doctors and hospitals and such. I enjoyed the contrasting approaches taken by County Health Dr. Daniel Dana (Michael Parks) and his more levelheaded boss, Dr. Simon Oliver (Charles McGraw). Dr. Dana would have called in the authorities and the press to make a splash about a possible anthrax outbreak, while his supervisor, with more experience, foresaw what a panic it would create. Police Sergeant Boyle's (Stefan Gierasch) example of tularemia was humorous, citing an overabundance of rabbits once abandoned at the station. It brought to mind that comical Star Trek episode, 'The Trouble with Tribbles'. I also liked Dr. Dana's description of the philandering housewife Mrs. Fletcher (Helen Westcott), who he diagnosed with 'non fidelis pneumonia'. Ultimately, the episode kind of whimpers to a conclusion with the last anthrax carrier hunted down and treated safely. My major concern throughout the story was why Dana, his co-workers at the Health Department, and the police on the case never thought to wear protective equipment. Made today, everyone would be wearing masks or hazmat suits!

Decent Story with Good Characters

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 10 May 2023]

This plays more like a police drama. Through a series of incidents a strain of anthrax has been released. The cause, a Mexican bongo drum brought into the country by a woman having an affair. A musician is dead, but what about his friends? Anyway, there is some nice chemistry among the cops and the county medical people. They do some very good investigating to uncover things that are very hard to locate and to reach the infected. I agree that this really doesn't fit the typical Hitchcock mold, but these one hour features are less compact and harder to fill without some padding. They have trouble sustaining suspense.

Michael Parks and Charles McGraw

[kevinolzak · 6/10 · 7 March 2012]

"Diagnosis:Danger" begins with a dying musician falling out of a fast moving vehicle on the freeway, who was found to have died before falling, a victim of the deadly contagion anthrax, which takes 24 hours to kill. Unbeknownst to the authorities, left behind at the scene was the bongo drum responsible, purchased in Mexico from a street peddler, which is discovered by a sanitation worker who later turns up the second victim, after losing the drum to a trio of delinquents who become the final link. Michael Parks plays the young doctor who occasionally clashes with his superior (Charles McGraw), who does things by the book, through the proper channels, all the while trying to avert a panic. Also featuring Stefan Gierasch, Helen Westcott, and Celia Lovsky.

TV Series Pilot?

[bthwaithe · 4/10 · 12 May 2023]

This seems like it was the pilot for a television series that never got picked up. Lots of tv shows in those days had lead characters that traveled around the country going to new towns, having adventures with locals. The Fugitive was probably most famous one, but also Route 66, Have Gun, Will Travel and "Then Came Bronson" which starred Michael Parks, who stars in this show as a dedicated public health doctor. There are just so man6 public health emergencies though, and rabies and anthrax were in this episode. What next? Plague in Arizona? Venomous snake bite in TX? Tularemia in Tulare?

Michael Parks used to be called "the poor man's James Dean." After Dean died, Parks' slightly look-alike face got him more than a few tv roles. He proved to be difficult on the set of Then Came Bronson (plus the show's premise - anti-establishment loner traveling from town to town helping people solve their problems - was well past its due date by 1970. Pa4ks disappeared for a few decades then was resurrected by young male movie directors as a sort iof cult figure.

So if you want to see Michael Parks as a young man, here's a chance for you to do so. In a few years time, Marcus Welty MD would be on tv and James Brolin would take the role of the angry young anti-establishment doctor ....and he got to chase his patients around town on a motorcycle, to force medical treatment on them. If only they'd given Parks a motorcycle for this episode he might have had a long running tv series.

More Like Young Doctor Kildare than Hitchcock

[dougdoepke · 30 June 2015]

Odd material for Hitch that doesn't generate his kind of engagement. Instead of usual Hitch fare, the premise works more like one of those doctor shows so popular at the time. The story itself revolves around LA Public Health doctors trying to stop an anthrax epidemic from spreading. The best part is the first scene where inexplicably a guy rolls out of a truck bed onto a freeway. It's a good hook as we wonder what the heck is going on. Too bad the remainder doesn't live up to this early grabber.

A very young (22) Michael Parks makes an okay assertive young doctor while veteran Charles McGraw acts as his crusty older mentor. (Move over young Doctor Kildare). There are a few subplots as the authorities track down the infected. However, I take the juvenile delinquents segment as an effort at adding some action to an otherwise procedural narrative. Then too, the surfside climax adds some scenery, but please tell me why the cop car arrives siren blaring when that only alerts the gun-toting culprits. In my little book, the episode is for Dr. Kildare and Michael Parks fans, even though Parks is a still a long way from his iconic motorcycle rebel (Then Came Bronson, {1969-70}).