It's better to watch it and experience the plot revelations, but I know many of you won't, so let me give you the plot summary. Spoiler alert:
After having a nervous breakdown, former ballerina Elsa Spann gives up her career to live in a trailer park with her husband Carl. One evening, he returns home and finds everything in disarray. Elsa tells him she was attacked by a man who almost killed her. Instead of going to the police, a vengeful Carl decides to get his own justice. He takes Elsa for a drive. On the way, she points to a man whom she says attacked her. Carl follows the man and kills him. As the couple head home, however, Elsa points to another man whom she says was her attacker. As police pull up behind them, Carl realizes his wife has gone crazy and that he has just killed an innocent man.
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87 comments:
I love that episode! We watched it a few months ago.
Emmet Till could not be reached for comment
Yep. The broads accusing Kavanaugh and their pimps ( the Democrats) are all loco.
White knight beta husband believes crazy wife and murders innocent man. FIFY.
We don't know if, knowing how bad he's effed up, he now tries to justify the murder and defend his wife cause she's crazy.
Yep, sounds like Feinstein and friends...
She seemed credible.
Does anyone think Emmett Till was the only black man lynched on the unsupported word of a woman? Maybe Althouse needs to acquaint herself with the Innocence Project, if she always believes the woman.
Is any man really innocent? The guy he killed probably deserved it, even though not for assaulting the killer's wife.
I think this has some relevance to the Dreyfus Affair, where the Jewish officer is replaced by a well-off, conservative, white cisgender male.
Last night I watched the 1935 movie Crime and Punishment starring Peter Lorre. It's a good movie.
Desperately poor Roderick Roskolnikov has murdered a pawnbroker and then stolen a bunch of her stuff from her apartment. While escaping, he accidentally drops a pair of earrings onto the floor.
A laborer finds the earrings and attempts to sell them. He is arrested while doing so, and the earrings become the material evidence that enable prosecutors to charge the laborer for the murder.
Soon afterwards, Raskolnikov becomes rather rich, and he also has a good opportunity to emigrate. Thus he could get away with the murder.
However, Raskolnikov is in a moral predicament because he knows that the laborer is innocent and will be punished for Raskolnikov's crime.
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It's a great story. I read the novel in Russian while I was a university student. I have enjoyed watching several movie versions of the novel.
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Raskolnikov is rather insane before he commits the murder. He himself is so poor and he is so upset by the poverty of his mother and sister that he cannot think straight.
Later -- after he becomes rather rich by getting a writing contract with a big advance -- he gradually comes to his senses. When he becomes financially comfortable, he becomes able to think clearly about his moral predicament.
Everyone should've listened to Aunt Bea.
Today The American Thinker published an article titled The Three Lies of Christine Blasey Ford, written by J.R. Dunn.
The three lies are:
1) Fear of Flying
2) Christine is a Psychologist
3) Christine's Front Door
I recommend the article.
@TCE - I enjoyed your Macho Response link. Well played. 👍
The guy he killed probably deserved it, even though not for assaulting the killer's wife.
He deserved it for giving David Byrne that "giant suit" idea.
A classic episode. When I first saw it (sometime in the '80's) I was intrigued by the question of the man's culpability and what kind of moral/karmic peril, oh-fuck-it-sin! he had incurred by his unwitting action. Had I known that you could just claim to be on the right side of history and forget about it, I wouldn't have given it any thought.
The FBI certainly should interview Christine Ford's husband.
What does he say about the two front doors? It now seems that the second door was installed so that part of the house could be rented out an office or apartment. The second door was installed in about 2008, but then supposedly led to marriage counseling in 2012.
I am coming to believe that both Mr. and Mrs. Ford conspired to create documentation about Kavanaugh in 2012 in order to prepare for a possibility that a President Romney eventually would appoint Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court.
For some reason, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Ford wanted the marriage-counseling records to be about their sexual relationship. Therefore the two-door reason for the counseling was concocted.
Very simple formulation. Yes, rape and/or sexual assault is a terrible crime, so:
1.Listen to the allegations.
2.However, when power or politics is apparent, be mindful of false allegations
3. Then, evaluate the allegations, based on the evidence, not merely the "credibility" of the accuser or accused.
In this mini-psycho drama, the evidence clearly swings in favor of Kavanaugh, for the numerous reasons expressed by the august members of the commentariat this week.
Allegedly, Alfred Hitchcock sexually harassed and assaulted Tippi Hedren, the female star of his movie Birds. That was her public accusation after he died.
However, Hitchcock has been defended by people who worked closely with him.
I read the article Sylwester linked.
The fear of flying was a bad faith lie, and many of us have noted it. This is a fair cop.
The psychologist thing is piffle.
The door thing is speculation. I agree there are questions but the article draws a lot of conclusions without actual evidence.
Before the awful hearings a mischievous soul on Twitter (probably Russian!) started the delicious rumor that Ford had, the previous year, sent a similar letter accusing Gorsuch of having attacked her in her youth. I still see this rumor circulating.
The door thing is speculation.
Building permits with dates are speculation?
We were told that the visit to the marriage therapist was a direct result of the two-door argument. The extra door had been installed for 4 years. The assault was supposed to have caused claustrophobia, providing the motivation for the second door.
Ford is pushing believability--intentionally, I think. She also mentioned symmetry in a low voice as another possibly motivating factor.
The three lies are:
1) Fear of Flying
2) Christine is a Psychologist
3) Christine's Front Door
Everyone here knows where I stand on CBF lying about Kavanaugh. That said, I would not hang my hat on #2.
I investigated state licensing laws for my consulting firm almost 30 years ago. My initial Ph.D was not in clinical psychology and I was not eligible for licensure. (That reflects licensing law changes in the late 1970s). Consulting did not require licensure. Before switching from consulting to clinical work, I completed a second Ph.D program in clinical psychology.
The term "psychologist" cannot be used in a clinical setting if the individual is not a licensed psychologist. However, it is permissible when used in an academic setting or in consulting. If an individual holds a Ph.D. from an accredited academic institution they are a psychologist except in clinical settings.
Ken B said...
"The door thing is speculation. I agree there are questions but the article draws a lot of conclusions without actual evidence."
Speculation? She testified that "... my husband and I had completed an extensive remodel of our home, and I insisted on a second front door, an idea that he and others disagreed with and could not understand. In explaining why I wanted to have a second front door, I described the assault in detail."
She made it sound as if she wanted two front doors into the same room or something, which would indeed require some explanation. And the work was done in 2008, while the "explanation" supposedly took place in 2012. So I guess her poor husband thought she was batshit crazy for four years, before she finally explained things? No, it turns out the second front door was to an addition on the house, and made perfect sense, and no one ever said boo about it to the lying bitch.
Of course, Ford's tribe thought a Youtube video was the motivation for the Egypt and Benghazi terror attacks. Even after the foreign intelligence agencies proved they warned the Obama Administration weeks in advance of plans by terror groups to launch 9/11 anniversary attacks in Egypt and Libya.
The staging of the murder, through the door and mirror, was masterful.
You know, Crack, your blog is worth checking out just for the images.
Margot Cleveland
@ProfMJCleveland
BREAKING: This is HUGE (waiting for permission to h/t): One of Christine Ford Blasey's research articles in 2008 included a study in which participants were TAUGHT SELF-HYPNOSIS & noted hypnosis is used to retrieve important memories "AND CREATE ARTIFICAL SITUATIONS."
@TCE - I enjoyed your Macho Response link. Well played. 👍
Ditto. Excellent link and observations.
I know I've seen this in a modern take - in the 80's or 90's I think they did a remake/update of Hitchcock Presents, and this was one of the episodes. I remember watching it and loving the plot twist - that moment when he realizes he killed an innocent man based on his love and required vengeance for his wife.
I think that plot point is part of the Gaspar Noe movie "Irreversible" but it's a more subtle twist.
Limbaugh was on fire. I haven’t listened to him in years, but LOL. I can’t believe that the New York. Times is so blinkered as to bring up fucking ice in the context of accusing somebody of sexual assault.
Maybe he just wanted to put some ice on one of the guys who was in the fight’s bloody ear? I heard advice from somebody famous that putting ice on bleeding stuff was good for it, escapes me just who though.
The second front door was for renting out an office according to real estate records.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2018/10/02/building_documents_undermine_fords_exit_door_account.html
However, it is permissible when used in an academic setting or in consulting. If an individual holds a Ph.D. from an accredited academic institution they are a psychologist except in clinical settings.
I have read that her "PhD" was actually an Ed D in "Educational Psychology." She had an MS or BS in Psychology.
I'm not sure if that is true, Learning anything about her is a challenge,
This scenario actually happens every year or two around here. The plot is a woman comes home late and says a guy in a red car at the Mall parking lot raped her. The husband goes out and finds a red car in the near empty Mall parking lot and he attacks and shoots him. How do you defend him. She really did it. But he goes to jail for a long time.
The door thing was probably about creating a separate entrance to make it easier to rent to Google interns, if you ask me.
Following up my own comment at 12:02
For some reason, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Ford wanted the marriage-counseling records to be about their sexual relationship. Therefore the two-door reason for the counseling was concocted.
I suppose that if the Fords' marriage counseling records ever were revealed to investigators or to the public, then the records indeed would show that the Fords went to a marriage counselor mainly about their two-door argument. In other words, the records would reveal practically nothing about their sexual relationship.
If so, then the two-door argument was a concocted pretext to create marriage-counseling records about Christine Ford's alleged emotional trauma caused by Brett Kavanaugh.
Mark Judge's book God and Man at Georgetown was published in 2005. That book seems to be the basis for Christine Ford's yarn about Kavanaugh.
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I have read some indications that Christine Ford has some relationships to the Central Intelligence Agency. I read that her father was a high-ranking CIA official.
I have read also that she is a CIA liaison at the school where she works. Do a lot of foreigners study at the school? Does she spot potential recruits for the CIA?
In this regard, what has Mr. Ford done for a living?
Apparently, the identity of the therapist, let alone her notes, have been concealed to date,
The Democrats have those items but will not share them with the Republicans.
This is more evidence this is a phony issue, regardless of Ann's feminist sentiments.
I see Unknown beat me to it, and with evidence, rather than my speculation.
I have read that her "PhD" was actually an Ed D in "Educational Psychology." She had an MS or BS in Psychology.
I think that is incorrect, but you never know when her internet history has been scrubbed with the help of multiple institutions.
The Ed.D is a degree primarily used in educational settings for people who want to be public school bureaucrats. It would surprise me greatly if an EdD could do the academic research work that CBF was doing.
There is so much to go after in her false testimony that I do not want people to chase false leads.
Ken B at 12:12 PM
The psychologist thing is piffle.
Now I am going to put on my tin-foil hat.
Maybe Christine Blasey Ford does not actually teach much (or at all) at the school. Maybe she spends significantly more time on CIA-liaison activities.
Maybe the CIA is interested in recruiting foreigners who are studying in a US school to work as counselors (alcoholism, addictions, marriage disputes, etc.) in their home countries.
I read that the school's websites were scrubbed clean of all references to her.
If so, then why?
We are skirting the edge of The Twilight Fringe.
I read that the school's websites were scrubbed clean of all references to her. If so, then why?
She presumably wanted to "protect" herself from internet death threats.
That's interesting because she also presumably wanted to remain anonymous, but immediately hired a DNC lawyer who arranged a bogus polygraph.
CBF is willing agent for the Democrats. It was a setup from the beginning.
Christine Blasey Ford Has Deep Ties To The C.I.A.
[quote]
.... Christine’s father, Ralph G Blasey Jr. had worked for the CIA and was a vice president, at one time, for the National Savings and Trust “black budget bank” allegedly known for funding CIA deep state operations. ...
.... her father Ralph G. Blasey Jr. -— a proven CIA operative who, from June 1962 to January 1974, was the Vice President of National Savings and Trust of Washington, D.C. -— a CIA black-budget bank best known for being 100 paces from the White House, and whom, in 1998, was taken over by SunTrust Bank, whose majority share owner is the CIA-linked investment fund BlackRock.
... the CIA banking connections of Ralph G. Blasey Jr. ... is due to the outbreak of what is now known as the “CIA Bank War” ...
.... Ralph G. Blasey Jr. ... today is the Vice President of Business Development of Red Coats, Inc., whose Admiral Security Services provides armed security for “Deep State” elites in Washington D.C. ... to provide US defense and intelligence agencies with facility management systems to include accessories and repair parts, computerized systems for surveillance, monitoring, controlling, signaling and reporting multiple functions ...
[end quote]
Hey, they did the same one in a remake/reboot maybe 20 years ago. I never saw the original. But that one really stuck with me.
* Remake/Reboot of The Twilight Zone, that is.
Christine Blasey Ford and her Family’s Deep Relationship with the C.I.A.
[quote]
Dr Blasey-Ford has a Husband, Russell Ford, who she met at Stanford Univ, and were married in 2002. They have 3 young children. Russell Ford is the “Senior Director” at Zosano Pharma, and Exclusively Specializes in “Mind Altering” Drugs.
Russell deleted his Facebook account and removed his name from his Companies Website.
[end quote]
It was another Ralph blazey not her father.
This was the very first episode of that TV series and one of the few episodes that Hitchcock himself directed!
Darrell - I'm amazed at your mind reading skills. Has Ms Ford said anything publicly about the YouTube video of which you speak? You should consider joining the carnival.
Allegedly, Christine Blasey Ford has a management position in Stanford University's CIA Undergraduate Internship Program. The university website describes the program as follows:
[quote]
Description:
Interested in foreign affairs? Looking for a career where you can make a difference? We invite you to participate in our Undergraduate Internship Program. This unique program is designed to give promising undergraduate students, particularly minorities and people with disabilities, the opportunity to gain practical work experience that complements their academic studies.
You will be given the opportunity to work with highly-skilled professionals and see first-hand the role the CIA plays in supporting US officials who make our country's foreign policy. We are interested in students majoring in engineering, computer science, mathematics, economics, physical sciences, foreign languages, area studies, business administration, accounting, international relations, finance, logistics, human resources, geography, national security studies, military and foreign affairs, political science and graphic design.
Interns are required to work either a combination of one semester and one summer internship, or two 90-day summer internships.
Sponsored by:
Central Intelligence Agency
[end quote]
narciso at 1:20 PM
It was another Ralph blazey not her father.
Can you provide more information about that?
But the killers have no remorse in this IRL version.
And when you're done with Alfred Hitchcock, you might watch the great Anatomy of a Murder with a similar theme.
--steve uhr
That's why it said "her tribe"--Lefties like you, apparently.
That's where those reading skills come in handy.
I don't remember you making a big deal over Hillary and Obama lying to you about the Youtube video. I don't remember you asking for an investigation. Or impeachment. There have been few bigger outright lies from a Presidential Administration in history. And they doubled down by actually putting that poor son-of-a-bitch in jail, in an attempt to salvage credibility.
She pulled a second door out of her ass in create a narrative the requires you to be mentally deficient to buy it. You stepped up to the challenge.
His son per his obituary was r Leslie deak.
George Spencer makes the point I came to make- that was the first episode of the series itself, and directed by Hitchcock. The man who wrote the episode, Frank Cockrell, wrote many other episodes in the series, and wrote several teleplays for the Batman series. He also wrote the Outer Limits episode where a scientist speeds up his own human evolution, become super intelligent, and eventually completely amoral and inhuman.
MarkW said...
And when you're done with Alfred Hitchcock, you might watch the great Anatomy of a Murder with a similar theme.
Great movie - highly recommend.
This guy:
https://www.crunchbase.com/person/robert-leslie-deak#section-recent-news-and-activity
https://www.crunchbase.com/person/robert-leslie-deak#section-recent-news-and-activity
Hitch directed this one, I checked.
The actor playing the husband is not very good but the wife is terrific.
Darrell. I'm not a lefty but my reading skills are good. I believe "her tribe" would include her, no?
As for me, I don't know whether I have commented on Bengazi or not but I share your views. One reason I didn't vote for Hillary. I guess your mind reading skills aren't that good after all.
As a general rule I hated his TV show. So inferior to his movies it's not even funny.
Psycho was originally going to be an episode on his TV show. But he liked it so much he made a movie out of it.
I really like Psycho, but it's uneven.
I just realized that the TV show version of Psycho probably ended with the death of one of the characters. That's a natural ending. And then he had to expand it to a feature-length movie and add a lot of minutes.
One reason I didn’t vote for Hillary.
None of you did! But still you are incredibly upset that she is not POTUS.
Great, Althouse...
Now watch the Democrats try to claim Kavanaugh perjured himself when he said this was the "Twilight Zone" when in fact it was "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".
If I had voted for Hillary, I'd lie about it, too.
narciso at 1:50 PM
His son per his obituary was r Leslie deak.
Thanks. I will study that some more.
oh shit, that's Vera Miles!
She was actually in Psycho.
And Ralph Meeker. Kiss Me Deadly is amazing!
He always did tough guy roles, I think. There's apparently a comedy where he kidnaps Jane Russell called The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown.
Tim and tcrosse --I have never questioned your sincerity. I think you both owe me an apology for calling me a liar. But I won't hold my breath.
I didn’t call you a liar, I just pointed out that you are... OK, you SEEM upset that Hillary is not president.
Take it easy, uhr. It's not like I accused you of attempted rape while in high school.
No apology is forthcoming for that, either.
Alfred Hitchcock sexually harassed and assaulted Tippi Hedren, the female star of his movie Birds.
He didn't assault her, that's not true. She got pecked by birds, though. That wasn't fun.
And I don't think she ever alleged that he harassed her for sex. This wasn't a Bill Clinton, trying to get laid deal.
Hitchcock probably had strong feelings for her, and repressed a lot of them. He was Catholic and married and way older (he was 65). Repressed sexuality is rampant throughout his work. It motivated his art.
What she alleges (and I believe her) is that Hitch made her life very unpleasant. A lot of controlling and she can't do this and she has to wear that. I think their working relationship kind of broke during Marnie.
She refused to work with him again, and he refused to release her from the contract. So her film career went nowhere. And after Marnie, all his films are pretty bad. I think Family Plot is watchable and light. But, ugh, I hated Frenzy.
“I am convinced Hitchcock was never the same after Marnie,” said Francois Truffaut. I don't know if he knew about Hitch and Tippi, or heard rumors or what, but he nailed it. Really sad because it screwed up the careers of two great artists.
If the story were re-written for a contemporary audience, it would be Elsa doing the killing for, as a fully Empowered woman, she wouldn’t need a man to do that for her.
And the plot would maintain ambiguity over whether any of the men she murdered had actually ever assaulted her or anyone else, or even whether she’d ever actually been sexually assaulted.
For she’d be presented as fully justified in her murderous rage since, even if she hadn’t actually been assaulted, she could have been, and certainly other women certainly have been. For even if some or all of these men hadn’t actually assaulted anyone, any one of them could have done so (and thus it doesn’t really matter whether any of them actually did so. For if they could have done it then perhaps they did do it and, even if they didn’t, some man somewhere surely did. Therefore her murderous rage is fully justified.
Of course, this isn't the 1950s, when the Enraged Woman character would have been Everywoman. In the contemporary version, Enraged Woman is an academic feminist, well-privileged with status, good pay, and excellent job security, yet driven insane with rage that rape is possible and therefore it sometimes happens. Even though the plot remains ambiguous as to whether it happened to her.
Finally, in the old version it’s her husband realizes he’s done something terribly wrong, but in this new version he’s irrelevant at best (fish don’t need bicycles). In the contemporary version it is the murdered who grasp the enormity of their sins, just as they expire.
Another relevant insight in this context is Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart".
She seems credible.
For a more accurate literary analogy to the current political situation of Ford and Kavanaugh, I'd suggest the writings of Stanislaw Lem. As a Czech writing scifi before the wall came down, he had to have plots that didn't upset the bureaucrats charged with vetting literature, while providing stories interesting enough to read.
In one murder mystery where it appears dead bodies are coming back to life and killing people, the detective's boss at one point asks if the wiring in the houses where the murders occurred was aluminum or copper. The detective draws a blank, and says he will check. The boss then asks him why that detail of house construction might be important, because it is not important at all, in fact. The detective then focuses on the actual details of the crimes while ignoring the political implications of his potential findings. And discovers there aren't zombies, just a crazy murderer, whose politics are unrelated to his crimes.
Sometimes you need to step back, take a deep breath, and realize the political theater is NOT the reality of the situation. Confirm Kavanaugh, today, tomorrow or better yet yesterday.
And I don't think she ever alleged that he harassed her for sex. This wasn’t a Bill Clinton, trying to get laid deal.
I am pretty sure she did, but it could be a false memory.
Loved Ralph meeker in this one. And there's good old hollywood standby Ray Teal. Good to see he's not beating a disabled Vet for once.
I am pretty sure she did, but it could be a false memory.
She alleged he was trying to have sex with her? I don't think so. The allegation I heard was all about Hitchcock trying to control her, what she wore, even when she wasn't working on a movie. I believe her. I think not letting her work with anybody else was petty and mean-spirited.
Hitchcock was the kind of director who would be irritated with Kim Novack for not wearing a bra. That's why he only worked with her once. Not his type! He liked his actresses to be sexually enticing and beautiful but also restrained. He was excited about Tippi and went overboard with her, tried to control her, irritated the shit out of her.
If she's alleging that he assaulted her or put hands on her, do you have a link? I haven't seen that.
Kim Novak, sorry.
Never mind, I found it.
I think it's probably true, to be honest. I hope not.
He also wrote the Outer Limits episode where a scientist speeds up his own human evolution, become super intelligent, and eventually completely amoral and inhuman.
Starring David McCallum!!
Sometimes the Althouse comment thread becomes a trivia contest.....and that's not a complaint!!
I have a different take on this episode.
Opens with Carl cooking breakfast for his still-sleeping wife; he gently awakens her and she starts kissing on him. He tells her it's his first day at his new job and he can't be late...she keeps kissing him and pawing at him...rather risque for 1955 TV.
When the old mrs. whatever (Aunt Bea?!), the neighbor comes over to chat (at Carl's request), Elsa reveals that she had "some sort of breakdown" , but never gives any details. Now she's stuck in a tiny trailer on a dusty road...no car, no career, husband's new job means he'll be gone all day, every day.
When Carl comes home, the cakes Elsa was baking were burnt, smoking in the oven, and she's in the bedroom, apparently unconscious. She comes to, and reports being attacked by a stranger, despite not having any visible injuries.
Contrary to the synopsis, he DOES call the police but Elsa's description of her attacker is so vague that the cops can't help.
She assures Carl that she would surely recognize her attacker if she saw him again. Frustrated, and not the least bit skeptical of her story, Carl tells Elsa that he would kill the stranger if he ever caught him.
He suggests they go for a ride - not outright saying, "let's go find this guy", but that's what they're doing. She agrees.
After a long while, Elsa spots a man walking down the sidewalk and tells Carl, "That's him!" Carl grabs a wrench from under his seat, follows the man into his hotel room, and bludgeons him to death.
Shortly after, as the sirens start to wail, she again tells Carl, "That's him!", pointing to a different man...
Elsa's description of her "attacker" was purposely vague...the cops would never make an arrest. Carl realizes he's been hoodwinked into murdering an innocent man.
Why?
As *Revenge* for whatever it was Carl did that caused her breakdown and the loss of her career.
Yes the door thing really is speculation. We don’t know when this discussion or his puzzlement were supposed to have happened. It is possible that, if the door story is true, that the puzzlement was when the building was done but only raised as a grievance with the counselor in 2012. You don’t know enough detail one way or the other. Hence, speculation right now, but as I said, some questions.
madAsHell said...
"He also wrote the Outer Limits episode where a scientist speeds up his own human evolution, become super intelligent, and eventually completely amoral and inhuman."
Starring David McCallum!!
Who gave us The Edge that inspired Dr. Dre's career.
Kray-Kray.
Funny - when reading all the nonsense about the ice throwing incident, I saw someone refer to it as the perfect crime, as the weapon disappears. Which made me think of a favorite Alfred Hitchcock episode - " Lamb to the Slaughter". Wife murders husband by whacking him with a frozen leg of lamb, then cooks it and serves some to the detectives investigating. No murder weapon!
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