12 Stories They Wouldn`t Let Me Do on TV - Alfred Hitchcock (editor)

Alfred Hitchcock (editor) - 12 Stories They Wouldn`t Let Me Do on TV
Dell, 1964
224 str.
mehka vezava
stanje: zelo rabljeno

Some books are meant for childish eyes. Others are tailored for readers with delicate sensibilities and fragile nerves. Still others can be safely scanned befor going to sleep at night. This book, however, is not one of them. For when Alfred Hitchcock is the man in charge, you can be sure of a feast designed to please the strongest appetite for pure horror and unadulterated evil!

Contents
Preface by Alfred Hitchcock (ghost written)
Being a Murderer Myself by Arthur Williams
Lukundoo by Edward Lucas White
A Woman Seldom Found by William Sansom
The Perfectionist by Margaret St. Clair
The Price of the Head by John Russell
Love Comes to Miss Lucy by Q. Patrick
Sredni Vashtar by H. H. Munro (as Saki)
Love Lies Bleeding by Philip MacDonald
The Dancing Partner by Jerome K. Jerome
Casting the Runes novelette by M. R. James
The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson
How Love Came to Professor Guildea novella by Robert Hichens (as Robert S. Hichens)
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With a capricious evil eye
(and a somewhat black hand)
that sly master of suspense,
Mr. Alfred Hitchcock,
has reached into the vast storehouse
of literary gore and gristle,
and come up with a dozen gems,
each of which kept HIM spellbound.

Let there be no mistake.
These are the stuff
of which darkest nightmares are made;
they are not recommended for those
of faint heart and weak stomach.

But for the genuine connoisseur
of the mad and the macabre,
here is a truly vintage selection.
It is guaranteed
to draw a sigh of satisfaction
from even the most jaded palate.
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Preface
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is Alfred Hitchcock speaking.

Being what is probably one of the most obtrusive producers on television has spoiled me. I cannot conceive of giving people stories without adding my own comments. The publishers of this book, being far wiser than my television sponsors, have limited my interference to this short preface.

First of all I should make it absolutely clear to you that these stories will not be interspersed with long-playing commercials. You may enjoy them while facing in any direction in any room in the house. Or outside, if you like. Furthermore, you may read them at any time, and if you take longer than half an hour for one of them you will not be penalized. Of course, this information is for those of you with poor memories and good television sets who may have forgotten some of the freedom allowed a reader.

An anthology of stories, like a soufflé, reflects the taste of the person who selects and mixes the ingredients. It matters a great deal, for example, whether onions or garlic are used and when the arsenic is added. I doubt that you will find much garlic or onions in this volume, but I am certain that you will find more than a little arsenic. I only hope that, like me, you have developed a taste for it.

This particular selection of tales is primarily aimed at those of you who find television fare too bland. You may not care for some of these stories because you think them too shocking, macabre or grotesque, but I am confident that you will not find any of them bland or dull.

The reason why some of these stories cannot be produced on the home screen will be obvious on reading. After all, actors are only human. (Debatable but true.) And this quality is a severe limitation for^anyone attempting to produce Edward Lucas White's "Lukundoo," William Hope Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night."

These and several other eerie tales of the supernatural make up a part of the book, but the chief staple is that ever popular crime — murder. However, you will look in vain for a story of an underworld killing — homicide as practiced by hoodlums. I have nothing against gangsters, you understand. Some very delightful murders have been committed by professional criminals. By and large, however, the more interesting work in this field is done by amateurs. Highly gifted amateurs, but still amateurs. They are people who perform their work with dignity, good taste and originality , leavened with a sense of the grotesque. Furthermore, they do not bore you afterward by telling you how they got the way they are. Here is polite and wholesome mayhem as practiced by civilized people and I think it makes good reading.

I was Johnny-come-lately to television, and some persons have claimed that I was waiting for the screens to become wide enough to accommodate me (an allegation which I stoutly deny). However, I have become quite fond of the medium, and I trust that this book will not be interpreted as a criticism but merely an admission that there are a number of taboos and that there are some stories to which TV cannot do justice. As for my dear sponsor: he is really a rather tolerant fellow, and on the program when I bite the hand that feeds me I really have my tongue firmly in my cheek. I am sure this is the neatest trick of the week, and if you want to see how it is done you are welcome to tune in any Sunday evening.

But now I had better fade away while you select the first story to read.

Good night and good hunting.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK


Fiction, Short Stories, Horror, Anthology

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Prosim za SMS ali sporočilo prek Bolhe, hvala. Osebni prevzem je možen v centru Ljubljane ali Trnovem. Pošiljanje po poti je mogoče po predhodnem nakazilu na TRR. Poštnino plača kupec.