I now blog over at The Eyre Guide! This blog is an archive of my past posts.


Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Awesome Adaptations (27) - Guest for Breakfast

Posted by Charlene // Tags: ,

Awesome Adaptations is a weekly bookish meme, hosted at Alisa Selene’s books blog, Picturemereading.  Anyone can play along! Each week there is a new category of adaptation to blog about. Any format (television series, film, web series, etc.) is acceptable as long as it is based in some form on a book. If you’re playing along on your own blog, just mention Picturemereading in your post and include the banner above. Let them know which film you’d pick and why it is an awesome adaptation worth watching. Oh, and don’t forget to share the link to your own post in the comments for that week’s challenge so that everyone can read your thoughts!

An Awesome Adaptation of a Short Story
Title: Guest for Breakfast (from Alfred Hitchcock Presents)
Adapted from: Guest for Breakfast by C.B. Gilford

Alfred Hitchcock Presents was a half-hour anthology series from the fifties that presented suspenseful, dark stories.  I think it is most well known for the fact that Alfred Hitchcock introduced each episode, and for how he would step into his silhouette.  They show the old episodes on those hard to find digital stations that only show old TV shows.  It's great, you should check it out!

This episode is my favorite of the series!  I think it's so brilliant!  It's a darkly humorous, tense character driven story that centers around a married couple who are pretty fed up with each other.  They constantly bicker and make snide remarks.  The husband especially, played by Scott McKay, has a wonderful sarcastic wit.  And then a man knocks on their door and pulls a gun on them.  He's just killed his wife and her lover and is running from the cops.  And he doesn't mind killing one of the couple, and taking the other as hostage, but instead of fighting for their lives, they do their best to convince the murderer to kill the other one.  In such a horrible situation, the way the husband and wife desperately try to convince their captor that they are more valuable to him is both funny and dreadful, and I think the way this episode walks the line between the two is awe-inspiring.

The reason that I like it so much though, has more to do with how it ends, because the resolution is as dramatic and satisfying as a story with so much tension should be.  I think the main actors were fantastic in their roles and pulled off the subtext in their characters histories so well.  It's so well acted, and packs a punch emotionally.  It's absolutely an awesome adaptation!

So now that I've tried so hard not to spoil the story for you, you can watch it on Hulu!

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2 comments:

  1. I picked a Hitchcock story as well LOL GMTA! That is a great story, I need to re watch the series though!

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    1. Hee, so cool! I guess that proves he does a fantastic job adapting short stories! A lot of episodes seem to be on hulu, so you can rewatch at your leisure!

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