Alfred Hitchcock Presents S04E16: Out There – Darkness (1959) in Color

Alfred Hitchcock Presents S04E16: Out There – Darkness (1959) — Buy This Classic in Color

First broadcast on 25 January 1959, “Out There – Darkness” is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the anthology series that brought suspense into American living rooms every week. This episode was directed by Paul Henreid and stars Bette Davis as a woman whose evening takes a turn she never expected, with Frank Albertson, James Congdon and Arthur Marshall rounding out the cast, and Alfred Hitchcock himself introducing the story in his customary dry style. It is a compact, character-driven slice of television suspense, the kind of small-scale moral tale the series told better than anyone. Own this classic movie in color as a DRM-free MP4 digital download for just €15.00.

Plot Summary

The episode opens on an ordinary evening in the city. Bette Davis plays a woman of means who has spent the day shopping and is now waiting, as she often does, for her husband to come home. The apartment is comfortable, the routine familiar, and the mood is one of settled domestic calm. That calm is the point: the story wants us to feel how safe her world appears before anything disturbs it.

Her husband is late. At first this is merely an annoyance, the sort of small irritation that any long marriage absorbs without comment. But as the minutes stretch, the waiting begins to take on a different quality. She finds herself listening for footsteps in the hall, for the turn of a key, for any sign that the pattern of her life is about to resume. Nothing comes.

Into this waiting silence steps a stranger. Frank Albertson plays a man who arrives at the apartment with a manner that is polite, almost deferential, and entirely unwelcome. He has come, he explains, on a matter that concerns her husband — a matter he is reluctant to describe in full. His presence in her home is itself an intrusion, and the episode lets that intrusion sit uncomfortably, refusing to hurry past it.

The conversation that follows is the heart of the episode. The stranger’s questions circle around her husband’s affairs, his habits, his whereabouts, and the woman finds herself in the strange position of defending a man she is also, in that moment, beginning to doubt. James Congdon and Arthur Marshall appear as figures drawn into the same tightening circle of suspicion, each bringing a different kind of pressure to bear on a woman who is no longer sure whom she can trust.

What the episode does so well is to keep the danger domestic. There are no chases and no gunfire; the threat is a knock at the door, a voice that knows too much, a story that does not quite add up. The apartment, which seemed so safe at the start, becomes a place where every sound matters and every answer carries a cost.

By the final act, the woman has been forced to ask a question she would rather have avoided: what, exactly, has her husband been doing out there in the darkness, and what does it mean for her? The episode ends on that question rather than on a tidy answer, and it is the question the whole story has been building toward.

Cast & Crew

Director: Paul Henreid
Stars: Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Frank Albertson, James Congdon, Arthur Marshall

Why Buy This Classic in Color?

This episode was made for the small black-and-white screen of 1959, and the colourised restoration opens it up in ways that a modern viewer can appreciate immediately. The apartment set, which reads as a flat grey space in the original broadcast, gains depth and warmth: the furnishings, the wallpaper, the fabrics of the period all become legible as objects a real person would have chosen. Bette Davis’s wardrobe, so central to establishing her character’s comfortable position, finally shows its true texture and tone rather than a uniform shade of grey. The lighting, designed for a domestic interior, takes on a richer range, so that the shadows in the corners of the room carry more weight than they did before. None of this distracts from the performances; if anything, the added colour makes the performances easier to read, because we can see the details of the world the characters are reacting to. This is a professional colourised restoration of a black-and-white broadcast, not a studio colour release, and it is offered here as a DRM-free MP4 download. Buy it today for €15.00 and start watching instantly.

Historical Significance

Alfred Hitchcock Presents ran on CBS and later NBC from 1955 to 1962, and it remains one of the most influential anthology series in the history of American television. Hitchcock’s own introductions, delivered with a deadpan wit that became as famous as the stories themselves, gave the show a consistent personality across hundreds of episodes, while the half-hour format forced writers and directors to work with unusual discipline. The series drew on the talents of many of the era’s best directors, and it gave television audiences a weekly dose of the kind of suspense that had previously been the preserve of the cinema.

“Out There – Darkness,” first broadcast on 25 January 1959, belongs to the show’s fourth season and was directed by Paul Henreid, himself a well-known screen actor who had moved into directing for television. The episode’s chief distinction is its guest star: Bette Davis, one of the great actresses of the Hollywood studio era, here working in the intimate half-hour television format that was, by the late 1950s, drawing many film stars to the small screen. For viewers today, the episode is a chance to see a major film actress of the period at work in a setting quite different from the lavish productions she was known for.

The episode also stands as a representative example of what the series did best: taking an ordinary domestic situation and applying pressure to it until the ordinary becomes threatening. It is a small story, told in twenty-six minutes, but it carries the series’ characteristic interest in guilt, suspicion and the fragility of everyday life. Colorization brings this episode to new audiences, allowing viewers who might pass over a black-and-white broadcast to discover a well-crafted piece of television suspense.

Technical Details

• Format: MP4 / MKV digital download
• Resolution: Standard Definition
• Colorized: Professionally colorized from original black and white
• Audio: English original mono
• Runtime: 26 minutes
• DRM-free: Yes — watch on any device
• Instant download: Available immediately after purchase
• Price: €15.00 (token, rendered by the site)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Movie-Specific Questions

Q: Was “Out There – Darkness” originally broadcast in colour?
A: No. The episode was broadcast in black and white in 1959, as was standard for the series at the time. This page offers a later professional colorized restoration, not a studio colour release.

Q: Who directed this episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents?
A: The episode was directed by Paul Henreid, the actor best known for his screen roles in the 1940s who later built a substantial career as a television director.

Q: Which guest star appears in this episode?
A: Bette Davis, one of the most celebrated actresses of the Hollywood studio era, plays the central role, with Frank Albertson, James Congdon and Arthur Marshall also in the cast.

Digital Download Questions

Q: What format is the download?
A: The film is delivered as MP4 and MKV files that play on virtually any device.
Q: Is there DRM on the file?
A: No. The download is completely DRM-free so you can watch it on any device without restrictions.
Q: How quickly can I watch after purchase?
A: Your download link is available instantly after payment, so you can start watching within minutes.

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