TODAY'S BOO TUBE: THE GENTLEMAN FROM AMERICA

HERE WE HAVE A GHOST STORY PRESENTED BY ALFRED HITCHCOCK.

 Broadcast on April 29, 1956 during the first season of "ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS", "THE GENTLEMAN FROM AMERICA" is an episode I only recently saw for the first time.  That's because my father told me about it.  He would've been 6 years old when it was shown on TV and he vividly remembers it scaring him silly!  On the eve of World War II, Sir Stephen Hurstwood and a friend meet a visiting American named Latimer who can't resist gambling.  Hurstwood, spotting an easy mark, bets Latimer that he can't spend the night alone inside his infamous haunted family home Hurstwood Manor.  Years ago, an escaped lunatic broke into the house, beheaded a woman named Julia and caused her sister to go insane.  Ever since then, the house has been haunted by the headless Hurstwood Ghost whenever anyone tries to spend the night in the murder room.  Latimer is given only a book on the history of the house, one match and a loaded gun and is left alone for the night in the haunted room.  During the night, the glowing headless haint appears and Latimer fires his gun at it . . . to absolutely no effect!  What happens next you'll have to watch the episode to find out . . . and you can watch it on youtube at this link.  Having watched the episode for the first time, I thought it seemed vaguely familiar and I remembered that it was actually remade several years later as a splendid episode of BORIS KARLOFF'S THRILLER entitled "THE PURPLE ROOM":  the very first "horror" episode of that classic series.