THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR--"The Sign Of Satan"

 

Last Friday night I attended a White Sox-Red Sox game in Chicago. The White Sox lost (what did you expect?), but I got home in time to view an episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR on MeTV. What made this particular episode special is that it guest starred Christopher Lee, and I had never seen it before. 

"The Sign of Satan" (which was first broadcast in May of 1964) concerns a mysterious European actor named Karl Jorla (Christopher Lee of course). A Hollywood production company has discovered an obscure Austrian film that Jorla appears in, and a producer is so impressed by the actor's eerie presence that he wants the man to come to America and star in a horror movie. Jorla arrives, willing and ready to work....but the fellow has some strange attitudes, such as refusing any type of publicity and choosing his own secretive living quarters. Jorla reveals that the Austrian film he worked on was made by real devil worshipers, and it contained a real Black Mass. It also was never intended to be shown to a general audience. Jorla is desperately afraid that the sect behind the film will attempt to inflict some sort of revenge upon him. His Hollywood co-workers think Jorla is exaggerating, but they soon find out how truthful he has been all along. 

The role of Karl Jorla was made for Christopher Lee. There were still plenty of actual horror stars around in 1964--but Boris Karloff would have been too old, Vincent Price too obvious, and Lon Chaney Jr. wouldn't have fit the role at all (neither, I think, would have Peter Cushing). Ironically the short story that "The Sign of Satan" is based on, Robert Bloch's "Return to the Sabbath", was written in the 1930s. (Bloch did not do the teleplay of "The Sign of Satan" -it was written instead by Barre Lyndon.) By 1964 Lee had already appeared in a number of European big screen horrors, and while at the time he had gotten global attention for his Hammer monsters, he was still probably a mysterious figure to most American TV viewers. 

Lee's Jorla is certainly a disconcerting character at times. Lee uses what sounds to be a Germanic-style accent (although one could also say his voice sounds generically central European). Lee is also fitted out with dark fake eyebrows and a wig that resembles one of Elvis Presley's late 1950s hairdos. I'm sure the eyebrows and wig were an attempt to make Lee look even more spooky, but they're also distracting at times, and Lee didn't really need them. 

Christopher Lee in "The Sign of Satan"

As shown in the above picture, Lee in the episode is able to make use of one of his most expressive features--his hands. One important point about "The Sign of the Satan" is that Lee is not the menace--he's the one being menaced. Due to this Lee's Jorla is pensive and abrupt around others, and the actor even gets to be involved in a fight sequence when Jorla is attacked by an assailant. 

As for the plot of "The Sign of Satan", if you're familiar with this type of material (and heaven knows I am), you won't be surprised with how the story plays out. One issue is that the story could have been easily told in just a half-hour. (THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR was obviously the longer version of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS. Both this series and THE TWILIGHT ZONE worked better in the shorter format.) 

"The Sign of Satan" was directed by Robert Douglas. a regular on the series. Nothing stylistically stands out about it, except the footage from the obscure film Jorla appeared in--it at least looks more interesting than what happens in the main story. Familiar classic TV faces such as Gilbert Green, Adam Roarke, and Myron Healey play the Hollywood types working alongside Jorla, and Gia Scala plays Jorla's leading lady. One expects that the exotic Scala will make a major impact on the story, such as having a relationship with Jorla or being endangered by his situation, but she gets very little to do. 

The major importance that "The Sign of Satan" had on Christopher Lee's acting career was that it was the first time he traveled to Hollywood. According to Jonathan Rigby's biography of Lee, the actor arrived in California in March of 1964 to work on the episode. Lee enjoyed his short stay, despite his misgivings about leaving his wife and infant daughter back in their current residence in Switzerland. Lee made a few contacts, and met a few celebrities--but he was disappointed in not getting a chance to meet Alfred Hitchcock himself. (Lee would make many more trips to Hollywood in his life, and at one point he lived there for a time.) 

I wouldn't call "The Sign of Satan" a great example of 1960s American TV, but it was a major event in the career of Christopher Lee. If you are a true fan of the actor you need to see it if you haven't--just try not to keep staring at the wig he's wearing.