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35. Bruce Dern as "Jesse," the drifter

Mon Sep 15, 2025, 09:15 AM

Sep 15

in “Lonely Place,” a 1964 episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour (season 3, episode 6).

Dern plays an itinerant creep who gets his kicks from making other people extremely uncomfortable, in this case the beleaguered, trapped farm wife (Teresa Wright), who gets no help from her ineffectual husband (Pat Buttram).

I won’t give away the ending, but let’s just say it’s a good payoff. I watched this episode on my grandparents’ big console B&W TV set as a kid, and it stuck with me. Dern is very effective as a manipulative, sadistic weirdo. The episode relies primarily on suspense and mounting tension (and great writing and acting) rather than overt violence or gore.

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