Based on a short story by Ray Bradbury and starring Pat Buttram, the 1964 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour entitled "The Jar" is one of the eeriest hours of television to ever be beamed into America's living rooms. Though I only just watched if for the first time, I've heard about "The Jar" my whole life. My mother saw it when it first aired and it make a serious impression on her young mind. Whenever the conversation would turn to creepy stories, she'd always recount this one, along with a few Twilight Zones. (There's probably an essay to be written about these old anthology shows serving as modern folktales, but I'll have to leave that for another time.) Later, when I discovered Bradbury, I was surprised to see that he was the one who'd written the story on which "The Jar" was based. It can be found in his collection The October Country and is every bit as scary as the Hitchcock episode. In fact, when I recently came across "The Jar" on Youtube (sadly, there is no official release on disc or streaming), I was a bit hesitant to watch it. Would it live up to Bradbury's brilliant short story? Was it as unsettling as my mom had made it out? Well reader, let me tell you something: "The Jar" may have frightened audiences back in the innocent days of 1964, but to this jaded horror fan, in the year 2024 . . . yeah, it's still terrifying!!! The acting is top-notch and the direction paired with Bernard Herrmann's original score manage to capture the magic of Bradbury's prose (the hardest thing to do when adapting ol' RB). As I mentioned, there's no official release of this episode (unless you live in Australia), but some internet sleuthing will turn it up.
