Hitchcock irony is at it's best in this story of a man (Dennis Weaver) with a terrible case of insomnia, who seeks a psychiatrist's help in curing his problem. Although Charles Cavender's (Weaver) wife died tragically in a fire some years earlier, his insomnia didn't start until hearing of her brother's release from a veteran's hospital. Naturally assuming that the brother holds him somewhat responsible for his sister's death, Cavender's guilt over the incident and his fear of the brother's possible quest for retribution is a clear enough reason for his lack of sleep. When Cavender learns that Jack Fletcher (John S. Ragin) has now arrived in the same city, he decides to confront him to clear the air over his wife's death. After some useless conversation, Fletcher pulls out a gun and as the men struggle over it, it goes off killing Fletcher. Oddly, the story doesn't deal with Fletcher's death from a gunshot wound, but forwards to the aftermath of an apartment fire in which Cavender dies as a result of a malfunctioning heater. A fireman on the scene remarks how heavy a sleeper Cavender must have been to not wake up, as his cure for insomnia had taken hold at the expense of his life.
5 Reviews
It Made Me Tired
Hitchcoc2 May 2023
Having dealt with some bouts with insomnia over the years, I have great sympathy for Dennis Weaver's character. The stresses involved with the inability to get enough sleep can be so debilitating. He lives in a tiny room with a bed and twists and turns. He is a widower. His wife died in a fire and he couldn't get to her to save her. Her brother is disabled and blames him for her death. He goes to a psychiatrist for a single session which doesn't really help. Then he gets a call from his brother in law and he is under threat. He decides to see the guy to straighten things out, but eventually there are two devastating results.
TAKE TWO PILLS AND CALL ME IN THE MORNING?
tcchelsey5 December 2023
Henry Slesar wrote this interesting episode, who penned nearly 3000 episodes of the EDGE OF NIGHT tv soap opera. Henry also was a favorite writer of Hitchcock. Maybe Hitch liked soap operas?
Dennis Weaver is the whole show as man who simply cannot sleep. He lost his job, resides in a cheap rooming house and has dreams about the death of his wife --which his brother in law blames him for.
That's where the story takes off. Wait and see.
Weaver is very convincing in a depressing role, and you can probably guess why Hitchcock liked the story in the first place, because he tended to favor stories about single men with problems. And this gent has lots of problems. Also a good appearance by deadpan James Millhollin, playing a psychiatrist. He was terrific in these type of roles for years, both in dramas and sitcoms.
Hitch has a fun closing scene, as the incredible shrinking man!
From SEASON 5 EPISODE 30 remastered Universal dvd box set.
Dennis Weaver is the whole show as man who simply cannot sleep. He lost his job, resides in a cheap rooming house and has dreams about the death of his wife --which his brother in law blames him for.
That's where the story takes off. Wait and see.
Weaver is very convincing in a depressing role, and you can probably guess why Hitchcock liked the story in the first place, because he tended to favor stories about single men with problems. And this gent has lots of problems. Also a good appearance by deadpan James Millhollin, playing a psychiatrist. He was terrific in these type of roles for years, both in dramas and sitcoms.
Hitch has a fun closing scene, as the incredible shrinking man!
From SEASON 5 EPISODE 30 remastered Universal dvd box set.
An interesting set-up and a disappointing ending.
planktonrules12 April 2021
Charles Cavender--dennis weaver.
"Insomnia" begins with Charles Cavender (Dennis Weaver) meeting with a psychiatrist for the first time. It seems that since his wife's death in a fire, he's had insomnia...so bad that he rarely gets more than an hour or two of sleep each night. As a result, he's lost several jobs and is miserable. During the session, he talks about a recurring dream about her death, though he says how she died was actually rather different. Regardless, she's dead and he is having trouble coping. Additionally, you learn that Cavender's brother-in-law blames him for his sister's death.
This is another example of a show with an excellent set-up but a disappointing twist at the end. In this case, you are left wondering exactly what happened in some scenes and the ending again leaves you wondering...what had you just seen? Interesting but disappointing.
"Insomnia" begins with Charles Cavender (Dennis Weaver) meeting with a psychiatrist for the first time. It seems that since his wife's death in a fire, he's had insomnia...so bad that he rarely gets more than an hour or two of sleep each night. As a result, he's lost several jobs and is miserable. During the session, he talks about a recurring dream about her death, though he says how she died was actually rather different. Regardless, she's dead and he is having trouble coping. Additionally, you learn that Cavender's brother-in-law blames him for his sister's death.
This is another example of a show with an excellent set-up but a disappointing twist at the end. In this case, you are left wondering exactly what happened in some scenes and the ending again leaves you wondering...what had you just seen? Interesting but disappointing.
Just a downright dull episode
FlushingCaps16 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Dennis Weaver stars as Charles Cavender, a widower who can't sleep much at all-for the past several months, only an hour or two here and there. After we see him frustrated one night, he goes to a psychiatrist and reveals that his sleeplessness did not begin when his wife died in a fire, but when her loving brother was released from a VA hospital a few weeks ago. He tells about a recurring dream where his wife dies in a fire-but a scene that was quite different from the way it really happened.
The brother-in-law, Jack, blames him, not for starting the fire or wanting it, but simply because when the fire woke him up in the early morning hours, he couldn't do anything to rescue his wife, and barely escaped death himself jumping out of a second-story window just before the raging fire collapsed most of the house's frame.
Charles is shown at his job-he told the shrink he'd lost 3 jobs since the insomnia started. He is working with an adding machine when the boss comes by to announce that they've found serious mistakes on this morning's work and he is fired.
After that one session with the psychiatrist, Charles contacts the Delaware hospital to find out how to contact Jack. Now Jack had phoned him early that morning, promising to be an annoyance to him. He didn't threaten any action and didn't say anything else of interest. Charles thought he could talk it out with Jack, but their short conversation revealed nothing to us viewers. A gun was pulled and after a shot went off, someone was killed and after two more short scenes the show was over.
We were never given anything to provide a reason why Jack blamed Charles or why he wanted to trouble him. We were never given anything to suggest that Jack was doing anything to keep Charles from sleeping.
This was an episode where the viewer, on learning it was really over, says, "That's it?!" There was nothing funny, no murders planned, no characters cheating anyone, or cheating ON anyone. Charles admitted to nothing suggesting he questioned his actions the night of the fire, saying there was nothing he could do. Almost the whole show focused on Charles and we finished knowing almost nothing about him beyond what he told the doc. There are lots of episodes in this series I think are super, many more I think are good to varying degrees, and a smattering of episodes I disliked for different reasons. This is a rare episode-it was just plain boring, equaling a score of 3.
The brother-in-law, Jack, blames him, not for starting the fire or wanting it, but simply because when the fire woke him up in the early morning hours, he couldn't do anything to rescue his wife, and barely escaped death himself jumping out of a second-story window just before the raging fire collapsed most of the house's frame.
Charles is shown at his job-he told the shrink he'd lost 3 jobs since the insomnia started. He is working with an adding machine when the boss comes by to announce that they've found serious mistakes on this morning's work and he is fired.
After that one session with the psychiatrist, Charles contacts the Delaware hospital to find out how to contact Jack. Now Jack had phoned him early that morning, promising to be an annoyance to him. He didn't threaten any action and didn't say anything else of interest. Charles thought he could talk it out with Jack, but their short conversation revealed nothing to us viewers. A gun was pulled and after a shot went off, someone was killed and after two more short scenes the show was over.
We were never given anything to provide a reason why Jack blamed Charles or why he wanted to trouble him. We were never given anything to suggest that Jack was doing anything to keep Charles from sleeping.
This was an episode where the viewer, on learning it was really over, says, "That's it?!" There was nothing funny, no murders planned, no characters cheating anyone, or cheating ON anyone. Charles admitted to nothing suggesting he questioned his actions the night of the fire, saying there was nothing he could do. Almost the whole show focused on Charles and we finished knowing almost nothing about him beyond what he told the doc. There are lots of episodes in this series I think are super, many more I think are good to varying degrees, and a smattering of episodes I disliked for different reasons. This is a rare episode-it was just plain boring, equaling a score of 3.
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