Beast in View story

ahh2x21 · 1964-03-20

A woman thinks that her brother's ex-fiancée is trying to kill her. Directed by: Joseph M. Newman. Story by: Margaret Millar (novel), James Bridges (teleplay).

17 total · 1 choice · 9 major · 7 minor

Theme	Level	Motivation
multiple personality disorder	choice	The grand revelation of the story, cleverly concealed in the title, is that the distressed victim and the her malevolent antagonizer are in fact one and the same person. Helen suffers from a peculiar dual personality disorder that makes her take on the persona, and even imitate the voice, of her childhood frenemy Dorothy.
facing a stalker	major	Helen was coping with her stalker whom she thought was Dorthy.
jealousy	major	Helen was deeply envious of Dorothy's grace and beauty, she made clear. This is perhaps meant to be why she started adopting the Dorothy persona in the first place.
legal occupation	major	Much of the story was told from Helen's lawyer Paul's point of view as he was acting on Helen's behalf.
mental illness	major	Before the revelation that Helen is the crazy one, the viewer is led to believe that Dorothy was an unstable character who had more than a few bees in her bonnet. In addition to stalking Helen because of some childhood slight, she broke into a photography studio and made a mess because they wouldn't take her picture.
mother and daughter	major	At the center of the plot was a lie that Helen had told to her mother regarding Dorothy in their childhood. Helen spoke to her mother on the phone several times. In the end she confessed her lie under presumed duress.
murder	major	Dorothy, later revealed as the Dorothy persona in Helen, shot the studio photographer dead because he had refused to take her picture for free.
the desire for vengeance	major	The Dorothy persona in Helen wanted revenge for the lie Helen had told to her mother about Dorothy in their childhood.
the desire to be beautiful	major	Helen considered herself to be plain and, in her Dorothy persona especially, fantasized about being gorgeous.
theft	major	Dorothy, later revealed as the Dorothy persona in Helen, held a grudge against Helen for allegedly stealing $343 from Helen's own father's wallet and then pinning it on Dorthy.