The Canary Sedan story
Laura Bowlby arrives in Hong Kong to join her husband, James, who has been living there for a while. Laura has psychic abilities; when she is inside her second-hand sedan she can hear the disembodied voice of a French woman talking to her lover. Laura, envious of the woman's passionate affair, investigates her story and discovers that she was having an affair with Laura's husband, James. Directed by: Robert Stevens. Story by: Ann Bridge, Stirling Silliphant.
8 total · 4 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| communicating with the dead | major | When inside her automobile Laura could hear, and indeed spoke back to, the disembodied voice of a French woman who was talking to her lover. |
| haunted vehicle | major | Laura bough an eponymous yellow sedan and started hearing the voice of a deceased countess who had previously owned the vehicle. |
| husband and wife | major | The story follows Laura as she goes to Hong Kong to join her husband James. |
| romantic infidelity | major | It is revealed at the end that Laura has stumbled upon information about a passionate love affair her husband had had in the past. We do not know whether he was married to Laura at the time, but must ponder the possibility. |
| adapting to life in a foreign culture | minor | Laura acclimatized to living in Hong Kong first and foremost by getting a new car. |
| divination | minor | A man was talking about an Ouija board and we saw one being used. |
| genie in a lamp | minor | In his monologue, Alfred Hitchcock feigned to have conjured up a genie in the image of Alfred Hitchcock by rubbing the picture tube. |
| master and servant | minor | Laura spoke, somewhat condescendingly, to her Chinese driver. |