PORTENTOUS

For director Atom Egoyan in the 1980s, Craig Turner writes, “television work paid the bills while he poured his creativity into feature films . . .” (“The Great White (North) Hope,” Nov. 23).

One of those television projects was “The Final Twist,” an episode in one of the reincarnated versions of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” I wrote the script for that show (from William Bankier’s short story), and it is clear to me that Egoyan didn’t pour all his creativity into feature films. What was a fun little script from a fun little story became a hugely entertaining visual frolic. I’ll never forget the smash cut from Martin Landau tumbling from a building to a dollop of catsup splopping onto a plate of French fries.

The script had its own nice quirks but Egoyan gave it zest, and though I had never heard of him at the time, I remembered his name with the thought that I would certainly be hearing great things from him. There’s nothing I like more than being right.

JIM BEAVER

Nawyecka Productions

Van Nuys