Philip Marlowe: Murder Is a Grave Affair (1960)
Season 1, Episode 23
8/10
P.I. Television with an edge!
8 August 2012
Warning: Spoilers
This one is from the 26 episode run of the 1959-60 series, "Philip Marlowe". Marlowe is played by, Phil Carey.

Actress Connie Hines goes to the house of her married lover (Gene Nelson) to confront the wife, Betsy Jones-Moreland, about the affair. Moreland thinks this is funny and tells Hines to help herself.

Hines then goes to her apartment and calls Nelson with the news. Nelson, a film director, is less than pleased with this info. He tells Hines they are through and to stay away from him. It was just a good time as far as he was concerned, not worth getting divorced over.

Later that night, Jack Weston, a friend of Hines, finds her dead in her gas filled apartment. The Police are called and they rule it a suicide.

Several days later, P.I. Carey gets a visit from Malcolm Atterbury and Weston. Atterburry, is the father of the dead girl. He wants Carey to look into the death. Atterbury does not believe his daughter would kill herself. Weston tells him how Hines was upset about the break up with Nelson. He thinks Nelson did her in to keep her quiet.

Carey agrees to have a look into the matter. He pays Police Lt. William Schallert a call to get the Police point of view. Schallert tells Carey it plays like a suicide.

Carey then pays Nelson a visit at his office. Nelson says Hines was a crazy kid with a crush on him. Nelson's secretary, Maxine Cooper, gives Nelson an alibi for the night Hines died. Carey also has a word with Nelson's wife, who gives a diff alibi for Nelson. Why the two diff alibi Carey wonders? Carey knows something is rotten here and tells Atterbury the same. Atterbury gets a court order and has the Police exhume his daughter. He wants them to look for signs of possible foul play. Up the coffin comes, but there is no body inside. Nelson is of course the prime suspect, so Carey and Schallert pay him a visit.

What they find, is Nelson dead, a pistol in his hand and a rather large hole in his head. Wife Jones-Moreland says she was sleeping and never heard a thing. Now Carey grills Atterbury. Did he seek revenge on Nelson because of his daughter's death? Atterbury is soon cleared and Carey is left with out a suspect.

Or is he? He looks at Schallert and then hustles him back to the grave-site. Up comes the dirt again and this time they find Hines' corpse. They then put the grab on Weston and drag him to the station for a bit of the old third degree.

Weston quickly folds and admits it was he who dug up Hines. He was in love with Hines and was annoyed that she loved Nelson. He did not kill her but was sure that Nelson had. He removed the body because he knew Nelson would be blamed. He had replaced the body after hearing about Nelson being found dead.

Next day the coroner delivers his results on Hines. It was a suicide with no sign of foul play. That settles that, but then why did Nelson kill himself? Carey does a little digging and discovers that Nelson had left a fairly large insurance policy. Carey pays Jones-Moreland a visit and finds her exchanging spit with Dean Harens. It seems the two had been stepping out together at the same time as Nelson was doing the horizontal cha-cha with Hines.

It all comes clear to Carey now. It was Jones-Moreland who had bumped off her dear husband. She figured the Police would believe Nelson was guilty of killing Hines. The perfect frame had been presented to Jones-Moreland. She had even gave Carey a phony alibi to throw suspicion onto Nelson. She gets rid of Nelson, gets the insurance and her lover.

Harens takes a poke at Carey and is flattened by a right cross for his troubles. Jones-Moreland shrugs and goes quietly as Carey escorts her to a date with the law.

A quick and to the point half-hour show. The 6 foot 4 Carey makes for a most menacing Marlowe.

Phil Carey's films include, I WAS A COMMIE FOR THE FBI, THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS, PUSHOVER and SHADOW ON THE WINDOW. Nelson was in CRIMEWAVE.

The still working Schallert, had bits in, DOWN 3 DARK STREETS, LONELY HEART BANDITS, BLACK TUESDAY, CRY TERROR, THE TATTERED DRESS and several others. Maxine Cooper, was of course, Velda in KISS ME DEADLY.

The director of this episode was veteran character actor, Paul Stewart. Stewart directed 40 plus television episodes. These include ones from, M-SQUAD, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, PETER GUNN, HAWAIIAN EYE as well as MICHAEL SHAYNE.

The d of p was veteran TV man, William Margulies. His film work includes, CRIME AGAINST JOE, HOT CARS and REVOLT IN THE BIG HOUSE.
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