Hitchcock liked to interject a moral or lesson into his stories, and this episode is a good example. William Callew (Joseph Cotten) is a callous businessman who in the opening scene, fires an employee over the phone, and proceeds to chastise the man for getting so emotional over it. His friend Ed (Raymond Bailey) tries to point out how the man must be feeling, but the advice is disregarded. Thereafter, on the way home, a serious automobile accident pins Callew behind the steering wheel of his car, and for all intents and purposes, leaves him paralyzed. The remainder of the segment offers Callew's thoughts and observations as first, a trio of convicts loot his car, and a subsequent pair at least have the humanity to free him from the vehicle's restraints. When finally rescued by authorities, he's brought to the city morgue where the inevitable awaits, unless he can show some signs of life in his paralyzed body. I don't think you can equate William Callew's reaction quite as obviously to the man he fired, for whom other options would have remained. Breaking down in tears would have been almost an involuntary reaction to the prospect of being buried alive, and Cotten's character sells it well. It remains doubtful however as the story ends, that Callew would ever escape his rigid immobility, thereby condemning him to a fate perhaps, worse than death.
Review of Breakdown
