I can't say that it's a personal favorite, but this is definitely one of the better written hour-long episodes of the Hitchcock series. It takes an interesting turn after our attention is diverted from the idea that Robbie Cory (Rees Vaughn) embezzled two hundred thousand dollars from his family run bank. After going missing briefly, Robbie returns to confront his stepfather Ralph Manson (Michael Rennie) about the stolen money, with evidence that points directly to Manson as the thief. I will say that the scene in which Ralph accidentally chokes Robbie to death didn't seem very credible, in as much as Robbie didn't defend himself aggressively at all; the younger man should have offered some kind of resistance with his adrenaline pumped up. Be that as it may, the panicking Ralph Manson formulated a suicide scenario complete with a statement implicating Robbie in the theft of the money from the bank. When he's suddenly caught in the act by wife Nora (Phyllis Thaxter), the poor woman falls down the stairs and into a state of paralysis that leaves her mind fuzzy about the events that just took place.
Compared to the stoic roles Michael Rennie usually portrays, his demeanor in this story is pretty frantic, ever keeping an eye on his wife recuperating in bed, but with the intention of doing her in before she regains consciousness to implicate him in his crimes. He might have gotten away with it too, if not for the alert manner of home aide nurse Jean Dekker (Natalie Trundy), whose bedside manner included an almost telepathic-like link with her patient. Nora's shock at what her husband was about to do caused her to scream out in fright, thereby bringing son George (Jim McMullan) and nurse Dekker to the rescue.
Rather surprising for this viewer were the undisguised Hitchcock's (you'll have to see him) comments following the story. For once he made no reference to the expected arrest and punishment of Ralph Manson after the story was over. In this case it would have been rather obvious to the viewer, and there was no need to elaborate on it.
Compared to the stoic roles Michael Rennie usually portrays, his demeanor in this story is pretty frantic, ever keeping an eye on his wife recuperating in bed, but with the intention of doing her in before she regains consciousness to implicate him in his crimes. He might have gotten away with it too, if not for the alert manner of home aide nurse Jean Dekker (Natalie Trundy), whose bedside manner included an almost telepathic-like link with her patient. Nora's shock at what her husband was about to do caused her to scream out in fright, thereby bringing son George (Jim McMullan) and nurse Dekker to the rescue.
Rather surprising for this viewer were the undisguised Hitchcock's (you'll have to see him) comments following the story. For once he made no reference to the expected arrest and punishment of Ralph Manson after the story was over. In this case it would have been rather obvious to the viewer, and there was no need to elaborate on it.