Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season #3

A plumber who blackmails housewives over false claims of having affairs, meets one who has some ideas about stopping him and maybe getting restitution for all his victims. A plumber is blackmailing several suburban housewives. When he confronts his latest victim, Margot Brenner, he runs into a dead end. She catches onto his scam and uses his own method to bring him down. Margot Brenner is a happily married housewife whose husband frequently is away on business trips. When she discovers a leak downstairs in the basement, her husband asks her to call the plumber, but to get an estimate first. The next day, Jack Staley arrives at Margot’s home. Jack comes across as overly familiar, making remarks about her husband’s income and other inappropriate comments. Margot is taken off guard but doesn’t say much. She follows him upstairs to inquire why he needs to be there when the leak is in the basement. Jack comments on items in her bedroom and a painting that she did and even picks up one of her nightgowns. Two hours later, Jack is about to leave and tells Margot that the repair will cost her $500. Shocked, Margot discovers that this is actually a blackmail scheme, in which Jack intends to claim a lawsuit against her for a fake injury on the job. In court, he will also say how she seduced him – the knowledge of the painting in her bedroom, the nightie and the fact that he took the phone off the hook while her friends tried to call will count against her – unless she pays up the five hundred dollars. Trying to bring in a police officer to overhear Jack’s scheme the next morning backfires, as Jack pretends that he’s never bribed Margot. Margot is faced with one solution: When Jack arrives to collect on his blackmail, all the other ladies in the neighborhood are sitting there. Margot begins to dial the police, but Jack stops her, reluctant but forced to meet their demands. Their wish list includes all the expensive repairs necessary in each of their houses.

💎💎EPISODE #12: MISS PAISLEY’S CAT💎💎- An elderly woman’s beloved alley cat is killed by the local bookie and she gets the strong urge to murder him. Miss Paisley adopts a stray cat. She names him Stanley. Stanley sneaks into the room of the violent tempered Mr. Rinditch. He tells Miss Paisley to keep the cat out of his room, but she fails. The cat sneaks into his apartment and Rinditch kills it. When Miss Paisley finds out, she grabs a knife to kill Rinditch, but she has second thoughts. She sits down and falls asleep. In the morning she wakes up wearing different clothes. The knife is also missing. She discovers that Rinditch has been stabbed to death and that a janitor has been charged with the crime. She is convinced she is the murderer, but the police don’t believe her. Miss Paisley adopts a stray cat. She names him Stanley. Stanley sneaks into the room of the violent-tempered Mr. Rinditch. He tells Miss Paisley to keep the cat out of his room, but she fails. The cat sneaks into his apartment and Rinditch kills it. When Miss Paisley finds out, she grabs a knife to kill Rinditch, but she has second thoughts. She sits down and falls asleep. In the morning she wakes up wearing different clothes. The knife is also missing. She discovers that Rinditch has been stabbed to death and that a Jenkins, the janitor, has been charged with the crime. She is convinced she is the murderer, but the police don’t believe her. The landlord, Jenkins, is later convicted and executed. Miss Paisley then discovers Stanley’s collar six months later. She remembers the murder. She did kill Rinditch and threw her bloodstained clothes and knife into a river. She now does the same thing with Stanley’s collar so that no one can trace the crime to her. The killing of a cat causes a violent chain reaction.

💎💎 EPISODE #13: NIGHT OF EXECUTION💎💎- A desperate Deputy D.A. who gets a murder conviction against a man for killing his wife, is confronted by another man who claims he committed the crime. D.A. Warren Selvey learns that he’s on bad political ground because of his low conviction rate. He decides to vigorously prosecute a man named Rodman. He wins the murder case and Rodman is sentenced to die. After the sentence, however, Selvey meets a man named Barnes who claims to have committed the crimes. Selvey is now being considered a candidate for Congress. Fearing the repercussions of having convicted an innocent man, Selvey frightens Barnes into silence. The night Rodman is to be executed, Barnes shows up and urges Selvey to call the Governor. Selvey refuses and in an ensuing struggle Barnes is killed. Selvey’s political ambitions are ruined. Days later, Selvey learns that Barnes was a fake. He was a crazy retired judge who would study the evidence of a case and then confess to the crime. A tramp confesses a crime he has committed. Unfortunately, the D.A. already has prosecuted another man for the same crime. D.A. Warren Selvey learns that he’s on bad political ground because of his low conviction rate. He decides to vigorously prosecute a man named Rodman. He wins the murder case and Rodman is sentenced to die. After the sentence, however, Selvey meets a man named Barnes who claims to have committed the crime. Selvey is now being considered a candidate for Congress. Fearing the repercussions of having convicted an innocent man, Selvey frightens Barnes into silence. The night Rodman is to be executed Barnes shows up and urges Selvey to call the Governor. Selvey refuses and in an ensuing struggle, Barnes is killed. Selvey’s wife and father-in-law recognizes Barnes as a man who pathologically studies cases and then confesses to being the perpetrator.

💎💎 EPISODE #14: THE PERCENTAGE💎💎- Eddie Slovak meets an old Army buddy named Pete who once saved his life. He intends to repay his friend. He offers him money for a business, but Peter refuses. Eddie tries to talk to Pete’s wife Louise. Louise falls for Eddie and the two become romantically involved. Eddie eventually kills her. Later he explains to Pete that he did him a favor since she was cheating on him. Pete calls the police and Eddie is arrested. Pete goes to see Eddie’s girlfriend and explains that their plan worked. Louise is dead and Eddie is out of the way. Now, the two of them can be together. A Korean War Veteran tries to hide his cowardice using bribery. Eddie Slovak reconnects with an old Army buddy named Pete who once saved his hide – and who carries the secret with him that Eddie was a coward. Eddie wants to pay his friend in order to “even the percentage”. He offers him money for a business, but Pete flatly refuses. After much pestering, Pete finally agrees to let Eddie take him and his wife out of town, wining and dining. While they’re out, Eddie tries to talk Pete’s wife Louise into getting Eddie to accept money. Louise falls for Eddie and asks him to come over to her place while Pete’s gone, claiming she has a new idea on how to get her husband to accept Eddie’s money. When Louise admits that she lied to get him to come over, the unstable Eddie strangles her. Neighbors hear the ruckus and Pete barges in. Eddie explains that he did him a favor since she was cheating on him. The police arrive and Eddie is arrested. Pete goes to see Eddie’s girlfriend and explained that Louise and Eddie are out of the way. Now, the two of them can be together.

💎💎 EPISODE #15: TOGETHER💎💎 – A husband gets locked in a secure office with the body of his beautiful young mistress, whom he has just murdered. At an office Christmas party Shelley calls Tony and tells him he must get a divorce and marry her. She threatens to tell his wife about her if he doesn’t. After the party, Tony comes to Shelley’s office. When she threatens him again, he stabs her. He tries to leave the office but discovers that the door is locked. He finds the keys but uses the wrong one and jams the door. He tries other ways, but they all fail. How will he get out? Eventually he hears some carolers outside on the streets below. He writes a note and using the keys to weigh it down, he drops it out a window. The keys prove to heavy and the note sinks into the snow. Tony then throws something at a window and police come to the scene. Trouble is Tony’s drunk friend shows up and discovers the girl’s body. A businessman gets locked up in an office with the person he has just murdered. At an office Christmas party, a woman named Shelly uses her boss’s office call up her married boyfriend Tony, who is hanging out with his buddy Charlie. She tells Tony he must get a divorce and marry her and threatens to tell his wife about her if he refuses. After the party, Tony comes to Shelly’s office, unwilling to make a break with Shelly for fear of losing his wife’s millions. When Shelly picks up the phone to call Tony’s wife, he fatally stabs her. He tries to leave the office but discovers that the door is locked. He finds the keys but uses the wrong one and breaks the key in the lock, jamming the door. Tony calls Charlie and asks him to hurry and get him out of the office, explaining that Shelly has passed out; however, Charlie is thoroughly inebriated and in his drunkenness leaves the phone off the hook and forgets Tony. This causes Tony to be locked in and also without phone access, as the line is still connected to Charlie’s. Meanwhile, Tony places the corpse of his murdered girlfriend into the adjoining bathroom’s shower. He is up too high off the ground to jump, but he notices an adjacent window in which a woman is getting dressed. He throws a snowball at her window and tries to telegraph the fact that needs a locksmith. The woman misunderstands him and calls the police. Seeing that the police are on their way, Tony cleans up all signs of Shelly’s struggle and also dons thick glasses to make himself look like Shelly’s boss, who’s photo is in the office. The police arrive and kick down the door and Tony is vastly relieved. They exit with Tony and are nearly out the door when Charlie bursts in, still drunk from the night before. In his intoxicated state, he mistakes his buddy for someone else, bursts past the police into the office and discovers Shelly’s body in the shower, exclaiming that she “isn’t passed out, she’s dead!”

💎💎 EPISODE #16: SYLVIA💎💎 – A man fears his mentally unstable daughter bought a gun to kill herself, but she’s planning to kill her ex-husband if he rejects her love. Sylvia is a young woman who we think is contemplating suicide. Her ex-husband, Peter, married her for money. When he forged a check, her father agreed not to prosecute if he divorced her. Now Sylvia is again in touch with Peter and wants him back. Peter calls her father and tells him that he will stay out of her life for a price. Sylvia’s father tells her about his blackmail scheme and she tells him that she bought a gun to use on Peter if they did not get back together. She goes to her room alone and is followed by her father, who is worried about her and tries to retrieve the gun. Sylvia is a young woman who is contemplating suicide. Her ex-husband Peter married her for money. When her father discovered this, he forced him to divorce her. Sylvia is in touch with Peter and wants him back. Peter calls her father and tells him that he will stay out of her life for a price. Sylvia’s father tells her about his blackmail scheme. She tells him that she bought a gun to use on Peter if they did not get back together. She goes to her room alone and is followed by her father who fears she might kill herself. When he comes in, she shoots him saying that he never let her live her own life. Sylvia will do anything to have her ex-husband back in her life.

💎💎 EPISODE #17: THE MOTIVE💎💎- A man who has a theory that murders committed without a motive are very rarely solved, is coaxed by his friend into killing someone. Tommy Greer is a crime buff who decides to commit a motiveless murder in order to confuse the police. He selects his victim from a phone book at random. He tracks him down and kills him but his “perfect crime” is unraveled by modern crime-fighting techniques. Tommy Greer is a crime buff who decides to commit a motiveless murder to prove a friend wrong. Richard is hanging out at his pal Tommy’s place with a woman named Sandra and the three are getting drunk. Richard is the drunkest of the three and he asks Tommy to show Sandra his latest hobby – tracking murders. Tommy and Richard get into a discussion about motiveless murders and how the police can never solve a murder that doesn’t have a motive. This in turn leads Richard to egg on Tommy about the fact that Tommy can’t get over Mira, the girl Richard love but who jilted him for Tommy and who in turn left Tommy. Richard decides to punch a hole in Tommy’s latest “hobby” by saying that only the killers know whether or not their murders are truly motiveless. Tommy decides to prove his buddy wrong by committing a crime himself to see whether the police can find him. The two go downstairs to the lobby of the building and Richard picks up a phonebook out of the stash that are there. He opens it up, closes his eyes and points to a name. It is Jerome Stanton and that will be Tommy’s victim, they decide. Tommy talks about the plan the next day to Richard, who claims he remembers nothing from the night before. Tommy is eager to carry out his theory and disguises himself as a marketer doing research in order to gain access to his victim. He flies to Chicago, finds the address and discovers from the maid when Stanton will be home. He gets an appointment with the trusting Stanton, who is quite friendly and welcomes him into his home. Tommy proceeds as opportunity arises to deliver a blow with a hammer to the back of Stanton’s vertebrae, killing him. The next day, a smug Tommy prepares to have breakfast in his Penthouse and Richard comes to see him. Richard claims not to have heard the news about Stanton’s murder, but Tommy opens up the paper and reads “Dateline: Chicago” about the murder of Jerome Stanton – late husband of a woman named Mira. She is the same Mira who left both men and Tommy realizes in horror that Richard did not pick Jerome as a victim at random. He knew exactly what he was setting up his friend to do and as Tommy questions whether Richard was even drunk that night, the police come to the door to take Tommy to prison.