Alibi Me
Alfred Hitchcock Presents

A man needs an alibi for the murder of his business rival, a childhood enemy whose killer will be instantly known to Lt. Larkin of the police, a longtime acquaintance. The Italian uncle is asked, a restaurateur full of bonhomie and family feeling, but he wants no trouble. Goldie’s glad to have him back in her arms, until she finds a showgirl’s signed picture in his pocket. An old mobster in his hospital bed has done favors for thirty years but dies ringing for the nurse to corroborate. Finally the landlady is blackmailed, her daughter once tried to steal a fur coat.

Lt. Larkin is fooled, but a messenger boy delivering a package spills the beans after receiving no tip, he’s been up and down those stairs all day, nobody was home. It’s from the victim, a foot-wide lollipop, “to the biggest sucker in town”.

The construction of this eloquent little joke is exceptionally sturdy to accentuate the slender reed of its punchline.

Conversation Over A Corpse
Alfred Hitchcock Presents

The way things go in a real estate swindle, everyone gets sorted out at length.

Hitchcock on the science of cuisine.

Not the only homage to Capra’s inestimable Arsenic and Old Lace in this series.

The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater
Alfred Hitchcock Presents

A girl on a South Seas isle, for one, and his bloody wife dead, and him killing her, at last.

Hitchcock on the couch, asleep.