Who Needs an Enemy?
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

A variant of The Trouble with Harry in which the peripatetic corpse is alive and well in the form of an embezzler whose partner has, regrettably, not an ounce of consideration for him after so many years together, it’s the police and thirty or forty years in prison.

The embezzler hides the bulk of his fortune and throws a dummy off the pier with a weight tied to its feet and a time bomb. “He blew himself up,” says a would-be rescuer after the body sinks, followed by a whoosh of water. The by-standing embezzler replies, “Sump’n, huh?” A suicide note carefully attached to the railing tells the tale.

A touching funeral attended by his girlfriend, who’s in on the plot, and a puzzled police inquiry consume the time until the money can be retrieved from the office filing cabinet, under “M”. A celebratory drink from his partner’s desk knocks the culprit out, he wakes up bound and gagged while his partner and girlfriend discuss their plans.

He’s dumped off the pier like his dummy.

Morgan’s direction is a comic masterpiece, especially in the handling of his difficult special effects.

The World’s Oldest Motive
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

The names are very elegant. Alex Morrow, who dreams of his young mistress. His wife, Angela. The mistress, Fiona McNiece.

Angela is a monster who has outstripped her husband and every night puts her kitchen in a blender to make eggnog, which she drinks wearing “curlers and a quilted robe”. He won’t divorce because of his hundred-thousand-dollar stamp collection, lest it split with her.

Morgan’s direction gets to the heart of the comedy with sharp playing by the leads shading off into the normalcy of his sets, to prepare the real surprise. Morrow is conned out of a small fortune and left with eggnog.

Statistical Assistance is the name of the company that boosts his natural chance. The quality of the writing adds nothing to the images. The method ought to be the faulty socket making the plug too hot for Angela’s touch, but no. In “modern business”, sales training exceeds engineering. Her vitamin pills get the dose.