"The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" A Matter of Murder (1964)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

David Lowell Rich

Writer:

Boris Sobelman (writer)

TV Series:

"The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (1962)

Original Air Date:

3 April 1964 (Season 2, Episode 23)

Genre:

Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

A notorious but ethical auto thief and his gang steal a Rolls-Royce, unaware that the trunk contains the body of a murdered who's been murdered by her husband. |

Plot Keywords:

Male Female Relationship | Character Name In Title

Cast

Alfred Hitchcock	...	Himself - Host
Darren McGavin	...	Sheridan Westcott
Pat Crowley	...	Enid Bentley (as Patricia Crowley)
Telly Savalas	...	Philadelphia Harry
Patrick McVey	...	Police Lieutenant
Howard Wendell	...	Mr. Flagstone
Than Wyenn	...	General Delivery
Lewis Charles	...	Lopez
Jordan Grant	...	Al
Paul Potash	...	Vinnie
Tyler McVey	...	Police Chief
Marc Rambeau	...	Weldon
Cal Bartlett	...	Harv (as Calvin Bartlett)

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Shamley Productions

Trivia:

The Westcott's address is 1600 Riverside Drive.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): After the car is painted, it is driven before it has time for the paint to dry.

The Silver Rolls-Royce

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

An antiphonal joke, in which a body is batted back and forth by two opponents in a game of sorts, with only one result ultimately sought by both.

A man kills his wealthy wife in favor of her niece. The body, wrapped in plastic sheeting and bound with heavy chains, is in the back of his Rolls-Royce stolen by Philadelphia Harry's gang. The heat's on, they can't put it back where they found it or ship it to Mexico as usual. They put it back in the man's garage. The man and the niece write a ransom note, paint the car silver and leave it at Lookout Point, where the gang steals it again.

The man goes through the charade of paying ransom to the gang in a park, but waits in vain. The silver Rolls has to be shipped to Mexico now, even at cost.

The police are onto the murder, figuring from the evidence that the body's in the man's cellar or in the lake. A search of the house is fruitless, taunted they plan to drag the lake.

The Rolls was taken at first while the man was on a pier testing the depth of the lake. Harry realizes the man's original intention, reasons that they came too soon, ten minutes later the body would have been sunk. That's their new alibi, to bolster it they plan to dump the body in the lake from the pier. The ending is left to the viewer's imagination.