"Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
A Bullet for Baldwin (1956)

Director:

Jus Addiss

Writers:

Eustace Cockrell (teleplay) and
Francis M. Cockrell (teleplay) ...

TV Series:

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955)

Original Air Date:

1 January 1956 (Season 1, Episode 14)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

When an office worker is fired from his job, he shoots his boss to death, but when he returns to the office his boss is alive, and has no recollection of the incident.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Impersonation | Gun | Discharged From Job | Document

Cast

John Qualen	...	Mr. Stepp
Sebastian Cabot	...	Nathaniel Baldwin / Mr. Davidson
Phillip Reed	...	Walter King (as Philip Reed)
Ruth Lee	...	Neighbor
Cheryll Clarke
James Adamson	...	Janitor
Don Mcart	...	Albert (as Don McArt)
Kate Drain Lawson	...	Landlady
Robert Patten	...	Detective (as Bob Patten)
David Dwight	...	Fireman
Arthur D. Gilmour	...	Neighbor (as Arthur Gilmour)

Runtime:

USA:30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Company:

Shamley Productions

Quotes:

[showing a gun]
Alfred Hitchcock: It is an amazingly simple device. An idiot can operate it, and indeed, many do.

A Cleverly Written Story

This episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" features a cleverly written story that makes it pretty interesting to watch. It also gives character actor John Qualen a chance to play a starring role, in a part that fits his talents well. This is a good example of the kind of story that works by putting you in the position of the main character as he tries to figure out a baffling situation.

The story starts with Qualen, as a timid office worker, impulsively gunning down his boss after getting fired. But when he returns to his office, the boss seems to be alive and well, with no recollection of any part of their confrontation. Things get even more inexplicable from there, and the story is written carefully so that the viewer knows only what Qualen's character himself knows.

Qualen is a good choice for the part, since he often played this kind of downtrodden but sympathetic character, here adding a believable dose of bewilderment as things get stranger. Sebastian Cabot and Philip Reed head up the supporting cast.

The story is resolved neatly, and there is a morbidly witty parallel between the beginning and the ending that certainly would have pleased Hitchcock himself. A fair amount of exposition is needed at times, but the script (which two of the show's regular writers adapted from a story by Joseph Ruscoll) handles it rather well, keeping things from bogging down as they can do in such scenes. While this episode may not have quite as much depth to it as the best episodes of the series had, it's an entertaining mystery that also represents a skillful adaptation of its story to the anthology show's format.