Most Likely to Succeed
- Episode aired Mar 3, 1958
- 30m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
21
YOUR RATING
People keep dying around Steve, but they all happen to be people he knows.People keep dying around Steve, but they all happen to be people he knows.People keep dying around Steve, but they all happen to be people he knows.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaClosing credits: The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
- GoofsWhen Jack Lemmon hides in the climatic scene, all the long-shots show his face lit by the spotlights, but as the camera cuts back and forward, all the close-ups show his face unlit/
Featured review
The medium affects the message
Casting is right-on for this brief suspense story on "Alcoa Theatre", but the concise nature of the medium (with just 23 minutes to tell the tale) works against the piece's effectiveness. A full-length movie would have been far better.
Jack Lemmon brings his very familiar mannerisms to a role that fits like a glove: he plays a successful tv comedy writer who gets caught up in a murder investigation. Three of the men in his high school graduating class have been murdered, so the cops visit him to gain information as to who the probable killer might be.
Lemmon scoffs at the idea that someone is systematically killing off his graduating class, but when he checks his yearbook from 10 years back, he discovers that the three victims are shown on the first page together and that he would be #5, pictured first on the next page.
Lemmon whips into action against his wife's objections (she naturally asks him just to go back to the police) and tracks down the guy who would be #4 next in line, a TV actor played by King Donovan. The killer's identity is shown to the audience half way through the show, and there's an exciting climax to wrap it up.
Director Robert Florey is a veteran of suspense movies including "Beast with Five Fingers" and this should have been a mystery thriller with plenty of suspects and a full-fledged role for Lemmon's wife to play. Instead, it's set up and all over in a flash, fun but not filling.
Jack Lemmon brings his very familiar mannerisms to a role that fits like a glove: he plays a successful tv comedy writer who gets caught up in a murder investigation. Three of the men in his high school graduating class have been murdered, so the cops visit him to gain information as to who the probable killer might be.
Lemmon scoffs at the idea that someone is systematically killing off his graduating class, but when he checks his yearbook from 10 years back, he discovers that the three victims are shown on the first page together and that he would be #5, pictured first on the next page.
Lemmon whips into action against his wife's objections (she naturally asks him just to go back to the police) and tracks down the guy who would be #4 next in line, a TV actor played by King Donovan. The killer's identity is shown to the audience half way through the show, and there's an exciting climax to wrap it up.
Director Robert Florey is a veteran of suspense movies including "Beast with Five Fingers" and this should have been a mystery thriller with plenty of suspects and a full-fledged role for Lemmon's wife to play. Instead, it's set up and all over in a flash, fun but not filling.
helpful•11
- lor_
- Sep 23, 2023
Details
- Runtime30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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