User Reviews

This is an episode from G.E. Theater. This anthology series ran for 300 episodes between 1953 and 1962 This episode stars, Joan Crawford, John McIntire, Tom Tyron and Sidney Blackmer.

Crawford is unhappily married to wealthy lawyer McIntire. She has had a string of lovers with Tom Tyron being the latest. The two are at Crawford's place doing a bit of couch wrestling and discussing how to get rid of her hubby.

McIntire comes home early, sees the lipstick on Tyron and realizes what he has interrupted. Crawford demands a divorce. McIntire laughs and says to Tyron, "You are not the first one, or even the second man she has had. You could not afford her." Crawford yells at him to be quiet or she will kill him. McIntire laughs again.

Tyron pulls a gun and fires. A startled looking McIntire collapses to the floor, dead.

Crawford looks at Tyron and starts to cry. Tyron grabs her and gives her a shake. "It is what we had talked about!" Growls Tyron. "We wait till dark and drive the body out into the hills. On Monday morning you call the Police and tell them he is late from an out of town business trip." The doorbell rings. Crawford looks out and sees Sidney Blackmer. Blackmer, is a friend of her husbands. He is also blind, Crawford tells Tyron. Best to let him in and find out what he wants.

Crawford brings Blackmer inside, then guides him past McIntire's body to a chair. She then pours him a whiskey. Tyron is standing silently off to the side. Blackmer wonders if he might have a word with McIntire. They had made an appointment earlier in the day to meet.

Crawford tells Blackmer that her husband had been called out of town on urgent business. He must have forgotten to cancel their meeting. Blackmer asks for another drink before he leaves. Crawford pours Blackmer another whiskey and calls him a taxi.

She bundles Blackmer out to the cab and then locks the front door in relief. Crawford and Tyron relax and go over her story for the Police again.

Ten minutes later the phone rings. Crawford, answers, it is Blackmer. He would like Crawford to know something about the meeting McIntire and himself were to have. He was going to pay back some money McIntire had lent him for a medical procedure. An operation to restore his sight, and it was a successful operation.

Blackmer is calling from the Police station. The Police are on their way. Crawford slowly sets the phone down and whispers to Tyron. "He could see, he could see," as the screen fades to black.

This is a real crackerjack of an episode.

The director was vet television helmsman, Herschel Daugherty. He directed 100's of episodes between 1952 and 75. These included episodes of, CITY DETECTIVE, SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE, WESTINGHOUSE STUDIO ONE, STATE TROOPER, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, LARAMIE, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, MAN FROM UNCLE, HAWAII 5-O and POLICE WOMAN.

The d of p was Crawford regular, Charles B. Lang. He worked with Crawford on QUEEN BEE, WOMAN ON THE BEACH, AUTUMN LEAVES and SUDDEN FEAR. His other work includes, DESERT FURY, ROPE OF SAND, ACE IN THE HOLE, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, SOME LIKE IT HOT, and of course, THE BIG HEAT. (b/w)

You'd think that this "General Electric Theater" episode was part of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" by the way that within a half an hour presents its conflict, its protagonist and antagonist, and wraps up everything with a psychological explosion. Joan Crawford is an unhappy wife, wanting to end her disaster of a marriage to John McIntire and run off with her lover, their friend, the much younger Tom Tryon. It doesn't take long before a gunshot ends McIntire's determination to stop them, but the arrival of the blind Sidney Blackmer puts a delay on their getting rid of the body. More conflict arrives with Tryon indicating that he has blackmail in mind, but a last minute phonecall has Crawford in hysterics, nearly laughing over the irony. Crawford and Blackmer have a delicious cat and mouse like conversation with Tryon trying desperately to remain undetectable. It's a thrilling half an hour of clever dialog and plot twists that will make you wish that Crawford had joined fellow veterans Loretta Young and Barbara Stanwyck by having her own anthology series.