Episode
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Thirty First of February
Overview
Andrew Anderson is an advertising executive who discovers the body of his deadwife laying at the bottom of the basement stairs. An investigating detective named Sgt. Cresse believes Mr. Anderson is guilty of murder. He wants to trick him into making a confession by making Mr. Anderson believe that his wife is still alive and that she is having an affair with one of his fellow workers at the advertising agency. Eventually Mr. Anderson is proven innocent of murder, but Cresse's hounding has left him hopelessly insane.
Details
- Series
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 15
- Air date
- 1963-01-04
- Runtime
- 51 min
Episode context
The Thirty First of February is Episode 15 in Season 1 of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. It aired on 1963-01-04. The runtime is 51 min.
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Episode 14: The Tender Poisoner
Peter Harding is a corporate executive who tries to help save the sagging career of an associate named Philip Bartel. He hopes to get Bartel into one of the corporation's very popular training courses. Later, however, Harding discovers that Bartel is interested in leaving his wife Beatrice. He wants to run off with his mistress. Harding becomes intent on helping Bartel in his home life. He decides to do this by taking Bartel's mistress of his hands.
Episode 16: What Really Happened
Over the protests of his wife Eve, Howard Raydon fires Addie the family maid when her son breaks a valuable antique. Unwilling to leave, she poisons Howard's milk and kills him. An autopsy reveals the poison, but Eve is the chief suspect after she is fingered by Howard's mother. Believing that Eve's innocence will come out in trial, Addie remains silent about any wrong doing. Unfortunately, the prosecution reveals that Addie's 'son' is really Eve's son from a previous marriage. They claim that Eve killed her husband to prevent being seperated from the boy. As things begin to look worse for Eve, Addie confesses her guilt in a note and attempts suicide. Her suicide attempt is stopped in time and she is forced to stand trial.
More episodes from this season
Episode 13: Bonfire
Robert Evans is a revivalist preacher who is desperate for money to build his own church. He romances a rich woman named Naomi Freshwater and kills her. Some time later, Robert meets Naomi's neice Laura. He tries to romance her as well, but she is not interested. When Laura discovers that Robert killed her aunt, the preacher kills her and stuffs her body in a trunk. He drags the trunk to a pit and sets it on fire. Later, as Robert is delivering a sermon, it begins to rain. The rain puts out the fire and the contents of the burned trunk are revealed. Robert is promptly arrested and charged with murder.
Episode 17: Forecast: Low Clouds and Coastal Fog
Dan O'Herlihy (as Simon Carter) Inger Stevens (as Karen Wilson) Christopher Dark (as Manuel Sanchez) Chris Robinson (as Ricky) Richard Jaeckel (as Tom) One night when her husband is away, Karen Wilson is frightened when a man named Manuel Sanchez comes pounding on her door. He claims to be out of gas. Karen refuses to let him in and he must walk to a gas station. Later Karen hears a scream. She is told by the police that Sanchez's girlfriend who was waiting in the car was murdered while he was walking to the gas station. Karen suspects a neighboring writer named Simon Carter. The next evening Simon comes to Karen's home. She is rescued by her three surfing friends. Karen, however, is shocked to discover that her three friends are in fact the murderer's of Sanchez's girlfriend. They have her trapped, but she is rescued by Sanchez. He was returning to get even with her for contributing to the death of his girlfriend, but he manages to save her life instead.
Episode 12: Hangover
Hadley Purvis is an alcoholic advertising executive whose wife Sandra tells him that she will leave him if he takes another drink. Unfortunately, he drinks himself into a stupor. When he awakens he cannot remember anything that happened to him while he was drunk. He can't remember losing his job for being drunk during a presentation and he can't remember buying his wife a new scarf to prove that he had not been drinking. Ultimately, he discovers his wife's strangled body in his basement. Though he cannot remember, he realizes that, while he was drunk, he strangled her to death with the scarf he bought for her.
Episode 18: A Tangled Web
David Chesterman is a thief whose girlfriend Maria is cheating on him with his partner Carl Gault. Carl has fallen in love with Maria and plans to get rid of David. He tells David about the body of rich man who is loaded with jewelry. David goes to rob the corpse, but is discovered by a guard. Later, the guard is found dead by the police. David tells Maria that he is innovent, but he decides to hide out for a while and leaves Maria with Carl. Carl informs the police of David's location and he is arrested for murder. As David is about to be sentence Maria gets away from Carl by stabbing him. She heads to the court building convinced that David is innocent. In the court building she climbs out on a ledge and threatens to jump unless David is brought to her and is allowed to tell the truth about the entire robbery. David is brought to her, but he reveals that he did kill the guard. Knowing that he will go to prison, David begs her for forgiveness.
Episode 11: Ride the Nightmare
When three of his childhood pals break out of prison, Christopher Martin is in trouble. When he was younger, he and his pals committed a crime. All except Christopher were caught and sent to jail. Each of them vowed revenge. Christopher confesses his crime to his wife Helen though he fears she will leave him. Helen is shocked at first, but she agrees to help him proving that his fears were groundless. Together they foil the three prison escapees when they show up looking for revenge.
Episode 19: To Catch a Butterfly
Bill and Janet Nelson move into a new home next door to a family named Stander. Unfortunately, the Stander's son Eddie is a homicidal monster. Eddie kills the Nelson's dog and then runs a trip wire across the cellar stairs that almost causes Janet to break her neck. Bill knows that Eddie is responsible, but Eddie's father Jack Stander won't do anything. Jack controls the boy's life with an iron hand. It is later revealed that Eddie is not the source of the problems. Eddie, himself, is a victim of parental misunderstanding.
Episode 10: Day of Reckoning
Paul Sampson murders his wife Caroline and is relieved when the police rule her death and accident. His conscience gets the best of him, however, and he decides to confess the murder to his family and friends. Unfortunately, no one believes him. They think the stress of his wife's death has gotten to him. Later he tells another friend, who also happens to be a judge. The judge, however, knew all along. He was Caroline's lover. Knowing that Paul's conscience is killing him, the judge chooses to remain silent. When Paul continues in his attempts to confess, he is eventually committed by his family to a mental hospital.
Episode 20: The Paragon
Alice Pemberton is a busy-body housewife who injects herself into the personal lives of everyone she knows: friends, relatives, her husband's business associates. Unfortunately she fails to realize that her constant attempts to give advice are alienating everyone. Her husband John is patient. He tries to tell her that her annoying behavior will cost them the last few friends that they have left. She refuses to listen. So, John decides to poison her.
Episode 9: The Black Curtain
Phil Townsend suffers amnesia after he is mugged outside his drug store. All he remembers is that he is about to get married. A taxi driver takes him to his fiancée's house, but he discovers that she is already married and has been married for three years. Later, Townsend discovers that he has been living under the name David Webber for three years. He discovers that Webber was once the bodyguard of a rich criminal attorney and is suspected of murdering the attorney's wife. Townsend eventually manages to clear his name. Later, he checks into a hospital for treatment.
Episode 21: I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury
Laura Needham is murdered while vacationing in Mexico. Her husband Mark discovers that the police are holding as a suspect an American named Theodore Bond. Mark wants something to be done, but the police are helpless because they cannot prove their case. Mark decides to get the proof, but he is murdered by Bond instead. Mark's in-laws, Alex and Louise Trevor take it open themselves to bring Bond to justice. They set up a trap with Louise as bait and catch Bond attempting to committed murder.