Episode
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Thanatos Palace Hotel
Overview
After Robert Manner's attempt to kill himself is ruined by a fireman's net, he is invited to join a suicide club headquartered at the Thanatos Palace Hotel. The members of the club have agreed to kill each. The catach is that the victim never knows who the killer will be and never knows when the murder will occur. Robert joins the club, but falls in love with one of its members Ariane Shaw. He gets a new lease on life and decides to undermine the club in order to prevent his own death.
Details
- Series
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
- Season
- Season 3
- Episode
- Episode 15
- Air date
- 1965-02-01
- Runtime
- 51 min
Episode context
Thanatos Palace Hotel is Episode 15 in Season 3 of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. It aired on 1965-02-01. The runtime is 51 min.
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Episode 14: The Final Performance
Cliff Allen is a television writer who is on way to Hollywood. On the way, he picks up a pretty hitchhiker named Rosie. As he is driving, Cliff is stopped by the police and Rosie accuses him of kidnapping her. Cliff denies everything, but the police make him go into town. On the way to town, Cliff's car breaks down and he is forced to stay over night in a run down hotel run by a washed-up vaudeville actor named Rudolph Bitzner who dreams of a comeback. At the motel, Cliff runs into Rosie who, not only works at the motel, but also is part of Rudolph's act. He apologizes for what she did and tells him that she only did it to get away from Rudolph who is planning to marry her. She tells Cliff that she still wants to leave and asks him to take her. He agrees and when his car is fixed he heads over to Rosie's. There he finds Rudolph who tells him that Rosie changed her mind. After cliff insists on hearing this from Rosie herself, Rudolph takes him to his rehearsal hall where Rosie sits wait
Episode 16: One of the Family
Dexter Dailey and his wife Joyce hire a German nursemaid named Frieda to take care of their newborn infant. Dexter treats Frieda like one of the family, because long ago she was his nursemaid when he was a child. Joyce, however, doesn't feel the same way. She becomes worried when she hears about a nurse who is wanted for a child killing in San Francisco. When she calls the murdered baby's aunt she discovers that Frieda may be the baby killer and that her child may be the next victim.
More episodes from this season
Episode 13: Where the Woodbine Twineth
Nell Snyder has been taking care of her orphaned neice and has been growing more and more concerned over her neice's behavior. Her neice continually blames all the trouble she causes on an imaginary friend named Mr. Peppercorn. When the girl's grandfather Captain King Snyder gives her a Creole voodoo doll, Nell grows more and more worried. Her nieces says the doll came from Mr. Peppercorn. She names it Numa and treats as if it were a real person. Eventually, Nell becomes convinced that the doll is real and that it is trying to take her neice's soul. She follows her neice and Numa into the forest. There she frightens her away, not realizing that the switch has already occurred. She later sees the doll and discovers that it bears her neice's face.
Episode 17: An Unlocked Window
Glendon Baker is an invalid who is being taken care of by a nurse named Stella Crosson. Stella is pleased when another nurse named Betty Ames arrives to assist her in the work. The only other people in the house are a house keeper named Maude and her handyman husband Sam. Stella becomes worried when she hears that a nurse killer is in the area. She grows more uneasy when the lights go out. When a patient's oxygen begins to run low, Stella sends the handyman out to get some. Growing paranoid, Stella locks all the windows in the house but neglects to lock the one in the basement. Later, Stella sees a man outside and panics when there is knocking at the door. She fails to notice that it is the handyman trying to get back in. She heads for the phone, but stops and heads into the lounge to help Nurse Ames who has been apparently attacked. Once in the lounge, however, Nurse Ames attacks her.
Episode 12: The Crimson Witness
Ernest Mullett is a playboy who loses his job, his wife, and his girlfriend to his hated overachieving brother Farnum Mullett. Ernest's hatred turns to murder when he decides to reenact the biblical story of Cain and Abel.
Episode 18: The Trap
Peg is bored with her marriage to Ted Beal, a wealthy toy manufacturer. She decides to have an affair with his young assistant John. She tells her lover to kill her husband. When John drags his feet on the murders, she decides to take matter into her own hands. She commits her crime and discovers that she was only being toyed with.
Episode 11: Consider Her Ways
Dr. Jane Waterleigh participates in an experiment in projected perception when she takes an experimental drug. She envision a futuristic society run by women. In this society all men have gone extinct because of a genetic accident caused by her associate Dr. Hillyer. After regaining consciousness, Dr. Waterleigh attempts to alter the future by killing Dr. Hillyer before he can progress further in his dangerous experiments. Her efforts prove futile, however, when Dr. Hillyer's son becomes determined to carry out his father's work.
Episode 19: Wally the Beard
Walter Mills is shocked when his fiancee dumps him. When she tells him he is too dull, Walter decides to change his image. He buys a wig and a beard and pretends to be Philip Marshall. As Philip he meets Noreen Kimberly. He promises to teach her how to sail. Noreen's boyfriend Curly, however, becomes angry and does some digging. He finds out that Philip is really Walter and he threatens to tell Noreen unless Walter hides some stolen jewels for him. Walter accepts and hides the jewels in sack inside his boat. Feeling guilty, Walter tells Noreen everything. She tells him that she really is in love with him. Noreen tells Walter to get rid of the jewels. As he heads to the boat the police arrive. They open the sack and find the remains of Noreen's husband. The police inform Walter that they were tipped off by Noreen and Curly. Walter realizes that it was all a set up as he is being taken away by the police.
Episode 10: Memo from Purgatory
Jay Shaw is a young writer interested in writing a book on juvenile delinquency. He changes his identity and infiltrates a particularly violent gang named "The Barons". He manages to get the trust of Tiger the leader of the gang but trouble arises, when Filene, Tiger's girl friend, falls in love with him. Filene's love, however, is not the only source of tension. Other gang members grow jealous of Jay's growing power within the gang. When gang members break into his room and find his notes, they tell Tiger that Jay's an undercover cop. Jay is sentenced to death by Tiger and the gang. He manages to get away, but in the process Filene is killed. The murder is witnessed and Tiger and the rest of the gang are hauled off to jail.
Episode 20: Death Scene
Leo Manfred is an ambitious car mechanic who is fixing the limousine of a once famous movie director named Gavin Revere. Leo ingratiates himself to Gavin's daughter Nicky and the two are soon engaged to be married. Gavin is suspicious of Leo. He insists that he take out a life insurance policy naming Nicky as the beneficiary. Leo does so, and the two prepare to gte married. On the eve of the wedding, Leo insults Gavin by panning his famous silent film Death Scene. Gavin threatens to cancel the wedding. Leo responds by planning murder. He manipulates Gavin and Nicky to the edge of a cliff. Nicky, however, turns the tables and tosses Leo over the edge. Nicky removes her make-up and reveas herself to be Gavin's actress wife. She and Gavin manipulated Leo so that the couple could get their hands on his insurance money.
Episode 9: Triumph
Brother Thomas Fitzgibbon is a bumbling medical missionary that is living in India with his scheming wife Mary. When a new missionary Brother John Sprague and his wife Lucy arrive and disturb Mary's ambitious plans for her husband, she decides to kill them in order to protect her family's future.
Episode 21: The Photographer and the Undertaker
Arthur Mannix is a photographer and Hiram Price is an undertaker. Both hide behind their respective professors to conceal another profession: hired killer. Each man has the same boss who gives each an order to eliminate the other.