Episode
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The World's Oldest Motive
Overview
Alex Marrow wishes to get rid of his wife Angela so that he can marry a beautiful young model Fiona McNiece. Alex, however, does not want a divorce because he does not want his wife to get her hands on his valuable stamp collection. He hires a hitman named Richard Schustak to kill his wife. Richard sets up Angela to die in an accident in her home. Alex, however, has second thoughts. He tells Richard to call the whole thing off. Richard will only do so for more money. Alex hands over the cash and Richard skips town with Fiona who is actually his girlfriend. It was all a con and Alex was the patsy.
Details
- Series
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
- Season
- Season 3
- Episode
- Episode 25
- Air date
- 1965-04-12
- Runtime
- 51 min
Episode context
The World's Oldest Motive is Episode 25 in Season 3 of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. It aired on 1965-04-12. The runtime is 51 min.
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Episode 24: Power of Attorney
James Jarvis is a con man that is posing as a expert in the stock market. Things begin to look good for James when he gets in good with the wealthy Mary Crawford and her friend Agatha. He begins to control all of Mary's money and claims that he lost it all in bad investments. When she hears the news, Mary is shocked and commits suicide. Agatha, however, wants revenge. She conceals any evidence of suicide and invites James over. She gets James's figerprints on the suicide weapon and locks him in the room with Mary's body. She, then, calls the police and tells them that James killed Mary. When James's is killed in a shootout with police, Agatha gets her revenge.
Episode 26: The Monkey's Paw - A Retelling
Paul and Anne White visit the Bahamas when their son Howard is scheduled to race in the local Grand Prix. Before the race a Gypsy woman gives Paul a moneky's paw whcih according to legend can grant its bearer three wishes. Paul is desperate for money and makes a wish for money. Unfortunately, he gets the money in the form of a insurance settlement when his son is killed in a fiery crash during the race. Anne is struck with grief and forces Paul to wish his son back to life. Paul does so, but soon regrets it when he realizes what condition his son will be in. He uses the third wish to send his son back to his grave.
More episodes from this season
Episode 23: Completely Foolproof
Joe Brisson is a crooked land developer who is shocked when his wife Lisa informs him that she wants a divorce. Lisa tells him that she wants three-fourths of his extensive holdings or she will go to the police with evidence of his shady land deals. Joe refuses to pay and convinces his wife's boyfriend, Bobby Davenport, to kill her in return for the cancellation of a large debt. Joe heads off to Europe on a cruise ship. Before leaving he tells Bobby that he will call Lisa from the ship at a certain time. When Lisa goes to answer the phone, Bobby will kill her. Everything goes according to plan, but when Joe is hanging up the phone a man enters his cabin. He shoots and kills Joe after telling him that he was hired by Lisa.
Episode 27: The Second Wife
Martha Hunter is a mail order bride who has just moved into the rundown and not well-heated home of her new husband Luke. Martha is Luke's second wife and she becomes worried when she discovers that Luke's previous wife, who was also a mail order bride, died under mysterious circumstances on a vacation to Luke's relatives. Martha grows more fearful when she finds a offin like box and sees her husband digging in the cellar. When Luke suggests that they go one vacation she grows even more nervous. Prior to their departure, Luke insists that Martha go down to the cellar. Martha becomes terrified. She pulls a gun and kills Luke. After he is dead, she takes a look into the cellar and discovers that her husband installed a new furnace as a belated wedding gift.
Episode 22: Thou Still Unravished Bride
On a transatlantic cruise Sally Benner falls in love with a London policeman named Tommy Bonn. On the eve of their wedding, Sally gets cold feet and takes a walk in the London fog. Tommy grows worried because there has recently been a number of stranglings in London. He and his partner Stephen Leslie go looking for her. The find a man named Clarke and suspect that he is the strangler. Clarke tells them that he has just murdered a woman that matches Sally's descriptions. He tells them that he dumped the body into a river. Tommy returns to tells is family, but is shocked when he finds Sally alive and well. Sally tells him that the wedding is back on. Clarke, however, was the strangler and the body of his victim is dredged out of the water.
Episode 28: Night Fever
Jerry Walsh is a criminal cop killer who is hospitalized after a shootout with the police. He convinces a kind nurse named Ellen Hatch to help him escape. Ellen's true motives come to light when, however, when she leads Jerry to an escape route that leads to a dead end.
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.
Episode 29: Off Season
Johnny Kendall is a trigger-happy cop who is fired from the police and is forced to take a job checking vacant summer homes during the off-season. His girlfriend Sandy gets a job as a waitress to try to help them make ends meet. At work, Johnny discovers that the previous deputy was fired from the job for having an affair with an unidentified woman in one of the vacant summer homes. Later, when Johnny sees the ex-deputy hanging around Sandy he becomes jealous and paranoid. One night, when he believes the two are together, he takes his gun and begins to look for them. He heads for the empty summer houses and finds one broken into. Inside he hears the former deputy and a woman. He shoots them both in the dark and kills them. He turns on the lights and discovers that the woman was not Sandy, but the sheriff's wife.
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 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 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 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.