Forty Detectives Later

Henry Slaser, senior writer for the EDGE OF NIGHT, frequent writer for Hitch, came up with this quirky little tale of revenge.

I agree with the last reviewer, the deal about a widower (George Mitchell) hiring some forty detectives to find the killer of his wife is fantastic in itself. However clever, his "arrangement" between the very last detective (James Franciscus) is intriguing... because you know its not going to go smoothly.

Mitchell plays Mr. Dean, who "thinks" he knows who the killer really is. Accordingly, he wants Tyre (Franciscus) to set the guy up so Dean could kill him. May remind you, just a bit, of the famous first episode (with Vera Miles) where a husband set out to kill the man who "supposedly" attacked his wife, but was he really guilty of the crime?

Yes, lots of "maybe's" though a heck of a lot of fun... Great to see Jack Weston (Otto) in any role, generally playing a guy in a tight spot. James Franciscus went onto play LONGSTREET, the famous blind detective and was the voice of JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL, the heroic bird.

Best part, watching the leads trying to figure out each other while we're trying to figure it out. That's the Hitch game.

SEASON 5 EPISODE 28 remastered Universal dvd box set. 16 hrs running time. All seven half hour episodes are now on dvd in a single box. Released 2022.

James Franciscus plays William Tyre, a private detective. Munro Dean enters his office and offers to hire him to find the man who killed his wife. Now all sorts of red flags soon appear. First, Dean claims to have used 40 detectives already to find the killer. Second, it's pretty obvious Dean plans to kill the man once he's found. Yet, oddly, Tyre agrees to check into the man who Dean thinks is the killer AND set him up to be killed. This really didn't make a lot of sense...especially as Tyre has no idea if the story is true or if the man deserves to die.

This is an okay episiode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". The story is interesting but it also seems unlikely. Why would a private eye who claims to be honest take such a case? Why would 40 others be on the case before him? And, most importantly, why didn't Tyre check with the police to find out what's really afoot here? A lot of unanswered questions in a modestly interesting episode.

This is one of those episodes that is so far fetched that it really never makes it. It is done in a noir style with James Franciscus as the private detective. A man comes to his office, trying to get him to seek out the guy who murdered his wife years ago. The detective doesn't want the case because things just smell bad. But Jack Weston has been identified as the guy. There is a lot of negotiating and finally things are set up. It's all taken care of, but what bothers me is how did it take some 12 years to find this guy and why did it take forty detectives to do the work? Anyway, while it's a cute story, it just seems ludicrous. I also had trouble with James Franciscus being the detective--seems bad casting.