The Impromptu Murder

Hitchcock and money do mix, naturally money being the root of all evil. Inspirational. Another gem by Francis Cockrell, who wrote 18 episodes in all, and this may be the best of the lot.

One of Hitchcock's favorite actors, Hume Cronyn, plays businessman Henry Daw who has had some financial reversals of late, forcing him to dip deep into the account of one of his clients. When the lady in question wishes to withdraw her money --he's got no choice but to kill her. This familiar story takes a fabulous turn, because Henry, the clever gent he is, ALMOST gets away with the crime. You have to watch it all play out, fascinating to see.

Look for actor and director Robert Douglas playing the police inspector. The inside joke is Douglas was famous for playing villains in some classic films. He would have made a suitable bad guy here too. But the award goes to Cronyn, at his slickest. Cronyn appeared in two of Hitchcock's films, SHADOW OF A DOUBT and LIFEBOAT. Good trivia question.

Superb direction by Paul Henreid, who has a lot of fun with his lead character. Could you imagine the out-takes? SEASON 3 EPISODE 38 remastered Universal dvd box set. 5 dvds. Released 2007. All seven half hour seasons are now on dvd in a single box. Released 2022.

There is so much that can go wrong when we attempt to change the course of our lives through violent crime. Hume Cronyn (one of our greatest actors) finds that he could be ruined if word got out that an elderly investor, whose money he had squandered, came to knowledge of this. The incredible ordeal he goes through to murder her and to hide her body seems beyond the pale for one of his seemingly delicate being. Still he does it and then has to live with the consequences. This episode is striking in its dreary ethos and captures the desperation of a soul. We must ask the question whether such a dramatic solution to his problem was really necessary. Once he acts, as is nearly always the case, he must continue to adjust and adapt to the consequences.

The previous week, Jessica Tandy starred in an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". Now in the following week, her husband, Hume Cronyn, stars in one himself. And, if they were looking for bragging rights, "The Impromptu Murder" is slightly better...though neither are exactly classics.

The episode is set in 1916 and Henry is an embezzler in need of money. And so, when a rich woman ends up staying with him, he kills her to rob her from the bag of money she's been toting. Then, he tosses the body in the river and thinks he's gotten away with it. When he later talks with the police, he almost immediately caves because, well, he's an idiot!

As I mentioned above, this isn't exactly a classic. The ending when Henry confesses seemed a bit sloppy...mostly because he really didn't need to and the show seemed to imply that a killer can't run away from his guilt, which for most killers is pretty ridiculous. After all, they kill because they are bad and their consciences are practically nonexistent!

At the beginning, Hitch says we're being invaded by Martians. Then, he shows female models with partially outlandish clothing. In the featured story, a man is visited by a woman he seemed to know. When she mentions something, he suddenly does something to her. From there, he gets investigated and it seems he may or not possibly get away with it...I'm purposefully leaving out some details because I myself didn't really understand what was going on though I read the synopsis here and on the printed TV one so I do get the why. I'll just now say the twists at the end make this one quite worthwhile. Oh, I also liked Hitch's humorous asides concerning that whole Mars/models thing as well! So that's a recommendation of "An Impromptu Murder".

A lawyer on the verge of becoming mayor murders a woman who claims he was involved in embezzlement in the past. A decent entry with fine performances all around, especially from Hugh Cronyn who really puts his foot in his mouth in the final twist, which was quite good. Nice atmosphere and tension, though nothing too out of the ordinary.