Alfred Hitchcock Presents Series 1, Episode 14    Justus Addis    Francis M. Cockrell, Eustance Cockrell (teleplay); Joseph Ruscoll (story)    John Qualen, Sebastian Cabot    01 January 1956    24:25 (total) • --:-- (film) • -:-- (Hitchcock)    7/10

A Bullet For Baldwin

Mr. Stepp (John Qualen) is an office worker who is fired by his boss Nathaniel Baldwin (Sebastian Cabot) late on Saturday night. Stepp then retaliates by doing some firing of his own and shoots Baldwin dead in his office. On Monday morning Stepp receives a telephone call from the secretary telling him Baldwin wants to speak with him. Confused, Stepp returns to the office and confesses to the incident with Mr. King (Phillip Reed). King dismisses the whole story and proves to Stepp that Baldwin is still alive, in his office. Not only that but King offers Stepp a raise in his salary and passes off his fantasy as an hallucination. But something doesn't quite fit? TRIVIA •

HITCH'S PROLOGUE (0 secs): X HITCH'S EPILOGUE (0 secs): X SPOILERS Baldwin is dead, so let's get that one sorted now. The man whom Stepp sees after the shooting is a 'Mr. Davidson' who resembles Baldwin and has been brought in by Mr. King for a fee of $2,000 to impersonate him. King disposed of Baldwin's body shortly after he was murdered and kept quiet because he knew if others found out that Baldwin had died it would mean financial ruin, so he hired the look-a-like to fill in. Unfortunately for King, he has a nasty habit of making Stepp believe things that aren't quite real, which is ultimately his undoing.

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION... I tell you, that Stepp needs to be locked up! This is one of those episodes that requires too much explaining in order to grasp the plot and the motive behind what happens. There is a whole long scene with King and Davidson which outlines everything but really slows the pace of the episode down.

THE CAST (click any image to enlarge)

Mr. Stepp... JOHN QUALEN Nathaniel Baldwin / Mr. Davidson... SEBASTIAN CABOT Walter King... PHILIP REED Neighbor... RUTH LEE Miss Abigail Wilson, secretary... CHERYLL CLARKE Janitor... JAMES ADAMSON Albert... DON McART Landlady... KATE DRAIN LAWSON Detective... BOB PATTEN Fireman...DAVID DWIGHT Neighbor...ARTHUR GILMOUR Fireman...BILL ERWIN

GALLERY (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion by Martin Grams Jr & Patrik Wikstrom (book) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0508104/ [IMDb] This page was last updated on: 01 March 2021