Alfred Hitchcock Presents Series 3, Episode 12    Justus Addiss    Marian Cockrell (teleplay); Roy Vickers (story)    Dorothy Stickney    22 December 1957    24:15 (total) • 21:24 (film) • 1:26 (Hitchcock)    4/10

Miss Paisley's Cat

Miss Paisley (DOROTHY STICKNEY) is an elderly lady who likes to talk to herself in her apartment when a cat appears at the window and enters the room. After calling the cat 'ugly' (she isn't wrong) and trying to get it to leave Miss Paisley eventually allows the feline to stay for dinner. Later Miss Paisley bumps into the landlord Mr. Jenkins (HARRY TYLER) who warns her that the cat was seen leaving another tenant's apartment with food and that the tenant in question has a reputation for being violent. With the warning acknowledged, Miss Paisley decides to give the cat raw meat to discourage it from sneaking into other people's apartments. The next day Miss Paisley returns home to find her cat being booted out of Mr. Rinditch's apartment and so decides to confront him. When this ends badly for her Miss Paisley tells Jenkins she will file a lawsuit against the rude tenant for animal cruelty but Jenkins tells her it wouldn't make much difference to Mr. Rinditch who would simply write the fine off as a business expense. A few days later the cat is attacked in the street by a dog. The dog owner and Miss Paisley exchange mutual apologies over the incident and the dog owner praises her cat for being able to take care of itself in a fight. When Miss Paisley returns to her apartment the cat comes back into the room through the window and she praises it for its courage in being able to defend himself. It's clear that Miss Paisley is becoming rather emotionally attached to the cat. The next day Miss Paisley returns home and the cat is nowhere to be seen. She goes outside and looks through Mr. Rinditch's apartment window on the ground floor and sees the cat's collar in his bin. After reporting this to the landlord, he takes her outside and lifts up a dustbin lid to confirm her worst fears. Miss Paisley spends the next few hours walking around in a daze before falling sleep in her chair. Sometime during the night somebody murdered Rinditch with a knife and the police take Mr. Jenkins away as their suspect. The police interview Miss Paisley in her room where she confesses she may have killed Rinditch but the police inspector tells her that is unlikely and refuses to accept her account of what she believes may have happened. Six months pass and still missing her cat, Miss Paisley suddenly remembers everything when she discovers the collar down the side of her chair. TRIVIA •Based on the short story "Miss Paisley's Cat" by Roy Vickers, originally published in the May 1953 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. •This was the second outing for Dorothy Stickney (Conversation Over A Corpse). •In the opening scene Miss Paisley sees a cat coming into the room through an open window and asks, "How on earth did you get here?" Erm..... the open window?? •When the cat first comes into Miss Paisley's apartment and lays on the floor it looks camouflaged against the carpet due to the black and white frame of the image. •The cat's name is Stanley. •Miss Paisley lives in the Piedmont Arms apartment block, room 8. •How did Jenkins know exactly where to look to find the dead cat? And also, why didn't he inform Miss Paisley sooner? •"What a pity poor Jenkins has already been executed!" - that has to be one of the funniest lines in the series so far!! But wait, he was executed within six months of the crime being committed? That doesn't sound logical?

HITCH'S PROLOGUE (39 secs): [Hitch has a meat cleaver in his hand and is chopping some meat on a wooden block] "Oh good evening. The leading man in tonight's saga is an alleycat. He must be fed before each performance. It keeps him from eating the actors. Today he's having finely-chopped mice burger. Naturally we use nothing but contented mice. For two weeks they have been fed nothing but tranquilizers. Now, just as soon as I can feed our star you shall see our story, 'Miss Paisley's Cat'". HITCH'S EPILOGUE (47 secs): "Unfortunately for Miss Paisley, murder will out. She was finally uncovered, chiefly through the efforts of the SPCH - the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Humans. It's not a very powerful organization, but its growing. As for the star of our show, Miss Paisley's cat Stanley, he went down in the line of duty, making a revival of our play impossible. But all is not lost; he's being used for dog food. [Hitch reaches underneath him and pulls out the meat cleaver] And on this pleasant note we conclude tonight's entertainment. Until next time, good night." SPOILERS Miss Paisley is nuts. She killed Rinditch with the knife but in her state of mind she couldn't remember it. Jenkins was innocent but found guilty of the murder and executed (a bit extreme if you ask me!) But six months later and Miss Paisley remembers the facts of the night in question and tells herself (and all of us watching) exactly what happened.

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION... Well, what can you say about that! Miss Paisley is definitely missing some screws somewhere. Right from the very first scene she acts odd, talking to herself and behaving in an exaggerated manner. The whole episode was really flat with the exception of Harry Tyler and his constant smirking. The ending was lame and this is one of those episodes I just want to forget about now! Not impressed with such a weak episode.

THE CAST (click any image to enlarge)

Miss Paisley... DOROTHY STICKNEY Inspector Graun... RAMOND BAILEY Bob Jenkins... HARRY O. TYLER Mr. Rinditch... FRED GRAHAM Police officer... DAVID ARMSTRONG Tenant... JOEL SMITH Dog owner... MARK SHEELER

GALLERY (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion by Martin Grams Jr & Patrik Wikstrom (book) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0508202/ [IMDb] This page was last updated on: 09 May 2021