The episode begins at a resort casino. It seems that Peter and Eva (Linda Christian) work there and are skimming funds. However, Peter has had enough and confronts Eva...and she kills him in a surprisingly violent scene. The owner of the casino has no doubts that she murdered Peter...but he doesn't care...he just fires her an insists she leave.
On her way from the boss' office, Eva runs into a poor shnook, Oscar (Larry Storch), and gives him a hard luck story because she knows he's stuck on her. She's broke and marries him...simply to use him. Soon, Oscar realizes the honeymoon is over, as Eva sits around drinking all day and won't work nor keep house nor make him dinner. She only perks up when one of her old lovers, Bill (Henry Silva), arrives for a visit....and Oscar isn't stupid and knows what's going on...so he asks for a divorce. But she has a heart of stone...and will only leave if he gives her $50,000...which would mean him embezzling from the bank where he works. What's poor Oscar to do?!
This is a perfect episode until Alfred Hitchcock's inexplicably bad epilogue. It seems that in many 'perfect crime' episodes of both "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", despite seeing a well constructed crime (in which MANY times you are pulling for the criminal because they are quite morally justified in committing some murder), Hitchcock ends the show with an epilogue saying essentially that later the killer was caught and punished. First, given it's a perfect crime...HOW would the person get caught? Second, considering the person was morally (though not legally) entitled to kill an evil person, why undo this and leave the audience wondering why the epilogue to say that they were incarcerated? My theory is that sponsors or the network demanded these awful epilogues, though I noticed a few episodes similar to this didn't have such endings. But one too many times the show ended on such a low note...and it takes the show from a perfect 10 to a still respectable 8.
By the way, as of today, Larry Storch is still going strong at 98 and Henry Silva at 92!
