The forty-first private eye hired by a man to find his wife's killer follows the clues to a suspect, and then realizes that the case is more complex than he had realized.

Forty Detectives Later

Alfred Hitchcock

Arthur Hiller

Henry Slesar

The Hero

The Cuckoo Clock

When his former fiancee turns up missing, chicken farmer Arthur obligingly lets the police search his ranch, despite the fact that they seem to suspect him of her murder.

Arthur

Dangerous secrets are revealed when a devoted widow travels to the glacier in Switzerland where her husband's body has been preserved since his deadly fall forty years earlier.

The Crystal Trench

A 17-year-old causes havoc at a bar and alarms everyone around him when he talks hysterically about how he'll be "born again" when someone else dies at eleven o'clock.

Appointment at Eleven

John Piltkin picks up three hitchhikers who rob him. After he spots them in a diner, he exacts his revenge. He steals a car and picks the hitchhikers up. Concealing his face in shadows, he then pretends the car has stalled and walks off to get help. The hitchhickers are then arrested in the stolen car.

Coyote Moon

Nothing is as it seems when a polio victim in an iron lung suspects his wife of becoming attracted to a new neighbor and wonders if she's planning to get rid of him for good.

No Pain

Sick of his wife's menagerie of strange and high-maintenance animals, a frazzled husband decides to get her the perfect present - a highly poisonous coral snake.

Anniversary Gift

An aspiring hitman takes on a risky assignment to kill a rival gangster but then finds himself easily conned by his target in a treacherous game of cat and mouse.

Dry Run

Troubled by the responsibility of his aging mother in law, a man takes advantage of a society that specializes in "taking care of" elderly relatives and then soon finds out that he may be in for a similar fate.

The Blessington Method

Lovers' Lane becomes a dark and deadly destination when an ad executive and his former girlfriend are attacked by a young thug, and his efforts to protect them quickly go from heroic to something much more criminal.

Dead Weight

After his neighbor warns him about suspicious disappearances around them, a man wonders if the vanishings have anything to do with a delivery to his young son.

Special Delivery

When a traffic delay prevents a dying boy from reaching the hospital in time, his bereaved father and brothers swear revenge on the salesman who hogged the road when a life was on the line.

Road Hog

Mr. Laffler introduces his colleague Mr. Costain to Spirro's, an exclusive gentleman's club, but to their disappointment, the house specialty, a lamb dish, is not being served that day.

Specialty of the House

Moments before he's set to swing from the end of a Union rope, a Southern supporter reflects on the sabotage attempt that brought him there and sees a possibility for freedom.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

A teacher's interest in the one student who seems to care about her lessons turns tragic when she and a kindly neighbor follow the girl to a man's apartment.

Graduating Class

In a Las Vegas casino, an unpleasant little man hopes to use a young man's wish to impress the young woman he has just met to pressure the young fellow into accepting a macabre bet.

Man from the South

An antiques dealer takes refuge in a tucked away monastery with the goal of seizing a priceless manuscript, but his greed will extend his stay at the holy place for much longer than he ever imagined.

The Ikon of Elijah

Some important things get lost in translation when a South American oil explorer agrees to have his loyal native assistant take his murderous wife to a head shrinker for her health.

The Cure

A middle aged plumber is suspected of bludgeoning to death the father of his 19-year-old love interest, but the Sheriff can't figure out how the man could have done the crime and been caring for his baby grandson at the same time.

Backward, Turn Backward

After twelve years in prison for stealing $200,000 from his investment firm employers, Milton Potter calmly returns all the money he embezzled and pursues some very unique post-prison retirement plans.

Not the Running Type

When Clete Vine, a successful businessman, reads about a gangster's violent death, he recalls how he and a childhood friend were profoundly affected by an event that began with their innocent admiration of an elegant car.

The Day of the Bullet

A righteous and hypocritical civic leader on a road trip accepts mechanical help from a young man who then asks for a lift, soon afterwards he reveals he's recently been released from reform school.

Hitch Hike

When his over-bearing mother mentions missing her dead husband, a selfish bachelor is happy to arrange the reunion and enlists his actress girlfriend to help by posing as a clairvoyant.

Across the Threshold

It's one lucky dog who is named the beneficiary of his deceased master's estate, but he then becomes the target of murderous plots concocted by the humans in his life.

Craig's Will

A ruthlessly ambitious Hollywood publicist capitalizes on the drowning death of an actress, but his hopes for success sink like a stone when he learns that she's still alive.

Madame Mystery

The patrons in a copper town saloon initially scoff at the mysterious, small man who barges in, but soon find themselves handing over their valuables when he takes on two strapping brothers.

The Little Man Who Was There

What begins as a mother-son vacation soon becomes a trip to agony when he falls in love with a girl who is determined to share his affections ... and will do anything to get rid of her nemesis.

Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?

A sensible widow beginning her stay in a remote summer cottage refuses to be alarmed by news of an escaped mental patient, but her resolve weakens as she visits with an off-beat local.

A wealthy entrepreneur is sure that the man he meets on a cruise ship is the same person he robbed and left for dead many years ago ... or is he?

Lack of sleep is ruining a widower's life, but the real nightmare begins when he finally meets his brother-in-law, a menacing veteran still holding a grudge for his sister's death.

Insomnia

A beautiful Greenwich Village nightclub singer unwittingly risks her life - and that of her pianist - when she makes the mistake of brushing off "Little Dandy", a dangerous mobster.

I Can Take Care of Myself

Chronic unemployment makes a poor husband desperate enough to steal from a man he believes is dead, but he soon regrets the decision when he sees that the lifted wallet contains more than just cash.

One Grave Too Many

A busybody fears for her life when she learns that the man who blames her for his wife's death has escaped from prison and may be planning a visit with his former neighbor.

Party Line

A falsely convicted prisoner is determined to make his walk to the gas chamber on of dignity, but his plan suddenly changes when he hurls himself at the jovial guard known as "Pops".

Cell 227

An unconventional governess disrupts a conservative household with her radical ideas about interior design, wines, art and - especially - children and their education.

The Schartz-Metterklume Method

When he goes to a bank to transfer money, a man writing a book on the subject of unsolved crimes has no idea that he will find information about the $500,000 robbery he is chronicling ... or does he?

Letter of Credit

A pair of truck drivers stranded in the Arizona desert find themselves at the mercy of two kidnappers who are heading to the border ... and determined to take the last of the drinking water with them.

Escape to Sonoita

Believing that financial reasons prevent him from leaving his wife, an unhappily married man and the woman he really loves hatch a scheme that they believe will solve all their problems.

Hooked

A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.

Forty Detectives Later

Seasons7

Season 5 Episodes38

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Crew2

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Episode Summary