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The Best Episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

Every episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour!

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A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of suspense and featuring thrillers and mysteries.

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  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 14 - The Tender Poisoner
    8.0/10(2 votes)

    #1 - The Tender Poisoner

    S1:E14

    Peter Harding is a corporate executive who tries to help save the sagging career of an associate named Philip Bartel. He hopes to get Bartel into one of the corporation's very popular training courses. Later, however, Harding discovers that Bartel is interested in leaving his wife Beatrice. He wants to run off with his mistress. Harding becomes intent on helping Bartel in his home life. He decides to do this by taking Bartel's mistress of his hands.

    Director:Leonard Horn
    Writer:Lukas Heller

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  2. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 20 - The Paragon
    8.0/10(2 votes)

    #2 - The Paragon

    S1:E20

    Alice Pemberton is a busy-body housewife who injects herself into the personal lives of everyone she knows: friends, relatives, her husband's business associates. Unfortunately she fails to realize that her constant attempts to give advice are alienating everyone. Her husband John is patient. He tries to tell her that her annoying behavior will cost them the last few friends that they have left. She refuses to listen. So, John decides to poison her.

    Director:Jack Smight
    Writer:Alfred Hayes

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  3. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 2 Episode 11 - How to Get Rid of Your Wife
    8.0/10(2 votes)

    #3 - How to Get Rid of Your Wife

    S2:E11

    Gerald Swiney, a henpecked husband, decides to get rid of his nagging wife, Edith, when she won't agree to a divorce. He intends to drive her away by making her think he's planning to kill her, but things don't go exactly as planned.

    Director:Alf Kjellin
    Writer:Robert Gould

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  4. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 10 - Day of Reckoning
    7.5/10(2 votes)

    #4 - Day of Reckoning

    S1:E10

    Paul Sampson murders his wife Caroline and is relieved when the police rule her death and accident. His conscience gets the best of him, however, and he decides to confess the murder to his family and friends. Unfortunately, no one believes him. They think the stress of his wife's death has gotten to him. Later he tells another friend, who also happens to be a judge. The judge, however, knew all along. He was Caroline's lover. Knowing that Paul's conscience is killing him, the judge chooses to remain silent. When Paul continues in his attempts to confess, he is eventually committed by his family to a mental hospital.

    Director:Jerry Hopper
    Writers:Richard Levinson, William Link

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  5. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 11 - Ride the Nightmare
    7.5/10(2 votes)

    #5 - Ride the Nightmare

    S1:E11

    When three of his childhood pals break out of prison, Christopher Martin is in trouble. When he was younger, he and his pals committed a crime. All except Christopher were caught and sent to jail. Each of them vowed revenge. Christopher confesses his crime to his wife Helen though he fears she will leave him. Helen is shocked at first, but she agrees to help him proving that his fears were groundless. Together they foil the three prison escapees when they show up looking for revenge.

    Director:Bernard Girard
    Writer:Richard Matheson

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  6. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 15 - The Thirty First of February
    7.5/10(2 votes)

    #6 - The Thirty First of February

    S1:E15

    Andrew Anderson is an advertising executive who discovers the body of his deadwife laying at the bottom of the basement stairs. An investigating detective named Sgt. Cresse believes Mr. Anderson is guilty of murder. He wants to trick him into making a confession by making Mr. Anderson believe that his wife is still alive and that she is having an affair with one of his fellow workers at the advertising agency. Eventually Mr. Anderson is proven innocent of murder, but Cresse's hounding has left him hopelessly insane.

    Director:Alf Kjellin
    Writer:Richard Matheson

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

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  7. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 23 - The Lonely Hours
    7.5/10(2 votes)

    #7 - The Lonely Hours

    S1:E23

    Louise Henderson rents a room to woman named Vera Brandon who begins to show an unreasonable amount of interest in Louise's newborn son. Louise begines investigating and discovers that she and Vera shared the same maternity ward when her son was born. She also discovers that Vera's baby died during childbirth and this death has left her mentally disturbed. She comes home only to both Vera and her son missing. She finds an address and calls the police. The police go to the address and discover Vera rocking the baby back and forth and claiming that the child is hers. The police return the child to Louise and send Vera to a mental hospital for treatment.

    Director:Jack Smight
    Writer:William D. Gordon

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  8. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 3 Episode 29 - Off Season
    7.5/10(2 votes)

    #8 - Off Season

    S3:E29

    Johnny Kendall is a trigger-happy cop who is fired from the police and is forced to take a job checking vacant summer homes during the off-season. His girlfriend Sandy gets a job as a waitress to try to help them make ends meet. At work, Johnny discovers that the previous deputy was fired from the job for having an affair with an unidentified woman in one of the vacant summer homes. Later, when Johnny sees the ex-deputy hanging around Sandy he becomes jealous and paranoid. One night, when he believes the two are together, he takes his gun and begins to look for them. He heads for the empty summer houses and finds one broken into. Inside he hears the former deputy and a woman. He shoots them both in the dark and kills them. He turns on the lights and discovers that the woman was not Sandy, but the sheriff's wife.

    Director:William Friedkin
    Writers:Robert Bloch, Edward D. Hoch

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  9. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 4 - I Saw the Whole Thing
    7.4/10(5 votes)

    #9 - I Saw the Whole Thing

    S1:E4

    There are five witnesses for a hit-and-run accident at an intersection who all say the car did not stop at the stop sign, but are they all wrong?

    Director:Alfred Hitchcock
    Writer:Henry Slesar

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  10. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 5 - Captive Audience
    7.2/10(5 votes)

    #10 - Captive Audience

    S1:E5

    Warren Barrow writes mystery novels under a pseudonymn. He sends his publisher a series of tape recordings that appear to detail either the plot of his next mystery novel or the plan for a murder he is actually going to commit. Using his own name on the tapes, Barrow describes how he renewed a friendship with a very attractive girl named Janet West. Janey, however, is married and wants someone to kill her wealthy husband. Blinded by passion, Barrow agrees to commit murder. At the last minute, however, he gets cold feet and later, out of guilt, decides to kill Janet. The tape ends, however. The publisher and another writer, Tom Keller, become convinced that Barrow is planning murder. The publisher calls the police while Keller heads for Janet's apartment. At the apartment, Keller discovers Janet dead and Barrow holding the murder weapon. Barrow is taken to the police station where he provides an ending to his novel and a complete confession, all on tape.

    Director:Alf Kjellin
    Writers:Richard Levinson, William Link

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  11. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 3 - Night of the Owl
    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #11 - Night of the Owl

    S1:E3

    Jim Mallory is a forest ranger who along with his wife Linda, have adopted a girl named Anne. The couple have never told Anne that her parents died in a bizarre murder-suicide for fear that the news might disturb her. A blackmailer contacts Jim and demands money. He says that he will tell Anne the secret of her past if Jim doesn't pay up. Jim agrees to pay, but informs the police. The blackmailers figure out that something is up and change the site of the money drop. Later the blackmailers get into an argument and one of them is killed. When the police find the body, they suspect Jim Mallory. Jim manages to catch the blackmailer to clear his name, but he doesn't get to him in time to stop her from telling Anne the secret about her parents. Anne is troubled by the news, but manages to take it in stride. She tells the Mallorys that she loves them and has always considered them her real parents.

    Directors:Alan Crosland, Jr.
    Writer:Richard Fielder

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  12. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 6 - Final Vow
    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #12 - Final Vow

    S1:E6

    Sister Pamela suffers a crisis of conscience just as she is about to take her final vows. Is her belief real or is she just hiding from the rest of the world? The sisters in the convent give her time to think everything over by letting her pick up a valuable statue from a reformed gangster. As she is returning, however, the statue is stolen by a young criminal named Jimmy Bresson. In order to get the statue back she leaves the convent and hunts Jimmy down. She arranges to have a date with him to get into his apartment. Unfortunately, she discovers that he has pawned the statue. She takes the pawn ticket and heads for the pawn shop. As she is about to get it back, Jimmy catches her. Jimmy and the dishonest pawn shop owner want to kill Pamela, but they want to have the statue appraised first. They call an appraiser, but it turns out to be the man who originally offered the statue to the convent. He tells them that the statue is worthless and convinces them to let Pamela go. Having confr

    Director:Norman Lloyd
    Writer:Henry Slesar

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  13. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 8 - House Guest
    7.0/10(3 votes)

    #13 - House Guest

    S1:E8

    John and Sally Mitchell offer a stranger named Ray Roscoe a place to stay after Roscoe saves the life of their son Tony. When Roscoe turns out to be a womanizing freeloader, they begin to believe that they made a terrible mistake. One night Roscoe wrecks their car and hits on a camper's wife. Angry, John punches him and knocks him to the ground. John is shocked, however, when the camper examines Roscoe's body and declares that Roscoe is dead. The camper suggests that they bury the body in the woods and forget the whole thing. John agrees and lets the camper deal with the body. Later, John is disturbed to discover that the woods are going to be excavated as a part of a new highway construction. Since he doesn't know exactly where the body is, he calls the camper and tells him that they must move the corpse. The camper agrees, but demands $20,000. He tells John that he will go to the police if he does not pay the money.

    Directors:Alan Crosland, Jr.
    Writers:Marc Brandel, Henry Slesar

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  14. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 9 - The Black Curtain
    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #14 - The Black Curtain

    S1:E9

    Phil Townsend suffers amnesia after he is mugged outside his drug store. All he remembers is that he is about to get married. A taxi driver takes him to his fiancée's house, but he discovers that she is already married and has been married for three years. Later, Townsend discovers that he has been living under the name David Webber for three years. He discovers that Webber was once the bodyguard of a rich criminal attorney and is suspected of murdering the attorney's wife. Townsend eventually manages to clear his name. Later, he checks into a hospital for treatment.

    Director:Sydney Pollack
    Writers:Cornell Woolrich, Joel Murcott

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  15. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 12 - Hangover
    7.0/10(3 votes)

    #15 - Hangover

    S1:E12

    Hadley Purvis is an alcoholic advertising executive whose wife Sandra tells him that she will leave him if he takes another drink. Unfortunately, he drinks himself into a stupor. When he awakens he cannot remember anything that happened to him while he was drunk. He can't remember losing his job for being drunk during a presentation and he can't remember buying his wife a new scarf to prove that he had not been drinking. Ultimately, he discovers his wife's strangled body in his basement. Though he cannot remember, he realizes that, while he was drunk, he strangled her to death with the scarf he bought for her.

    Director:Bernard Girard
    Writer:Lou Rambeau

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  16. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 13 - Bonfire
    7.0/10(3 votes)

    #16 - Bonfire

    S1:E13

    Robert Evans is a revivalist preacher who is desperate for money to build his own church. He romances a rich woman named Naomi Freshwater and kills her. Some time later, Robert meets Naomi's neice Laura. He tries to romance her as well, but she is not interested. When Laura discovers that Robert killed her aunt, the preacher kills her and stuffs her body in a trunk. He drags the trunk to a pit and sets it on fire. Later, as Robert is delivering a sermon, it begins to rain. The rain puts out the fire and the contents of the burned trunk are revealed. Robert is promptly arrested and charged with murder.

    Director:Joseph Pevney
    Writers:Alfred Hayes, William D. Gordon

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  17. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 16 - What Really Happened
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #17 - What Really Happened

    S1:E16

    Over the protests of his wife Eve, Howard Raydon fires Addie the family maid when her son breaks a valuable antique. Unwilling to leave, she poisons Howard's milk and kills him. An autopsy reveals the poison, but Eve is the chief suspect after she is fingered by Howard's mother. Believing that Eve's innocence will come out in trial, Addie remains silent about any wrong doing. Unfortunately, the prosecution reveals that Addie's 'son' is really Eve's son from a previous marriage. They claim that Eve killed her husband to prevent being seperated from the boy. As things begin to look worse for Eve, Addie confesses her guilt in a note and attempts suicide. Her suicide attempt is stopped in time and she is forced to stand trial.

    Director:Jack Smight
    Writer:Henry Slesar

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  18. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 17 - Forecast: Low Clouds and Coastal Fog
    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #18 - Forecast: Low Clouds and Coastal Fog

    S1:E17

    Dan O'Herlihy (as Simon Carter) Inger Stevens (as Karen Wilson) Christopher Dark (as Manuel Sanchez) Chris Robinson (as Ricky) Richard Jaeckel (as Tom) One night when her husband is away, Karen Wilson is frightened when a man named Manuel Sanchez comes pounding on her door. He claims to be out of gas. Karen refuses to let him in and he must walk to a gas station. Later Karen hears a scream. She is told by the police that Sanchez's girlfriend who was waiting in the car was murdered while he was walking to the gas station. Karen suspects a neighboring writer named Simon Carter. The next evening Simon comes to Karen's home. She is rescued by her three surfing friends. Karen, however, is shocked to discover that her three friends are in fact the murderer's of Sanchez's girlfriend. They have her trapped, but she is rescued by Sanchez. He was returning to get even with her for contributing to the death of his girlfriend, but he manages to save her life instead.

    Director:Charles F. Haas
    Writer:Lee Erwin

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  19. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 18 - A Tangled Web
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #19 - A Tangled Web

    S1:E18

    David Chesterman is a thief whose girlfriend Maria is cheating on him with his partner Carl Gault. Carl has fallen in love with Maria and plans to get rid of David. He tells David about the body of rich man who is loaded with jewelry. David goes to rob the corpse, but is discovered by a guard. Later, the guard is found dead by the police. David tells Maria that he is innovent, but he decides to hide out for a while and leaves Maria with Carl. Carl informs the police of David's location and he is arrested for murder. As David is about to be sentence Maria gets away from Carl by stabbing him. She heads to the court building convinced that David is innocent. In the court building she climbs out on a ledge and threatens to jump unless David is brought to her and is allowed to tell the truth about the entire robbery. David is brought to her, but he reveals that he did kill the guard. Knowing that he will go to prison, David begs her for forgiveness.

    Director:Alf Kjellin
    Writer:James Bridges

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  20. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 19 - To Catch a Butterfly
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #20 - To Catch a Butterfly

    S1:E19

    Bill and Janet Nelson move into a new home next door to a family named Stander. Unfortunately, the Stander's son Eddie is a homicidal monster. Eddie kills the Nelson's dog and then runs a trip wire across the cellar stairs that almost causes Janet to break her neck. Bill knows that Eddie is responsible, but Eddie's father Jack Stander won't do anything. Jack controls the boy's life with an iron hand. It is later revealed that Eddie is not the source of the problems. Eddie, himself, is a victim of parental misunderstanding.

    Director:David Lowell Rich
    Writer:Richard Fielder

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  21. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 21 - I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #21 - I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury

    S1:E21

    Laura Needham is murdered while vacationing in Mexico. Her husband Mark discovers that the police are holding as a suspect an American named Theodore Bond. Mark wants something to be done, but the police are helpless because they cannot prove their case. Mark decides to get the proof, but he is murdered by Bond instead. Mark's in-laws, Alex and Louise Trevor take it open themselves to bring Bond to justice. They set up a trap with Louise as bait and catch Bond attempting to committed murder.

    Director:James Sheldon
    Writer:Lukas Heller

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  22. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 22 - Diagnosis: Danger
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #22 - Diagnosis: Danger

    S1:E22

    An outbreak of anthrax in Los Angeles threatens to panic the city until the health department's Dr. Dan Dana arrives to track down the source of the disease. With this assistance of his boss Dr. Oliver and Deputy Sheriff Judd, he discovers that the disease comes from a pair of bongos purchased in Mexico by a now dead drummer.

    Director:Sydney Pollack
    Writer:Roland Kibbee

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  23. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 24 - The Star Juror
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #23 - The Star Juror

    S1:E24

    George Davies is mild mannered store-keeper who makes a pass on the town floozie. When she rejects him, he accidentally kills her. Unfortunately, the girl's boyfriend is arrested for the crime and put on trial. When George is appointed to the jury for the case, he finds a way to get the boy off without having to confess his own guilt. George manages to get the boy off, but the decision enrages the townspeople who boycott George's store and treat him like an outcast. The townspeople also hound the boy, who commits suicide because he cannot convince anyone that he is not a murderer. Eventually George confesses his crime to the police, but they refuse to believe him. They think he has suffered a nervous breakdown because of the harrassment and the boy's suicide.

    Director:Herschel Daugherty
    Writer:James Bridges

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  24. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 25 - The Long Silence
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #24 - The Long Silence

    S1:E25

    In an elaborate con, Ralph Mason marries a rich woman named Nora Cory for her money. Unfortunately his schemes goes awry when he murders one of her sons from a former marriage. As he attempts to make the death look like a suicide, he is caught by Nora as he is writing a fake suicide note. Nora collapses and falls into a paralyzed, yet conscious, state. She is bedridden and worried that her husband will try to kill her. She is also unable to speak and cannot tell anyone about her dangerous husband. When her nurse Jean Dekker allows her husband to adminster her medicine, she grows fearful that he will try to poison her. Fortunately, the nurse figures out a way to communicate with Nora. Nora squeezes her hand in response to yes or no questions. Jean discovers the truth about Ralph, but when Ralph finds out he tries to kill both Nora and Jean . Fortunately, Nora comes out of her paralysis in time to scream. She alerts her second son who manages to subdue Ralph before he can kill again.

    Director:Robert Douglas
    Writers:William D. Gordon, Charles Beaumont

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  25. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Season 1 Episode 26 - An Out for Oscar
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #25 - An Out for Oscar

    S1:E26

    Oscar Blenny is a timid bank clerk who discovers that his wife Eva is cheating on him. He demands a divorce and Eva agrees, but insists on a $50,000 settlement. She tells him to steal it from the bank, but Oscar is reluctant. Oscar is approached by Eva's tough hitman boyfriend Bill Grant. Bill suggests a double-cross. He will kill Eva for $250,000, but will get the money by robbing Oscar's bank with Oscar's help. He will then leave the country and leave Oscar free of Eva and apparantly innocent of any crime. Oscar agrees to Bill's plan, but sets up a triple-cross. Bill kills Eva, but when he comes to rob the bank Oscar pulls a gun and shoots him dead. Impressed by Oscar's courage, his boss promotes him to credit manager.

    Director:Bernard Girard
    Writer:David Goodis

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Best Episodes Summary

"The Tender Poisoner" is the best rated episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour". It scored 8/10 based on 2 votes. Directed by Leonard Horn and written by Lukas Heller, it aired on 12/20/1962. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Paragon".