8.4/10974 votesLoading...#1 - An Unlocked Window
Season 3 Episode 17 - Aired 2/15/1965
Glendon Baker is an invalid who is being taken care of by a nurse named Stella Crosson. Stella is pleased when another nurse named Betty Ames arrives to assist her in the work. The only other people in the house are a house keeper named Maude and her handyman husband Sam. Stella becomes worried when she hears that a nurse killer is in the area. She grows more uneasy when the lights go out. When a patient's oxygen begins to run low, Stella sends the handyman out to get some. Growing paranoid, Stella locks all the windows in the house but neglects to lock the one in the basement. Later, Stella sees a man outside and panics when there is knocking at the door. She fails to notice that it is the handyman trying to get back in. She heads for the phone, but stops and heads into the lounge to help Nurse Ames who has been apparently attacked. Once in the lounge, however, Nurse Ames attacks her.
Director: Joseph M. Newman
Writer: James Bridges, Ethel Lina White
8.1/10516 votesLoading...#2 - The Return of Verge Likens
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 10/5/1964
Verge Likens is a farmer whose father was killed by a crooked politician named Riley McGrath. Verge returns home to avenge his father's death. He manages to get close to Riley by getting hired as an assistant at a barbershop. After asking the barber to run an errand, Verge is alone with Riley and proceeds to lather up the murdering politician for a shave. Verge vividly describes how he is planning to cut Riley's throat. When the barber returns to the barbershop he finds the door locked. He gets the police who break down the door. Inside they find Verge standing over Riley's dead body. Berge has avenged his father's death and he is not guilty of a crime. Riley died of a heart attack.
Director: Arnold Laven
Writer: James Bridges, Davis Grubb
8.0/102 votesLoading...#3 - How to Get Rid of Your Wife
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 12/20/1963
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
8.0/10545 votesLoading...#4 - Lonely Place
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 11/16/1964
Stella is married to a cowardly peach-farmer named Emory and takes in a passing hobo named Jesse. She hires him to help her husband harvest the peach crop. Unfortunately, Jesse's strange behavior and fascination with a knife he carries begins to frightens her. Emory, however, refuses to believe her. Stella tries to run away, but is caught by Jesse. He threatens to stab her, but she fights him off. She escapes in her husbands truck and heads home. There she awaken Emory and tells him about Jesse. Emory, however, confesses that he heard her screams, but was too afraid to do anything. Stella angrily stabs her husband and kills him. She then calls the police and blames the murder on the fleeing Jesse.
Director: Harvey Hart
Writer: C.B. Gilford, Francis Gwaltney
7.9/10446 votesLoading...#5 - Night Fever
Season 3 Episode 28 - Aired 5/3/1965
Jerry Walsh is a criminal cop killer who is hospitalized after a shootout with the police. He convinces a kind nurse named Ellen Hatch to help him escape. Ellen's true motives come to light when, however, when she leads Jerry to an escape route that leads to a dead end.
Director: Herbert Coleman
Writer: Clark Howard, Gilbert Ralston
7.8/10479 votesLoading...#6 - The Long Silence
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/22/1963
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
Writer: William D. Gordon, Charles Beaumont
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7.8/10476 votesLoading...#7 - Consider Her Ways
Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 12/28/1964
Dr. Jane Waterleigh participates in an experiment in projected perception when she takes an experimental drug. She envision a futuristic society run by women. In this society all men have gone extinct because of a genetic accident caused by her associate Dr. Hillyer. After regaining consciousness, Dr. Waterleigh attempts to alter the future by killing Dr. Hillyer before he can progress further in his dangerous experiments. Her efforts prove futile, however, when Dr. Hillyer's son becomes determined to carry out his father's work.
Director: Robert Stevens
Writer: John Wyndham, Oscar Millard
7.8/10463 votesLoading...#8 - Death Scene
Season 3 Episode 20 - Aired 3/8/1965
Leo Manfred is an ambitious car mechanic who is fixing the limousine of a once famous movie director named Gavin Revere. Leo ingratiates himself to Gavin's daughter Nicky and the two are soon engaged to be married. Gavin is suspicious of Leo. He insists that he take out a life insurance policy naming Nicky as the beneficiary. Leo does so, and the two prepare to gte married. On the eve of the wedding, Leo insults Gavin by panning his famous silent film Death Scene. Gavin threatens to cancel the wedding. Leo responds by planning murder. He manipulates Gavin and Nicky to the edge of a cliff. Nicky, however, turns the tables and tosses Leo over the edge. Nicky removes her make-up and reveas herself to be Gavin's actress wife. She and Gavin manipulated Leo so that the couple could get their hands on his insurance money.
Director: Harvey Hart
Writer: James Bridges, Helen Nielsen
7.8/10431 votesLoading...#9 - Power of Attorney
Season 3 Episode 24 - Aired 4/5/1965
James Jarvis is a con man that is posing as a expert in the stock market. Things begin to look good for James when he gets in good with the wealthy Mary Crawford and her friend Agatha. He begins to control all of Mary's money and claims that he lost it all in bad investments. When she hears the news, Mary is shocked and commits suicide. Agatha, however, wants revenge. She conceals any evidence of suicide and invites James over. She gets James's figerprints on the suicide weapon and locks him in the room with Mary's body. She, then, calls the police and tells them that James killed Mary. When James's is killed in a shootout with police, Agatha gets her revenge.
Director: Harvey Hart
Writer: James Bridges, Selwyn Jepson
7.7/10632 votesLoading...#10 - Captive Audience
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/1962
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
Writer: Richard Levinson, William Link
7.7/10469 votesLoading...#11 - Water's Edge
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 10/19/1964
Rusty Connors is a con man that has just been released from prison. He looks up the wife of his dead former cellmate, a robber and murderer, named Miles Krause. Before he was imprisoned, Krause stole a significant amount of money and killed his partner. The money and the body, however, never turned up. Connors talks to Krause's wife Helen and hopes that she knows where the money is. She, however, does not have a clue. Eventually, however, they are able to figure out that the money is stored in an abandoned boathouse that is now infested with rats. In the boathouse, they find the money and the dead and half-eaten body of Krause's partner. When Connors sees the money he is overcome with greed and tries to murder Helen. She manages to knock him out. When Connors awakens, he finds himself bound and gagged and being taunted by Helen. She gets up to leave with the money, but is tripped by Connors and is impaled on a hook. As she dies, the scent of her blood attracts the rats.
Director: Bernard Girard
Writer: Robert Bloch, Alfred Hayes
7.7/10565 votesLoading...#12 - Where the Woodbine Twineth
Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 1/11/1965
Nell Snyder has been taking care of her orphaned neice and has been growing more and more concerned over her neice's behavior. Her neice continually blames all the trouble she causes on an imaginary friend named Mr. Peppercorn. When the girl's grandfather Captain King Snyder gives her a Creole voodoo doll, Nell grows more and more worried. Her nieces says the doll came from Mr. Peppercorn. She names it Numa and treats as if it were a real person. Eventually, Nell becomes convinced that the doll is real and that it is trying to take her neice's soul. She follows her neice and Numa into the forest. There she frightens her away, not realizing that the switch has already occurred. She later sees the doll and discovers that it bears her neice's face.
Director: Alf Kjellin
Writer: James Bridges, Davis Grubb
7.7/10450 votesLoading...#13 - The Second Wife
Season 3 Episode 27 - Aired 4/26/1965
Martha Hunter is a mail order bride who has just moved into the rundown and not well-heated home of her new husband Luke. Martha is Luke's second wife and she becomes worried when she discovers that Luke's previous wife, who was also a mail order bride, died under mysterious circumstances on a vacation to Luke's relatives. Martha grows more fearful when she finds a offin like box and sees her husband digging in the cellar. When Luke suggests that they go one vacation she grows even more nervous. Prior to their departure, Luke insists that Martha go down to the cellar. Martha becomes terrified. She pulls a gun and kills Luke. After he is dead, she takes a look into the cellar and discovers that her husband installed a new furnace as a belated wedding gift.
Director: Joseph M. Newman
Writer: Robert Bloch, Richard Deming
7.6/10779 votesLoading...#14 - A Piece of the Action
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1962
Duke Marsden is about to lose his wife because of his gambling habits. She gives him an ultimatum: either give up poker or she leaves. He decides to give up poker. Later, Duke's younger brother Chuck arrives looking for a high-stakes game of poker. Duke arranges to have brother play a couple of his old poker buddies who would love to fleece a newcomer. Duke's plan goes awry when Chuck starts to clean house. After the losers call Duke to complain, Duke realizes that he must deal with the situation. He goes to the game and uses a marked deck to clean out Chuck. Chuck leaves, bitter and broke. Duke's old gambling buddies eye him suspiciously even after he offers them their lost money. They believe that Duke, who just cheated his own brother, had probably cheated them in the past as well. Duke arrives home mortally wounded. He apologizes to his wife and dies in her arms.
Director: Bernard Girard
Writer: Alfred Hayes
7.6/10524 votesLoading...#15 - Forecast: Low Clouds and Coastal Fog
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/18/1963
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
7.6/10510 votesLoading...#16 - To Catch a Butterfly
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 2/2/1963
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
7.6/10468 votesLoading...#17 - The Lonely Hours
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 3/8/1963
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
7.6/10457 votesLoading...#18 - The Trap
Season 3 Episode 18 - Aired 2/22/1965
Peg is bored with her marriage to Ted Beal, a wealthy toy manufacturer. She decides to have an affair with his young assistant John. She tells her lover to kill her husband. When John drags his feet on the murders, she decides to take matter into her own hands. She commits her crime and discovers that she was only being toyed with.
Director: John Brahm
Writer: Lee Kalcheim, Stanley Abbott
7.5/10716 votesLoading...#19 - I Saw the Whole Thing
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1962
Michael Barnes is a mystery writer who is accused of causing a fatal car accident. Each eyewitness, however, proves to be unreliable when their testimony is shredded by Barnes who is acting as his own defense attorney. He is exonerated after he shows that each witness only saw what they wanted to see. Ultimately, however, it is revealed that he was not the driver. The driver was his pregnant wife. Barnes arranged to have himself accused because he knew that his wife would not be able to stand the strains of a trial.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Henry Slesar
7.5/10550 votesLoading...#20 - House Guest
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/1962
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.
Director: Alan Crosland, Jr.
Writer: Henry Slesar, Marc Brandel
7.5/10482 votesLoading...#21 - The Thirty First of February
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/4/1963
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
7.5/10440 votesLoading...#22 - Dear Uncle George
Season 1 Episode 30 - Aired 5/10/1963
John Chambers writes an advice to the lovelorn column under the pseudonymn Uncle George. He learns that his wife is cheating on him when a neighbor named Mrs. Weatherby, not knowing that John and Uncle George are the same person, writes a letter to his column asking for advice. Chambers kills his wife and then pins the blame on her lover. When he fakes shock when the police reveal his wife's affair, he is accepted as innocent because he doesn't have a motive. Chambers almost gets away with murder until Mrs. Weatherby tells the police that she mailed the Uncle George column asking for advice about the situation.
Director: Joseph M. Newman
Writer: Richard Levinson, William Link, James Bridges
7.5/10389 votesLoading...#23 - Wally the Beard
Season 3 Episode 19 - Aired 3/1/1965
Walter Mills is shocked when his fiancee dumps him. When she tells him he is too dull, Walter decides to change his image. He buys a wig and a beard and pretends to be Philip Marshall. As Philip he meets Noreen Kimberly. He promises to teach her how to sail. Noreen's boyfriend Curly, however, becomes angry and does some digging. He finds out that Philip is really Walter and he threatens to tell Noreen unless Walter hides some stolen jewels for him. Walter accepts and hides the jewels in sack inside his boat. Feeling guilty, Walter tells Noreen everything. She tells him that she really is in love with him. Noreen tells Walter to get rid of the jewels. As he heads to the boat the police arrive. They open the sack and find the remains of Noreen's husband. The police inform Walter that they were tipped off by Noreen and Curly. Walter realizes that it was all a set up as he is being taken away by the police.
Director: James H. Brown
Writer: Arthur A. Ross, Stanley Abbott
7.4/10566 votesLoading...#24 - Annabel
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/1962
David Kelsey, a research chemist, is in love with Annabel. He assumes another identity so that they can share their moments together in complete privacy. He even builds a beautiful dream home for the two of them. David is hopelessly infatuated with her. Unfortunately, Annabel wants no part of him. She's married and both she and her husband wonder when David will get the hint. He does not and eventually murders the couple. He installs her corpse in the bedroom of their dreamhouse so that she can be by his side for the rest of his life.
Director: Paul Henreid
Writer: Robert Bloch
7.4/10532 votesLoading...#25 - The Paragon
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 2/8/1963
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
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!
A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of suspense and featuring thrillers and mysteries.
Genres:CrimeMysteryDrama
Episodes
93
Avg. Rating
7.0
S1
S2
S3
S4
E1
E2
E3
7.6
7.0
8.1
6.9
4.0
7.3
7.0
7.0
7.7
Best Episodes Summary
"An Unlocked Window" is the best rated episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour". It scored 8.4/10 based on 974 votes. Directed by Joseph M. Newman and written by James Bridges, Ethel Lina White, it aired on 2/15/1965. This episode scored 0.3 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Return of Verge Likens".
