Lamb to the Slaughter
- Episode aired Apr 13, 1958
- TV-14
- 30m
After Mary Maloney's police chief husband is murdered, the police investigate but have a hard time figuring out the murder weapon.After Mary Maloney's police chief husband is murdered, the police investigate but have a hard time figuring out the murder weapon.After Mary Maloney's police chief husband is murdered, the police investigate but have a hard time figuring out the murder weapon.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn the following season's offering Cheap Is Cheap (1959), a hit man describes having seen this TV program, and thinks it was a good way to bump someone off.
- GoofsWhen Mary lifts the leg of lamb, she does it quite easily as if it doesn't weigh much although a murder club would be rather heavy.
- Quotes
[introduction, Hitchcock is in a supermarket where a cop gives him a ticket and walks off camera]
Alfred Hitchcock: He gave me this ticket for blocking an aisle during the rush hour. I don't understand. I was in the slow lane. I just stopped a moment at the condiment shelf where the store's have a get-acquainted sale on 'Low Calorie Calories'. Tonight's play is not unrelated to this milieu. It is called "Lamb to the Slaughter", but before we see it, the store has asked that I direct your attention to their very best bargain.
[commercial break]
- ConnectionsFeatured in TV Guide's Top 100 Episodes of All Time (2009)
- SoundtracksFuneral March of a Marionette
Written by Charles Gounod
We all remember this tale as kids, more than likely due to the dark comedy ending, and yes, I agree with the last reviewer -- everyone had a good laugh over the dead guy. Now that's a first.
Perfectly cast as the young mother to be is Barbara Bel Geddes, cooking a nice dinner for her cop husband -- only to barge through the front door and announce there's someone else, he wants an ASAP divorce, goodbye forever, and what's for dinner? Cowboy hero Allan "Rocky" Lane plays Patrick, a real work of art --and who gets everything that's coming to him.
I truly believe, and after all these years, Hitch's tv show was the only one where you could actually root for the killer and NOT the victim. I'm sure that's the way Hitch wanted it, sometimes. This may also be a re-working (of sorts) of another episode in which a man killed his bickering wife and attempted to hide her body in the trunk of his car.
Lessons learned: Ditch the murder weapon.
Big guy Harold J. Stone plays the probing cop, Lieutenant Noonan, who --at first-- you think may even suspect the honorable wife. Not to happen, and so very cleverly done, without giving the rest away...
Written by Ronald Dahl, who was a pioneer in writing popular children's books, including WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Dahl has long since passed, but his stories have attracted a new generation.
On a historical note, the same year of this episode, Barbara Bel Geddes co-starred in Hitchcock's VERTIGO, opposite James Stewart and Kim Novack.
One for devout Hithcock fans, and some new joiners to the elite club. From SEASON 3 remastered Universal dvd box set. 2007 release. Thank you METV for rerunning this classic.
- tcchelsey
- Oct 11, 2023
Details
- Runtime30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1