Hats off to one of the best, Henry Slesar. He was a master at mystery and suspense as you will see. He wrote dozens of fine scripts for Alfred Hitchcock's tv show, even a few for BATMAN in the 60s. He may hold a record, as he penned close to 3000 episodes for the daytime soap opera the EDGE OF NIGHT.
Hold on! John Fiedler, who specialized in playing meek, harrassed guys, gets ticketed and thrown into the jug for jaywalking in a small town. Of course, he did try to bribe the cop! That said.... his stupid luck and bad timing grows far worse when he ends up in a cell next to a guy suspected of killing a girl --and being a serial killer.
In fact, this episode was one of the first to deal with serial killers, which was a rare in the 50s. As Hitchcock would have it, the townsfolk grow restless, storm the jail and go after Fiedler, believing he's the real killer. Does not get any better than this.
Yes, it's fairly obvious Fiedler's character would have been killed in about two seconds, but he miraculously lives to relay his ordeal to the sheriff. This has to be John Fiedler's very best role.
In short, why Henry Slesar was so good at spinning tales of the weird. He was much in the same category as Robert Bloch, who wrote PSYCHO for Hitch and STRAIT JACKET for Joan Crawford
Watch this one through. It's jawdropping.
Remastered from SEASON 6 Universal dvd box set.
Hold on! John Fiedler, who specialized in playing meek, harrassed guys, gets ticketed and thrown into the jug for jaywalking in a small town. Of course, he did try to bribe the cop! That said.... his stupid luck and bad timing grows far worse when he ends up in a cell next to a guy suspected of killing a girl --and being a serial killer.
In fact, this episode was one of the first to deal with serial killers, which was a rare in the 50s. As Hitchcock would have it, the townsfolk grow restless, storm the jail and go after Fiedler, believing he's the real killer. Does not get any better than this.
Yes, it's fairly obvious Fiedler's character would have been killed in about two seconds, but he miraculously lives to relay his ordeal to the sheriff. This has to be John Fiedler's very best role.
In short, why Henry Slesar was so good at spinning tales of the weird. He was much in the same category as Robert Bloch, who wrote PSYCHO for Hitch and STRAIT JACKET for Joan Crawford
Watch this one through. It's jawdropping.
Remastered from SEASON 6 Universal dvd box set.