Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series) Make My Death Bed (1961) User Reviews

It couldn't have happened to more deserving folks!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 17 April 2021]

Bish and his wife have recently moved into town. Elise and her husband have become their friends and have introduced them to the various couples in their social group. However, it turns out Bish and Elise are cheating on their respective spouses and you can't help but think they're heading for a comeuppance...and how it happens is very clever and unexpected.

Considering how awful Elise and Bish were, this is a very satisfying episode with a nice (though not unexpected) twist at the end. Well worth seeing and a bit dark!

"I sure fouled this one up, didn't I?"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 24 February 2022]

James Best became one of my favorite character actors ever since I saw him as a kid watching an old Twilight Zone episode with my dad titled "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank". It was one with an ending that had us both look at each other and crack up just a little bit. Funny how one remembers those little things. I've also seen him in a handful of old TV and movie Westerns, but this this was the first time I ever noticed the resemblance that he had to Elvis Presley. Maybe it was the guitar slung across his chest, but it looked like they could have been brothers.

Anyway, Best's character here is more than a little ambivalent toward his marriage, and his wife Jackie (Madeleine Sherwood) seems to know about it. As he croons the old folk tune 'Barbara Allen', it portends a finale to the story that's a little hard to guess at until the twist is revealed at the very end. Caught red handed in an affair with Ken Taylor's (Joe Flynn) wife Elise (Diana Van der Vlis), Bish Darby (Best) meets his fatal end when Ken Taylor shoots him. Distraught, Elise tries to settle her nerves with some coffee sweetened with saccharin, but it turns out Jackie Darby had already decided that her husband had to go and made some serious arrangements. Seems like her solution cost two lives for the price of one!

Unlikeable Bunch

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 1 June 2021]

At a New Year's Eve party, we get a glimpse of some pretty disdainful characters. One is a kind of party girl, who doesn't hesitate hitting on other women's husbands. Then we have this souther guy who sings and plays a guitar who flaunts himself, even though he has a wife and some kids. Anyway, you know a murder is coming but then things get complicated. By the way, I was intrigued by the very large mouth of the supposedly beautiful blonde.

Don't Let Marriage Stand in the Way

[dougdoepke · 5 January 2010]

If memory serves, 1961 was about the time tabloids started titillating readers with reports of "wife swapping" in the affluent suburbs. This episode doesn't go that far, but it does involve infidelity among young professionals. Bish (Best) and Elise (Van der Vlis) may be married to others, but that hardly dampens their mutual attraction. Nor are they very discreet about it, embarrassing their respective mates in front of others. We know something's going to explode, but what. After all, these are upscale folks with bright futures.

Average episode, but 'average' for Hitchcock means solidly entertaining. There's something of an unexpected twist, plus a convincing turn from Brando's sister Jocelyn that adds credibility. I also like the well designed livingroom that suggests young, style-conscious affluents. The script also makes good ironical use of the folk ballad "Barbara Allen". Generally, it's a suspenseful, but unmemorable 30 minutes. (Be sure however to catch Hitch's appropriate opening and closing.)

Sing Along With Bish

[telegonus · 9/10 · 30 October 2017]

Make My Death Bed is a stylish Hitch entry, features well to do suburbanites, and fairly young ones at that, and a good 'ol boy, Bish who's handy with a guitar and other men's wives, very well played by James Best, who, if it's him doing the actual singing, makes a nice job of it, especially the old ballad Barbara Allen, the lyrics to which prove (ironically) prophetic.

Fine acting by all in this upscale, modern looking episode. Top billed Diana Van der Vlis is the lovely object of his affections; and the feelings are mutual. Also on hand: Jocelyn Brando, sister of Marlon, as the doctor's wife; and Madeline Sherwood, probably best remembered as Gooper's wife in film version of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, as Best's wife.

Aside from the last few minutes dang near telegraphing the outcome, this is an almost perfect and, for its time, very adult half-hour of television, even today.