"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" The Last Remains (TV Episode 1962) Poster

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8/10
Don't be a deadbeat!
planktonrules21 April 2021
Amos (John Fiedler) is upset, as business at his funeral home has been terrible and lots of folks are going for cheaper funerals these days. But when his assistant discovers something odd on one of the bodies, Amos tries to use it to his advantage. It seems that the 'accident victim' actually had a bullet in him...and Amos goes to the dead man's partner to try to get him to buy a deluxe funeral...no questions asked! What's next? Well, it's not good for Amos...at least initially.

This is a very good and enjoyable episode. Fiedler was very good as the funeral director and the writing was spot on here. Worth your time.
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8/10
Ashes to Ashes
Hitchcoc4 June 2021
John Fiedler was one of the best character actors of all time. Here he plays a two bit mortician who isn't getting any funerals. So when he discovers a bullet hole in one of the corpses, he decides to extort a little extra cash from the guy who probably murdered him. But the guy is a cheapskate. Had he just paid the extra money, he could have gone on enjoying his riches. It's his own cover up that leads to his final problem.
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7/10
"You buried the evidence yourself!"
classicsoncall2 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
If you have any idea what funeral expenses can be, you'll marvel at even the high end of Amos Duff's (John Fiedler) 'Class A' mortuary service. Today, eighteen hundred dollars sounds like a bargain compared to a recent funeral I'm privy to that a family paid thirteen thousand dollars for, with no frills attached! In any event, shady Marvin Foley (Ed Gardner) would have been wise to pay off Duff had he considered what might happen when the body of his business partner was cremated with a suspected bullet hole in his chest. Not thinking that far ahead was an invitation for the police to come calling when Amos got shafted out of his full payment. The ending of the story wasn't that much of a twist, but I do wonder if Foley's partner got the harp wreath Amos Duff was so proud of.
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6/10
How to fail in business
FlushingCaps22 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
John Fiedler is a mortician, Amos Duff, with money problems because business is bad. He has a customer who wanted his cheapest funeral for the man's business partner, killed in an auto accident.

But when his assistant tells him he has found a bullet hole in the victim, Amos decides he can churn a bigger profit by paying the business partner, Marvin Foley, a visit. He tells him about the bullet hole and how he'll have to file a police report and suddenly Mr. Foley is willing to purchase Amos's most expensive funeral package, which he tells him is $1,800. The man has already paid $150. He writes him a check for another $600 and tells him he'll pay the rest after the funeral and the cremation of the body.

We jump ahead and learn that months after this funeral, the man still hasn't paid anything more. Amos confronts Foley again, but is turned away. Foley knew something that we viewers didn't know until this point in the program. Duff's regular price for his Class A funeral is $750. Foley intends to pay nothing more, insisting the bill was paid in full.

It turns out, Duff has an ace in the hole, but there's no need to go into that, other than to say it was about the most obvious elements ever seen in an episode in this series. I imagine 90% of viewers seeing it for the first time will be expecting this plot twist, in the way it was done or almost the same way.

We do get a clue as to why Duff was not doing well in business-he never bothered to get a signed contract. Especially a bad move when he's agreeing to do the whole job and get paid most of his money after the entire project is completed.

This was interesting for the most part, with a rather disappointing finish-I give it a 6 because I was a big fan of Mr. Peterson on the old Bob Newhart Show.
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10/10
Inspired a future Columbo Episode
allexhoward200031 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Loved this episode and recognized inspiring a future "Columbo" episode with the "Prisoner" star, Patrick MaGoohan, Ashes to Ashes, in 1998, as a funeral director/mortician in California who was caught by Peter Falk's Lieutenant Columbo as the clever cop who nabbed him because the cremated corpse was not fully gone!
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6/10
Slightly rambling story.
alexanderdavies-9938227 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
John Feidler is very good in the leading role, he was a rock-solid character actor. He's having to carry this episode, the story being rambling and uninspired.

Feidler is a mortician who has struggled to make any money with his own funeral business. Following an unexpected development with the cause of death of his latest client, he attempts to profit by it... I couldn't quite follow the events in the plot and the final twist to the tale didn't rectify this.
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10/10
WHAT YOU NEED IS A DELUXE FUNERAL!
tcchelsey23 January 2024
Another classic featuring John Fiedler, one of the best actors to play the little guy who always gets stuck. Fiedler is Amos, a funeral director, who needs business! In steps a gentleman named Marvin (well played by veteran actor Ed Gardner), requesting a "quickie" funeral for his partner.

Amos naturally will take anything... although something sparks his attention, like a bullet in the corpse. Next, he plans to "negotiate" the ultra deluxe funeral package, that comes with a no questions asked price tag.

Sound like a plan?

Directed by Leonard J. Horn, who does a super job with his cast. Horn is best known for directing MANNIX and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. Ed Gardner is always fun to watch, best at playing Runyon-esque characters. He was a radio star in the 40s, and at one time married to actress Shirley Booth.

Dedicated to all of us John Fiedler fans. SEASON 7 EPISODE 25 remastered dvd box set.
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