Plot

Clerk Ronald Grimes starts receiving letters from a mysterious Mr. Christiani that seemingly predict the future.

One day, Ronald Grimes receives a letter from a Mr. Christiani who says he can predict the future. The letter correctly predicts the outcome of an upcoming election. More letters follow and through gambling, Grimes acquires a large amount of money. A final letter from Christiani asks for a contribution. Grimes gives it quite willingly.—Anonymous / edited by Rob

Alfred Hitchcock appears in the prologue as an executive looking out his window in his high-rise office as if someone had fallen out. His windows are wide open and the ledge is low so someone could easily jump out. He says, "Hello, speculators. I just made a 'killing' in the stock market. He makes a joke of how he did it by telling his partner that they had been wiped out and because he was a very excitable fellow. It provides a background for tonight's story of stocks and bonds.

The story opens in a busy New York high-rise office with many desks lined up neatly in assembly line fashion. The prim secretary routinely walks up to hand out another piece of work even though the workers are still working on previous work. We see that two workers, one named Ronald J. Grimes (E.G. Marshall) and the other, George Benedict (Jack Klugman) are already disgusted even though their work day has just begun. Grimes complains that after seventeen years, they should be trusted to open their own mail and grumbles that the trouble with the office is the workers have no power of decision. Immediately, we are placed in the role of office grunt in a life of tedious drudgery. Benedict retorts, "There is only one power. They throw the switch and start the assembly line," as he goes back to his work. They probably had this type of conversation before as Benedict explains they are very small cogs in a very large machine. He states they get the raw materials here and somewhere down the line the money pours out except they never see any of it. Grimes boldly declares that someday he's going to walk out of there and stop the 'blasted' machinery and slams his desk drawer shut. The other workers are surprised by Grimes' outburst and try to get back to their jobs. Benedict goes over to Grimes and tells him that he's being delusional and that he can be replaced easily by slipping in another cog in an hour and nobody would know that he was gone. Grimes rebels by stating that they'll be shook up for an hour anyway, but Benedict says that they'll take up a collection for his partner's headstone that reads he starved to death. "I'd get another job," retorts Grimes, but Benedict ends by saying the only way to beat the system is to inherit a million dollars as their supervisor walks up. He hands Grimes a letter and complains about receiving personal mail at the office, but he turns and walks away as Grimes is apologetic and explains that he cannot understand why it was sent there.

Grimes opens the letter and discover it is a letter from a stranger who has psychic and prophetic abilities, but cannot use the power for himself so has to work through others. Benedict goes over to Grimes and says, "So that's how you're going to beat the system. Marry a rich widow." Grimes says it's not a woman and hands him the letter from a 'Joel Cristiani' as somebody's idea of a joke.

In the next scene, the two friends from work are at a restaurant for dinner and Grimes is late because of the rain. He wants to go to the warm Bahamas, but Benedict says that's a dream and to forget it. He states that he got another letter from J. Cristiani, the man who can foretell the future. Benedict thinks he's pulling his leg. Grimes says he was right about the election the biggest political upset in years. He admits that he was wrong about it being a political scheme because Cristiani sent him another prediction of the winner of the championship fight coming up. Benedict says he can call the fight himself as the champ will win by knockout. Grimes states that Cristiani said the winner will be the challenger. Benedict can't believe it because he knows about boxing. Cristiani also wrote that he could get very good odds. Benedict agrees that he can, but not to do it as it will be throwing away money. He says that Cristiani was lucky about predicting the election. Benedict warns his friend Grimes that no one can predict the future; it's impossible.

Later, we see Grimes stop off at a bar where the fight is on and there's still time to bet because he wants to bet on the challenger. He strikes up a conversation with a woman excited to see the champion is pulverizing the weak challenger. Just as she states it's too late to bet on the champion unless you want to bet on the challenger, we see that the challenger starts to come back and gets in a lucky right-hand punch that puts the champion down. The champ is counted out and challenger Matthews has won. Incredible. The woman says Grimes is lucky that he was late to bet on the champion, but he exclaims that he wanted to bet on Matthews. She gives him a very puzzled look.

The two workers are back at the office and there has been a time jump. Benedict walks by and asks, "Another one?" and Grimes replies in the affirmative. He says that it has been four or five letters and prophecies. Benedict finally let's out that this is the craziest thing he's ever heard of and asks when Grimes is going to get some sense. This upsets Grimes and he breaks his pencil. Benedict says it's none of his business but doesn't want his friend to be a chump and be duped in a scam. Grimes retorts "Am I a chump?" Benedict says that he's been betting on the predictions, so he's being a chump. He's very serious in warning Grimes. However, Grimes says that while he missed betting on the first two of Cristani predictions, he's been betting since and that Cristani has been right for five straight predictions. He states that this proves that he can foretell the future while Benedict remains skeptical and gives an emphatic "No!" and that Grimes is being set up for a bigger swindle. It's only a phenomenal run of good luck with the predictions. The law of averages will beat him in the end. However, Grimes is convinced that Cristiani knows the future. Benedict again tries to talk some sense into Grimes, but Grimes is convinced. He has made almost $700. Benedict says that's fine, but Grimes has to quit while he's still ahead.

The following scene takes place at the restaurant again and Grimes is holding another letter from Cristiani. He wants advice from his friend, but Benedict says no thanks. He can predict what coming from Grimes. He says he tried to give advice once before and was ignored. Grimes hands him the latest letter to read, but he doesn't want to touch it. Grimes finally ends up explaining that Cristani finally wants something and again explains that he cannot use his power of prophecy for himself, but the addressee can. He wants to get some money sent to a PO Box as a sign of gratitude in the sharing of their good fortune. We find from Grimes that he's up to winning $1000 now. Even Benedict whistles at how lucky his friend has been. At the end of the letter, Cristani states that as a token of his appreciation for sharing the good luck, he will send another letter with a prediction of a stock that will return on investment ten-fold. Grimes is both excited and unsure of what to do. Benedict says that he doesn't have to send any money back to share as it was an unsolicited solicitation. He tells Grimes that it's bait and switch, an old con game. Yet, Grimes cannot believe that because of Cristani being right six-times-in-a-row. Benedict says to forget this bigger gamble. Grimes says that he's flat broke because he's already spent the money. It was easy come, easy go, but he left $200 to send to the prophet for the big payoff. Finally, Benedict says that he's got $600 in the bank for something good, but won't lend one thin dime for a 'hare-brained' scheme like what Grimes just explained. Grimes states that he wasn't going to ask for a loan, but he wants to get his hands on some real money, big money for only a couple of days as once he makes his profit, then he will sell his investment. Benedict quickly realizes what Grimes is considering and tells Grimes that he isn't going to retire in the Bahamas, but Sing Sing prison. Grimes denies what Benedict is saying. Benedict continues that he's thinking about taking the company funds for the weekend, but warns that when the following Tuesday comes around Grimes won't have the money to pay it back. Benedict admits that he doesn't understand how Cristani has been right for so many times, but he again states that predicting the future is a scientific impossibility. After Benedict leaves in disgust at Grimes' behavior, we see that Grimes has a check made out to J. Cristani for $200 and he places in an envelope addressed as instructed and the screen fades to black.

Act 2 opens at the office where this episode began, but Grimes acts nervously signaling what he is about to do. The secretary brings over the Smithfield file in a long metal box that looks like a safe deposit box. She waits to get it back once Grimes is done, but he says that he'll return it himself. She is taken aback and looks over his shoulder on what Grimes is going to do. Grimes pauses to look back over his shoulder so she leaves. Grimes opens the box and we see there are refunding bonds that are funds held to help pay back a debt, so it has immediate cash value. The viewer can see that Benedict, who sits immediately behind Grimes, has paid attention to what is happening since the secretary brought over the safe deposit box. Once he sees that Grimes is going to call to place his order, he gets up to give Grimes a long disapproving look before going into the men's room. Grimes again rejects his advice and makes the call to his stock broker to place an order. He finds the price of the mining stock is $0.30 and he orders 100,000 shares on margin. He asks if negotiable bonds are acceptable to complete the transaction and then nods he will bring them over before closing. He nervously hangs up looking a bit pale like someone who knows what he's done is wrong. He imagines that his plan didn't materialize as predicted and he's written a letter of explanation that sounds like a suicide note.

The next scene is at the office again and Grimes confesses to Benedict that he bought 100,000 shares on margin which cost $15,000. We find that the stock has dropped its value by $0.03 per share. Grimes optimistically says it could go up, but his demeanor is not so convincing anymore. We find that he's carrying a bottle of poison for what to do if this happened. Grimes has risked it all on Cristani's stock pick. He's all alone with his conscience. He walks into the rest room to take the pills, but his supervisor comes in to tell him his phone is ringing.

We next see that Grimes hasn't much time left until closing. He is extremely nervous now and sicklier looking. He calls his broker and Benedict is paying attention to what's happening and then Grimes says that he'll wait until the last minute to sell the stock and complete his transaction. Time passes very ominously as Grimes calls his broker again. He asks for the quotation on his stock again and then executes another order to sell all of it. He ends up going to the rest room and this time Benedict sees what Grimes has pulled out of his pocket. He rushes in to stop him and we see that Grimes has dropped the pills into the sink. He says that he sold all of his stocks for $1.40/share, a total of $140,000. Grimes made a profit of $125,000 in a few days. What incredible luck. Grimes attributes it to faith to Benedict and he tells him to tell the company to get a new cog for the machine as he's not coming back. We see that Grimes has made it to the Bahamas in the end.

The final scene shows Benedict talking with a police detective about finding a J. Cristani. We find from the detective that Cristani was a con man who sent out thousands of letters to potential victims and changed the outcome in his letters. Thus, some of them were bound to turn out right. The con was to get the winners to send him money and they did like Grimes. It turned out that Benedict was justified in his beliefs that the letters were a con all along, and Grimes just got lucky in winning all his predictions.

In the epilogue, Alfred Hitchock returns to say good by and he takes his noted hat and umbrella and tosses them out the window, but he walks away to return another day.