Hitchcock didn't direct very many of his TV presentations. Usually his participation was limited to a few droll comments at the beginning and end of the episode, written for him by a guy named Alardyce or something like that. I'm too lazy to look it up.
However, he was behind the camera on this one, an efficiently told tale of a man defending himself in court against a manslaughter charge resulting from an auto accident for which he may or may not have been responsible.
The five eye witnesses think he was guilty of having run the stop sign, but one by one the defendant, John Forsythe, shows that at the time they were distracted by something else, except for the attractive and appealing Claire Griswold, whose career should have been better than it was.
Taking the stand as his own defense witness under oath, Forsythe carefully explains that, in fact, his sports car did stop as it should have at the stop sign and that the motorcyclist was unobservant and responsible for the accident. However, when the prosecutor asks Forsythe if he applied the brakes when approaching the stop sign, Forsythe clams up and tries to take the Fifth, which the judge advises him he can't do, since he voluntarily took the stand.
The ironic ending doesn't carry the twist of many of the other episodes in the series and lacks credibility. It worked better in "The Great Gatsby." You wouldn't know this was directed by Hitchcock, but what a cast they've assembled: Philip Ober, John Fiedler, Willis Bouchey, Kent Smith. You might not recognize the names but the actors are likely to be familiar.
However, he was behind the camera on this one, an efficiently told tale of a man defending himself in court against a manslaughter charge resulting from an auto accident for which he may or may not have been responsible.
The five eye witnesses think he was guilty of having run the stop sign, but one by one the defendant, John Forsythe, shows that at the time they were distracted by something else, except for the attractive and appealing Claire Griswold, whose career should have been better than it was.
Taking the stand as his own defense witness under oath, Forsythe carefully explains that, in fact, his sports car did stop as it should have at the stop sign and that the motorcyclist was unobservant and responsible for the accident. However, when the prosecutor asks Forsythe if he applied the brakes when approaching the stop sign, Forsythe clams up and tries to take the Fifth, which the judge advises him he can't do, since he voluntarily took the stand.
The ironic ending doesn't carry the twist of many of the other episodes in the series and lacks credibility. It worked better in "The Great Gatsby." You wouldn't know this was directed by Hitchcock, but what a cast they've assembled: Philip Ober, John Fiedler, Willis Bouchey, Kent Smith. You might not recognize the names but the actors are likely to be familiar.