While Alfred Hitchcock himself directed about a dozen and a half episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", he only directed one from the one hour series, "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour"...and this is it. In fact, according to IMDB, it's his last television directorial credit.
When the story begins, a person on a motorcycle is struck by Michael Barnes' (John Forsythe) car. Foolishly, he drives off...but turns himself in soon after. Unfortunately, the driver of the motorcycle died...and Michael does something which seems foolish....he represents himself in court! Amazingly, he is able to do a remarkable job defending himself.
This episode is interesting because it calls into question the notion of eyewitness testimony. Research has shown that such testimony is notoriously poor...and it makes you wonder how many have been convicted because of mistaken identifications or mistaken interpretations of what folks saw. My only complaint is from accident to the completion of the trial went WAY too fast...only a day or two...which really makes no sense. HOWEVER, the episode was so good, that I could easily overlook this. Very well written and a clever twist.
By the way, something VERY strange happened as I watched this episode on the Roku Channel...the closed captioning for "I Saw the Whole Thing" were those from a previous episode "Don't Look Behind You"!
When the story begins, a person on a motorcycle is struck by Michael Barnes' (John Forsythe) car. Foolishly, he drives off...but turns himself in soon after. Unfortunately, the driver of the motorcycle died...and Michael does something which seems foolish....he represents himself in court! Amazingly, he is able to do a remarkable job defending himself.
This episode is interesting because it calls into question the notion of eyewitness testimony. Research has shown that such testimony is notoriously poor...and it makes you wonder how many have been convicted because of mistaken identifications or mistaken interpretations of what folks saw. My only complaint is from accident to the completion of the trial went WAY too fast...only a day or two...which really makes no sense. HOWEVER, the episode was so good, that I could easily overlook this. Very well written and a clever twist.
By the way, something VERY strange happened as I watched this episode on the Roku Channel...the closed captioning for "I Saw the Whole Thing" were those from a previous episode "Don't Look Behind You"!