The Thirty-First of February story
A widower is driven insane by a series of events following his wife's passing. Directed by: Alf Kjellin. Story by: Julian Symons (novel), Richard Matheson (teleplay).
18 total · 1 choice · 11 major · 6 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| descent into madness | choice | The stress from being hounded as a suspect for his wife's tragic accident caused Andrew to become gradually more erratic, make mistakes at work, and ultimately go completely off the rails. |
| boss and employee | major | The company president Mr. Vincent became increasingly worried by Andrew's erratic behavior, and ultimately tried to compel him into taking a leave of absence from work. Andrew became romantically involved with his secretary, Molly O'Rourke. |
| coping with stress at work | major | The stress from being hounded as a suspect for his wife's tragic accident caused Andrew to become gradually more erratic, make mistakes at work, and finally go completely insane. |
| coping with the death of a spouse | major | Andrew had been off for several weeks due to the tragic death of his wife. He used this as an excuse for mistakes he made several times. |
| cracking under pressure | major | The stress from being hounded as a suspect for his wife's tragic accident caused Andrew to become gradually more erratic, make mistakes at work, and finally go completely insane. |
| extramarital affair | major | Andrew came to believe Valerie had been cheating on him with someone who was subsequently hounding him about Valerie's untimely death. |
| husband and wife | major | Andrew and Valerie were central to the story. |
| law enforcement | major | The single-minded Sergeant Cresse was determined to prove that Andrew had deliberately pushed his wife down the stairs to her death. Andrew was ultimately exonerated of suspicion, but not before he went insane from the stress of Cresse's witch hunt. |
| persecution complex | major | Andrew became gradually more erratic and paranoid as he thought his late wife had had a lover who was now hounding him because of her death. |
| spouse murder | major | Andrew was hounded as a suspected spouse murderer, though in the end he was exonerated of suspicion. |