The Gentleman Caller story
A couple hide their stolen money in an old woman's high-rise apartment and their plan to have her committed backfires when the police are called. Directed by: Joseph M. Newman. Story by: James Bridges.
14 total · 1 choice · 7 major · 6 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| how to commit a crime and get away with it | choice | The main point of the story is to present the following "clever" (albeit preposterous) idea for how to wash illegitimate money: Hide it among the possessions of an old recluse and contrive to have that recluse bequeath said possessions to you. Then murder the recluse without getting caught. |
| aunt and nephew | major | Though not blood relation, Emmy and Gerald pretended to be aunt and nephew because it pleased them to do so. |
| coping with senility | major | Miss Emmy Wright had become stereotypically forgetful in her twilight years. Her olfactory sense, however, was as good as it had ever been or better. |
| false friend | major | Gerald befriended the elderly Miss Emmy Wright for no other purpose than to use her as a mark in his money laundering scheme. |
| husband and wife | major | Gerald and Milly Musgrove. |
| loneliness | major | Emmy was a lonely old woman who had nobody to care for her. She liked to go to singalongs in the park and strangers funerals for companionship. Gerald later took advantage of this vulnerability for his nefarious purposes. |
| murder | major | Gerald made three unsuccessful attempts on Emmy's life: he botched shoving her down the stairs, he set her up to get hit by a car, and he left the gas on in her apartment. Milly was involved in the latter two attempts. Gerald shot dead a night watchman. |
| the need for companionship | major | Emmy was a lonely old woman who had nobody to care for her. She liked to go to singalongs in the park and strangers funerals for companionship. Gerald later took advantage of this vulnerability for his nefarious purposes. |
| bank robbery | minor | The story kicks off with Gerald and Milly stealing $100,000 from a bank safe. The rest of the tale centers around Gerald's efforts to find a safe keeping place for the money. |
| domestic violence | minor | Gerald sent his woman flying onto the bed with a backhand slap. He laid hands on her twice thereafter. They both made reference to his general habit of slapping her around and it was pointedly clear that she was accustomed to being treated thus. |