The Better Bargain story
Mobster Louis Koster learns from a private investigator that his wife, Marion, is cheating on him. Koster hires hit man Harry Silver to kill her, but Koster is killed instead, because Silver is the man that Marion is having an affair with. Directed by: Herschel Daugherty. Story by: Richard Deming, Bernard C. Schoenfeld.
13 total · 7 major · 6 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| extramarital affair | major | Lois thought his wife was having an affair. |
| hitman occupation | major | Harry was a killer for hire and spoke at length about his profession, his feelings, and his fees. |
| husband and wife | major | Louis and Marion Koster. |
| love triangle | major | Louis, Marion, and Harry. |
| murder | major | Louis planned to have his wife's lover taken out by a hitman, but the hitman ended up taking him out instead. |
| poetic justice | major | Louis hired an assassin to kill his wife and her lover but through an ironic twist of fate, the chosen assassin was in fact himself the lover and elected to kill Louis. |
| spouse murder | major | Louis planned to have his wife taken out by a hitman. |
| master and pet | minor | Louis had a couple of birds in a cage and interacted with them briefly. |
| organized crime | minor | Louis was described as a mobster although he was now legitimate. Alfred Hitchcock spoke about gangsters. |
| poetry | minor | Harry recited part of a Francois Villon poem to Lois before telling Lois that he was going to kill him. |