A Personal Matter story
Joe Philips is lead engineer on a tunneling project in Mexico, and Bret Johnson mysteriously arrives to be his assistant for the project's last six weeks. One night Philips hears a radio newscast about an ongoing manhunt of an engineer who murdered his colleague; this prompts Philips to search through Johnson's things to find his true identity, but he is stopped when Johnson pulls a gun on him. Since there is no way to leave the site for six weeks, the men work together to finish the job, despite their suspicions of each other. The tunnel is completed one day before the deadline, and it is revealed that Philips is the murderer, and Johnson is the police officer who traveled there to arrest him. Directed by: Paul Henreid. Story by: Brett Halliday, Joel Murcott.
9 total · 6 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| boss and employee | major | The lead engineer Joe had no choice but to deal with his disgruntled assistant, Bret, in order to finish the tunnel digging project on schedule. |
| human in danger | major | The story concerned the dangers of digging a tunnel through a mountain. |
| law enforcement | major | It was revealed the end that Joe's assistant Bret was actually a cop who'd come to arrest him for murder. |
| mining and tunneling | major | The story concerned the dangers of digging a tunnel through a mountain. |
| murder | major | We understand that Joe had killed some contractor named Arthur Bronson (allegedly in self-defense) and was on the run from the law for murder. Bret was after him. |
| working together in spite of disagreement | major | Joe and Bret decided to try and work together despite not trusting each other. |
| catharsis | minor | In his monologue, Alfred Hitchcock spoke about alleviating one's antagonisms, i.e., blowing off steam. |
| medical occupation | minor | A doctor tended to Joe's wounds. |
| stress from being in danger | minor | Joe was clearly upset at having been put in harms way in the tunnels. |