One Grave Too Many story
Irene and Joe Helmer are in dire financial straits. One night Joe sees a man collapse and, thinking him dead, steals his wallet. Later Joe finds a card in the man's wallet stating that the man suffered from a cataleptic illness that only looks like death. Joe goes to the police to confess and save the man, only to learn that the dead man is a pickpocket and that the wallet was stolen from someone else. Directed by: Arthur Hiller. Story by: Henry Slesar, Eli Jerome.
10 total · 6 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| coping with being unemployed | major | Joe couldn't find a job that he felt wasn't beneath him. |
| desperation | major | Joe and Irene were hard up and in desperate need of some money to pay the bills. |
| facing financial ruin | major | Joe and Irene Helmet were in dire financial straits owing to Joe being unemployed. |
| helping a stranger in need | major | The ethical dilemma at the heart of this story was weather Joe should risk his own liberty by going to the police with the information that the dead man he lifted a wallet from was not really dead. |
| husband and wife | major | Joe and Irene Helmer were hard up for money. |
| theft | major | Joe stole a money-laden wallet from a recently dropped dead man. It was later revealed that the dead man was in fact a pickpocket who'd stolen the wallet from someone else. |
| big banking in society | minor | Was saw a nefarious usurious banker refuse to give Joe money. Later Joe complained that "they don't give you money unless you can prove you don't need it". |
| golf | minor | In his monologue, Alfred Hitchcock was on the golf course in a horse drawn chariot in lieu of a motorized cart. |
| great need vs. breaking the law | minor | Joe thought twice before taking a wallet from a seemingly dead man because he need to pay the bills and was out of work. |
| law enforcement | minor | Joe admitted to the police to having taken the wallet from an apparently dead man. |