What Frightened You, Fred? story
Fred Riordan is a recent parole who gets into a bar fight and is thrown back into prison. The prison warden, who is also running for governor, and the prison doctor believe Fred is simply afraid to cope with the outside world. They try to find out why. Fred tells them that when he got out of prison he went to his old neighborhood and realized that no one wanted him around. He tells them that he was contacted by a mobster named Tony Wando who wanted him to kill an associate of his. Fred tells them that he pretended to go along with it, but arranged to go back to prison to get out of the deal. Warden Bragen feels sorry for Fred and arranges for him to get a comfortable desk job in the warden's office after a month of laundry detail and good behavior. This is perfect for Fred because it is Warden Bragen that he was in fact contracted to hit. Directed by: Paul Henreid. Story by: Jack Ritchie, Joel Murcott.
12 total · 1 choice · 2 major · 9 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| reintegrating into society | choice | The ex-con Fred was trying to get back on his feet after being released from a four year prison sentence. |
| law enforcement | major | The story depicts the parolee Fred's interactions with the police and prison staff. |
| organized crime | major | The gangster Tony Wando coerced the parolee Fred into agreeing to take out an associate. Fred promptly got himself thrown back into prison as a way out of the arrangement. |
| alcohol abuse | minor | Fred got drunk and smashed a bar window. |
| dancing | minor | In his sketch, Alfred Hitchcock was tracking down a dancing escaped convict with the help of a cha-cha-cha-ing bloodhound. |
| medical occupation | minor | The prison psychiatrist speculated that the recently paroled Fred purposely got himself thrown back into prison because he couldn't cope with the outside world. |
| murder | minor | The story ended with a strong implication that Fred would follow Tony's order to murder the prison. |
| old flames | minor | After getting paroled, Fred approached his former love interest, Mae, only to find out that she'd moved on. |
| professional politics | minor | Warden Bragan was running for governor. |
| robbery | minor | Fred spent four years behind bars for holding up a gas station. |