First Class Honeymoon story
Edward Gibson, a recent divorcee, must make alimony payments of $2000 every month. One day an artist arrives at his house and offers to sell him a portrait of his ex-wife for $2500. Edward throws him out, but keeps the painting. Later Carl Seabrook arrives and tells Edward that he will marry his ex-wife if Edward gives him $10000. If Gloria is married, Edward will not have to pay alimony. Edward accepts the offer and pays Carl $5000 up front. Later that day, Edward heads over to his ex-wife's house. He wants to give her the painting as a wedding gift. At his ex-wife's, he discovers her dead of a heart attack. He later discovers that his ex-wife died earlier that morning and that Carl was with her at the time. After his ex-wife died Carl approached him with his offer. Cheated out of $5000, Edward angrily calls Carl only to discover that he has left town going on a first class honeymoon with a stunning new wife. Directed by: Don Weis. Story by: Henry Slesar.
13 total · 5 major · 8 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| coping with being in debt | major | Carl mislead Edward into thinking that Carl was desperate to pay off a $10,000 gambling debt. |
| coping with life issues | major | Edward was being "bled dry" (in his words) with $2000 monthly alimony payments. He agreed to pay Carl $10,000 to marry his ex-wife to get out of making the payments, and got conned out of $5,000 for his trouble. |
| divorce | major | The plot turned on the recently divorced Edward feeling aggrieved over the $2000 monthly alimony payments he was obliged to pay his ex-wife, Gloria. |
| husband and wife | major | Though never seen together, we learned much about Edward and Gloria's aborted matrimony. |
| murder | major | At the end of the story it was strongly implied that Carl had somehow brought about Gloria's premature death. |
| friendship | minor | Edward and Carl were old buddies of some sort. |
| master and servant | minor | Edward spoke with his maid on the subject of baseball. |
| newlywed couple | minor | The story concludes with Carl and his new bride happily heading off on their "first class honeymoon". |
| painting | minor | An artist representative stopped by Edward's residence to deliver a portrait painting of Edward's not-so-beloved (behated) ex-wife. |
| problem gambling | minor | Carl made it seem like he had a gambling problem. |