User Reviews

"One Grave Too Many" is a fine entry, centering on poverty stricken Joe Helmer (Jeremy Slate), who has been out of work for three months, as wife Irene (Neile Adams) informs him that the electricity has just been shut off. Spending most of his time attending the cinema, Joe now tries to get a loan of $100, but the manager (Howard McNear) is unable to comply. Walking the streets, Joe sees an older man collapse of an apparent heart attack, his wallet revealing a total of $250 in cash, which Joe steals. Telling his wife he'd collected on an old debt from an army buddy, any chance to rejoice is scuttled when he discovers a card in the now empty wallet, stating that its owner is not dead, merely a victim of catalepsy. Neile Adams is best remembered for the Hitchcock episode "Man from the South," co-starring with her husband, Steve McQueen.

I'm skimming reviews and see some criticism for the title. It honestly makes sense to me. You might not see graves in this episode but the deceased man will be going to his grave and Joe's actions in this episode makes me think of the quote about digging your own grave. Exactly what will happen to Joe after the events of this episode? More on this later.

Let's get to the guts of the story. Our story centers on two characters named Joe and Irene. They're really struggling financially. Irene doesn't work and Joe doesn't want to work. Irene's fed up and this is part of what I'm saying about what will happen to Joe after the events of this episode....will he even have a wife to go back to? A lot of modern minds will probably scoff at the idea of Irene not having a job if they're hurting for money that much. I point out the time frame and don't let that interrupt me from enjoying the episode. But at the end of the day, Joe's making his wife suffer because of his actions. The financial struggle is bad enough that certain things are being cut off. They lost their electricity due to not paying the bill. Joe scoffs at it while Irene's angry and she honestly can see why they got cut off because the bill hadn't been paid in 3 months.

I'm somebody that felt sympathy towards Irene when she's open enough with Joe to say that she's so ashamed. Money problems don't exactly make you feel proud so I do get it.

Irene floats the idea about asking for help from her brother and Joe shuts that down rather quickly. He tells Irene that he'll try and get a loan. Needless to say that didn't end well for Joe. It was his turn to be shut down for trying to get a loan for $100.00.

Joe considers it his lucky day when a man falls out and Joe ends up swiping the man's whole wallet. After all, the man looks dead and dead men don't need money. Joe goes back and tells Irene he didn't get the loan but he does have money. He waves it in her face and lies to her about how he got the money. The two are pleased about having some money so they can get stuff turned back on and be able to get their charge accounts back. It's decided the two will go out to eat in order to celebrate. Joe tells Irene to put on her blue dress and they'll go get a steak dinner.

Neither one makes it to that steak dinner. Joe finds a card that supposedly belongs to the dead man and it's a card warning he has a health condition. He might look dead but he isn't and to please call his doctor if you find his body. Joe freaks and leaves the apartment.

Joe goes to a pay phone and tries to get ahold of this guy's doctor. He reaches an answering service instead. Joe ends up trying to call the cops to tell them that this dead man that was taken away isn't really dead. Of course they don't take him seriously and think he's on a bender and making goof calls. Joe ends up going back to his apartment and Irene's madder than ever. This is truly somebody on the end up her rope when it concerns her marriage imo.

Joe's really about to out himself now. He goes down to the police department and of course it's easily memorable for somebody to be calling in talking about a dead person not really being dead. They recognize the story and of course Joe can't just reveal that tidbit and let it go. How do you know about this card? Joe has to reveal what his real intentions were. And then Joe's about to get a shocker. The wallet he swiped didn't even belong to the man that died. The dead man was committing his own crimes so Joe basically was jumping through all these hoops for nothing. Going back to the thoughts I was voicing earlier, exactly what kind of legal punishment will Joe get because of his actions? Joe dug his own grave. I get the title.

Anyway, this is another excellent episode I'd highly recommend.

This story turns Joe Helmer (Jeremy Slate) into an emotional roller coaster after the unemployed young man happens upon someone who just collapsed and appears to be dead. Figuring no harm done when he takes the man's wallet, Joe returns home with a windfall of two hundred seventy five bucks, and after offering to take his wife (Neile Adams) out for dinner, discovers a medical emergency card in the wallet describing the guy's cataleptic illness which mimics death. Now saddled with guilt, Joe returns to the spot where he originally found the man, and sees that an ambulance has taken the body away, and he's unable to convince a patrol cop that the man might not be dead. When he finally goes to the police station, he unburdens himself with the story of the wallet and is taken down to the morgue to identify the man who he thought was dead. But in a dramatic turnabout, the corpse belongs to a well known petty thief and pickpocket known well by the local cops. All's well doesn't end well for poor old Joe, because now he has a lot more explaining to do, and it doesn't look like he'll be able to do it.