User Reviews

John McGiver appears here in yet another episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". He owns a funeral parlor and is thrilled when a lawyer visits and announces that a newly deceased department store owner has died and the family insists on an ultra-lavish and expensive funeral! Naturally, the owner is thrilled! But imagine his surprise when he's preparing the body and the dead guy wakes up and demands a super-cheap funeral instead!

This really is all there is to the story...no big twist, nothing other than the guy briefly comes back to life (was he really dead in the first place??) to ask for a cheap funeral. A missed opportunity to me...it should have had a more interesting twist...and a funnier one.

Norman Lloyd directed nineteen 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' episodes, was a producer for most of the series' run and even acted in five episodes (his biggest role being in "Design for Loving"). His output was very up and down, but not unwatchable. His third episode "Six People, No Music" had an intriguing premise, that is very Hitchcockian-sounding, and an intriguing title. 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' did quite a lot of light hearted, played for laughs episodes and a number of them are done very well.

"Six People, No Music" is not a great episode, or a particularly good one. It is definitely watchable, particularly for the lead performance, but it is a case of the lead performance being better than the film itself and did feel very average. It is not one of Lloyd's worst episodes and it is much better than the very weak previous Lloyd-directed episode "Safety of the Witness", but there were certainly far better episodes in Season 4 (which did have a high number of very good and more episodes).

There are definitely good things. John McGiver is very good and has amusing comic timing and priceless reactions and facial expressions, that didn't come over as mugging, making the most of his larger than life character. Peggy Cass does a lot with her role. Hitchcock's bookending is suitably dry humoured. The theme tune is a classic and fits the macabre tone of the series really well.

It is well made visually, simple but slick and not too stagy. There is some nice irony here and there.

However, "Six People, No Music" is deeply flawed, mostly story related. It is very bland, apart from moments of amusing irony, with a severe lack of suspense. The assistant felt like padding and everything with the dead man eventually became too silly to take seriously, even for a played for laughs kind of episode. Pace-wise, the episode never really comes to life and feels very pedestrian.

With too much padding and a script that is too heavy on the talk, not all of it interesting or tight enough. Lloyd's direction is very undistinguished and the ending is not much of one and has an anti-climactic feel, will admit to actually completely forgetting what it was very soon after watching.

Bottom line, watchable as a one time watch but only just achieves average level thanks to McGiver. 5/10.

Interesting, funny episode. Veteran actor John McGiver is Mr. Motherwell and Peggy Cass (from To Tell The Truth and other 1950's and 1960's game shows) plays his wife.

The 30-minutes is played strictly for laughs and is likely a matter of taste for viewers.

Middle-aged Motherwell (McGiver) runs a funeral parlor that's tapped by a high-powered legal firm to conduct an elaborate funeral for prominent citizen Barryvale (Smith). It means a big boost for the modest parlor, but then the subject is wheeled in for preparation, and....

McGiver manages more lugubrious mugs per second than a race car does rpm's, which is fine since there's not much else going on. And catch Joby Baker's assistant's role that has all the earmarks of a time-filler. Good to see familiar TV face Peggy Cass as Motherwell's wife. Together, they're a perfect match. But the best thing may be Hitch's wrap-around. I'm still wondering how they did it.

Usually really enjoy this series. However this one leaves me cold (no pun intended)and left wondering what the point of it was. No closing twist at all and no consequences of the undertakers actions. I felt I was watching something that ended before it had finished. Not a satisfying episode at all.

I'm watching these for the first time and have no pre-conceptions and generally love them. I just didn't think this story ever got going and of all the episodes I've watched from Season 1 - Season 4 to date this is the biggest miss for me. I'd agree with the other reviews that the assistant seems to be little more than padding and goes nowhere in the end.

This is one of my very favorite episodes of this series. One of the joys of Alfred Hitchcock is his unpredictability, surrealism, and sardonic sense of humor, and all are on full display in this episode, both in the wraparound sequence with Hitchcock himself, and in the actual story. This episode is based on a wonderful short story by playwright Garson Kanin entitled "The Damnedest Thing". (This would actually have been a better title for this episode, but in 1959, it would have been hard to even utter the word "damnedest" on network television!) John McGiver gives a wonderful comic performance as the undertaker. He is in virtually very scene, and his reactions are priceless. Peggy Cass, Howard Smith, and Joby Baker offer excellent comic support, but McGiver is the heart and soul of this episode. Direction by Norman Lloyd is inspired. I think this story is best viewed as a supernatural black comedy rather than the more typical suspense, murder or crime story that made up the bulk of episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". One of the joys of this series is its unpredictability, and this surreal episode is a prime example of this.

Never seen anyone mix up Peggy Cass and Shirley Booth before.

This is a chance for John McGiver as an undertaker to show off his eccentricities. When he finds an extremely expensive funeral of a business tycoon falls in his lap, he begins to see dollar signs. His wife, played by Shirley Booth, tries to council him. You see, before the man could be prepped, he actually came back to life and told McGiver he wanted the cheapest, most basic funeral he had to offer. McGiver and his wife are faced with their greed and the wishes of the "dead" man. There is a red herring in all of this. There is a young assistant who becomes involved with the whole thing. The weird part is that other than a bit of an annoyance, he plays no part in the scheme of things. There's also very little suspense. The fact that the dead man is able to make his wishes known makes everything so outrageous that it's hard to evaluate on a normal level. Watch it and see what you think. Very forgettable, in my opinion.

...in a mostly excellent series by the master, Alfred Hitchcock. The plot isn't particularly well written in that the main sub-plot--the undertaker's understudy's effort to get a part of the undertaker's business--is never paid off and amounts to a time-wasting diversion that feels more like a writer's wandering pen than a coherent and consistent script. John McGiver plays the lead character ("Motherwell," the undertaker). McGiver's character shows extreme deference and awe at the mere presence of the corpse of Local Dignitary Stanton Barryvale.

Worth watching, but not prioritizing. Season 4 itself has many episodes including the preceding two that are much better done than Six People, No Music, which is flat throughout.

Dedicated to all us John McGiver fans, and Hitch obviously was one of them. Also, Hitchcock's old pal, Norman Lloyd, directed this episode and later served as executive producer. You probably could call this a macabre family show.

McGiver is spot on as a depressed local undertaker, leading a fairly uneventful life -- until fabulously wealthy businessman Howard Smith drops dead. McGiver (playing Mr. Motherwell) sees a substantial windfall from his death, an expensive funeral with all the trimmings that will bring in a tidy profit and future business. He has a point.

In typical Hitch fantasy fashion, the old geezer wakes up (temporarily, of course), to remind the doting mortician about the value of dollar, the CHEAPER the funeral the better. Actually, when you think about it, this could have also been a TWILIGHT ZONE episode, it's that outrageous.

Both leads pull this off beautifully. Howard Smith, a veteran of many classic movies and tv shows, compliments John McGiver and they make a morbid team, probably what Hitch was looking for.

Popular actress and game show panelist Peggy Cass has a smaller role as McGiver's wife, but also very effective, sort of her husband's sounding board.

Lessons learned: when you're dead your dead. And wait for the neat ending. Hitch has a super gag closing you do not want to miss. Inspired by a short story from Garson Kanin and written by Richard Berg, who later became a top tv producer.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 13 remastered Universal dvd box set. 5 dvds. Released 2008.