Gene Evans, a World War II hero and all-around nice guy in real life, could play some nasty fellows when given the chance. In "The Kerry Blue," he plays a rotten-to-the-core husband who continually abuses his wife (a beleaguered Carmen Mathews) and cares more for his dog "Annie," an old Kerry Blue. After returning from a business trip, Evans finds out that his precious doggie has died and that his wife has already buried the old girl. To put it mildly, Evans doesn't believe a word of it even though the obvious circumstances bear out the truth of his wife's statements. But because his wife didn't consult with a veterinarian first, he believes that the dog was still alive when she buried him. His lack of any respect for his wife (bordering on outright hatred), coupled with the misplaced love of his late pooch, blinds him to reality and poor Ms. Mathews takes the brunt of his anger. She soon gets pummeled with a vicious back-hander from Evans. To make matters worse for her, Evans sets out to even the score and throw her into an early grave. He decides to empty a bottle of crushed up sleeping pills into her nightly cup of cocoa and put her to sleep forever. His plans almost come to fruition until a familiar bark in the backyard piques his interest and simultaneously ends his murderous ways. "The Kelly Blue" is all about spousal abuse, a familiar Hitchcock subject and one that was used as a plot device on his show many times over. Evans does a fine job as a complete monster of a husband who deserves to be ripped apart by Rottweilers. Carmen Mathews is also excellent as his put-upon wife who doesn't have the right temperament to challenge her husband and put a stop to his callousness. Luckily for her, Evans is his own worst enemy and he ends up getting what's coming to him as the curtain closes on this episode.
7 Reviews
Good ending
MoviesRT26 March 2014
Warning: Spoilers
A man is so fond of his dog that he treats his wife as a second class citizen. When she ends up having to bury the dog while he's out of town, he never gets over it and plots to kill her and make her go through what he thinks the dog went through. Needless to say it doesn't end the way he thought it would.
This is a good example of just rewards, but unfortunately it fits in real well with the way people in today's society care more for animals than people. I think the animal rights people have created this belief.
Nowadays we would find an organization like Peta taking the side of the man for his obsessive love of his pet, yet we all see how insane it is for a person to prefer animals to humans.
This episode stands out as very different from most of the rest. I've watched nearly every episode and a great majority of them deal with infidelity and insurance scams. This is the only one I can think of involving a pet.
I liked the way it turned out.
This is a good example of just rewards, but unfortunately it fits in real well with the way people in today's society care more for animals than people. I think the animal rights people have created this belief.
Nowadays we would find an organization like Peta taking the side of the man for his obsessive love of his pet, yet we all see how insane it is for a person to prefer animals to humans.
This episode stands out as very different from most of the rest. I've watched nearly every episode and a great majority of them deal with infidelity and insurance scams. This is the only one I can think of involving a pet.
I liked the way it turned out.
This man has issues...serious issues
planktonrules21 April 2021
Gene Evans stars as Ned, a truly disturbed man who is WAY too obsessed with his pet Kerry Blue Terrier. When the story begins, there's something obviously wrong with the dog, as it stopped eating. Despite being totally obsessed with the animal, Ned must go out of town on business. When he returns, he learns from his wife that the dog had died...and he insists that the dog WASN'T dead. But there's no evidence that the animal was still alive and it was sick...and soon you realize that Ned is also very sick! Now he wants revenge on the wife...and it's obvious he's gone off the deep end.
This is an okay episode. The twist isn't exactly shocking and what happens to him seems less ironic and more like something out of left field. Not bad but also not a very inspired show. I guess you can't win 'em all.
This is an okay episode. The twist isn't exactly shocking and what happens to him seems less ironic and more like something out of left field. Not bad but also not a very inspired show. I guess you can't win 'em all.
"You buried my dog alive!"
classicsoncall4 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Gene Evans, who portrayed many a villain in Movie and TV Westerns, was probably never more vicious than in this study of a man obsessed with his thirteen year old dog, a Kerry Blue named Annie. He's so fixated on the dog that he might as well have been married to it instead of his wife (Carmen Mathews), who has to endure the indignity of his insults and abuse. While Ned Malley (Evans) is away on a business trip, Annie dies, and upon his return, wife Thelma is afraid to break the news. Her husband's reaction is probably even worse than expected; he doesn't believe the dog was dead when Thelma buried it, even with the veterinarian's testimonial. Well, as no good deed goes unpunished, Ned meets his fateful demise when he hears the barking of a replacement pooch that Thelma got for him, right after he attempted to poison her with an overdose of sleeping pills! Thelma's revenge would have been sweet if she had anything to do with it, but in this case, Hitchcock didn't have to conclude the program with a usual dire circumstance for one of the story's characters. So excited was Ned upon seeing the new Kerry Blue, he never looked where he was going.
Note: Check that scene when Ned returns from his business trip and Thelma offers him some coffee - he pours it out of a thermos!! Who does that?
Note: Check that scene when Ned returns from his business trip and Thelma offers him some coffee - he pours it out of a thermos!! Who does that?
Too Believable
Hitchcoc4 June 2021
The man in this episode is a monster. It's one thing to fixate on a pet, another to live for it, day after day. He abuses his wife. We can see the terror on her face as she tries to tell him the sad story of the old dog's death. She knows there will be reprisals. I have to say, I was really satisfied with the conclusion because he lost in every respect.
An unhappy marriage with a dog in the middle
glitterrose10 July 2022
I think an episode like this one realistically shows some people shouldn't get married. It's hard looking at Ned and Thelma and picturing them ever being happily married. Ned is truly happiest around his dog while Thelma doesn't really have a source to bring her happiness or joy. So I can imagine there's a lot of people that will watch this episode and they'll think of it from a modern point of view. 'I wouldn't put up with coming second place to a dog.' A person might not be happy in one scenario but what's the alternative? It's like I said on Fatal Figures for why the sister was acting so threatened by her brother finding a woman. Another woman in the house might mean the sister would be kicked out and she'd have to get a job to take care of herself. I can see being intimidated by that and I can see why Thelma would keep putting up with Ned's nonsense in this episode.
So let's get to it. Our episode centers on a married couple named Ned and Thelma. Ned has a Kerry Blue dog named Annie. Ned is absolutely devoted to Annie. He pays more attention to Annie than to his own wife. Ned pampers Annie beyond imagination. I won't say anything negative about that. I'm a cat person and my cats are spoiled rotten. I can honestly sympathize with Ned during certain parts of the episode but I'll also say he went completely overboard.
Anyway, Ned has to go on a business trip and when he comes back, he hears that Annie passed away. Ned's devastated. I get it. A lot of people might consider a pet to just be a pet but some of us consider our pets to be members of the family. Ned takes his grief into overdrive and he acts very ugly to Thelma. He makes wild accusations against Thelma. He claims Thelma buried Annie alive! One truly also has to have compassion towards Thelma. She's really catching it. Ned even slaps her. She tries to explain to Ned that Annie was old. She was like an old woman! Ned's not having it or listening. Ned hatches up a plan...
Ned goes off to a doctor and he's saying he's having trouble sleeping and he's just gotta get something to help him sleep. He's given medicine and he can take his idea a step further. I must admit Thelma probably should've been VERY suspicious about Ned offering to do anything special for her. The way he's been acting, why would he prepare anything for her? But I guess Thelma's so hard up that she considers that maybe her husband is turning over a new leaf and will start being kind to her. Not today. Ned has put the sleeping medicine in Thelma's drink and it's working. Ned goes back into rant mode. Maybe Thelma will see what Annie went through about being buried alive.
Ned hears a noise and goes outside. It's a Kerry Blue dog and he thinks it's Annie. He stumbles over some stuff piled up and ends up taking a face plant into concrete. Thankfully neighbors heard what was going on and that's how drugged up Thelma got help on the inside of the house.
Thelma explains she got Ned another Kerry Blue, which I honestly think was a dangerous idea imo. Just because the dog is another Kerry Blue doesn't mean the dog will have the same personality as Annie. Ned's already been slapping his wife around, who's to say he wouldn't be mean to this dog because the dog isn't Annie?
Anyway, I enjoyed the episode and would highly recommend.
So let's get to it. Our episode centers on a married couple named Ned and Thelma. Ned has a Kerry Blue dog named Annie. Ned is absolutely devoted to Annie. He pays more attention to Annie than to his own wife. Ned pampers Annie beyond imagination. I won't say anything negative about that. I'm a cat person and my cats are spoiled rotten. I can honestly sympathize with Ned during certain parts of the episode but I'll also say he went completely overboard.
Anyway, Ned has to go on a business trip and when he comes back, he hears that Annie passed away. Ned's devastated. I get it. A lot of people might consider a pet to just be a pet but some of us consider our pets to be members of the family. Ned takes his grief into overdrive and he acts very ugly to Thelma. He makes wild accusations against Thelma. He claims Thelma buried Annie alive! One truly also has to have compassion towards Thelma. She's really catching it. Ned even slaps her. She tries to explain to Ned that Annie was old. She was like an old woman! Ned's not having it or listening. Ned hatches up a plan...
Ned goes off to a doctor and he's saying he's having trouble sleeping and he's just gotta get something to help him sleep. He's given medicine and he can take his idea a step further. I must admit Thelma probably should've been VERY suspicious about Ned offering to do anything special for her. The way he's been acting, why would he prepare anything for her? But I guess Thelma's so hard up that she considers that maybe her husband is turning over a new leaf and will start being kind to her. Not today. Ned has put the sleeping medicine in Thelma's drink and it's working. Ned goes back into rant mode. Maybe Thelma will see what Annie went through about being buried alive.
Ned hears a noise and goes outside. It's a Kerry Blue dog and he thinks it's Annie. He stumbles over some stuff piled up and ends up taking a face plant into concrete. Thankfully neighbors heard what was going on and that's how drugged up Thelma got help on the inside of the house.
Thelma explains she got Ned another Kerry Blue, which I honestly think was a dangerous idea imo. Just because the dog is another Kerry Blue doesn't mean the dog will have the same personality as Annie. Ned's already been slapping his wife around, who's to say he wouldn't be mean to this dog because the dog isn't Annie?
Anyway, I enjoyed the episode and would highly recommend.
This reminds me something
searchanddestroy-114 October 2019
I thought of Pierre Granier Deferre's LE CHAT whilst I watched this episode. A feud in a couple because of a pet; here a dog, in the French film, a cat. Both are different on many points but very good too, pulled y effective and convincing performances.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
