Alfred Hitchcock Presents A Bullet for Baldwin (1955–1962) Online

This episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" features a cleverly written story that makes it pretty interesting to watch. It also gives character actor John Qualen a chance to play a starring role, in a part that fits his talents well. This is a good example of the kind of story that works by putting you in the position of the main character as he tries to figure out a baffling situation.

The story starts with Qualen, as a timid office worker, impulsively gunning down his boss after getting fired. But when he returns to his office, the boss seems to be alive and well, with no recollection of any part of their confrontation. Things get even more inexplicable from there, and the story is written carefully so that the viewer knows only what Qualen's character himself knows.

Qualen is a good choice for the part, since he often played this kind of downtrodden but sympathetic character, here adding a believable dose of bewilderment as things get stranger. Sebastian Cabot and Philip Reed head up the supporting cast.

The story is resolved neatly, and there is a morbidly witty parallel between the beginning and the ending that certainly would have pleased Hitchcock himself. A fair amount of exposition is needed at times, but the script (which two of the show's regular writers adapted from a story by Joseph Ruscoll) handles it rather well, keeping things from bogging down as they can do in such scenes. While this episode may not have quite as much depth to it as the best episodes of the series had, it's an entertaining mystery that also represents a skillful adaptation of its story to the anthology show's format.

John Quaylen made a career out of playing saps and weak-willed fellows, but in this episode of Hitchcock he gets to be the protagonist. After being fired from his job by his boss Mr. Baldwin (Sebastian Cabot) for a myriad of reasons, mild-mannered accounting clerk Quaylen decides to take some drastic action. When the office clears out, he gets a gun from his desk and nonchalantly walks back into Baldwin's office and shoots him dead. Expecting the worse and racked with guilt, he goes back to his lonely boarding house and awaits the inevitable (i.e. the police). Instead, on the very next work day he receives a call from Baldwin's secretary asking him why he isn't at work. MR. BALDWIN is awaiting his arrival.

Quaylen returns to work and finds Baldwin alive and well and he's soon convinced by another executive (a scheming Phillip Reed) that he imagined the entire incident about shooting his boss. What Quaylen doesn't know is that Reed and the look-alike actor that has assumed Baldwin's identity are planning to sell some worthless stock to a group of unsuspecting investors. Reed, of course, is in league with the late Baldwin's wife (they've been having an affair and she's set to dump her husband's dead body and collect some insurance money). Quaylen is then given a nice raise and a new assistant to keep him pacified and out of the way during the transactions. When the dirty deal is done, Reed decides to fire the now totally-baffled Quaylen. Reed tells him that he "imagined" the whole thing about being awarded a raise and admonishes him for spending company money for an assistant. True to form, Quaylen goes back to his desk, nonchalantly gets the same gun out and immediately kills Reed. But there are no guilt feelings this time for Quaylen is sure that the entire incident was merely a figment of his lively imagination.

This episode has a definite "tongue in cheek" quality to it and viewers are left with a good chuckle at the surprise ending. Also, it is never explained why a mild fellow like Quaylen has a gun hidden in his desk in the first place.

For some people, office work doesn't mean ALLY McBEAL.

A BULLET FOR BALDWIN touches the question of the alienation and of the alienating work relations, for instance a small clerk is manipulated, exploited and smashed by the incredible whims of his employers; he finds no understanding with them, no, not a bit. This oppressed man is cornered by his exploiters. Hitchcock had a bourgeois retrograde thought, but here the work relations are well depicted. Unhesitatingly, this clerk murders his boss.

Those too much humiliated are alienated and therefore always resort to the extreme measures.

Daddy Qualen gave his characters a touching humanity. He also added a bit of humor to the otherwise direst scripts. Directed by Justus Addiss, a Teleplay by Eustace and Francis Cockrell, based on a story by Joseph Ruscoll, played by John Qualen, Sebastian Cabot, Philip Reed, Ruth Lee, Cheryll Clarke, James Adamson and Don McArt, A BULLET … is a retro story, set in 1909 (--to downplay the dramatic significance of these raw work relations, Hitchcock sets his story in the distant past--); an old clerk is humiliated by his boss Baldwin. He murders his boss, goes home and falls into a 1 ½ days sleep.

Meekly submissive Stepp (Qualen) is fired by overbearing boss Baldwin (Cabot) after 20 years of loyal service. In an uncharacteristic rage, he shoots Baldwin, only to discover the next day that Baldwin is back at his desk as if nothing happened. So what's going on— was it all a dream.

What's interesting in this entry is a strategic decision the screen writers (the Cockrells) choose to make as to the story's direction. On one hand, they can play up the suspense by withholding the mystery's solution until the end; on the other, they can play up the irony of that solution by tipping us off early so that we watch the irony unfold.

Whichever option, it's a clever premise that rivets audience interest from the get-go. Qualen is so good at playing these long-suffering little-guy characters-- no wonder, he was an early series favorite. Nothing special here, just a good solid reputation-building entry.

(In passing—come to think of it, you can figure out which direction the screenplay takes if you reflect on Hitchcock's direction in his classic Vertigo {1958}.)

It's 1909 in San Francisco, for no particular reason. John Qualen, the mousy book keeper, has spent 20 years in the employ of the nasty Sebastian Cabot. Qualen is a little scatterbrained and Cabot fires him precipitately. "No gold watch?", asks Qualen.

The poor guy goes back to his desk in the empty outer office, removes a revolver from the drawer, is about to shoot himself, then thinks of a better idea and shoots Cabot instead.

The next day, Qualen shows up as usual and finds Cabot hale and healthy, chatting with his business partner. The stunned Qualen spills his story and the others assure him he must have been hallucinating from overwork.

It develops that Cabot really IS dead and his replacement is an actor. The point is to keep the business going with all the profit now going to Cabot's original partner. The only problem the partner has is Qualen. Qualen is liable to convince someone that the original Cabot is dead, which introduces a fly into the ointment.

So the partner fires Qualen. And Qualen shoots HIM. As Qualen is leaving the building he meets the janitor. He's all smiles and assures the janitor that he can go ahead with his task.

The only problem I had was that this episode was shaping up to be a one-hour program, not a half-hour program. Much more could have been drawn out of the situation, and much is left unexplained. Qualen was a guilty mess after the first murder. Why is he now grinning with satisfaction. And, by the way, what HAPPENED to Qualen? The plot seems to end in mid story. It's like listening to "Jeepers Creepers" over and over without ever getting to "where'd you get those peepers?"

Nothing is made of the time or the location. Only rarely is the location important, so the series lacked a sense of place. Compare "The Twilight Zone", which had the run of an entire studio to shoot in. Yet, San Francisco in 1909 was quite a raffish place, the time of the Barbary Coast, now turned into a street of brick buildings housing offices. Too bad.

Sebastian Cabot is on the cast list here as he gets murdered after firing one of his employees at the beginning of the show but then he plays his own double & returns to the fired clerks consternation.

The plot has to do with a clerk taking exception to being fired. Then he fires a gun & kills his boss. Then he goes home very late expecting to have the police show up at his door. Instead, he awakens with a late phone call on Monday Morning asking him to come in to work. He is puzzled as it appears he hasn't killed anyone at all. Then the plot thickens as there are circumstances beyond his control.

It seems that this first season of Hitchcock has a lot of twisting plots which is good as the entertainment value of this series is definitely better than the average show from this early era of television. I have to credit the folks running this show with finding lots of good scripts & this is yet another one.

We never know just how incompetent the little man is. Is he an absolute liability to his office. Does deserve what he gets. All we see is a desperate person, who has come to the end of his rope. He kills his boss and then goes home expecting the police to be there in the morning. When he returns the next day, there is the boss and his partner, as if nothing has happened. The man is being gaslighted and can't figure out what has happened to him. Of course, greed and cruelty should not be rewarded and they are not here. I'm glad to see that a supernatural element was never part of this, although things become a bit far-fetched. This is a quiet little story, where the bad guys must pay for their actions. Not a bad episode.