Alfred Hitchcock Presents/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• An episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents revolved around a woefully incompetent mother who hasn't seen her daughter (forgot her name; I'll call her Alice) since she was a baby. Alice is being raised by another couple, and the mother kidnaps her. I was unimpressed by the daughter's acting, though because the girl was only 6 or 7 years old, I filed it under Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Then at the end, it turns out that the mother really kidnapped the daughter of a private investigator hired by Alice's foster parents, and this other girl was in on the whole thing. The character was acting the whole time, and in an added bit of brilliance, the kidnapper probably didn't even realize how bad her act was. -- Mon Solo
  • An early episode of this same series entitled 'Breakdown' had me and my family groaning at the plot holes — or so we thought. A man is paralyzed in an accident, and is presumed dead throughout the episode. No one bothers to check his pulse, or any other signs of life. No one notices that he doesn't even look like a corpse (pale/blued skin). Then, after it had ended, it occurred to me. This is actually proof that people saw in black and white back then, and simply couldn't tell! This is more Fridge Brilliance than Logic, or maybe Fridge Horror, or just plain Epileptic Trees. --JadeMatrix