"Alfred Hitchcock Presents": The Cheney Vase (1955)

The Cheney Vase (1955)
Director: Robert Stevens
Writer: Robert Blees (written by)
TV Series: "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955)
Original Air Date: 25 December 1955 (Season 1, Episode 13)
Genre: Crime - Drama - Mystery - Thriller


* Cast :

Patricia Collinge ... Martha Cheney
Darren McGavin ... Lyle Endicott
Carolyn Jones ... Pamela Waring
George Macready ... Herbert Koether
Kathryn Card ... Bella
Ruta Lee ... Ruby Boyenton

* Plot :

Lyle Endicott is a smooth manipulator, but he's not smooth enough to save his job at a Manhattan art museum. And his talent doesn't seem to have gotten him anywhere in life. "Why not just once can something go right for me?" he wonders. Luck finally seems to shine on him when he overhears his boss, Mr. Koether, talking to one of the museum's patrons, Martha Cheney, an invalid who uses a wheelchair. She and Koether call each other by their first names, but their friendship isn't enough to persuade Miss Cheney to sell him the famous Cheney vase. Lyle realizes the heirloom is worth a lot of money -- money that can be his if he manages to insinuate himself into the old woman's life.