Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Madame Mystery
TV Flash files “Madame Mystery” as hour 177 of 268 in the TV Flash guide — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 5, episode 24, aired 1960-03-27, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E24: listed hour 177 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, hour 24 of 38 in season 5. It aired 1960-03-27 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Craig's Will” (S05E23). Next is “The Little Man Who Was There” (S05E25).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Jimmy Dolan works for Goliath Studios. When star actress Betsy Blake drowns, he hopes to turn the publicity surrounding the murder into publicity for her last movie which was produced by Goliath Studios. When Betsy later turns up alive and seriously overweight, he drives her to the beach and drowns her. Later he is arrested. The police tell him he would kill his own mother if it served his purposes. He responds by asking how the police knew she was his real mother?
Viewer FAQ
Where does Madame Mystery sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S05E24 is listed hour 177 of 268 — hour 24 of 38 in season 5, season 5 episode 24.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S05E24 air?
Madame Mystery aired 1960-03-27 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Hitch's hosted half-hours rather than assuming he directed the lot. Sample the dry intros and the snap endings; the silhouette is the franchise.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Alfred Hitchcock Presents made the director himself the franchise: silhouette, dry intro, murder with a wink, and closings that sometimes 'corrected' crime to soothe censors. Watch it in 2026 as branded anthology swagger — Joan Harrison's engine, Hitch's persona, and twist endings as moral architecture you can still hum.
Calendar first: CBS, October 2, 1955. Then a later NBC window. Original half-hour run through 1962 — **268 episodes, seven seasons** — before the expansion as *The Alfred Hitchcock Hour* (1962–1965). That is not nostalgia cosplay. That is a branded anthology with a host who was the franchise, a silhouette you could hum, and a weekly drop of murder with a wink. Rex can keep the three-network hymn. This was already a logo, a window, and a closing card that sometimes reversed the crime to soothe Standards & Practices.
Filed against
- Alfred Hitchcock as Host
Alfred Hitchcock made himself the franchise on Alfred Hitchcock Presents — silhouette, dry intro, murder with a wink, closings that sometimes “corrected” crime to soothe censors. Branded anthology swagger, Joan Harrison’s engine, twist…