This was Charles Bronson's second appearance in an Alfred Hitchcock Presents story, only about five weeks following a prior first season episode titled "And So Died Riabouchinska". In that one he was a police detective, but this time he's on the opposite side of the law, along with wife Lorna Bramwell (Norma Crane), hoping to cash in on an elderly widow's fortune overheard at a local diner. The story enters surreal territory of sorts when said lonely widow is found to entertain a house full of imaginary guests, leaving the Bramwells at first incredulous, but after a while, hugely impatient to get on with robbing the woman of all her wealth. As the delusional but feisty widow, Monica Laughton (Norma Crane) turns the tables on her uninvited guests by whipping up one of her baked goods specialties, laced with just the right ingredient to make quick work of the disturbing couple. I'm not so sure that as some other reviewers mentioned, Mrs. Laughton dispatched other house guests in the same manner, but taken in the spirit of the show's whimsical writing, it wouldn't come as a big surprise. Fortunately, the milk delivery man (Dabbs Greer) had to be an honest sort, what with all those thousand dollar bills of Mrs. Laughton's just hiding in plain sight.
Review of There Was an Old Woman
