The "Thriller" anthology is excellent but this outing was the start of a relative decline that continued with one very fine exception throughout the final season. Fans are divided on this episode but I consider it to be one of the weakest. It is still respectable television but pales in comparison to its counterparts.
It opens with a businessman checking into a hotel. Soon after-wards knife-men enter his room. We next see him dead in the shower with blood running down the plughole in an obvious echo of "Psycho". Later an accountant moves in, investigating a possible fraud. He soon disappears to the consternation of his sister who just has time to inform his fiancée before she too is dispatched. She comes looking for him and becomes embroiled in a tale of financial skulduggery and murder.
The performances are quite flat and uninspired. However the chief problem is the story. It seems uncertain whether to be a straight drama or a comedy-drama. The Hitchcock parody, which also includes shots of screeching birds, suggests an attempt at comedy but it is never done whole-heartedly; at the same time the story doesn't really work as a straight thriller.
This is epitomised by the character of Sam, the hotel manager, played by Derek Francis. Francis was a fine comic actor as he had splendidly demonstrated in an earlier and very successful comic story "K Is For Killing". There are flashes of the same quality here but they aren't fulfilled. There is one truly memorable moment when Sam eliminates an over-inquisitive private eye. Sam says, "He called himself an opportunist. Unfortunately for him he called at a most inopportune time." This private eye is played by Allan McClelland. It is a small role but a very enigmatic and intriguing one that leads to some strong scenes.
The ending to the story includes a very silly final shot that symbolises its confused identity. However viewers are still advised to give it a look as there are others who have liked it.