This is one of the very best of the first season episodes of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents.' It was directed by Hitchcock himself, and like his excellent 'One More Mile to Go' (1957) with David Wayne and Steve Brodie from the second season, depends a lot on silence and trademark Hitchcock cutting and POV shots. <br /><br />In this one, Joseph Cotten plays a mean employer, who during the first five minutes fires an employee for showing too much emotion. Maybe we can't predict what kind of come uppance he will get or how he will receive it, but it does finally come with strong irony and moral implications. Well done by all!<br /><br />So what are the top thirteen episodes? Chronologically they are: episode 1, Ralph Meeker in 'Revenge,' ("That's Him!"); episode 2, 'Premonition,'; episode 5, with his daughter Pat, but which is really a twenty-two minute version of his film 'The Lady Vanishes' (1939) and is called 'Into Thin Air,'; this episode 7; episode 10, the amazing 'The Strange Case of Mr. Pelham,' with the goofy looking Tom Ewell, but the episode may have won an Emmy; the performance of Barry Fitzgerald in the 12th episode, 'Santa Claus and the Tenth Avenue Kid,'; episode 17, 'The Older Sister,' with a strong performance by Carmen Matthews; episode 22, 'Place of Shadows' with Mark Damon and Everett Sloane; episode 23 'Back For Christmas' with Hitch's main star, John Williams, also directed by Hitchcock; episode 26, 'Whodunit,' with John Williams and Amada Blake; the anti-drinking episode 30, 'Never Again,' with Warren Stevens and Hitch's anti-drinking speech; episode 37, 'Decoy,' with Robert Horton, Cara Williams and Frank Gorshin, and then finally, the great 'Momentum,' a 22 minute film noir with Skip Homeier and Joanne Woodward. <br /><br />Whew! Burn those on a DVD!