(After one such tale, Hitchcock reels off a bunch of possible morals and shrugs, “One of them is bound to fit.”) The first story of the series, “Revenge,” is a lesson against vigilantism-or, like most episodes, can be enjoyed as a warning that the universe will screw things up and there’s no avoiding that.
Other episodes are grimmer, but can still be seen as morality tales in which some sinner gets his or her just desserts. Especially in early episodes, the violence might be off-screen and tongue-in-cheek, making Hitchcock seem no more subversive than a revival of Arsenic And Old Lace.
Then there was the slippery point of view in the series.
