Final Arrangements is 36th episode of Season 6 of the ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ telecasted on Tuesday the 20th June, 1961. It is interesting for a simple reason that the main character of this episode Mr. Leonard Thompson -Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) – approaches his suicide /death in a very dispassionate manner.
A henpecked husband fed up with his invalid wife’s nagging, plans and prepays for a stylish coffin and funeral expenses. Mr. Leonard Thompson shows up at funeral parlor, where he orders an expensive casket and makes arrangements for an even more expensive funeral. When asked who the “dear departed” is, Leonard replies that the future occupant of the casket has not died just yet. However, the funeral will go on as scheduled the following day…and Leonard will definitely be in attendance.
I strongly recommend you to see it (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5c6nru) …not because of the suicide involved in the story…but to understand the concept of death from a different perspective.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
