Episode
number: 10
Network broadcast date: Friday,
August 14, 1964
The
Stranger
Genre: Psychological drama
Author: Robert Cenedella
Production number: 18
Production date: Thursday,
July 16, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville
Plotline: A couple discovers a stranger living in their guest room who swears one of them invited him to stay for a week — he just won’t say which one. When he refuses to leave, it sets off an escalating battle of wills that threatens to change the marriage forever.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+640814+010+The+Stranger.flac
Cast: Elliott Reid, Elspeth Eric, James Monks
NOTES:
Nick Palmer lists this episode as a "dog of T5" and believes it strains credulity.
Dr. Joe Webb disagrees and considers it to be an amusing dark comedy about how easily a married couple, each with secrets and always lying to each other, can be masterfully manipulated. The burglar ends up with a week of free room and board… and some of their possessions… and they don’t realize it until after he’s disappeared… but they still have their lies... and one of T5's better episodes.