User Reviews

Tales of the Unexpected: Heir Presumptuous is set in a small American county where rich businessman George Devon (Robert Snively) refuses to loan one of his nephew's $25,000, upset at his uncles tight ways George's nephew murders him & leaves but is spotted by Mary (Ann Doran) the housekeeper. Mary informs county Sheiriff Milt Singleton (Darren McGavin) of the murder & what she saw, however since George has identical twins (David Cassidy in a dual role) as nephew's she didn't know which one she saw. Both twins profess their innocence & claim to have a water tight alibi & since no-one can tell them apart it looks like they will never know which one did it...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 5 from season 6 & originally aired here in the UK during May 1983, directed by Phillip Leacock one has to say that Heir Presumptuous is a reasonable murder mystery with a twist but it could have been so much more. The story by C.B. Gilford was dramatised by Ross Thomas & has the neat concept of two identical twins killing their uncle for the inheritance, although that makes them obvious suspects one has a iron clad alibi & since no-one can tell them apart the truth behind who committed the murder looks like it will never be known & without knowing which one the killer is neither David or Donald will stand trial. Or at least that's their plan which is quite cool but the majority of the episode is spent with Sheriff Singleton as he tries to uncover the truth & in the twist ending he manages to figure out a way to tell them apart & prove which one the killer is. At only twenty five minutes in length this moves along at a decent pace & is an OK mystery but not much is done with the premise which could have been used to make a cracking murder mystery whodunit. The ending is reasonably satisfying I suppose as the Sheriff manages to solve the crime by being even cleverer than the killer but we still don't learn which twin actually did it...

One of the US made episodes Heir Presumptuous is well made although like the other US lensed installments it has a different sort of look & feel to the ones shot in the UK. Popular actor & singer David Cassidy appears in a dual role as both twins via some body doubles & optical effects which let two of him appear on screen at once while veteran actor Darren McGavin appears as the Sheriff.

Heir Presumptuous is a reasonable murder mystery with a decent twist but it isn't anything amazing & the plot had much more potential than is shown here. Worth a watch but not brilliant.

David Cassidy was quite the heartthrob for pre-teen and teenage girls back in the Eighties, you could find his face plastered on the cover of magazines like '16' and 'Teen Beat'. Anyone watching this back in the day could have doubled their pleasure by seeing Cassidy portray a set of twins, one of which turned out to be a murderer! Attempting to solve this crime, Sheriff Milt Singleton (Darren McGavin) has his work cut out for him, since one of them can provide the perfect alibi, while both of them use it! Using some of the skill he acquired as Kolchak, the Night Stalker, McGavin's character hits on a brilliant idea to figure out who killed Uncle George (Robert Snively), and all it took was a little smooch time with the Corral Bar's pretty hostess (Tara Buckman). You can bet that one of those Cassidy's wished he hadn't gotten so frisky with the saloon gal!

Wealthy George Devon is very tight with his money, he has twin nephews Donald and David, one day one of them calls on the old man to try and get some cash out of him, when he refuses one of them plunges a knife deep into his back killing him outright. The offender is witnessed by long standing housekeeper Mary, the trouble is she cannot tell the twins apart, she knows it was one of them, but not sure which. It seems maybe only local barmaid Sally may have the answer.

I am not a fan, it looks and feels so cheap and unprofessional, the recent batch of episodes have been very grown up, serious and very engaging, this almost feels like they're sending the show up, it's very silly.

Some clever bits of trick photography, they did a great job of making David appear twice in scenes, although he looks very pale in some of the scenes.

It's boring, it could and should have been great, getting through these 25 minutes is hard work!!

3/10