Lamb to the Slaughter

Lamb to the Slaughter " (1953) is a short story by

Roald Dahl. It was initially rejected, along with four
other stories, by The New Yorker, but was ultimately published in Harpers Magazine in September 1953.[1] It was
adapted for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and
starred Barbara Bel Geddes and Harold J. Stone. Originally broadcast on April 13, 1958, it was one of only
17 AHP episodes directed by Hitchcock himself. The
story was subsequently adapted for Dahls British TV series Tales of the Unexpected. Dahl included it in his short
story compilation Someone like You. The narrative element of the housewife killing her husband and letting the
policemen partake in eating the evidence was also used by
Pedro Almodvar in his 1984 movie What Have I Done
to Deserve This?, with a leg of ham instead of mutton.

childs sharing her fate. She owes it to the unborn child

to escape discovery if she can. She prepares the leg of
lamb that she used as a weapon and places it in the oven
to somewhat destroy the evidence. Then she considers
an alibi. After practicing a cheerful mask and some innocuous remarks to make in conversation, she visits the
grocer and chats blandly with him about what to make
for Patricks dinner. Upon her return to the house and to
the room where her husband lies dead on the oor, she
acts surprised and meaningfully cries. Then she calls the
police.
When the police (who are all friends of her husband) arrive, they ask Mary questions and look at the scene. Considering Mary above suspicion, the police conclude that
Patrick was killed by an intruder with a large blunt object,
likely made of metal. After they make a fruitless search
around the house and surrounding area, Mary is reminded
that the leg is just about done, and oers it to the policemen, pointing out that they have already been working
through and past the dinner hour and that the meat will
otherwise go to waste; they hesitate, but accept. During
the meal, as Mary sits nearby but does not join them, the
policemen discuss the murder weapons possible location.
One ocer, his mouth full of meat, says it is probably
right under our very noses. Mary, overhearing, begins
to giggle.

Lamb to the Slaughter demonstrates Dahls fascination

with horror (with elements of black comedy), which is
seen in both his adult ction and his stories for children.[2]
The story was supposedly suggested to Dahl by his friend
Ian Fleming: Why don't you have someone murder their
husband with a frozen leg of mutton which she then serves
to the detectives who come to investigate the murder?".[3]

Plot summary

Mary Maloney, a housewife devoted to make a sweet

home for her husband, and heavily pregnant with their
rst child, awaits her husband Patricks return home from
his job as a local police detective. Mary is very much
content in her marriage, and believes her husband to be
as well. When he returns, Mary notices that he is uncharacteristically aloof and assumes that he is tired from work.
After having more to drink than usual, Patrick reveals to
Mary what is making him act strangely. Although it is
not explicitly said, one can infer that Patrick asked for a
divorce as he states that she will be looked after.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents Adaptation

In the televised AHP version of the story, Hitchcock

presents it from a supermarket set where hes given a
ticket for blocking an aisle during the rush hour, even
though he claims to have been in the slow lane. In this
adaptation, the audience hears Patrick declare that he
is leaving Mary, played by Barbara Bel Geddes, for another woman. The adaptation otherwise follows the original story, with Harold J. Stone as the police detective in
charge of the investigation. At the end of the program,
Hitchcock explains that Mary Maloney was nally caught
after trying to bump o her second husband in the same
manner, because he was the forgetful type and had forgotten to plug in the freezer, making the meat as soft as
jelly.

Seemingly in a trance, Mary fetches a large leg of lamb

from the deep-freezer in the cellar to cook for their dinner. Patrick, his back to Mary, angrily calls to her not
to make him any dinner, as he is going out. While he is
looking out the window, quite suddenly, as if she is acting
without thinking, Mary strikes Patrick in the back of the
head with the frozen lamb leg, killing him instantly.

Mary realizes that Patrick is dead and begins, rather

coldly and practically, to ponder what must happen now. This episode appears on the 2-disc special edition DVD
There is the baby to consider; she does not know what the of Hitchcocks Psycho.
law does with a pregnant murderer; she will not risk the Serial Mom can be seen as a being inspired by Roald
1

Dahls work, where the mother also uses a leg of lamb

and her status in the family to protest her innocence in
murder.

Tales of the Unexpected Adaptation

In 1979 the story was adapted by Robin Chapman for

Roald Dahls British television series Tales of the Unexpected, with Susan George as Mary and Brian Blessed as
the police detective in charge of the investigation of her
husbands murder.

References

[1] http://www.harpers.org/archive/1953/09/0006460
[2] Roald Dahl: The Storyteller, by Jason Hook, page 21
[3] Jennet Conant, The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British
Spy Ring in Wartime Washington, 2008. p. 333

External links
IMDb listing for Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode
IMDB listing for Tales of the Unexpected episode

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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Lamb to the Slaughter Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_to_the_Slaughter?oldid=717453071 Contributors: Mattaschen,

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