User Reviews

Derry (Richard Kiley) is a hit man hired to kill Breech (Richard Long) because Breech has crossed his bookie boss, but Breech has a wife (Ann Francis) he crippled in an argument and Derry feels sorry when Breech tells him he crossed the boss because he needed the money to care for his wife. The hardened hit man is suckered in, fakes Breech's death and thinks the couple is off to Mexico, but surprise! Derry gets arrested when Breech has been murdered in his apartment. It turns out he was two-timing his wife and she didn't like it much.

Kylie plays hit man Derry in a lovely dead-panned manner as he can't quite cover up the fact that he feels sorry for a crippled woman. Long is appropriately handsome but seedy but maybe a sympathetic good guy under all that? (Nah) Francis is well-drawn as both not entirely innocent in her "accident" (she started the fight that crippled her) and deliciously vengeful, but the plot is contrived.

I know it's the plot twist you have to have and not just a straight hit to make it a story and it is somewhat satisfying when Breech's wife kills him and gets Derry blamed for it, but that whole scenario is a bit convoluted, and after she kills Breech, who the heck is going to support her? At least he was paying the bills, and now she's going to be destitute as well as crippled. A big price to pay for revenge and getting rid of a philandering husband who crippled you.

Two cuts above the average for this episode, nicely directed, persuasively acted, and with a cute twist at the end.

Kiley is a professional hit man hired to spank Richard Long, but when he meets Long and Long's paraplegic wife, Ann Francis, he feels a little sorry for them and figures out a way to collect his fee while making it possible for Long and Francis to get out of town alive.

He shouldn't have. Pity is unbecoming in a professional hit man.

It's an ordinary TV drama in most ways, the ordinary production design and so forth but the director has added little touches that seem to sparkle in the ordinarily drab settings. Kiley, aghast at the big reveal, stares open mouthed at someone and the cup of coffee in his hand tilts downward. The camera closes in a bit. And the coffee doesn't spill, nor does Kiley drop the cup, as would ordinarily be expected. Someone removes the cup from his flaccid fingers. It's not a big deal but it's one of several shots that someone had to put some thought into.

Anne Francis is a yummy blond, and she has that alluring nevus on her right chin. Kiley, I've always liked as an actor. He can go either way -- villainous ("Pickup on South Street") or humane (the psychiatrist in "The Sniper"). He had a rich baritone singing voice too. And he committed himself to charitable projects. He read and enacted some poems on PBS. His rendering of Edward Arlington Robinson's "Mister Flood's Party" was downright touching, revealing the slightest glow of moonlight layered on the dark and dismal landscape of the lines. One of the good guys.

I love this show, own all episodes Sometimes I just do not get what seems obvious to me and not others Are the police not looking at the facts? There are 2 dead bodies!!! So why, they should ask If Jim really killed Eddie, as the police believe Connie, then why is Eddie's ring and watch on the body in the burned car? Can't the police figure out the plan that Jim cooked up? Why would Jim do this and then kill Eddie Makes no sense So the police believe he shot Eddie, took his wallet, ring and watch, put on someone else and burned the car, for what reason??? No else thought about this big plot hole?

***SPOILERS*** Feeling that one of his bookies Eddie Breech, Richard Long,is holding out on him and going into the bookie business for himself big time mob odds-maker and number racketeer Rupert Harney,Barney Martin, who looks like he could be the late comedian Lou Costello's twin brother hires out of town hit-man Jim Derry, Richard Kiley,to do a number on Eddie. This is in rubbing him out and putting Eddie away, in a coffin, for good.

It's when Derry notices that Eddies's wife Connie, Anne Francis,is a cripple that he takes pity on him even though he later finds out that Eddie, by throwing Connie down a flight of stairs, was responsible for her condition. Not wanting to go through with the hit-job on Eddie Breech and at the same time wanting to collect the $3,000.00 that Lou Costello? sorry my mistake! I mean Rupert Harney is paying him to knock off Eddie Derry plans to get a stiff from the local morgue with the help of his good friend morgue attendant Figaro, Peter Bracco, and substitute his body for Eddie! That's after leaving Eddie's wedding ring and watch as well as identification papers on him and faking that he was killed in a flaming car smash up. That while both Eddie & Connie take off on a plane to Mexico City never to be seen and heard from again!

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** As we soon see Derry's "Master Plan" works to perfection not only fooling his boss Harney but getting and extra $1,000.00 from Eddie in spearing his life. The one thing that Derry didn't count on was not only leaving his gun with the Breech's at their apartment but that his feelings for the crippled Connie were misguided! Derry also found out that he wasn't going to be so kindly rewarded by Connie,in Connie keeping her mouth shut, as he thought he would be. Connie had her own plans for her cheating, yes he was not only stiffing his boss but his wife Connie as well, and whore mongering husband Eddie and used the clueless Derry, in what she was planning for him, to take the fall or wrap for it! And he did it with flying colors straight into the state prison's death row for a murder that the poor and deluded jerk didn't in fact even commit!

The story had an ironically satisfactory ending until Hitchcock intervened as he often did to offer a follow up to one or more of the principal characters. I didn't find it a twist at all that Connie Breech (Anne Francis) murdered her husband and set up Jim Derry (Richard Kiley) to take the fall. But after knowing that, you go back to what happened in the episode and you have to wonder about the unseen aftermath. It's possible that Derry remained on the hook for Eddie Breech's (Richard Long) death as an accomplice to Connie, but not necessarily if the authorities had other evidence. And wasn't it more than odd that Rupert Harney (Barney Martin) paid off on the hit job with no proof whatsoever other than Derry's word on it? That was sloppy. And what about the morgue guy Figaro (Peter Brocco)? He turns over a corpse to Derry for cash with no accountability? What kind of recordkeeping allows for a body to go missing and no one would question it? So yes, if you watch the story dispassionately, it comes across as a fairly engrossing murder for hire caper which would have been better served if Hitchcock didn't accede to the Production Code that still held some sway in pictures.

The story had an ironically satisfactory ending until Hitchcock intervened as he often did to offer a follow up to one or more of the principal characters. I didn't find it a twist at all that Connie Breech (Anne Francis) murdered her husband and set up Jim Derry (Richard Kiley) to take the fall. But after knowing that, you go back to what happened in the episode and you have to wonder about the unseen aftermath. It's possible that Derry remained on the hook for Eddie Breech's (Richard Long) death as an accomplice to Connie, but not necessarily if the authorities had other evidence. And wasn't it more than odd that Rupert Harney (Barney Martin) paid off on the hit job with no proof whatsoever other than Derry's word on it? That was sloppy. And what about the morgue guy Figaro (Peter Brocco)? He turns over a corpse to Derry for cash? What kind of accountability going on there? I guess if you shrug off those elements the story allowed for some vengeance for Connie's abuse at the hands of her husband, but in the end, the long arm of the law came full circle.

I wanted to like this episode. The three main stars are all decent actors, and I felt they worked hard to get the basic ideas across. But the story itself falls short in a few key areas.

First, some of the scenes where the wife (Anne Francis) is talking to the hitman (Richard Kiley) about her troubled marriage go on too long. I really don't think a hitman would hang around and get to know the wife of a man he was hired to kill. Even a crippled wife. He'd be in a hurry to finish the job, get paid, and quickly move on to the next job. He wouldn't take the time to learn their particular circumstances. He wouldn't really care, even if he did feel a bit of pity towards the wife. There simply wouldn't be a reason for him to get personally involved with them. The wife's long speeches were meant for the audience to know the backstory, instead of it being dialogue that would naturally occur between these characters.

Second, if the wife's ultimate goal was for her husband to be killed, she would not have interfered with the hitman's job. There would have been no real need for her to go along with a plan for the husband to fake his death and go off to Mexico. Instead, she would have gotten out of the way and let the hitman get it over with...and that way, the murder would be on his hands, not hers. There was no need for her to be the one to do it. What we get is a phony twist at the end that doesn't really make sense.

The sequence where we see the car set on fire was totally unnecessary and felt like filler that had nothing to do with the actual outcome of the story.