"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" Total Loss (TV Episode 1959) Poster

(TV Series)

(1959)

User Reviews

Review this title
9 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
8/10
One small addendum
conono5 February 2014
May I add to the other excellent reviews here, this one slight observation: What a world it was when Hitchcock, during his droll introduction, could dissuade "...those who suspect they've wandered into a production of Salomé, with me playing the part of John the Baptist," because we see only his head above a steam cabinet. Today's producers would never permit any show to assume this level of cultural literacy among its audience. And more's the pity.

While I'm at it: Nancy Olson and Ralph Meeker are totally winning and perfectly cast. It's an above-average episode but not one of the best. Still very much worth watching.
28 out of 30 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
When in doubt, keep your mouth shut!
planktonrules2 April 2021
Jan (Nancy Olson) is a widow who runs her own dress shop. While she is very good at this in some ways, her business sense is lacking and her shop is deeply in depth and swamped in inventory. Here friend (Ralph Meeker) has a solution...burn the place to the ground and claim the insurance! Well, after not being able to get any loans and without any good options, she considers his plan.

This is a pretty good but not exactly amazing episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and it strongly illustrates the idea that you should keep your mouth shut and say as little as possible when you are in trouble....and Jan, clearly, did not heed this advice. Well written and interesting.
14 out of 14 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Never Trust a Snake
Hitchcoc13 July 2013
A young entrepreneur runs a dress shop. She has little experience in buying and has overstocked the store. Her inventory causes her to fall into financial trouble. To make matters worse, along comes sales rep, Ralph Meeker, who is on the hunt for her. When her request for an increase on her loan is turned down, he takes her out for drinks and proposes that arson may be her best bet. He explains that he can pull it off with the help of a friend. She doesn't agree, but has so many martinis that her memory is not the best. While she is sleeping, her phone rings. The store is on fire. What transpires is one of those things where justice doesn't always work its way out.

The young woman, Nancy Olson, is a hard working, loving, driven person. We can't help but feel for her, but the fates seem to step in.
17 out of 19 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Whatever Happened to Nancy Olson
dougdoepke9 March 2011
After being refused a bank loan, a struggling dress shop owner (Olson) is tempted by fast- talking salesman (Meeker) into recouping her losses illegally.

On the whole, it's an average episode, distinguished nonetheless by typical series strengths of fine acting and ironical ending. Olson makes such a sympathetic business owner, it's hard not to suffer with her. Her career was largely built on an attractive wholesome quality that's just right for the part. Then too, was there ever any actor better at a cocky swagger than Ralph Meeker, e.g. Kiss Me Deadly (1955). Here his leering smile and line of blarney is half-charming and half-obnoxious. Too bad Jan (Olson) can't resist those martinis he keeps plying her with. Watch too for that fine utility actor Dave Willock, a familiar face, as the affable claims adjustor.

Nothing special here, except average Hitchcock, but average Hitch is so much better than average anything else of its time.
25 out of 27 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Not a total loss
TheLittleSongbird6 August 2023
Or not even any kind of loss at all, the complete opposite. "Total Loss" is the penultimate Don Taylor-directed 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' episode, the penultimate one of seven. All of his seven outings are watchable and above, the weakest "Fatal Figures" (between that and "The Deadly") of the previous episodes still being decent if uneven. Though only "The Right Kind of House" was properly great in my view ("The Crocodile Case" came close) of his episodes.

"Total Loss" is a good penultimate episode for Taylor and is in the solid middle category ranking Season 4, a mostly solid one though with a few major bumps (i.e. "Don't Interrupt"). Of Taylor's episodes too, "Total Loss" is around the middle in ranking, not "The Right Kind of House" level but better than "The Deadly" and "Fatal Figures" (closest to "Listen Listen"). It is not much out of the ordinary story wise, but is compensated by the acting and the ending in particular. A lot is good here in "Total Loss", but it falls short of greatness.

It is a bit lacking when it comes to the suspense and the pacing could have been tighter early on, a little less talk would have solved that.

Did think too that the build up to the end was a little on the awkward side.

However, there is so much that is done incredibly well. Nancy Olson plays one of the season's most sympathetic lead characters very movingly and Ralph Meeker manages the balance of deceptive charm and cockiness very well without falling into the potential trap of being annoying. The two work very well together. Hitchcock's bookending is amusing and dry humoured and Taylor's direction is assured throughout.

Moreover, visually it is simple but doesn't look threadbare or cheap, did like the photography. The theme tune deserves its classic status. Most of the writing is thought provoking and intriguing and the story intrigues while easy to follow, the highlight being the nicely ironic ending.

Concluding, good if not great. 7/10.
8 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Good deeds don't alway pay off
sol-kay27 March 2012
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** Trying to keep her dress shop afloat Jan Manning, Nancy Olson, fails in securing a bank loan and is just weeks away from going out of business. It's Jan wannabe boyfriend know it all salesman Mel Reeves,Ralph Meeker, who comes up with this bright idea of having her business torched and collecting on the insurance money.

Jan despite her money troubles want's nothing to do with Mel's crazy plan and would rather lose her shop then have it burned down even if it ends up saving it! Mel not taking no for an answer gets in touch with a professional arsonist to get the job done for Jan without her knowledge. The first and only thing that the arsonist has to do is make it,the shop fire, look like an accident! But just how can he pull it off successfully! It's by him getting the idea from Jan herself!

***SPOILERS*** With the shop burned down and Jan's coworker Evelyn Wislon, Ruth Storey,in critical condition in the hospital suffering third degree burns Jan feel guilty about what happened in knowing that Mel with the help of his arsonist friend was responsible for the fire. It's when an insurance investigator,Dave Willock, came to inspect the damage that Jan decided to tell him the truth and let the chips fall where they may: In Jan's case b her not getting the insurance money. They fell all right right on top of Jan's pretty head!

P.S Not only did Mel cover himself and is partner in crimes tracks but as insurance, if in fact she talked, implicated Jan in the arson fire! And it was Jan herself who gave him the idea of doing it!
12 out of 16 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Quite a dilemma
glitterrose20 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Our episode focuses mainly on two characters. Jan runs a dress shop and she's really over her head. It used to be her husband's shop and Jan used her strengths to pitch in and help out. Unfortunately Jan's husband passed away and the strengths she had have completely evaporated. Her store is in serious trouble and it's because she's that over her head. One truly has to sympathize with Jan because she's trying her best to operate the dress shop successfully but unfortunately 'trying your best' doesn't add up to sales being rung up left and right.

Jan's not getting the help she needs but she does get help that only adds to her troubles.

Mel is a guy Jan knows and he knows Jan's over her head. But he has an idea. He knows some people that can cause an accident in the shop and Jan can collect the insurance money. Mel probably has enough sense to realize the ONLY way to get this little idea off the ground would be to get Jan drunk. Even then Jan can see that prison is worse than bankruptcy! But Jan still agreed with the plan and Mel tells Jan to make sure the financial books are out of the store when the accident occurs because she would need to prove her stock supply.

Jan's absolutely miserable when she goes back to the dress shop. Later on, Jan's at home in bed and she gets a call about the dress shop being on fire. And even worse, her friend has 3rd degree burns because she was trying to retrieve the financial books. Jan feels worse than ever and you can tell she feels so much guilt and pain about her friend being burned so badly.

The insurance inspector is combing through the burned rubble and let's just say Jan opens her mouth and gets herself implicated in the business burning down. This next tidbit is my opinion because I skimmed reviews and some people think the store burning down was a genuine accident. Perhaps those reviews are accurate but imo I think Mel's associates did gain access to the inside of the dress shop and used Jan's ridiculous invention against her.

I didn't mention the invention. Jan has got some contraption set up so that way she can have tea since eating lunch slips her mind. This contraption started going off at 1 AM and it doing that contributed to the fire along with the stuff nearby adding to the strength of the fire.

It just seemed like too much of a coincidence to set up an accident happening in your store but some innocent accident genuinely happened to wipe your store and stock out.

Anyway, this is another enjoyable episode and Ralph Meeker's performance is absolutely perfect. He plays a great slimeball.
9 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
BUSINESS SLOW? ... HAVE A FIRE!
tcchelsey1 November 2023
This episode has always fascinated me because there's so much realism to it. Ask any fire chief out there who will share some bizarre insurance scam stories. This actually may have been taken from a real case.

Nancy Olson, in a very convincing performance, plays Jan, the desperate owner of a once thriving dress shop that is losing business fast. After her bank cancels a loan, comes a suggestion from crafty salesman Ralph Meeker (as Mel). He claims it can be rigged very easily to burn the place down, write it off as a total loss and collect a big, fat insurance check. Just like that...

This is potent stuff, and you really feel sorry for Jan. The business is her life. Realistically though, she could have just sold her more expensive dresses at any cost, take the loss, and start all over. But we're in Hitchcock-LAND and Mel is a force to be reckoned with.

Don Taylor, who directed 7 episodes, brings out some good performances here, especially Ralph Meeker who comes off as a cross between a shameless love 'em and leave 'em type and a real deal con. Take your pick. Taylor, who had a long career, directed many adventurous episodes for LASSIE.

Believe it or not, written by Robert Lees, behind ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, and many other classic A & C films. Yes, Lees did have a dramatic side also.

This episode was a return to Hollywood for Nancy Olson, who retired from the screen five years earlier. She would next appear in Walt Disney's POLLYANNA.

Dedicated to us armchair thrill seekers. SEASON 4 EPISODE 17 remastered Universal dvd box set. 5 dvds. 2008 release.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
"There's nothing wrong with your shop that a good fire wouldn't cure."
classicsoncall16 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
You have to feel for shop owner Jan Manning (Nancy Olson) due to her inexperience in purchasing inventory and running the numbers on her business. The sales rep calling on her (Ralph Meeker) did little to hide the fact that he was looking for a quick score and maybe even a piece of the business as a partner. But not in the shop's present condition. He had his eyes on the insurance policy that would have paid off handsomely with the amount of stock on hand that would go up in smoke. I couldn't help but think the resolution to this story was handled somewhat awkwardly by the writers. Jan almost immediately volunteered the information that the fire was a put up job before hearing the insurance investigator's (Dave Willock) analysis. It turned out the fire occurred accidentally the whole time, and not as a result of Mel Reeves' (Meeker) interference. Jan might have bailed herself out of this mess by getting Reeves to confess his original plan, and admit he didn't have the time to pull it off. Not likely, but now she's on the hook all by herself. The insurance guy did all he reasonably could to eliminate arson as a cause for the fire, but it seemed like Jan was determined to hang herself with her own rope.
11 out of 11 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Clear your history

Recently Viewed