It's a slender premise, but the low-key lesson has stayed with me over the years. Robert Loggia is a tough guy in an ethnic neighborhood, with a grasping wife who will only stick around if Loggia can make a big score. Fortunately, Loggia's father had a family friend from the old country who's now a shady, prosperous importer. So Loggia uses his connection to land a strong-arm job, but one that still does not pay much. So how will he make the big score since the racketeer is no one to mess with. There's a good lesson in human psychology in the upshot.
Loggia is a very persuasive actor, good enough to carry the entire half-hour. However, this is also a chance to catch Doris Dowling in a patented role as the greedy wife. With her wicked eyes, sharp features, and sensual figure, she's a memorably exotic presence. Here she's entering early middle-age, but 15 years earlier, she had a promising movie career before falling afoul of Hollywood's Red scare and moving for a time to Italy. Nonetheless, her role as Alan Ladd's faithless wife in the Blue Dahlia (1945) is not to be missed. Here, her smouldering exchanges with the intense Loggia remain unusually compelling for episodic TV.
Anyway, it's a solid Hitchcock entry with a food-for-thought ending.
Loggia is a very persuasive actor, good enough to carry the entire half-hour. However, this is also a chance to catch Doris Dowling in a patented role as the greedy wife. With her wicked eyes, sharp features, and sensual figure, she's a memorably exotic presence. Here she's entering early middle-age, but 15 years earlier, she had a promising movie career before falling afoul of Hollywood's Red scare and moving for a time to Italy. Nonetheless, her role as Alan Ladd's faithless wife in the Blue Dahlia (1945) is not to be missed. Here, her smouldering exchanges with the intense Loggia remain unusually compelling for episodic TV.
Anyway, it's a solid Hitchcock entry with a food-for-thought ending.