The Manacled is a neatly told tale of the Hitchcock series, one of a select group that features neither romance nor domestic troubles, and in which women scarcely figure or, if they do, play minor roles.
It's less of a story than an anecdote, and allowing for its "light psychology" it plays well. Lawman Gary Merrill is taking manacled prisoner William Redfield, in chains, to another prisoner, up north; and his chained companion begins to plays some mind games with him.
When the prisoner makes the lawman what sounds like an offer he can't refuse,--to release him for a huge sum of money in return, contained in a suitcase on the train--his intelligent and accurate sizing up of his captor's drab middle class life is spot on.
The question is: will he, the lawman, go for the bait or stick to his principles?
This is a perfect set-up for both men, however it's more perfect for the one in chains than the one who has the key that can set him free.
The actors in this basically two man show are both quite good, with Gary Merrill, as the law officer, weary and weathered looking, yet not a burnt-out case; and William Redfield, fey, playful and cheerfully amoral.
Throughout this episode, of the two men featured in it the police officer seems more a prisoner of the system than the criminal, who has a mind and a personality outside the system, any system, really, and who, even behind bars, would have more freedom, mentally, imaginatively, due to his high intelligence, than those whose job it is to keep him locked up.
It's less of a story than an anecdote, and allowing for its "light psychology" it plays well. Lawman Gary Merrill is taking manacled prisoner William Redfield, in chains, to another prisoner, up north; and his chained companion begins to plays some mind games with him.
When the prisoner makes the lawman what sounds like an offer he can't refuse,--to release him for a huge sum of money in return, contained in a suitcase on the train--his intelligent and accurate sizing up of his captor's drab middle class life is spot on.
The question is: will he, the lawman, go for the bait or stick to his principles?
This is a perfect set-up for both men, however it's more perfect for the one in chains than the one who has the key that can set him free.
The actors in this basically two man show are both quite good, with Gary Merrill, as the law officer, weary and weathered looking, yet not a burnt-out case; and William Redfield, fey, playful and cheerfully amoral.
Throughout this episode, of the two men featured in it the police officer seems more a prisoner of the system than the criminal, who has a mind and a personality outside the system, any system, really, and who, even behind bars, would have more freedom, mentally, imaginatively, due to his high intelligence, than those whose job it is to keep him locked up.