Man from the South

The story lures the viewer in quickly. It's early morning and a young pretty woman (Neile Adams, Steve McQueen's real life wife at the time) is down to her last drink and orders a brandy at a Las Vegas casino cocktail lounge. She takes a sip and her shoe falls off. A down on his luck young gambler (Steve McQueen) helps her retrieve her shoe and makes conversation. He offers to have coffee and breakfast with his last $1.86 and she decides to join him. While he lights her cigarette, a strange little man named Carlos (Peter Lorre) interrupts to get a light for his cigarette. He buts into their meeting and leads their conversation into the man's lighter. He tells the couple that he's rich and has in mind a strange wager of his expensive sports car for something the young man has. The young man tells him he only has $1.86 and a casino chip, but that's not what he has in mind. Another stranger who overhears their strange bet can't help but get involved. I can see Peter Lorre doing his strange laugh after making the proposition. 9/10 stars.

The part to watch for is just before they begin the lighting of the lighter. The third party, the umpire, asks the gambler if he's really willing to go through with the extraordinary bet. Steve McQueen just looks down at his cocktail, looks down and toys with his olive. He doesn't look up at all and just says, "Yeah, I want to go through with it". For such a young actor barely at the beginning of his career, facing two much more experienced performers, along with his wife. To have the sheer confidence to deliver his line like that, not looking up from his glass, yet demonstrating such extraordinary power. This man was truly a megastar in the making.

This is the second entry featuring McQueen in the series. Both rely on superior scripts, probably an enticement for the then fast rising young actor. Also featured is McQueen's real life wife, Neile Adams, who quickly shows why she was a professional dancer and not a professional actress.

Anyway the two "meet cute" in an anonymous Las Vegas lounge when interrupted by the one-and-only Peter Lorre looking a bit like a human version of Pacman. Naturally, you suspect something weird from such a weird looking guy, and he doesn't disappoint. He proposes a cockamamie wager to McQueen: his convertible car for McQueen's little finger!-- (Thank you writer Roald Dahl for this one.) McQueen's intrigued; it's just strange enough to be interesting. Then too, maybe that will impress the shapely Miss Adams. The trick is for McQueen to light his cigarette lighter ten times without a miss, otherwise his fingers only count up to nine.

Thanks to the inbuilt suspense, we sweat a bucket-load, hanging with Steve as he flicks once, twice, three times, his other hand splayed across a table top with Lorre poised hatchet in hand. Frankly, in my view, the ending doesn't quite match the lead-up in pay-off. Still, the 30 minutes amounts to a fascinating premise with a lot of white-knuckle interest for fans beyond those of early McQueen.

"Man From the South" is an episode of the original "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and was remade for the pilot movie for the rebooted 1980s series as well as in a Tarantino movie, "Four Rooms".

Steve McQueen plays a guy who is down to his last dollar and one poker chip in Las Vegas. A weirdo (Peter Lorre) sits down with him and a lady acquaintance (played by McQueen's real life wife). The weirdo offers the broke guy a bet...he'll give him his new convertible IF he wins the bet. What is the bet? That his cigarette lighter will work ten times in a row. And what if it fails? Then the broke guy will give up a finger!! Truly this is a freaky guy!!

The episode is strange and it works very well thanks to an interesting twist. As I mentioned above, it's been remade twice...meaning it is a most memorable episode.

Outstanding. Can't get enough of this one.

Believe it or not, this wild episode, may have been inspired by cigarette lighter tv commercials at the time. Which lighter could last the longest?

William Jerome Fay, senior writer for Hitchcock, cooked up this camp episode, which made him famous. Peter Lorre plays Carlos, having fun with his brooding character, an impulsive gambler who has gone to the next level.

He proposes a bizarro wager to young Steve McQueen, who he has taken a fancy to. One of his fingers hangs in the balance, depending IF he can successively light a cigarette lighter so many times in a row. Get It? If he loses the wager, McQueen loses a finger. And considering Carlos is a compulsive gambler, there's a chance for a re-match -- allowing him to gamble with more fingers! Good Grief, and how we love it.

This story had to give Hitch a chuckle or two, particularly with his old friend Peter Lorre. They went back many years.

Will keep you literally glued to the screen, and the posturing of McQueen's hand on a desk, ready to be chopped, is something to see. Veteran actress Katherine Squire is perfect as Lorre's wife, who reveals the sad truth about his little "addiction". Wait for the finale.

Peter Lorre, who had a great sense of humor, must have relished this assignment, one of his most requested tv appearances.

SEASON 5 EPISODE 15 (1960) Remastered CBS dvd box set. 5 dvds. Released 2012. You may want to get the box just for this slice of insanity.