Decoy

Hitch over the years did some experimenting on his tv show, from soap operas to noirs, and this noir-ish drama is extremely entertaining, much credit going to Oscar nominee (the DEFIANT ONES) Cara Williams.

Cara appeared in some fine dramatic roles, also with a flair for comedy. She gets the job done here playing a singer who may have an abusive husband, and how many singers in noirs had terrible relationships. The Hitch catch is we really don't know the whole story, all because her musician friend, Gil (Robert Horton) pays a visit to her husband -- who gets killed. Dead men tell no tales. The murder is pinned on him, the perfect fall guy.

Now it's up to Gil to clear his name, and comes the slick part of the story -- which all us noir buffs love -- putting a giant jigsaw puzzle together which includes his gal pal. You can well see why Cara Williams was cast in this role, likely one of her best tv performances. You be the judge.

Written by Bernard Schoenfeld, who wrote quite a few classy B films and cop shows. The only debit, and I agree, this should have been re-made for Hitch's hour long tv series, the story had more to it, particularly all the questions about her late husband. Considering Schoenfeld wrote it, the script may have originally been intended for a full length movie, paired down for tv.

Early role for Frank Gorshin, always fun to watch, and Philip Coolidge (a Hitch favorite), this time playing a cop. That's a switch.

SEASON 1 EPISODE 37 remastered Universal dvd box set. All seven seasons are now on dvd in a single box set. Released 2022.

When the story begins, a man is playing piano for a woman practicing a song. Gil notices that the lady has some bruises on her arm and asks her if her husband did that....and she eventually says yes. So, he storms over to the husband's office and is about to confront him when he's hit over the head and whoever did that then kills the husband...and leaving Gil to get the blame. But Gil soon recovers and does what folks often do in films (but NOT in real life), they try to solve the case themselves instead of calling the police. But after a while the police arrive....and he's got some 'splaining to do.

I hate the cliche used here....a man is set up to take the blame for murder but instead of contacting the police, they try to solve the crime. Is anyone really this dumb? And, as far as who was behind all this, I figured it out right away...so there wasn't all that much suspense. All in all, this really could have been much better...a lot better.

Overall, this would have been better as a police or detective program episode...not an installment of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".

Average episode, but average for Hitchcock still means entertaining with a twist. Piano player and arranger Gil Larkin (Horton) has secret crush on song bird Mona Cameron (Williams). The trouble is she's married to a high-powered businessman, so Gil's left to pine away until he finds a bruise on Mona's arm. Convinced that husband is abusing her, he confronts Cameron in his office. There, however, he's slugged, and Cameron is shot by an unknown assailant. Now the cops will think Gil did it and he's got only a few hours to clear himself.

Gil's search is fairly suspenseful, but what I like is the effort to make it unusually colorful. His first stop is a Japanese Kabuki theatre— not exactly a staple of 50's programming—where the two interviewees argue tantalizingly in Japanese, while he's left to puzzle it out. Then, in deep contrast, he goes to a very 50's record hop, where the DJ (Mullaney) sounds like he's only one step away from the funny farm. Two very clever venues for TV of the day.

Horton was an early Hitchcock favorite. Nonetheless, the hunky actor is somewhat miscast as a muscular piano player, but is clearly on his way to bigger roles, which he would get on the long-running Wagon Train series. Mullaney was another early Hitch favorite, unsurprisingly, since he was adept at the kind of offbeat characters the series specialized in. Here his nervous giggle comes across as a neurotic defense mechanism and there's something satisfying in Gil's finally manhandling his giggly evasions. And, of course, there's Cara Williams who, along with Patricia Berry, seemed to have a monopoly on the archly feminine of the day. Anyway, it's an entertaining , if unmemorable, half-hour with a better-than-average Hitchcock epilogue.

Hitch starts looking through magnifying glass suggesting to the viewers stay tuned about the story, also saying that the gorgeous dancing girls will appears in the end of the episode which one of them nowadays is married with a famous person of English aristocracy, with snarky British mood as always.

The Coy is about a musician Gil Larkin (Robert Horton) working with married singer Mona Cameron (Clara Williams) as composer nourishes a secret love with her, Larkin realizes some bruises in the Mona's arms, he asking for who done it, but Mona flees from this conversation, however letting a slight hint that his husband Ben Cameron (David Orrick) did it, thus Larkin is willing to face Ben about this, Mona disagrees but the jealous Larkin goes to the Ben's office to clarify, arriving there at early evening just finds the secretary and Ben at private office talking in phone with someone, upon entering in the office steeply when starts arguing with Ben an unknown guy behind Larkin shot Ben who yells "Ritchie" the murder hits Larkin's head, letting the gun at your hand to frame him.

He has two hours long before the dead body has been found by the janitor of shift night, through a note found at Ben desk Larkin tries out find there two names write in the note, by the end Hitch is back again making apologizes to the audience due the short time of the episode had to cut off the gorgeous dancing girls at final scene, Hitch did his usual tricks, fantastic!!

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First watch: 2022 / Source: DVD / How many: 1 / Rating: 7.5.

I enjoyed the episode. I love seeing Cara Williams anytime. She was always hilarious in "Pete and Gladys". But my interest here is in a classic character actor, Philip Coolidge, who plays the police Lieutenant. He made a memorable twilight zone episode in which he was very cross and disagreeable until he would hear a player piano playing, then he became very kind. He has a very unusual appearance, which suits him well for the various roles in different shows of the time. What I noticed in this show, but I think he does in every role he plays, it's his way of closing his eyes just as he begins to talk! Very unusual and effective!