Don't Interrupt

This is certainly a weak episode. The characters are so unlikeable that everything they do is annoying. Start with the snotty little kid in the 1950's cowboy outfit. He pretends to shoot old ladies and sneaks into people's compartments. He has apparently been thrown out of a private school because he won't stop talking. The parents are a couple gems. The mother, played by a very young Cloris Leachman, is so intolerant and unkind. The father is a feckless dinglejolly who sounds so weak when he tries to handle his son. Along comes Chill Wills, who has played a cowboy or two in his time. He fascinates the boy and gets him to listen. The question the kid asks are quite natural, but the mother wants to sit in her fox wrap and file her nail, only piping in to keep the kid quiet. Throw into this the announced threat of an escaped mental patient that occupies the kid's mind and you have the whole thing. The problem is, the kid has been given a silver dollar that he can keep if he doesn't talk. Well, of course, he knows something, but the problem is he can't say a word. It could have been OK but is just so dull.

A Facebook friend, Janie, recommended this particular episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and so I decided to try watching it. I haven't seen any of the episodes in decades...so we'll see what I think of the series.

When "Don't Interrupt Me" begins, you see a mother (Cloris Leachman), a father and a boy on a train trip. The child clearly is a little brat and he sure has a lot of energy. But the mother is a joyless thing who only seems to make the problem worse. Both needed to be sent to bed without their supper or put in time out! As for the dad, he has his hands full trying to make everyone happy.

In the midst of the family imploding, a stranger named Kilmer (Chill Wills) introduces himself and they sit and have drinks together. During the course of talking, he decides to tell them a story about the coldest night he endured...inspired by the raging snowstorm outside the train. And soon, the train comes to a halt...and they receive word that an escaped mental patient has escaped from a nearby hospital.

You can only assume really bad things will happen next...and, for the most part, they don't! I kept waiting for the payoff...and waiting...and waiting. Now I am not saying the show was bad...but it was a bit disappointing and the episode left me feeling just okay about it...nothing special. But I'll watch a few other episodes and see what I think, as no anthology show hits a homerun every episode. Heck, even "The Twilight Zone" had a few duds.

By the way, the very best thing about this episode, and in a few others, is Hitchcock's funny introduction and epilogue. It's worth seeing for that alone.

Seeing Mrs. Templeton makes me think of somebody blaming a dog for barking all the time. It's a dog, were you hoping the dog would be mute?

Anyway, our story involves a mother, father and son on a train. Tensions are high because the son had been kicked out of school. Here's the thing, I didn't look at the son and think he was a brat or a demon. Overall he seemed like a talkative kid. He might play an innocent trick here or there...he swapped out his mother's alcoholic drink for his glass of milk and his mother took a swig of milk instead of her own drink. It's stuff like that.

The father is somewhat better. He at least seems to care for his son but not so far as to stand up for him against a mother that clearly doesn't like her own kid.

Anyway, the family is on a train and are approached by Mr. Kilmer. Judging by the story he ends up telling the family, I'd say he also likes to talk. While our story is going on, there's talk of a mentally ill man escaping from a nearby facility and it's told the man isn't dangerous, he just needs help.

The son has been interrupting and the father says he'll give him a silver dollar if he can remain silent for a certain time period. Well, you can pretty much guess what happens. The train has stopped while Mr. Kilmer's telling his story but the son notices a man outside in the snow. He keeps trying to get attention but the son is caught between a rock and a hard place because everytime he tries to speak up to say there's a man outside in the freezing snow, he's shushed. Nobody wants to listen to the kid. The train starts up again and leaves the man behind to freeze in the snow. He tries to tell even after the train started moving that there was a man back there but he's still being disregarded. The son is given his silver dollar and he puts it on a loop on his pants? Of course the silver dollar falls out of the loop. It was such a strange move. The kid didn't strike me as being dumb so I wish they had him putting the silver dollar in his pocket and it falls out because he had a hole in his pocket and didn't notice. Some train employees are talking to the child before he goes off to bed and one of the employees sees the dollar fall and he picks it up for himself. The kid will get another dollar from his old man. What does a dollar mean to a kid anyway? Episode ends.

I thoroughly enjoyed the episode but I still say the real problem going on was the mother instead of the son.

I came here hoping to find some sort of explanation for this story line. I can't imagine what Hitchcock was thinking. Nothing makes sense.

This episode was a different angle for the series and addressed the effects of Reward Based Parenting, a lack of respect for a child and the lack of enthusiasm to parent, on a young boy. It addresses the importance of structuring a child's morality code as well as addressing how necessary it is for parents to understand children and their "phases". And overall explains how "it takes a village to raise a child", while presenting all the characters as different features of adults raised in different ways. It utilizes money to explain how a value code is formed in the individual, and ultimately by different people collectively. It is an important message for all generations and socioeconomic statuses.