I'll Take Care of You

Hitch loved stories (and so do we...) about poor guys slipping into quicksand, and here we are again. The age-old tale of a chump saddled with a wife spending him into the house o' poor.

Ralph Meeker returns to the show, this time as Forbes, a struggling car salesman who can't make ends meet. His thoughtless wife (Elizabeth Fraser) is by no means thrifty, refusing to stop. Why end a good thing? In Hitch fashion, there's no choice but to kill her, the sooner the better... Fortunately, Forbes has a good old friend he affectionately calls "Dad" (Russell Collins). Is water thicker than blood?

A trippy trip soap opera, excellent performances all the way around, particularly Meeker and Collins, yes, a favorite of the master of suspense. Best known for BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK.

In a fun twist, Arthur Batanides plays the detective, usually cast as baddies. Ida Moore, who turned up as kindly little old ladies (some not that kind), plays Kitty.

Agreed, you know there's no foolproof plan here, though the selected ending remains a gem no matter how many times you've seen it.

Written by William Jerome Fay who scored a huge hit with the classic "Man from the South" episode starring Peter Lorre.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 23 remastered CBS dvd box set. All seven seasons are on dvd in a single box. Released 2022. The gift of gifts for fans of Hitchcock.

The students bought the car for the carnival to be hit with a sledgehammer for $50. At the carnival he states 3 shots for 50 cents. So they would need to sell 100 tickets, and the car would be hit 300 times with a sledgehammer, just for them to break even.

I don't buy the conclusion with the cops making the arrest. There's no motive, so they obviously have the wrong guy.

'Alfred Hitchcock Presents': "I'll Take Care of You" (1959)

Opening thoughts: Although Robert Stevens was the most frequent 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' director, with 44 episodes to his name, he was also one of the most inconsistent (Paul Henreid to me was also variable) which can be seen in Season 4. A vast majority of his episodes were well worth watching, though there were misses. "I'll Take Care of You" also has Ralph Meeker in his last of four appearances on the series, and also 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' favourite Russell Collins' seventh appearance of nine.

"I'll Take Care of You" is very good and nearly great, with many great things and little wrong. Not just of Stevens' output but also for 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' in general. It is not one of Stevens' best 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' episodes and it is also not one of his worst (nowhere near in the case of the latter). Actually put "I'll Take Care of You" somewhere around high middle in ranking, doing a very good if not exceptional job with a premise worthy of Hitchcock.

Bad things: There is very little wrong here as said. Low budget does show at times, especially in the threadbare looking sets and editing that doesn't always flow.

Good things: Meeker and Collins are both extremely good however, did not think that Meeker overacted at all and he is in a type of role where it was easy to do so. The chemistry is strong. Count me in as another person who liked the ending very much, it was a shock to me and what very nearly came close to being unsatisfying was given a very clever and wacky twist.

While the production values aren't perfect, the photography is suitably moody and has some elegance. Hitchcock's bookending is suitably ironic and the theme music has lost none of its devillish quality. The episode is quite talky in spots, especially early on, but it didn't feel overly so and it all intrigued. The story never stops being compelling and has some nice suspense, never coming over as draggy.

Concluding thoughts: Concluding, liked it a lot.

8/10.

John Forbes (Ralph Meeker) is a guy who has ample reason to be happy. He's a successful used car dealer and lives in a nice house. But things aren't so great, as Forbes' wife is god-awful. She spends money faster than he can earn it and when he tells her he can't, she simply couldn't care less. You get the impression that she is planning on spending everything and then leave him to find some other sucker. Well, she overplayed her hand and John realizes there's only one good option...kill her! Now I am NOT advocating murder...but I certainly sympathized with him...as did the script.

Through this process, John has received some help from his seemingly loyal employee, an old man nicknamed 'Dad'. But following the 'accident' that killed the wife, Dad starts making blackmail demands on John.

I loved this episode. The twist at the end is great and it ended in a most atypical way. Too often on this show, in the end the criminal is caught or Hitchcock gives some stupid epilogue about crime not paying and the guy was ultimately caught. Well, not here....and I really thought this was a dandy episode with a wonderful twist.

The strongest point is that in this episode, many viewers can recognize themselves in Ralph Meeker's character; and the scheme here is not new at all. It looks actually like many other ones in the show. The twist ending is not a surprise either, but it remains efficient and will delight many audiences. Not the best ever but still excellent to discover.