The Dusty Drawer

Fuddy-duddy banker Tritt (Coolidge) and droll Professor Logan (York) share a dinner table at a respectable boarding house. Logan claims Tritt has shorted him two hundred-dollars to cover a mistake at the bank. Tritt however denies it, but judging from his smug demeanor we suspect the worst. Still, Logan is not one to forgive; plus, he's resourceful as heck. If I were Tritt, I'd give the money back, as the next 20-minutes shows.

Cleverly offbeat premise plays out rather humorously. York is so good at being sly, while Coolidge is perfectly cast as a priggish banker. Suspense comes from wondering what Logan will do next since the twists are anything but predictable. All in all, the entry fits in perfectly with the series emphasis on dark humor.

York is so sneaky, petty and hiliarious in this episode of Hitchock Presents. Tritt should have listened to him and just admitted he made a mistake, then paid up. But since he refused, Logan put his mind to work and came up with a dastardly plan.

The only thing that I couldn't suspend belief on was where/how he hid things. Did no one ever check that area? I'm trying not to spoil the episode so don't want to give specifics in case someone ends up watching it for the very first time.

All said, I find that the York episodes end up being some of my favorites. I have a feeling that he could have done "sinister" roles very well. Actors that can easily play fun-loving, goofy/endearing characters I believe can flip it in the other direction just as easily.

Once in a while, the series just launched into silliness. This plot involves a supposedly wronged man played by Dick York, later of the show "Bewitched." York's character launches a full frontal assault on a fellow boarding house bank teller whom he feels cheated him out of two hundred dollars. The mans failure to acquiesce leads to a series of efforts by York to destroy him. His set ups result in the poor man embarrassing himself time after time. We never know if there ever was an inciting incident (the two hundred dollars) but we are expected to sympathize with York's Captain Ahab. I just couldn't do it. The bank teller is so badly treated that I couldn't overcome the tongue in cheek portrayal. Is two hundred dollars enough incentive to destroy a man's life and cause him to live in fear. Of course, I'm overreacting to an old TV show.

This is Dick York's second appearance on AHP (three more to come). In his first, he played a wise guy. This one seems a little more natural for him. I have to say, he really gives me a Jim Carrey vibe.

In a bit of period detail, we have two men (with jobs, nonetheless) living in a boarding house. York wants to get his vengeance on a stuffy bank teller. We only hear about and don't see the original transgression, and I think this is what made me sympathetic to the bank teller. The revenge goes too far, but we are also made to see that York's character has no selfish motive beyond that. The story also seems unrealistic, the way the gun is handled.

Ultimately, it plays for kicks, and is fairly effective at that. By Season 4, AHP risked repeating itself, and this episode at least isn't guilty of that.

A youthful Dick York,later of "Bewitched" fame, plays a professor residing in a boarding house. One of his fellow boarders is a stuffy bank teller (Coolidge) whom the professor is convinced cheated him on a deposit some months before. The professor keeps after the teller to own up to it and return the money. The teller refuses and the professor decides to ratchet matters up a notch, which involves a toy gun and a forgotten desk drawer at the bank. Since the episode was less than a half hour in length, events are compacted, such as the initial deposit snafu, which takes place before the episode begins. So when the curtain goes up, the professor is already trying various means to get the teller to fess up. This is a relatively lighthearted story, although pulling out a toy gun in a crowded bank won't go over well in our violent modern times. York is charming and affable and the prissy Coolidge makes the perfect foil.