Number Twenty-Two

The thing I find interesting in this story, is that it doesn't focus only on Rip Torn; look for instance the questioning of the old man in the line up. What the use for the rest of this short story? Unusual. Besides, I don't think that using a toy gun is enough to make a man dying of a skull fracture.

He's a cocky, sneering young punk, the sort who needs some straightening out before someone gets seriously hurt. The trouble is he's already robbed a store, and now he's in jail acting like a swaggering celebrity. Worse, being in lineups gives him a stage to perform on. With that attitude and all the tough cons and hardened cops, something drastic is bound to happen. But what.

As the punk, Rip Torn turns in a bravura performance. He's got a great natural sneer, and the camera knows it. At this early career stage, the cartoonish name led people to think the young actor must be some kind of joke. But as this entry, plus some 50 years of stage and screen prove, he's really a very fine actor. 'Rip' may be just a nickname, but 'Torn' is in fact his real surname.

There's also a fine supporting cast of familiar faces from the day—Teal, Sanders, Picerni, Leeds, but especially Russell Collins. Usually, he plays broken-down old men. Here, however, he's convincing as all-get-out as a savvy old con who knows how to put the punk in his place. Notably, the story is from author Evan Hunter, fresh off his triumph with the similarly delinquent-themed Blackboard Jungle, (1955). Except for Torn's eye-catching performance, however, the episode is basically an average one.

I think this is one of the better episodes of the series. It's a change of pace, more of a moral lesson than a tale of mystery and suspense (Hitch's closing is unusually serious). Rip Torn is unrecognizable to me as a cocky young hood who wishes to be more of a crook than he really is. He's ashamed that he used a toy gun in his crime, even though a real gun would have gotten him into more trouble. His older cell mate may have been like that once, but time has humbled him. Can he make the younger man understand?

I'm not sure if I comprehend the questioning of the suspects. Was this forum invented just for the story? If so, that's OK, as it adds drama. For all that, there's still a twist ending.

As many episodes as they had to produce, it's nice when the series tries to do something different, even nicer when they knock it out of the park.

Although I've long been a fan of Rip Torn's and Russell Collins' acting, this isn't one of my favorite Hitchcock episodes. Torn makes you want to smack him almost right off the bat. It does stretch credulity to think Collins (looking much older than his character's 49) could physically best Torn in their shared cell. The reason for my review, however, is the character in the corner of the holding cell as they wait for the second line-up. Cocky Torn has asked one of his fellow cell mates what he is in for, and gets rebuffed with a "mind your own business." When he then goes to the aforementioned character in the corner and asks the same, Collins chides him with something to the effect, "Look at him! What do you think he's in for?" It struck me from the corner guy's demeanor, haircut and clothes, and from Collins' remark, that corner guy must be gay and arrested on some type of morals charge or public lewdness. After all, it was the 50s. Anybody else get that vibe?

In a bit of far fetched storytelling, a man played by Rip Torn is brought to a lineup to tell about his role in a candy store robbery. He is cocky and loud and disdainful of the other prisoners. He mouths off to the police officers and to the man who interviews him. This use of the lineup is foreign to me. Did they really interrogate prisoners en masse. I suppose this was pre-Miranda. Anyway, he goes against the advice of a career criminal who warns him about his statements. He's more interested in impressing his buddies back at the pool hall to keep his mouth shut. As is usually the case, we have a conclusion that we can see coming a mile away. The lineup scene is, however, quite gripping and the acting is pretty good. It's a reasonably good episode.