One for the Road

Charles (John Baragrey) divides his time between his wife and his mistress. An arrangement that suits only one of the three...

Louise Platt plays the devoted wife, who would do anything for her husband, whilst Georgann Johnson is the attractive other woman, who naturally wants more - her second "tug of love" role in this series (see "Jonathan").

Charles is completely self-absorbed - he is not at all concerned with the feelings of either woman, and the fact that he provokes strong feelings in both (how strong we find out) is further evidence of his ability to deceive.

There are some great moments of suspense in this episode. The pace never lets up, and all three actors are excellent. Definitely worth a look.

There are problems with this episode in both script and technical aspects. The technical problem occurs when Marsha Hendricks makes one phone call and then another. When she speaks with her husband's secretary, we only hear Marsha's voice. Then she calls the woman she eventually realizes is her husband's girlfriend and we hear both sides of the conversation clearly. When Marsha learns her husband, on whom she dotes, is having an affair, her reaction is rather dull and his reaction is bizarre in its lack of sensitivity. "So I see another woman?" he brusquely asks. "What of it?" There are positives. The actress who plays girlfriend Beryl is needy, almost pitiful in her neediness. Louise Platt as Marsha Hendricks takes time to size up the competition and she is believably warped enough when she turns murderous, not out of jealousy, but out of the believe the other woman threatened husband Charles. The husband is handsome and completely selfish. It also has a twist that fits together with the whole story and is quite chilling.

Smug, suburban husband cheats on his long-suffering wife.

Vintage Hitchcock. It's a stellar cast, but I particularly like Louise Platt as the dowdy, put- upon wife. Her eyes are especially expressive. Watch her emotions run the gamut from abject devotion to hardened resolve, all in convincing fashion. Her character is the epitome of the wronged woman. Actress Platt had an odd, abbreviated career that peaked with the classic Stagecoach (1939), but she definitely had the talent as demonstrated here.

And what a perfect two-timing louse Baragrey makes. There's enough oil in his performance to create a major spill. Wondering how poetic justice will eventually deal with his smug self- absorption is worth waiting for. And Georgeann Johnson as the blonde "other woman" creates a surprisingly sympathetic character who also believes in one last chance.

Anyway, in my book, this is classic 50's Hitchcock, with its suggestion of criminal potential among non-criminal types as mundane as a suburban family. It's an episode that may also make you think twice about that last cup of coffee.

(In passing—if you were the law, how would you apportion guilt. Seems to me like it's something of a legal conundrum, given the facts of who did what.)

When the story begins, Charles and Marsha Hendricks seem to have a lovely marriage and they seem to dote on each other. However, very soon you realize that Charles is a piece of garbage...and has a mistress on the side. When Marsha realizes this, instead of being furious with her cheating husband, she channels all her rage towards the other woman (something that inexplicably happens sometimes in real life). In fact, she is so angry she plans on poisoning the mistress! But, after leaving the poison, she realizes that her husband might ingest it (so??) and she runs to the woman's apartment and divulges what she's done. But this is NOT the end of the story.

I was all prepared to give this one a 7 or 8. But one thing that annoys me is that in several episodes where the perfect crime seems to have occurred, Hitchcock in the epilogue announces that the perpetrator was caught and justice was served! This is bad because there really is no reason to believe she would ever be caught and also because it makes the series moralistic and dopey.

The scheme is here not surprising in such an anthology show. Cheated woman, revenge, poison, all the ingredients which you are used to since so many episodes. It is still riveting, not boring at all, a routine that you will never get tired of. It is pretty well done, perfectly acted, flawless for me. Now, if you are bored with such plots, make a break in this kind of show.