The Right Price

Two people run a business together. They are also husband and wife. They make each other crazy. One night after going to bed, the husband is awakened by a burglar. It turns out he is a talkative businessman. He proposes a partnership with the husband. Unfortunately, there is nothing of value, so they can't share potential insurance money. After enjoying roast beef sandwiches and beer, they get down to a possible crime. The husband wants his wife killed. The burglar agrees and he heads for the bedroom. This is one of those episodes where it is played pretty much for laughs. It was really hard for me to become engaged in this.

This was an exceptionally cast dark comedy, and with Allyn Joslyn in the lead. For years, Joslyn was a standout at playing brooding, complaining, snobby types (and in some classic films), not to let all his fans down here. And don't forget that pencil moustache.

This time, he's complaining about his wife (marvelously played by Jane Dulo). I say marvelously, because Jane was best at playing similar type characters, quite popular on tv sitcoms.

Joslyn is looking for a way out, even though he appears to be a successful businessman. Oddly, his wife (also his business partner) seems to be cramping his style. There's also an insurance policy hanging around someplace.

Eddie Foy, Jr., whose father was a famous vaudevillian, plays a guy named "the Cat", as in cat burglar, who sneaks into the house and has some financial suggestions for Joslyn while trying to rob him at the same time? Their middle of the night talk together is fascinating. Foy reminded me, slightly, of Phil Silvers.

Does not get any better than this. Allyn Joslyn is the whole show, the epitome of the unhappy man who wants a change in his life, albeit economically. After all, he is a businessman.

Outstanding, and as always, wait for that sly Hitchcock ending. You will not be disappointed.

Not too long after this episode, Eddie Foy appeared in BELLS ARE RINGING, starring Judy Holliday.

From SEASON 4 EPISODE 22 remastered dvd box set. 2008 Universal.

Another simple and sharp as a knife episode. Exciting and above average ending too, very cynical, just the kind of ending that anyone could enjoy. Useless to invent, create complicated plots with many twists and characters. I can only advise you to watch it. It is definitely black humor. Every member of the family will like it.

The Right Price is an adaptation of a Henry Slesar story by the Hitchcock TV team, and while the pace is a tad slow, the characterizations superficial, it works as a light comedy tale that seems to borrow in unequal parts from the short tales of two very different and at the time popular American authors: Damon Runyon and John Cheever.

Set in the kind of upper middle class New York suburb that John Cheever made his literary home, so to speak, for decades, it with a begins as a presentation of a comically dysfunctional middle aged couple of the postwar era; a husband and wife business team who bicker constantly, and even sleep in separate beds (the norm for television couples of the time anyway).

When they finally get to the bedroom for an (apparently sexless, but no matter) good night's sleep, the husband is awakened by sounds downstairs, where he is confronted by a genial looking burglar who holds a gun on him and proceeds to have the man of the house find objects of value for him to abscond with. That there appears to be less real friction between the perp and his prey cleverly foreshadows what is to occur in the story's second half.

As it becomes increasingly clear that there's little of real value in this nicely furnished home; and after wifey's calling downstairs and wondering what was happening (the husband said it was the radio), the plot thickens: the husband now wants to hire the burglar to work for him, as he wants the man to commit that has probably been on his mind for some time: the murder of his bossy, shrewish wife.

As there was never any real edge to this episode, and the major players. Allyn Joslyn and, especially, Eddie Foy, Jr., were known for "light" roles in film, one could see the comedy coming early. Foy was particularly good as a surprisingly laid bad crook; while Joslyn came across as more put upon than frightened.

What transpires in the end is a nicely done twist which I think it's fair to say most viewer wouldn't have seen coming when the show was first broadcast. I certainly didn't. As the set up was vaguely comical, and that Eddie Foy, Jr. had an easygoing, friendly way about him,

As Joslyn, or rather his character, has a genteel, Cheeveresque disposition, Foy comes across as a character out of the Broadway musical Guys & Dolls. He never seems to take anything too seriously; and this includes murder. Neither actor, or rather the characters these men play, seems out of his league or way too off his turf, and this tips the perceptive off as to the ending, which I see no reason t give away.

The Right Price is good clean fun, and it's droll even for a Hitchcock show. Neither the dialogue nor the story suggest great talent at work. There's a familiar been there, done that tone throughout that implies that while there may be a lack of much original talent that went into this effort, what talent there was available was used wisely and well. Also, for all the doublecrossing and trickery on display in this episode, it feels benign, almost innocent more than a half-century after it was first shown.

"The Right Price" is a bit surreal or absurdist compared to other episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". This is because the way folks act in this one is just plain weird and real people just wouldn't act like this...but it's still fun to watch.

In the middle of the night, a man hears someone prowling about the house. He goes to investigate and then something strange happens...he finds a burglar (Eddie Foy Jr.) and the two sit down and chat a while....very amiably. The burglar is friendly and they talk about all sorts of things...until ultimately the man asks the burglar how much he'd charge to murder his wife while he's at it! Surprisingly they haggle about this...which, in hindsight, is a BIG mistake!

This one strictly is for laughs...which isn't a bad thing. Don't expect great depth but it is clever and fun.