The Right Price

This is one of the better episodes of the season. Sure, it's comedy rather than suspense, but it's funny. Eddie Foy Jr. plays a thief but isn't entirely convincing. He comes across as an old vaudevillian, which is what the actor really was. His performance carries the episode.

It turns out the man whose home he is robbing (a) has nothing of value and (b) hates his wife, so they cut a deal. I love the casual cynicism the show exhibits about marriage. 1950s style grumbling about wives, but I don't think it is , ultimately, sexist. This is AH dark humor at its best.

I'm not sure if the plotting would hold up, but it's all in good fun, and there is a nice twist ending.

'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' "The Right Price" (1959)

Opening thoughts: Every season had some truly fine episodes, and they all had some not so good episodes. This was all obvious in Season 4, that had some real highs and some real lows and sometimes in quite quick succession to each other. None of Hiller's Season 4 episodes really fitted in the real lows category and in fact to me his best ones were close to being among the highs (i.e. "Post Mortem"). "The Right Price" is not one of his high points or one of the best episodes of Season 4, but it is also nowhere near to being one of his worst or among the season's and series' worst. It does show how much the quality of his episodes improved since his disappointing debut episode "Flight to the East" and an increasing confidence in his direction. Anything centered around insurance is familiar territory for 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', but "The Right Price" is one of the better and more interesting outings.

Bad things: It is a little slow at times, especially early on where the set up is slightly overlong, and is occasionally on the theatrical side.

Good things: However, so much is done right. On the most part, "The Right Price" is well acted with Eddie Foy Jr being a mostly convincing lead once he settled down. Hitchcock's bookending is amusingly ironic and Hiller directs confidently.

Furthermore, it's solidly made with some atmospheric photography. The series theme music is one of the best and most inspired examples of pre-existing classical music being used as a main theme, fitting perfectly with the series' overall tone. The writing is thought provoking, fun and unsettling, with no over-talkiness. It is especially good in the more comedic parts, which are nicely ironic and amusing.

Did in general enjoy the storytelling, while there is a light-hearted offbeat-ness there is also some suspense and a cunning edge. Loved the clever and suitably wild twist that was not expected.

Concluding thoughts: Overall, very well done.

8/10.

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.

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.

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.