Triggers in Leash

I enjoyed seeing such great actors. Gene Barry is one of my all-time favorites. Bat Masterson and Burke's Law were awesome shows. I'm a big fan of The War of the Worlds. Darrin McGavin and Ellen Corby are wonderful too.

The plot is a little thin here, but I still enjoyed it. Maybe not the best of the shows, but I still had fun watching it.

Lots of Alfred Hitchcock episodes are on YouTube. Peacock has all episodes from Season One, Episode One of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to the last episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. I've decided to start and the beginning and watch them all. I hope you enjoy the shows as much as I do.

Watching this episode, I got a strong feeling that Sergio Leone must have seen it sometime and it made an impression on him. Almost the entire episode is guys waiting to draw on each other while tension builds, just like the ending of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. There are some similar shots -- a low shot from behind a hand over a holster, and close-ups of the men's eyes (something very rarely done in film before Sergio started doing it).

Also, since the men were supposed to draw when a cuckoo clock chimed, I was reminded of For A Few Dollars More, when a gunfight was supposed to start when a musical watch stopped its song.

Anyway, I can't know for sure, but I feel almost certain that the maestro must have caught this episode and liked it, and found things he wanted to use. Watch the climactic duel from The Good The Bad and the Ugly, and then watch this episode. I think you'll see what I mean.

Simple as could be, this Western drama is skillfully directed by Don Medford, whose expertise in the genre peaked in 1970 when he made "The Hunting Party", an ultra-violent Western that was my favorite in the wake of the new cinema norms following the breakthrough of Peckinpah's classic "The Wild Bunch".

TV favorites Gene Barry and Darren McGavin square off as gunslingers intent on killing each other in a gunfight after a dispute over a poker game. Neither one will step down, but Ellen Corby as a cafe lady preparing them breakfast dominates the show, cleverly outwitting them and saving the day.

A character actress of the first order, Corby makes her character utterly believable, no hint of acting at all, but forceful all the same, and seeing the future "Bat Masterson" versus evilly smiling McGavin in this Mexican standoff is memorable.

A cook tries everything she can think of to end a dispute between two gunmen who have sworn to kill each other.

I appreciate this episode for the young Darren McGavin, who looks remarkably different than he did in the 1970s. I understand 20 years will do that to a guy, but it makes me wonder what he was doing for most of that time. Was he a big name before "Kolchak"? I am not aware of it, but then I wasn't really alive at the time.

After the first two episodes, this one is a bit of a disappointment. Not great, not terrible, just a very simple story. Maybe if I was a bigger fan of westerns I would like it more, but it just seemed like it could have used a little something more.

A rather odd third episode for a series then in the process of establishing itself. The problem is that after about 15 minutes of macho hectoring and gunfighter's crouch, the hair-trigger face- off between Barry and McGavin goes from tense to tedious. There's still a question of how the drama will end, but the dialogue and visuals have become too familiar to sustain the initial tension. As another reviewer points out, a final twist managed to salvage what looked like a really cop-out ending. In my book, the best thing about this tepid curiosity is the featured role it gives to that fine actress Ellen Corby who spent her career playing thankless menials of one type or another. There should be a special place in Hollywood heaven for such unsung stalwarts as she. Too bad I can't say the same for this episode.