Your Witness

Salute to Hitch's tv partner, Norman Lloyd, who passed at age 106 in 2021. A directors director, also co-producer. This episode defines his signature style.

Then there's Brian Keith, rivaling his famous father, perhaps one of his finest early tv roles. He plays Arnold, an arrogant, tough as nails attorney who runs his personal life the same way. He's cheating on his wife, Namoi (Leora Dana), and could care less whether she likes it or not. As for a divorce, that's her problem.

All during the Hitch soap opera, Arnold is ruthlessly defending a hit and run driver, making mince meat out of a meek witness (William Hansen), who could throw a ringer in his case. Namoi happens to be watching his courtroom tactics, getting a few ideas herself. You probably know where this is going, however unless you've seen it, will never guess what slick trick she has up her sleeve to finally end a miserable marriage.

Leora Dana is a perfect match for Keith in this drama, who appeared in several classic films. She reminded me of Kay Francis. A notable role for character actor William Hansen (Babcock), another actor you've seen a hundred times, but never knew their name.

Splendid writing by William Jerome Fay, who wrote thirteen other stories for Hitch, this, by far, his most creatively dark.

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Tidy little episode about a middle-aged wife seeking to divorce her philandering husband, a big-shot defense attorney currently working a hit-run case and in no hurry to get divorced. The script is so tightly focused on the bickering husband and wife that we are spared the cliché of having to meet the attorney's current squeeze or even the defendant in the hit-run case. We do, however, get to meet an eye witness to the hit-run, a Good Samaritan who is taken apart on the stand by the sharp-tongued attorney. A 1947 nickel on the sidewalk outside the courthouse leads to a highly satisfying conclusion involving classic revenge. Brian Keith plays against type as the nasty attorney, including roughing up his wife in one surprisingly shocking scene.

Aces all around. Arnold (Keith) is a hotshot attorney who's found a younger woman and expects wife Naomi (Dana) to put up with it. Meanwhile, he's ruthlessly defending a rich man's son in a hit and run case. Poor Naomi, he dominates her at home and dominates the trial in court. She's had about all she can stand, but what's a respectable woman to do.

First-rate acting, especially the hard-put Naomi who's hardened expression says everything. Excellent turn by Keith also. His clever attorney is insufferably smug, so confident in his abilities wherever he goes. Then too, shouldn't forget William Hansen as the meek witness. He's one of those easily overlooked supporting players who add so much, yet remains relatively anonymous. Happily, it's an above average script that doesn't telegraph an ending, while Arnold's witness interrogation reflects as much on Arnold as it does on the witness-- not an easy screen writing trick. Anyway, it's a very satisfying 30-minutes, in solid Hitchcock style.

This is pretty effective. Brian Keith of Family Affair and the original Parent Trap is a lawyer with absolutely no scruples (some might say that's redundant). In both his personal and professional life he is as heartless and insensitive as is possible. He has used his somewhat unattractive wife's family simply to feather his nest. He cheats on her and continuously rubs her nose in his affairs. Enter Mr. Babcock, a milquetoast little man who has lost his teaching job because he is legally blind (why that would happen, I don't know. But that's the plot). His myopia comes into play heavily. He is an honest man and is made to look like a fool on the witness stand. Keith takes great pride in destroying little men like this and winning at the cost of the near destruction of a man's life. As with most Hitchcock offerings, the chickens eventually come home to roost.

Brian Keith does the job here, as a district attorney whom you won't forget. I usually dislike and avoid court room plots, but this one proposes something totally new, unpredictable, and that's the least we can expect in AH PRESENTS show. The last minute is exquisite and above all unforeseeable, ironic, the trademark of this amazing series.