User Reviews

***SPOILERS*** It's when the arrogant and sure of himself wannabe actor Larry Duke, George Segal, locked into the looking for a real and loving man in her life casting agent Janice Brandt, Anne Baxter, sparks began to fly. Janice's husband "Mister Ed" Brandt played by the always abused and stepped upon, on TV and the movies, Harry Townes had been hitting the bottle real hard as of late and is now well on the road to the drunk tank if not cemetery if he doesn't watch himself.

With Larry and Janice having a hot affair behind Ed's back he soon discovers what's happening, in a letter he got from an empty gin bottle on the beach, and refuses to give Janice a divorce making her marriage to Larry be put on hold indefinitely . As things turn out Ed drunk as ever bursts into Janice's secret love nest that she shares with Larry and in a drunken rage falls and hits his head on the floor putting him to sleep. Franticly Janice calls Larry, who doing a movie in Hollywood, for advice in whet to do with Ed before the booze wears off and he regains conciseness.

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Larry smelling blood in the water sees his chance to put not just Ed but his lover Janice, whom he's grown tired of, behind him. On the phone Larry instructs Janice to murder. by placing a pillow over his head, the out of it Ed while he some 3,000 miles away can have an alibi in his murder. Janice despite her many misgivings goes along with Larry's plan not wanting to lose the big bargain if she didn't and not realizing what exactly he has in store for her as well as Ed. Double-crossing is nothing new with Larry but conscience is. And it's that what in the end, when the episode is over, that does the guy in. Not by him but the Chickiepo he was playing around with and whom he planned to dump Junice for!

I knew it, I just knew it! All the while actor Larry Duke (George Segal) is trading 'darlings' with Janice Brandt (Anne Baxter) over the phone, he's got another woman stashed away in his apartment who he's already married to! The devious and scheming creep strung Janice along only so far as she could help him in his career, and then gave her the old heave-ho. Numerous flashbacks reveal how the pair became lovers following a rough and tumble opening scene in which Janice's husband (Harry Townes) learns of her infidelity and goes on a rampage. I don't think it would have been that easy to suffocate Ed Brandt with a pillow even if he was passed out drunk; when you find yourself unable to breathe you come to rather quickly. Janice described Larry more than once as the kind of man that could make a woman do anything, and apparently that 'gift' would eventually lead to his own undoing, courtesy of Hitchcock's closing epilog. Don't you wish he'd stop doing that?

It was made very clear throughout this episode that Larry Duke manipulated Janice from the moment he met her in the casting office. He refused to take no for an answer and bulldozed his way right past her into the office to do his script reading. Then he literally swept her off her feet (as she said to him in the ep) and bulldozed his way into her heart with his brash macho attitude, because he knew she was in a position to pull strings and get him good roles that would make him an in-demand star. There were scenes showing her doing exactly that, including one where she convinced a friend who was a producer or director to drop the lead actor that was already signed for a starring role in a movie and replace him with Larry Duke. After he had made it to the top in show biz and gotten his full use out of her, he concocted and enacted a plan to permanently rid himself of her since he had never cared about her in the first place and had just married a woman with whom he did want to spend the rest of his life. He had purposely zeroed in on Janice to make her fall hopelessly in love with him and therefore be under his control to do his bidding, which she did. And then he threw her away like yesterday's rubbish. He hadn't grown tired of her, as one reviewer wrote - he never cared about her to begin with. He had used her for all he could get out of her. Other reviewers here seemed to have totally missed that entire key premise.

It's fun and enjoyable going back in time to see these young then-stars or newbies just starting out on the path to becoming future stars, in black-and-white dramatic teleplays like this one. I was too young to understand the Alfred Hitchcock Hour back when they first aired, so seeing them now all these years later, in sequence, is a huge treat for me.

Anne Baxter is supposed to be a successful, intelligent career woman, so why does she let this yammering, sociopathic creep into her apartment after knowing him for all of ten minutes? George Segal is sorely miscast as the ambitious creep-actor - you wouldn't hire this guy to sweep the stage, let alone act upon it - and the silly plot has Baxter falling into his arms when she should be calling the police to have him arrested for trespassing and/or sexual assault. This duo are painfully mismatched from the get-go, and nothing they do or say after they fall in "love" is the slightest bit interesting or even believable. Baxter has always been good at emoting, but here she is waaaaay over the top. Her tearful - and painfully extended - phone calls with Segal are truly nauseating. Hitchcock is noted for his "mysteries", right? Well, this episode has two mysteries. The first mystery is why someone of Anne Baxter's stature didn't throw the script across the room and fire her agent. The second is how the episode ever got the green light in the first place. You can decide which mystery is the more baffling.

Without a doubt, one of the most bland entries in the series. The plot, what there is of one, is a total bore.

However, the most negative aspect is Anne Baxter's performance - a major ham fest. This is nothing new, of course. Of her work, the only thing I've ever enjoyed is "All About Eve."

Segal doesn't fare much better. James Farentino plays a somewhat similar character in Season 3, and nails it.

Her fawning over "Larry Duke" is ludicrous, especially after the initial scenes with her character being strong and assured. We are to believe that she immediately turns into a simpering fool?

"Hitchcock Hour" often presents intelligent women doing incredibly stupid things (murder, usually), all in the name of "love." I would expect that from 1950s TV, but not in the mid-60s. Of course, Hitchcock and women - to be expected. (Although the episodes are based on the works of writers., of course.)

Even the conclusion is insipid.

Skip it.

...woman. In what world, even in 1964, would give up a successful career (hell. She had a career and no babies in 1964! That's gotta count for something!), a husband she loves who is rich and who adores her, power to make or break anyone's career and, supposedly a good head on her shoulders to lay up with an out-of-work, no class, dumb-as-hell, no-prospect-having, probably homeless, lunkhead nobody? Why?! Apparently he has other talents we cannot speak of, but still! WHY?!

Here's the synopsis: Married working woman with rich husband with whom she has a mutual love, falls for the aforementioned wannabe. She loses her husband, her job and her luxurious life to settle for a man who had nothing when first they met and is only successful because of her. If only her husband would sign those darn divorce papers, she could be with the love of her life. What to do, what to do?

The script is predictable, but it was interesting and well-acted. That's my review.

Perhaps if all involved in this ridiculous play might have made the gap in the characteristics between Wife and Lover to even it out (bored housewife with blah hubby falls for an up-and-comer), it wouldn't be so unbelievable. It wouldn't have made me mad. If your secretary has to pull you aside to say "Gurl! What are you doing (Ok. She didn't say that. You get the gist)?!

Anne Baxter says George Segal( LARRY DUKE) can make a woman do anything and he can charm the pants off of any woman! Give us a break; he has as much sex appeal as a raw egg! He isn"t even good looking! And she is continually acting like a love sick school girl which is absolutely RIDICULOUS! Over this creep??? Let"s come down to reality! EVEN THE NAME LARRY DUKE IS COMICAL! This episode is pure trash! Yeah right...she killed for this big nothing of a person!