Alfred Hitchcock opens this story appearing in a police lineup; it's one of his more humorous introductions and works pretty well. Rip Torn portrays a cocky and arrogant first time criminal with herky-jerky movements and an idiot smile. You want to reach right into the screen and grab him by the neck for his callow arrogance. What's a little odd is that his cellmate Skinner (Russell Collins) is given almost as much prominence as Steve Morgan (Torn), who the main story is about. You get the impression that the world weary Skinner would have changed his life around if he had it to do all over again. Meanwhile Morgan revels in his dubious celebrity as a prisoner, and seems quite satisfied when the issue of a gun comes up with which he committed his candy shop robbery. You can see him drained of expression when the chief detective (Ray Teal) says it was a toy.
As likely an outcome as this story had, I didn't see it coming and for that reason it seemed quite edifying. In his closing remarks, Hitchcock took the same sober stance that he did with season one episode "Never Again", which portrayed the dangers of alcohol abuse. This time he expounded on the growing problem of juvenile delinquency and how little crimes often lead to much bigger ones as a threat to civilized society.
There must be something about that number '22' in the title. Here it described Steve Morgan's number in the police lineup. A few years later, Rod Serling offered a second season episode of "The Twilight Zone" with the title 'Twenty Two', which was about a premonition of a doomed airplane Flight 22. You think Hitchcock and Serling compared notes?
As likely an outcome as this story had, I didn't see it coming and for that reason it seemed quite edifying. In his closing remarks, Hitchcock took the same sober stance that he did with season one episode "Never Again", which portrayed the dangers of alcohol abuse. This time he expounded on the growing problem of juvenile delinquency and how little crimes often lead to much bigger ones as a threat to civilized society.
There must be something about that number '22' in the title. Here it described Steve Morgan's number in the police lineup. A few years later, Rod Serling offered a second season episode of "The Twilight Zone" with the title 'Twenty Two', which was about a premonition of a doomed airplane Flight 22. You think Hitchcock and Serling compared notes?