Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 5 Episode 8

Stanley Ellin's immensely disturbing short story still carries quite a kick, even in this watered-down version. But the insidious black humour of the original is replaced by knockabout burlesque - the setting is now twenty years into the future, and the thought that society is always uncaring about senior citizens is diluted. The episode seems to envisage a kind of polite fascism as being the controlling element in American 80s society - not far from "political correctness", in fact - but in its inner details, the future is just like the 1950s, even to the pop music on the radio. Henry Jones gives a solid performance as the put-upon suburban male; it's a bit of a jolt to find Dick York, normally such a nice young chap, as the smooth-talking killer. But it should have been much sharper.

A man is offered murder service by a youngman, by a fishing dock. However, the circle of life comes back to get him when he is 80 years old and his children ask the same man to kill him.





Really frightening, the level of perfection with the entire compelation of the episode is flawless. it makes one think of how society will deal with over population. The old will take much from the young, will it come to systematic killing to save the economy and sanity? Hitchcock always comes up with and takes written works that delve into a very sadistic subconscious.