Sun 16 Dec 2012
A TV Review by Mike Tooney: ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS “Not the Running Type.”
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[4] Comments
“Not the Running Type.” From Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season 5, Episode 19. First broadcast: 7 February 1960. Paul Hartman as Milton Potter, Robert Bray as Capt./Lt. Fisher, Bert Freed as Capt. Ellison, Wendell Holmes as Halverson, Herb Ellis as Lt. Hogan, O. Z. Whitehead as Mr. Newton, and Murray Alper as Ship Passenger. Based on a story by Henry Slesar (EQMM, January 1959). Teleplay by Jerry Sohl. Directed by Arthur Hiller.
Capt. Fisher reminisces in a flashback about an old case he was assigned to as a new lieutenant. Milton Potter, a mild-mannered bank employee and just about the last man on earth anyone would suspect of doing such a thing, embezzled $200,000 from a bank 15 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzGLFcPDCMs
Not long afterwards, Potter turns himself in, freely admitting that he took the money and still has it. What he won’t do, however, is tell the police where it is. Even after Capt. Ellison and Lt. Fisher offer him leniency if he’ll just cough up the boodle, Potter refuses and goes to prison.
Back in the present, he has just been released — and only now does he tell the authorities where the money is.
The final scene has Potter enjoying himself immensely aboard a cruise ship headed for the South Seas, where he will no doubt benefit from the nearly $200,000 he did NOT steal.
All in all, an entertaining Hitchcock episode with zero violence content.
Henry Slesar (1927-2002) had dozens of his stories adapted for TV and film, including 37 Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes and 10 for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
December 17th, 2012 at 12:45 am
I enjoyed this episode very much. Paul Hartman who played Potter also played Emmet the fix it man on the Andy Griffith show. Did any one else notice that the girls playing shuffleboard were wearing high heels?
December 18th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Chuck – I always felt there was something wonky in that shuffleboard scene, but I never could pin it down.
December 19th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
This is a fun episode and a good example of the typical drama of the late fifties, early sixties.
The pace is so much slower than today. Why not only could you see the closing credits, they ran so slow you could actually read all the names!
The story was shot as a stage play. For being called the ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS (or HOUR), I am always surprise by those series camera work. Those I have seen are much like this one, average, entertaining but with no great images, just professional camera work that lets the writer and story take the forefront.
December 20th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
yup, before they began trying to urgently call attention to the camera, with zooms and fast cutting and wacko camera angles.
which is why this stuff looks so much more modern to me than stuff from the 70s, with the overused zoom lenses.
maybe Hitch had it right: do a 25 minute film in a week, instead of a 52 minute film in a week. his TV stuff can’t stand up to his feature work, from the standpoint of production values. but as pure storytelling, it takes a back seat to nobody.
the great TV producers seemed to realize how to make the medium’s budget and time limitations work for them. what could possibly have improved NYPD Blue had they had seven times the time and five times the budget for each episode? they spent their time and money in the right places, and made serious art.