One of the most underrated episodes of the show's first season.
In this episode, a criminal (John Cassavetes) hides out in a farmhouse and forces the woman (Marisa Pavan) living there to help him hide.
This is a truly excellent episode. From start to finish this episode has a truly tense and suspenseful feel to it. The farmhouse set and the great cinematography (by Reggie Lanning, a regular cinematographer on the series) creates a claustrophobic feel that make us feel like we are trapped in there with the main woman. John Cassavetes makes a truly terrifying villain, who commands the screen whenever he is on. Meanwhile Marisa Pavan is fantastic as the woman being held hostage. Her fear feels so real and genuine that it helps put us on the edge of our seats.
Like most Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes, everything leads up to a twist at the end. This format is something that worked for this show's great episodes but worked against its weaker episodes. If the twist was well done it could make an episode stand out even more. However, a weaker twist could really hurt an otherwise strong episode. You Got to Have Luck has a very smart and clever twist, possibly one of the best of the show's first season. It makes everything that came before work even stronger. When you watch this episode a second or third time you notice little details that perfectly set up the twist.
This marks the fourth of the many episodes directed by Robert Stevens. Robert Stevens directed 44 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and 5 episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
This is the only episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to feature John Cassavetes. He would go on to act in two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (Murder Case (1964) and Water's Edge (1964)). Of course, cinephiles probably know John Cassavetes best as a director. He would become one of the most respected independent American directors. He would direct such movies as A Child is Waiting (1963), Faces (1968) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974).
The episode was written by brothers Francis M. and Eustace Cockrell, who had co-written the episode A Bullet for Baldwin (1956). These were the only two episodes Eustace Cockrell worked on. However, Francis Cockrell would write several other episodes without his brother.
In Hitch's introduction he is with a big hourglass and states, "Good evening. The, uh, hourglass is a wonderful invention. But I'm afraid it will never replace the sundial. Certainly not in my garden. This one doesn't even work. I sent it to a jeweler's to be cleaned and he removed all the sand."
He then pulls out a smaller hourglass and continues, "Fortunately, the second hand still functions. Time is very important to the characters in tonight's story. One of them is doing it. For another, time seems to be running out. Time is also very important in television. We fill it. We must start on it. We must finish on it. And, appropriately enough, we occasionally kill it. I refer, of course, to my own fumbling efforts. Certainly not to the stellar entertainment which follows."
This episode would be remade for the 1980's reboot of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in an episode entitled, Prisoners (1985).
-Michael J. Ruhland
.jpg)