Just like it's television successor, 'The Twilight Zone", 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' would occasionally take a trip back in time to the Old West as a setting for one of their stories. This one is done in a bit of a parody style, as Del Delaney (Gene Barry) finds himself in a confrontation with a man he apparently humiliated in a card game by not getting into a gunfight with him when that man was drunk. Seeking to save face, Red Hillman (Darren McGavin) tracks down Delaney to a cabin outpost run by Maggie Ryan (Ellen Corby) to force a reckoning. One of the great things about these old programs is seeing actors before they went on to bigger and better things, eventually making names for themselves in shows of their own. Barry went on to star as Bat Masterson in a few more years, while McGavin had a hit with "Kolchak:The Night Stalker" a couple of decades later. And if you're an old time Western fan, you've probably seen Ellen Corby at one time or another in just about every TV Western ever made.
Once the opposing gunmen square off, it gets more comical as time goes by, with Corby's character attempting to dissuade them from shooting each other. She knows them both as frequent customers and does everything she can to interrupt a fatal showdown at high noon. Barry in particular is well over the top in his portrayal, affecting a posture that shows he's ready to get down to business as the faster on the draw between the two adversaries. I'm not sure if Maggie's intention to label the winner of the gunfight a killer would have worked, but the ruse is repeatedly spoken among the trio as if it were in dead earnest. Dear old Maggie's gimmick with the faulty cuckoo clock spares the gunfighters from shooting each other, and with some relief, the men depart as friends once again. Maggie's hired hand (Casey MacGregor) lets us in on the gambit she used to upend the gunfight, but for that, you'll have to catch the show.
Having mentioned 'The Twilight Zone' earlier, there's a remarkable coincidence I just noted, in as much as during each of their very first seasons on the air, both 'Hitchcock' and 'Twilight Zone' came up with an Old West story as the third episode of their respective series. With TZ, it was a show titled 'Mr. Denton on Doomsday'. It also told a story of two protagonists who find themselves in a confrontation in which neither man could win or lose in a showdown. I've always been intrigued by the myth of the 'fastest gun' in TV shows and movies, and two of the best I've seen include the 'Yawkey' episode of 'Lawman', and Gregory Peck's 1950 film "The Gunfighter".
Once the opposing gunmen square off, it gets more comical as time goes by, with Corby's character attempting to dissuade them from shooting each other. She knows them both as frequent customers and does everything she can to interrupt a fatal showdown at high noon. Barry in particular is well over the top in his portrayal, affecting a posture that shows he's ready to get down to business as the faster on the draw between the two adversaries. I'm not sure if Maggie's intention to label the winner of the gunfight a killer would have worked, but the ruse is repeatedly spoken among the trio as if it were in dead earnest. Dear old Maggie's gimmick with the faulty cuckoo clock spares the gunfighters from shooting each other, and with some relief, the men depart as friends once again. Maggie's hired hand (Casey MacGregor) lets us in on the gambit she used to upend the gunfight, but for that, you'll have to catch the show.
Having mentioned 'The Twilight Zone' earlier, there's a remarkable coincidence I just noted, in as much as during each of their very first seasons on the air, both 'Hitchcock' and 'Twilight Zone' came up with an Old West story as the third episode of their respective series. With TZ, it was a show titled 'Mr. Denton on Doomsday'. It also told a story of two protagonists who find themselves in a confrontation in which neither man could win or lose in a showdown. I've always been intrigued by the myth of the 'fastest gun' in TV shows and movies, and two of the best I've seen include the 'Yawkey' episode of 'Lawman', and Gregory Peck's 1950 film "The Gunfighter".