Two of the last three episodes of the Hitchcock Hour end up with cold blooded murders. In The Second Wife a woman, scared out of her wits, shoots and kills her new husband who has done nothing but act in a detached manner. In this one, John Gavin is the worst kind of police officer. He has repeatedly crossed the line with his weapon. Here, he has become a cop in a small town after being dismissed from his previous job. He shoots an old wino three times for no reason. He makes up excuses but they don't wash. He heads off to a small town with his fiancee and gets a deputy's job. But anger and jealousy are buried in his psyche. He's of the ready, fire, aim mentality. When he suspects his girlfriend of unfaithfulness with a sleazy guy, he seeks them out. But he doesn't really "seek" them out. It is the final punctuation mark on Hitchcock's run of weekly shows.
Review of Off Season
