***SPOILERS*** Overlong and updated version of the 1902 J.J Jacobs short story "The Monkey's Paw" that goes on an on with a number of meaningless subplots, in it's less then 60 minutes of running time, that makes you almost forget what it's all about when it finally and mercifully comes to an end. The best thing about this Alfred Hitchcock episode is that at least were the audience spared the bloody parts in it that if seen would turn one's stomach.
It's businessman Paul White, Leif Erickson, who come upon this monkey's paw charm from a Gyspy fortune teller, Zolya Talma, at the party that he and his both wife Anne, Jane Wyatt, and son Howard, Lee Majors, attended. Deep in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy Paul in a last desperate attempt asks the "Paw", which he was told has magical powers, to give him the $150,000.00 that he needs from keeping him and Anne from ending up losing their home and being thrown out on the street. Not realizing what he's up against, the "Paw", Paul does end up getting his $150,000.00 in a life insurance payment but at the cost of his son Howard's, a race car driver, life on the race track in a car smash up. The policy on Howard's life was taken out by his girlfriend Selina, Collin Willcox Paxton,who by knowing the story about the "Paw",knew what was coming.
By now Paul is content with the loss of his son but his hysterical wife Jane isn't and in knowing that it ,the "Paw", has two more wishes left in it she wan't to wish her dead and beloved son Howard back to life with it! Paul who was at the morgue and knows what condition Howard's body was in, burned to a crisp, tries to keep Anne from wishing him back to life.
***SPOILERS*** It's when the dead and burned beyond recognition Howard comes back from the dead and is knocking at the White's door that Paul finds the "Paw" and just before a happy Anne, who doesn't know what condition Howard is in, is about to open it that he wishes his son dead, who turns into a pile of dust, with the last wish left to him. This not only speared Anne the horror of seeing her son looking like a victim of a nuclear blast but Howard himself from him being taken from his eternal resting place and ending up in some circus freak show as its star attraction!
It's businessman Paul White, Leif Erickson, who come upon this monkey's paw charm from a Gyspy fortune teller, Zolya Talma, at the party that he and his both wife Anne, Jane Wyatt, and son Howard, Lee Majors, attended. Deep in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy Paul in a last desperate attempt asks the "Paw", which he was told has magical powers, to give him the $150,000.00 that he needs from keeping him and Anne from ending up losing their home and being thrown out on the street. Not realizing what he's up against, the "Paw", Paul does end up getting his $150,000.00 in a life insurance payment but at the cost of his son Howard's, a race car driver, life on the race track in a car smash up. The policy on Howard's life was taken out by his girlfriend Selina, Collin Willcox Paxton,who by knowing the story about the "Paw",knew what was coming.
By now Paul is content with the loss of his son but his hysterical wife Jane isn't and in knowing that it ,the "Paw", has two more wishes left in it she wan't to wish her dead and beloved son Howard back to life with it! Paul who was at the morgue and knows what condition Howard's body was in, burned to a crisp, tries to keep Anne from wishing him back to life.
***SPOILERS*** It's when the dead and burned beyond recognition Howard comes back from the dead and is knocking at the White's door that Paul finds the "Paw" and just before a happy Anne, who doesn't know what condition Howard is in, is about to open it that he wishes his son dead, who turns into a pile of dust, with the last wish left to him. This not only speared Anne the horror of seeing her son looking like a victim of a nuclear blast but Howard himself from him being taken from his eternal resting place and ending up in some circus freak show as its star attraction!
