The Opportunity

I don't have much to say about this one. Richard Long concocts a scheme to steal all his wife's money. He extorts a beautiful shoplifter at his store. We think he is going to use her for sex but he has a much bigger plan for her. I just found the whole thing rather risky and stupid.

The shoplifter is made up to almost resemble jacki kennedy..richard long got what was coming to him.

Robert Florey, pioneer of directors, who began a lengthy career in silent films, handled this very interesting, if not risque drama.

In short, its fun. Richard Long, usually playing heroes, portrays a wry gentleman who is going through a nasty divorce. His bitter wife will not give him a dime. Actually, they deserve each other... What to do? Since he needs cash, he stages a mock robbery at his house with the help of a shoplifter? The reluctant thief is well played by Colleen Gray, who even has to tie him to his bed to make everything look real?

This one raises an eyebrow; there's a blackmail scheme (and it may not be money?), also Long's bedroom the center of attention? Robert Florey has fun with his characters, and I'm sure Hitch had a couple of chuckles too. Old directors stick together.

Quite original. Long makes a nifty bad guy. The ending is one you have to see.

From the final season (1962) SEASON 7 EPISODE 33 remastered Universal dvd box set. All seven seasons are now on dvd in a single box set. 35 dvds. Released 2022.

Paul Devore (Richard Long) is a snake of an assistant manager at a department store, married to a wealthy woman (Rebecca Sand) he wants to divorce and get community property from but she'll have none of it. So, he devises a scheme he needs an accomplice for, blackmails a shoplifter (Coleen Gray) and has her come over while his wife is away. She arrives expecting he wants sex, but finds he has ransacked the house and stolen all his wife's jewelry. Then the fun starts. He has her tie him to the bed, fully clothed, and she gets that he is staging a burglary. She follows his instructions and leaves when he tells her to. Then his wife comes home.....

This episode is nasty but deliciously so. Long, Sand and Gray are wonderful, and it's gratifying to see someone as slimy and stupid as Paul Devore get what's coming to him. That just doesn't happen in the real world enough.

Paul (Richard Long) is an unhappily married man. His wife is rich and insists she won't grant him a divorce....despite him asking her again and again. She doesn't want to split her money with him....and he, naturally, wants all he can get from her. So, when a shoplifter is caught at the department store where he works, he uses this desperate woman to stage a robbery of his home. His plan is to ransack the safe and blame it all on a robber. How can this plan backfire?

This is a creepy episode and the end, well deserved. My only complaint, and it's common in many of the shows involving murder, is that Hitchcock's epilogue essentially tells us the killer was caught and punished. Since this is never seen in the show and the murder seems like a perfect murder, it's quite irritating...and probably something the network and/or sponsors demanded.