The Alfred Hitchcock Hour The Monkey's Paw--A Retelling (1962–1965) Online

In 1902, British author W.W. Jacobs first published the story of a monkey's paw talisman cursed by an Indian holy man before being transported from India by a soldier returning home to England. The Jacobs' story was made into a play and, later, many film versions. Hitchcock takes the story out of the 19th century and into the 20th. Paul and Anne White acquire the paw from a gypsy while in the Bahamas to see their "beautiful" only son, Howard, race in the Grand Prix. The paw comes with three wishes. In the book the couple is given the paw and told it is more of a curse than a blessing. The Whites soon find this out when financially-strapped Paul White uses the paw to wish for money. Not long after, the couple is visited by an insurance man with a check; insurance payment on the life of their son who was crushed to death in a terrible racetrack crash. Paul identifies the body and knows how horribly their "beautiful" son was disfigured. After a séance arranged by Howard's creepy girlfriend fails to bring Howard back to grieving mom Anne, Anne urges Paul to use the paw again to make Howard "alive again." Paul gives in and makes the wish. Immediately a knock comes at the door but it is only the girlfriend, who they learn, never really loved Howard. She gets the house and they must get out by morning. After she leaves, the couple go upstairs. Knowing the cursed nature of the wishes granted by the paw Paul begins to fear what it means to make Howard alive again. After all, he saw their son's remains. "He had no face," Paul recalls. Just then they hear the sound of a car drive up. Anne, undaunted, runs down to unbolt the front door. Paul looks out only to gaze upon the nightmarish face of his son (unseen by viewers). He yells a warning to Anne who is struggling to unbolt the door. Paul fumbles through their luggage to find the paw. Just as Anne slides back the last bolt, Paul makes the third and final wish that Howard not be alive. The door opens and all that Anne finds heaped on the stoop is the scarf, now torn, that she had given her son for luck before his fatal last race. Chilling. One of Hitchcock's best in the series.

The Monkeys Paw one the most well known horror stories ever so how could anyone go wrong making it in to a scary experience for TV viewing, er easily I'm afraid. Season 3 has it's fair share of clunkers but this equals Thou Ravished Bride for worst of the season. The original tale is short, creepy and nasty and would have worked perfectly as a AHP in a 25 minute slot. This drawn out version takes all the things that made the original so good and makes for tedious viewing-some of the acting is so awful I was wishing I had a monkeys paw to make it all go away. This episode and many others of Season 3 make you realise why there was no season 4 for Hitch, a Shame as all 7 seasons of AHP and the first two of AHH are essential viewing.

***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!