The plot is simple. Robert Redford's character has shot and killed a cop. He is now number one priority for the precinct. He knows a stitch em up doctor who takes care of him. He is a big baby and can't abide the pain. This leads him to a pharmacist and, well, figure it out. Very predictable but we want to see it play out.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series)
The Right Kind of Medicine (1961)
User Reviews
Review this title8 Reviews
"If it isn't a killer, it's bronchitis".
classicsoncall14 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Who would have thought a major film star like Robert Redford would show in an anthology series like 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents'? Actually, Redford worked a lot of old time television series before getting a big break that made him a star. It's just that you're not used to seeing him as a small time hood, on the lam from robbing a jewelry store, and sporting a gunshot wound to boot! You really have to take yourself back to the early Sixties to comprehend something like the doctor (Gage Clark) charging a dollar to patch up a kids' burned arm! When he got a look at Charlie Marx's (Redford) forty bucks for taking care of his gunshot wound, you would think he struck gold!
It's too bad Charlie was such an impatient guy. His rushing the pharmacist for a prescription might have contributed to his own undoing, as the conclusion of the story delivers the ironic result that the script was filled with some sort of poison. Not very credible, but for a Hitchcock ending, we'll take it. One mystery that's a little harder to explain though, is why the case with the money Charlie stole suddenly so much smaller back in his apartment than the one he entered the pharmacy with.
As a final trivia note, about a month after this show aired, you could have caught Robert Redford in an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' titled 'Nothing in the Dark'. He appears to an elderly woman nearing death, and disguised as a police officer, eases her way into the great beyond as a guiding spirit. It's a good story, and one of my favorite Twilight Zone's.
It's too bad Charlie was such an impatient guy. His rushing the pharmacist for a prescription might have contributed to his own undoing, as the conclusion of the story delivers the ironic result that the script was filled with some sort of poison. Not very credible, but for a Hitchcock ending, we'll take it. One mystery that's a little harder to explain though, is why the case with the money Charlie stole suddenly so much smaller back in his apartment than the one he entered the pharmacy with.
As a final trivia note, about a month after this show aired, you could have caught Robert Redford in an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' titled 'Nothing in the Dark'. He appears to an elderly woman nearing death, and disguised as a police officer, eases her way into the great beyond as a guiding spirit. It's a good story, and one of my favorite Twilight Zone's.
Heast makes Waste
kapelusznik1816 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** On the run from the law after gunning down a cop in a jewelry store robbery Charlie Marx played by clean-cut all-American looking Robert Redford makes it to Dr. Vogal's, Gage Clarke,office to be treated for a gun shot wound risking him being reported to the police. The ankle wound was patched up by Dr. Vogel but the pain was excruciating with Marx needing strong pain killers to ease it. Going to a nearby druggist Mark desperately needs a prescription of pain killers or else he'll go nuts and can't wait for him to get it filled.
The druggist Mr. Fletcher, Russell Collins, having Marx breathing down his neck finally fills the prescription with Marx taking off to his hotel room to gulp down the pills but is interrupted by Fletcher's assistant Vernon, Joby Baker. Vernon is gunned down by a crazed with pain Marx before he can tell him why he went to see him in the first place. If robbing a jewelry store and killing a cop was a mistake on Marx's part this, gunning down Vernon, was a far bigger one. And it won't be long until Marx's soon realizes that!
***SPOILERS*** When it's all over we get the lowdown from Fletcher who feels guilty about all that had happened. Not in what Marx did but what was done to him. Forced by Marx to fill his prescription Fleatcher messed things up in him putting the wrong pills in the prescription bottle! In the end Marx got all that's coming to him and even worse-or better-he did it all to himself.
The druggist Mr. Fletcher, Russell Collins, having Marx breathing down his neck finally fills the prescription with Marx taking off to his hotel room to gulp down the pills but is interrupted by Fletcher's assistant Vernon, Joby Baker. Vernon is gunned down by a crazed with pain Marx before he can tell him why he went to see him in the first place. If robbing a jewelry store and killing a cop was a mistake on Marx's part this, gunning down Vernon, was a far bigger one. And it won't be long until Marx's soon realizes that!
***SPOILERS*** When it's all over we get the lowdown from Fletcher who feels guilty about all that had happened. Not in what Marx did but what was done to him. Forced by Marx to fill his prescription Fleatcher messed things up in him putting the wrong pills in the prescription bottle! In the end Marx got all that's coming to him and even worse-or better-he did it all to himself.
I can't find his face!
Clive-Silas12 July 2023
One amusing interlude in this episode is the witness trying to pick out the perp from a large facebook, but there are so many faces he can't find him! But the person he's looking for had certainly the most beautiful and outstanding male face you could have found at that time: Robert Redford! The producers didn't even make any effort to make him look more like a lowlife hoodlum, those chiselled features were still crowned by that perfect golden hair, not in the least dimmed by being in black and white. A tolerably tense story is slightly marred by the unlikely twist, but despite the protagonist being Redford you don't feel any sympathy for him. *** out of *****
Great ending!
talonjensen1 May 2018
Usually I am not happy when I easily predict the ending, but, in this case make sure you watch the ending, for the great acting mostly with just facial expressions. Not to put down Robert Redford, but the best acting in the episode was not his.
SPOILER: The faces of the two policeman in the ending scene were so expressive I actually laughed out loud. Without giving away everything, they did a great job when reacting to what the druggist had to tell them, very expressive facial expressions. Loved it!
SPOILER: The faces of the two policeman in the ending scene were so expressive I actually laughed out loud. Without giving away everything, they did a great job when reacting to what the druggist had to tell them, very expressive facial expressions. Loved it!
Robert Redford as a vicious killer
kevinolzak27 October 2012
"The Right Kind of Medicine" is classic Hitchcock, starring 24 year old Robert Redford as convicted robber Charlie Pugh, escaping with a suitcase full of cash stolen from a jewelry store safe, managing to gun down the cop in pursuit, who succeeds in wounding his killer in the leg. Charlie seeks out a shady physician, Dr. Emmet Vogel (Gage Clarke), who reports how the bullet passed clean through, and offers a pain killer prescription which the desperate killer must fill while trying to avoid detection in a busy pharmacy. Gage Clarke manages to steal his scenes, but Redford is quite convincing as a vicious killer, in his second year on television, going on to do 3 hour long Hitchcocks over the next two years.
Be kind to your local pharmacist
cpotato101029 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Or they might put a little surprise in your pill bottle.
What is it about these old-style pharmacies that they mix up poison for pain killers? Or does the word "killer" confuse them?
The ending takes a twist on one of the main plot points of "It's A Wonderful Life"
That detail aside, this is a good episode, showing the acting skills of a young Robert Redford.
I am not sure of the lead time of the filming of the shows back then, he was also in a well-known episode of The Twilight Zone that aired the month after this show.
What is it about these old-style pharmacies that they mix up poison for pain killers? Or does the word "killer" confuse them?
The ending takes a twist on one of the main plot points of "It's A Wonderful Life"
That detail aside, this is a good episode, showing the acting skills of a young Robert Redford.
I am not sure of the lead time of the filming of the shows back then, he was also in a well-known episode of The Twilight Zone that aired the month after this show.
What pharmacist would make THIS mistake?!
planktonrules20 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Robert Redford stars as a really nasty piece of work. He's just killed a cop and is on the run after the cop shot him in return. So he goes to a hoodlum-loving doctor to get sewn up and he demands a prescription for the pain. But, being a punk, when he goes to the pharmacist for the pills, he bullies the staff in order to get the medicine quickly. Unfortunately, because the pharmacist was in such a hurry, he accidentally gives the punk poison!! And, when the pharmacist realizes the mistake, his warning goes unheeded....and shows the old adage, "No good deed goes unpunished".
Since I mentioned the twist, I'm noting that I am giving a spoiler. But it's hard not to because this twist is pretty ridiculous, especially when the pharmacist says "If he takes ANY of this medicine, he'll die!". What in the heck did the man give him....cyanide???!! This seems so silly and outside the realm of possibility that it pretty much ruined the episode. Perhaps the pharmacist should have said something like "The guy was pushing me to hurry so much that I accidentally gave him too high a dosage..a dosage that might kill if he takes it"...which WOULD have made sense. But to have given him poison??? Who is this nutty pharmacist?!?! Oh, well....at least knowing he killed a big jerk made it satisfying on this level at least.
Since I mentioned the twist, I'm noting that I am giving a spoiler. But it's hard not to because this twist is pretty ridiculous, especially when the pharmacist says "If he takes ANY of this medicine, he'll die!". What in the heck did the man give him....cyanide???!! This seems so silly and outside the realm of possibility that it pretty much ruined the episode. Perhaps the pharmacist should have said something like "The guy was pushing me to hurry so much that I accidentally gave him too high a dosage..a dosage that might kill if he takes it"...which WOULD have made sense. But to have given him poison??? Who is this nutty pharmacist?!?! Oh, well....at least knowing he killed a big jerk made it satisfying on this level at least.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
