Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series) You Can't Trust a Man (1961) User Reviews

Crystal is a woman who gets what she wants.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 16 April 2021]

Crystal (Polly Bergen) is a successful nightclub singer who is married to a rich oil man. Following one of her shows, her first husband comes to see her. You very quickly learn that he's a nasty, brutal sort of guy and he only recently was released from prison. You also learn that his ex-wife is NOT an ex, as they never were divorced...meaning that Crystal was a bigamist and her marriage to the rich man is invalid. The first husband knows this...and he plans on making her squirm! What's next? See the show for yourself.

This is a pretty good episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" even though it has a small possible plot hole. Why Crystal lied to the police and her oil man husband isn't 100% clear and if she'd just stuck more to the truth, the twist at the end wouldn't have mattered all that much. Still, it is worth seeing and Bergen plays a VERY interesting woman!

"For what I want, you won't need your checkbook."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 16 February 2022]

Sometimes you just can't tell where a Hitchcock episode is going. When former beau Tony (Joe Maross) shows up at her night club dressing room, Crystal Coe (Polly Bergen) is both surprised and apprehensive about seeing him. He took a seven year rap for her, while she married multiple times and earned success as a lounge singer. Even though Joe's motives are unclear, she agrees to drive out to one of their former meeting places to sort things out. When they stop at a garage for gas, Crystal hands the attendant a note stating she's in danger, which he follows up by calling the police. In her frantic haste, Crystal grabs a gun she had in her glovebox and shoots Tony, just as the cops come storming in reacting to the note.

That whole business of shooting Tony seemed rather awkward and ill conceived to me. Just prior to that, Tony asked Crystal to stop and let him out of the car, which she could have easily done. Her story at the police station pretty much exonerated her of any wrongdoing, but a visit later by the lieutenant in charge offered a new insight about Tony. While in prison, he came up with an invention that was worth a fair amount of money in royalties. Had Crystal played it cool with Tony, he'd still be alive, and she stood to become the beneficiary of his invention. She might even have been able to ditch the rich old coot she was presently married to!

Too Many Plot Holes

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 30 May 2021]

I'd forgotten what a cutie Polly Bergen was. I remember her mostly from quiz shows like "What's My Line." Here she play a woman who will do anything to manipulate men to steal or extort from them. She has no feeling for the victims of her scams. Along come the first man she married who went to prison to keep her free. The problem is the plans he has are rather strange.

A Mink Coat Meets an Ex-Con

[dougdoepke · 26 October 2009]

Slender Hitchcock fare with a somewhat ironical ending. Much of the half-hour is taken up with verbal fencing between estranged husband (Maross) and wife (Bergen). He's a just-released ex- con who's taken a rap for Bergen who's now a glamorous club vocalist with ambition. So she owes him. Trouble is he's on his way down, while she's on her way up. Worse for her, they've never divorced, and now she has plans to marry a rich man (Albertson). So what does Maross want from her, and how will she get rid of this embarrassment from her past.

Fortunately, the two principals spice up the lengthy dialogue enough to keep up interest. We know something will happen to relieve the tension between them, but what? Still, it's a pretty static entry that doesn't pick up until the last few minutes. Bergen was then on an upswing in a generally up-and-down career, while Maross again proves an excellent utility actor. All in all, the entry suggests a high quality series beginning to run down, but still not without interest.