"No Pain" is textbook Hitchcock and with the requisite surprise ending. Brian Keith plays a wealthy and healthy fellow who is married to beautiful Joanna Moore. The "healthy" part of his life is shown in flashback as Keith is now suffering a debilitating illness and confined to a portable and electrically powered iron lung. Our story begins with Keith being attended to by his live-in nurse and watching wife Joanna take off sailing with her new "companion" (Yale Wexler). When she returns, the two have it out once and for all. With the nurse conveniently given the night off, the frustrated Ms. Moore literally "pulls the plug" on her husband and tells him that she's more than infatuated with her sailor/boyfriend. She also tells him that she's going to end his misery later, but not on this day. After her nice time out in the ocean, she's in too good of a mood to commit murder. With a little coaxing and some earnest begging, Keith convinces her to plug his iron lung back into the wall socket to keep him from dying. What naive Joanna doesn't know is that her husband has suspected her all along of eventually killing him, and he has made some arrangements to keep that from happening. Directed by veteran and Hitchcock stalwart Norman Lloyd, "No Pain" is a standard entry for the series until the sudden and unexpected ending. As for the cast, it's interesting to see now how much Tatum O'Neal looks like her late mother, Joanna Moore. Ms. Moore was a fine actress in her day and could play the sweet nurturing wife or a conniving woman with equal skill. Brian Keith, as always, does a fine job as the infirm husband with the scheming plans. And he does it all without moving a muscle.
Review of No Pain
