"You Can't Be a Little Girl..." is among the worst "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episodes I've seen. Though bearing an obvious resemblance to the very first episode (the classic "Revenge", 1.1), it is far inferior.
If you've seen a lot of suspense stories, you develop a feeling for how they're going to end, with the feeling often surfacing right at the start. In this case, your intuition is correct, and the finale is no surprise at all. The plotting is contrived, with the husband suffering a broken leg to keep him from acting when he needs to. And the ending is beyond stupid, with the attacker failing to dispose of (or at least hide) the incriminating evidence.
Norman Lloyd (one of the show's producers, and a respected actor/director still alive at almost 102!), does a fine job trying to make this poor story interesting. He isn't helped by the amateurish and clunky dialog. (You'd think he'd have edited on the spot.)
I've nevertheless given this episode eight stars, because it shows how little things have changed in 60 years. The police play the "blame the victim" game. ("Have you gone out at night?") They badger her relentlessly to identify the attacker, so they can look like they're doing their job. ("Why won't you identify the man?") And the attacker thinks it's okay to beat up a woman because he's frustrated at the way his life is going.
Worth seeing as a time capsule of still-commonplace attitudes.
If you've seen a lot of suspense stories, you develop a feeling for how they're going to end, with the feeling often surfacing right at the start. In this case, your intuition is correct, and the finale is no surprise at all. The plotting is contrived, with the husband suffering a broken leg to keep him from acting when he needs to. And the ending is beyond stupid, with the attacker failing to dispose of (or at least hide) the incriminating evidence.
Norman Lloyd (one of the show's producers, and a respected actor/director still alive at almost 102!), does a fine job trying to make this poor story interesting. He isn't helped by the amateurish and clunky dialog. (You'd think he'd have edited on the spot.)
I've nevertheless given this episode eight stars, because it shows how little things have changed in 60 years. The police play the "blame the victim" game. ("Have you gone out at night?") They badger her relentlessly to identify the attacker, so they can look like they're doing their job. ("Why won't you identify the man?") And the attacker thinks it's okay to beat up a woman because he's frustrated at the way his life is going.
Worth seeing as a time capsule of still-commonplace attitudes.