A Night With The Boys is a solid little Hitchcock half-hour. It looks cheaper than most, and with its obviously back lot urban setting plays like a B movie of the period in which it was made. The acting of its principal players is good if unexceptional, with Joe De Santis coming off best as a police lieutenant with empathy.
It's the tale of a naive, married young man who still has a lot of growing up to do. He loses his paycheck in a poker game and walks home, too embarrassed to tell his wife when he's literally accosted by a policeman on patrol (yes, they really walked beats in those days) who informs the young fellow that he's strolling around in a dangerous neighborhood, full of young punks and muggers.
The man gets an idea to fake a mugging, messes himself up, even cuts his face, so that he can return home with an excuse for having no money in his pocket, as he had just been paid earlier. Fate intervenes when, at the urging of his wife, he calls the police, and at the station house a teenage boy who more or less matches his faked description of the mugger is brought in with exactly the same amount of money in his pocket that the young man lost playing cards.
Irony figures heavily in the story's ending; and its protagonist learns a lesson. As Hitch shows go, it's a slight tale and doesn't delve too deep, into human nature or urban life. However, in the hands of maestro director John Brahm, it comes off with a nice Film Noir sheen to it, with its atmosphere dark and menacing, it was made with a light enough touch to actually feel comfortable, or as comfortable as Noir can feel, for which the director deserves much of the credit.