This episode just didn't create a suspension of disbelief. Hurdles at a party and in the home? Also Gary Merrill looked and acted nothing like a former athlete, especially a famous runner. Overall it just felt poorly cast and below average in direction. One of the very few AHP episodes I have felt this way about.
9 Reviews
It's sad when your one moment in the sun was long, long ago.
planktonrules14 April 2021
"O Youth and Beauty!" is certainly NOT among the better episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". It's depressing and the big twist really didn't make a lot of sense.
When the story begins, Cash (Gary Merrill) is with his wife at a country club. Oddly, the various men there began bating Cash...making fun of the fact that he's a has-been. It seems in his youth, Cash had been a champion hurdler...and now these jerks are trying to get him to demonstrate his hurdling skills right there in the club. He obliges them and instead of enjoying his triumph, he sulks because at heart, he also is a jerk.
Later, after LOTS of brooding, Cash once again decides to set up a course in his house and runs about like a teenager jumping his homemade hurdles...and ends up breaking his leg. After months of rehab and sulking, he returns to the country club but instead of enjoying it, he sulks once again.
When they return home, Cash insists on doing his homemade hurdling course again...at which time tragedy strikes....mostly because his wife is apparently rather dim.
The story is only marginally interesting...mostly because you didn't like anyone. Additionally, the twist is lame (making little sense) and the double they used to run for Merrill was incredibly obvious in one of the scenes...laughably so. All in all, they really seemed to have slapped this one together...and it's not well constructed or even that interesting.
When the story begins, Cash (Gary Merrill) is with his wife at a country club. Oddly, the various men there began bating Cash...making fun of the fact that he's a has-been. It seems in his youth, Cash had been a champion hurdler...and now these jerks are trying to get him to demonstrate his hurdling skills right there in the club. He obliges them and instead of enjoying his triumph, he sulks because at heart, he also is a jerk.
Later, after LOTS of brooding, Cash once again decides to set up a course in his house and runs about like a teenager jumping his homemade hurdles...and ends up breaking his leg. After months of rehab and sulking, he returns to the country club but instead of enjoying it, he sulks once again.
When they return home, Cash insists on doing his homemade hurdling course again...at which time tragedy strikes....mostly because his wife is apparently rather dim.
The story is only marginally interesting...mostly because you didn't like anyone. Additionally, the twist is lame (making little sense) and the double they used to run for Merrill was incredibly obvious in one of the scenes...laughably so. All in all, they really seemed to have slapped this one together...and it's not well constructed or even that interesting.
"You're not a kid anymore."
classicsoncall10 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
You may have to jump a few hurdles yourself to get through this story. The disparity in age between Gary Merrill and Patricia Breslin in portraying their characters, while not impossible, would have been improbable if Cash Bentley (Merrill) was as big a jerk in his younger days as he was in this episode. The former athlete and hurdles champion found it difficult to come to grips with getting older, especially when taunted by his country club members to break his 'indoor record' for jumping furniture and makeshift obstacles. I have to say, when he ran that course at the club it looked incredibly hokey, and there's no way actor Merrill would have been able to accomplish it, so kudos to the stunt double. The sad thing about the story is how Cash made such a jerk of himself when he could just as easily have been having a good time with his wife and friends. The forced ending to the episode was somewhat improbable as well, because even if you don't know how to use a gun, how many times in your life have you heard that you never point one at anybody?
Beware the Metaphor!
collings50010 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Read any article about John Cheever and you will come across the word "metaphor" by the end of the first paragraph. The protagonist in "The Swimmer" isn't really swimming home, nor is the radio in "The Enormous Radio" really picking up other people's conversations. We're not supposed take these things literally; we're supposed to see them as a symbol or metaphor for something deeper and more subtle. Despite Bert Lancaster's formidable talents, "The Swimmer" didn't translate well to the big screen, and "O Youth and Beauty" fares even worse on the small screen. Sullen and miserable as he stumbles around in an alcoholic haze, Gary Merrill's character lacks a single redeeming quality and he looks hopelessly out of place in every scene. Merrill himself is also hopelessly miscast. Merrill's trademark as an actor was the ability to look older and wiser than his years, and he is the last person on earth one would associate with athletic glory, even if the glory was supposed to be in his youth. (If we're into another metaphor here with the casting choice, fine, but enough is enough.) If you put John Cheever up on the screen, you have a "literal" translation whether you like it or not. Here, the hurdling scenes come across as dopey and painfully contrived, and I couldn't wait for his wife to finally shoot this petulant whiner and put an end to all his stupid blather.
Starter pistols don't have real bullets in them, of course, so this is yet another "metaphor" better suited for an English Lit class than a TV audience.
Starter pistols don't have real bullets in them, of course, so this is yet another "metaphor" better suited for an English Lit class than a TV audience.
The ending does not go with the rest of the story
cpotato10107 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This episode is watchable mostly for the leads, Gary Merrill and Patricia Breslin.
Maybe because I was never part of that scene, I do not understand why he is a member of the club where much of the story takes place. He does not seem to enjoy it, and he is apparently constantly goaded (after drinking) to prove himself by reliving his championship youth.
Perhaps, since he does not have as much money, he needs the adulation of those who do. A bit shallow, since as the story points out, youth fades.
But why at the end does he load the gun with real bullets, and then abuse his wife? Was he trying to force her to kill him?
If the plot was for him to suicide, there were better, more sure ways to show it.
Assuming his character was about the same age as Gary, suicide would have been a dumb choice. Yes, maybe he was not as fast as he once was, but with a relatively young wife and at least one child, he should still have had a lot to live for. I guess it was a sign of the times that they did not recognize such things as depression in men.
Anyway, up until that end, the two leads gave good performances. Almost worth watching again.
Maybe because I was never part of that scene, I do not understand why he is a member of the club where much of the story takes place. He does not seem to enjoy it, and he is apparently constantly goaded (after drinking) to prove himself by reliving his championship youth.
Perhaps, since he does not have as much money, he needs the adulation of those who do. A bit shallow, since as the story points out, youth fades.
But why at the end does he load the gun with real bullets, and then abuse his wife? Was he trying to force her to kill him?
If the plot was for him to suicide, there were better, more sure ways to show it.
Assuming his character was about the same age as Gary, suicide would have been a dumb choice. Yes, maybe he was not as fast as he once was, but with a relatively young wife and at least one child, he should still have had a lot to live for. I guess it was a sign of the times that they did not recognize such things as depression in men.
Anyway, up until that end, the two leads gave good performances. Almost worth watching again.
The Guy Needed Help, To Say the Least
Hitchcoc27 May 2021
When people live in the past, hanging on to their accomplishments, the sane will accept that an aging body sometimes has other plans. This is a story of cruelty at all levels, including the taunts of people who have accomplished nothing themselves. The hurdler here shows what too much attention to the expectations and nastiness of others will get you. By the way, I thought the ending a bit much.
Middle Age Blues
telegonus7 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
O Youth and Beauty! is a well made, rather downbeat episode of Hitchcock's half-hour, and it concerns an aging and yet certainly not over the hill (except in his own nightmares) man who seeks to prove that he still" has it" by hurdling at the local country club. He does it well enough at first, and this still doesn't please him.
The man's first name, Cash, says it all, as money is what he is short of most. He makes about a third of what he thinks he's worth, and he feels like low man on the totem poll at his club. So far as the viewer can tell Cash is a reasonably well off white collar professional. He has a hard time paying his bills, but then many if not most middle class people do.
One can't but sense that Cash is living beyond his means, that maybe he belongs to the wrong club. He doesn't seem too out of place there, but he feels it, and this motivates him to relive the vigor of youth by (literally) acting out the glory days as a runner indoors, by leaping over furniture and the like; and the second time around he pays a high price.
Well made as it is this adaptation of a John Cheever story is as shallow as it's nicely put together. Gary Merrill's performance in the lead got my sympathy from the start, and held it to the final scene. I've always found Merrill a likable, intelligent actor. He has a way of delivering his lines naturally; and his talent was such that he could make such an obnoxious character as Cash both compelling and tragic
The man's first name, Cash, says it all, as money is what he is short of most. He makes about a third of what he thinks he's worth, and he feels like low man on the totem poll at his club. So far as the viewer can tell Cash is a reasonably well off white collar professional. He has a hard time paying his bills, but then many if not most middle class people do.
One can't but sense that Cash is living beyond his means, that maybe he belongs to the wrong club. He doesn't seem too out of place there, but he feels it, and this motivates him to relive the vigor of youth by (literally) acting out the glory days as a runner indoors, by leaping over furniture and the like; and the second time around he pays a high price.
Well made as it is this adaptation of a John Cheever story is as shallow as it's nicely put together. Gary Merrill's performance in the lead got my sympathy from the start, and held it to the final scene. I've always found Merrill a likable, intelligent actor. He has a way of delivering his lines naturally; and his talent was such that he could make such an obnoxious character as Cash both compelling and tragic
Hurdler has problems...
thbryn7 February 2019
This was a good adaptation of the Cheever short story. Gary Merrill plays "Cash" an ex-track athlete whose specialty was the 110 high hurdles. The event acts as a metaphor for the best times of Cash's life which is becoming increasingly complicated as he moves through middle-age.
Going against the tide again
glitterrose4 July 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. I liked Gary Merrill in all of his Alfred appearances tbh.
Gary plays Cash and he's living in the past. He was a hurdler when he was younger and it's turned into an obsession. Seems like that's all the man can think about, even though he's got a wife and child. Although I kinda wonder if the poor child isn't deaf because you never see a child even popping in and asking what's going on as his parents scream at each other and Cash is moving the furniture in the house around so he can hurdle. Yes, he moves the furniture around for hurdling. His obsession is that deep.
I think Cash's personality problems stem from his disappointments in life. He's clearly not handling aging well and I'd say money is also a problem. Cash's wife talks to Cash about having to wait to have braces put on their son's teeth because it's too much money. Cash reacts negatively to that. Cash did seem to act passionate towards his wife earlier in the episode but overall he only seems to enjoy his hurdling. He injured himself during one of his hurdling sessions and that puts him even in more of a funk. Cash never seems to get the wake-up call he needs. He still wants to hurdle even after his injury gets better. He give his wife a starter pistol and tells her to shoot it. Yes, this is all taking place INSIDE the house. Cash's wife is scared, she's never shot a gun before. His wife closes her eyes and pulls the trigger, hitting Cash with the bullet.
Again, I love this episode. I kinda want to compare the craziness in this episode to 'The Motive'. It struck me as being hilarious you can have murder as a hobby, you have a chart keeping track of murders and can still rattle off details about your murder chart even if you're hammered. Cash moving the furniture to hurdle was wild. This is another one of my favorite episodes.
Gary plays Cash and he's living in the past. He was a hurdler when he was younger and it's turned into an obsession. Seems like that's all the man can think about, even though he's got a wife and child. Although I kinda wonder if the poor child isn't deaf because you never see a child even popping in and asking what's going on as his parents scream at each other and Cash is moving the furniture in the house around so he can hurdle. Yes, he moves the furniture around for hurdling. His obsession is that deep.
I think Cash's personality problems stem from his disappointments in life. He's clearly not handling aging well and I'd say money is also a problem. Cash's wife talks to Cash about having to wait to have braces put on their son's teeth because it's too much money. Cash reacts negatively to that. Cash did seem to act passionate towards his wife earlier in the episode but overall he only seems to enjoy his hurdling. He injured himself during one of his hurdling sessions and that puts him even in more of a funk. Cash never seems to get the wake-up call he needs. He still wants to hurdle even after his injury gets better. He give his wife a starter pistol and tells her to shoot it. Yes, this is all taking place INSIDE the house. Cash's wife is scared, she's never shot a gun before. His wife closes her eyes and pulls the trigger, hitting Cash with the bullet.
Again, I love this episode. I kinda want to compare the craziness in this episode to 'The Motive'. It struck me as being hilarious you can have murder as a hobby, you have a chart keeping track of murders and can still rattle off details about your murder chart even if you're hammered. Cash moving the furniture to hurdle was wild. This is another one of my favorite episodes.
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