Letter to Loretta Season 2, Episode 25: Option on a Wife

1

Guest in the Night

Duke and Rita visit a remote mountain cabin for a romantic getaway. During a fierce snowstorm, a young boy with pneumonia shows up at their door. Duke won't call for help because he is wanted for robbery, but Rita uses a ham radio to ask for medical help.

2

Dr. Juliet

A doctor unravels the mysterious circumstances and suspects surrounding the near-death of a young heiress.

3

Double Trouble

Granite jawed Hugh O'Brien, clearly enjoying a change of pace from his usual rugged roles, plays a shy cartoonist whose heroism is awakened by a fraud scandal involving a woman and a his exact double.

4

The Lamp

What seems to be Aladdin's Lamp also seems to be fulfilling the fondest wishes of a young couple.

5

You're Driving Me Crazy

A couple finds themselves terrorized by a disturbed man who rear ends their car. There is some genuine suspense in this episode and warrants attention in that it comes years before Alfred Hitchcock Presents and other such anthologies.

6

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

This familiar plot of a lone holdout juror benefits from extreme unusual close-ups, montages and double-exposures to "open up" the drama beyond the single room setting.

7

For Father Darling

Clever "amateur sleuth" tale with a sharp Catholic priest who helps a family escape from a smooth con man. Very "Columbo"-like.

8

On Your Honor, Your Honor

An idealistic widow, whose last name is that same to that of a candidate, allows two slick politicians to add her name to a small town mayoral ballot.

9

The Girl Scout Story

A girl scout is left alone with an escaped convict.

10

No Help Wanted

Former stuntman and TV's "Range Rider" and "Yancy Derringer," Jock Mahoney, returns to this series, this time playing the owner of a small diner who is taken with a lost soul seemingly left alone in the rain.

11

It's a Man's Game

Pushy history teacher nags her math teacher-coach boyfriend to have more ambition and winds up coaching the football team in his place.

12

Something About Love

A dancer's resolution to go on with her life as a singer inspires an architect who had become embittered after his hands were injured in the Korean war. Sally Field's mother Margaret (wife of Loretta Young show favorite Jock Mahoney) co-stars as Gene Barry's fiancée.

13

Our Sacred Honor

Like Spielberg's "Lincoln," which celebrated the little-known people who made a difference as well as high-profile leaders, this episode focuses on one of the lesser-known signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Hart.

14

Big Jim

A young man attempts to reform his delinquent mother when she stops in town to see him.

15

Evil for Evil

An embittered man takes revenge on a beloved doctor who lost his wife on the operating table, leading to vigilantism. Among the cast is Oscar-winner Jane Darwell ("The Grapes of Wrath," "Mary Poppins"). The theme of friendly neighbors transformed into a hideous mob would be echoed in Twilight Zone episodes "The Shelter" and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."

16

Time and Yuletide

At a hospital and nursing home, everyone wants to stage Christmas parties for the sick children, but the event coordinator connives to get a party for the elderly residents.

17

Three Minutes Too Late

A financially strapped New York cab driver becomes desperate for cash when his wife goes into labor.

18

The Girl Who Knew

Familiar TV faces abound in this fanciful dramedy about a woman's ability to know the time without a watch challenged by a watch company's efforts to use a conceited employee's charms to discredit her.

19

The Flood

A man whose experience as a prisoner of war has caused him to be alcoholic and homeless stumbles into a situation in which he must use his army medical training and receives advice and support from a nurse and a doctor to change his life.

20

Decision

The wife of a pilot runs the gamut of emotions and memories while awaiting the return of her husband, whose plane has lost an engine in a storm.

21

The Refinement of Ab

Hugh Beaumont plays the dad in one of two suburban families that allow the childish teasing between their sons escalate into a serious social and business conflicts.

22

600 Seconds

A successful Art Director lets her imagination run away with her when a young female business associate of her husband's wants to talk to her about something "personal."

23

The Case of Mrs. Bannister

A little girl's stories about her seemingly imaginary friend, "Mrs. Bannister," begin to foreshadow real events and imminent danger.

24

Dickie

True story of a Depression-era mother's efforts to redirect her talented little boy's creative projects to more practical pursuits -- and who this boy turns out to be is the twist, as Ms. Young introduces the real-life man and his mom at the end of the episode.

25

Option on a Wife

The Hollywood success of a New York writer takes up so much of his time and attention that it threatens his marriage.

26

Tale of a Cayuse

A western drifter retrieves a beloved horse to court a maiden settler.

27

Case Book

Only a few years after "Spellbound," but before "Vertigo" and "The Three Faces of Eve," this episode uses extended two-actor scenes in its thoughtful exploration of claustrophobia and the benefits of therapy - as well as forgiveness of others and oneself.

28

Dateline - Korea

The plight of poverty-stricken war orphans forces a hard-nosed war correspondent to face the flesh-and-blood effects of her cynical editorials.

29

Inga II

Dennis Hopper was only nineteen when he appeared in this episode as a privileged young man who is sent to work on a farm to build his character.

30

Mink Coat

Series favorites Jock Mahoney, Ann Doran and Casey Adams (Max Showalter) reunite with Ms. Young in an amusing "Fisherman and His Wife/If You Give a Mouse A Cookie"-like fable about the effects an unexpected mink coat has on a two suburban couples.

31

Let Columbus Discover You

Craig Stevens plays the head of a modeling agency who likes to discover his clients in ordinary walks of life, prompting an earnest hopeful to pose as an auto mechanic to catch his attention.

32

He Always Comes Home

An aging man is unfaithful to his wife and negligent to his daughter.

33

Feeling No Pain

In a memorable episode that showcases Ms. Young's comic timing and dancing talent, she plays a passive secretary who cuts loose after a visit to the dentist and the lingering effects of laughing gas. In the scene in which she makes a grand entrance, bellowing "Anita, DAH-ling!" it strongly resembles the first appearance of Cruella DeVil in Disney's animated "101 Dalmatians."

34

The Little Teacher

A man is plagued by guilt and worry when his daughter breaks a finger after he spanks her in anger.

35

I Remember the Rani

A British writer recalls the captivating Maharani with whom he fell in love while on assignment in India.