Occasionally, Alfred Hitchcock went for the "weird" and this entry is one of them. Norman Lloyd, one of Hitchcock's producers, plays a carnival worker who, during a drunken stupor, buys what he thinks is a talented monkey for $500. When he wakes up with a hangover and tells his wife (Nita Talbot) about it, she throws a fit. But Lloyd assures his wife that it's a very talented "female" monkey. Within minutes, she's drawing a picture of his wife on the wall, but Lloyd's "better half" is not the least bit interested. She just wants this monkey/lady out of their trailer and to get her husband's money back. But Lloyd has other ideas. He sees a "gold mine" with this primate. As he tries to explain to her that the monkey can help them with their career (the couple performs a worn-out mind-reading act for the carnival), the monkey introduces herself! She's really a dwarf in a realistic monkey costume named "Maria"---and for a dwarf, she's not unattractive. Ms. Talbot finally and reluctantly drops her objections and Maria soon becomes part of their show, delighting audiences with her drawings as the couple starts to make some real money. But Maria is the jealous and conniving type and she's hooked on old Lloyd. She plots a way to eliminate Ms. Talbot from the act and to get her thrown out of the carnival. Blinded by success, Lloyd falls for Maria's machinations and tragedy ensues. "Maria" was directed by the prolific Boris Sagal and he keeps this bizarre story of love and intrigue moving along with expert precision. Both Norman Lloyd and Nita Talbot are alive and well after all these years and still involved in their craft. Maria was played by Venus De Mars, a striptease dancer who was originally from Mexico. For someone who was barely a few inches over three-feet tall, Ms. De Mars exuded plenty of sex appeal and had a certain exotic mystique. This was one of her only screen appearances and her whereabouts is unknown at this point in time. She was only 24 when this episode was filmed.
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