Thriller (TV Series) Knock Three-One-Two (1960) User Reviews

"Yes sir, sweetest little wife in town, and I've gotta leave her all alone."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 21 January 2012]

Well this is one bizarre little episode featuring a serial killer on the loose (Meade Martin), and a poor, mixed up newsstand operator (Warren Oates) who wants to confess to his murders. Even an hour long format wouldn't have been enough to develop Benny's troubled character and why he was so conflicted, but it's enough to provide Ray Kenton (Joe Maross) with a potential alibi when he decides his wife (Beverly Garland) has to go. Deep in debt to loan shark Bedell (David Alpert), poor old Ray finds the interest on his gambling debts just went up a hundred percent, and he's running out of time.

You know, you have to be quite desperate to try and pull off a scheme like Ray's. His plan was built on a pretty fair amount of confidence that the guy he bumped into one night might actually have been the guy the police were after. He really didn't have much more to go on than a circumstantial bump in the night, and there were a whole lot of things that could go wrong. And they did. Poor Ray, you'll find his picture under the word 'schmuck' in the dictionary.

Curiously, this was the second time in a Thriller episode where there was an abrupt lighting change that challenged continuity. Considering the fact that Ray was at the local gin mill at a time approaching midnight when he laid out all his personal info to the strangler, the next scene of George (Charles Aidman) dropping Ruth (Garland) off at her apartment seemed to occur in daylight. It may have simply been a case of providing better lighting for filming purposes, but the potential killer sure cast a dark shadow as he ran up the stairs. A similar scenario played out in episode #1.6 - The Watcher, when day turned into night from one minute to the next.

Anyway, it was cool to see Warren Oates and Beverly Garland show up here; I always enjoy seeing them whenever they turn up in a film or TV show. I've also seen enough Westerns and movies to know that it was Claude Akins who handed the captain the phone at the police station, appearing on screen for about five seconds in an uncredited appearance.

Beverly Garland and Warren Oates(no. 13)

[kevinolzak · 6/10 · 17 October 2008]

"Knock Three-One-Two," producer Maxwell Shane's third entry, features Joe Maross (a busy but little known TV actor) as compulsive gambler Ray Kenton, whose long suffering wife Ruth (the always competent Beverly Garland) has decided once and for all to stop financing his losses. Meanwhile, a serial killer dubbed 'The Silk Stalking Strangler' (Meade Martin) is on the loose, and Kenton's neighbor, a simple-minded newsstand clerk named Benny (Warren Oates) feels the compulsion to go to the disbelieving authorities and confess to the killings despite his proved alibi of innocence. Ray soon bumps into the maniac killer, and after getting a 24 hour reprieve from his underworld pals, desperately decides to gamble on the idea of leading the killer to his own home to strangle the attractive Ruth, using his friend Benny to establish an alibi for himself. Charles Aidman, later seen in "The Terror in Teakwood," does a sympathetic turn as Ruth's boss, while Warren Oates would later appear in "The Hollow Watcher." Joe Maross and Beverly Garland would be reunited 14 years later in a 1975 episode of KUNG FU, "Battle Hymn."

Don't Open The Door

[AaronCapenBanner · 6/10 · 29 October 2014]

Joe Maross plays perennial gambler Ray Kenton, who finds himself once again deep in debt to gangsters, who this time threaten to kill him if he doesn't pay in full. Broke and desperate, he tries and fails to get his wife Ruth(played by Beverly Garland) to loan him the money from her savings. Ray then befriends a disturbed young man named Benny(played by Warren Oates) who insists he is a killer, and there is indeed a serial killer on the loose. Though Benny isn't responsible, Ray decides to use slow-witted Benny in an elaborate murder scheme involving that killer and his wife... Contrived though reasonably interesting effort has a good cast at least, and a most ironic ending.

I'll make them believe your the one

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 9 April 2013]

***SPOILERS*** With time quickly running out on him before the "boys" lead by local loan-shark Joe "Snake Eyes" Bedell, David Alpert, give him an all body work-over, broken arms legs and head, liqueur salesman Ray Kenton, Joe Maross, has run out on almost all his options to get the $1,500 he needs to pay "Sanke Eyes" off. The only thing between his skull and a baseball bat is Ray's wife Ruth's, Beverly Garland, bank account. With Ruth very reluctant to save her sick gambler husband's neck he dreams up this plans to get her knocked off and inherit the money. And the person who's to do the job for Ray is local serial murderer Meade Martin who's identity, as the "Silk Stocking Strangler", only Ray knows. That by Ray being at the scene of the killer's last victim.

Getting friendly with Martin at the local bar, where he buys him a few beers, Ray lets it out that his gorgeous wife Ruth is going to be alone that night and the secret code he used to get her to open the door at night, knock three one two, that will have her let the killer in her apartment. Going so far as to plan an alibi for himself Ray also gets the delusional newspaper boy Benny, Warren Oates, who's alway looking for attention, in claiming to be the "Silk Stocking Strangler", to go to the local police station where he'll, Ray, be there to prove that he's in fact the real serial murderer. That while the real killer, Mead Martin, is in the process of murdering his wife Ruth.

***SPOILERS*** Ray devious plan does work but not the way he planned it to. The fact is that Ruth's life is saved by her boss Greek restaurant owner George Kikos, Charles Aidman, who came to her rescue in just the nick of time but as for Ray he wasn't quit that lucky. He in fact did save his rotten neck from being broken by "Sanke Eyes" goons but not by the meek and harmless Benny whom he was manipulating. And it was the Teddy Bear like and attention grabbing Benny Whom Ray finally got to become famous but only at his own expense.

Entertaining if unbelievable

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 12 November 2016]

Ray Kenton (Joe Maross) owes some gangsters $1,500...or they'll kill him. His long-suffering wife Ruth (Beverly Garland) refuses to give him the money. There's also a killer roaming around town strangling women to death. Through a highly unlikely set of circumstances Ray figures out how to get the money using the killer. Also in the cast was the then unknown Warren Oates as Benny.

Fairly entertaining thriller with a good cast and acting--Maross, Garland and Oates are all great. However the plot is highly unbelievable and the direction is off at times. One transition shot from an alley to Benny's apartment was REALLY clumsy. Still I was entertained by it. One of the better entries in the "Thriller" TV series.

How to murder your wife and pay off your debts.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 7 October 2019]

This "Thriller" episode is quite an improvement over other recent episodes simply because in spite of a convoluted script does manage to be far more intense than previous episodes because of a more "thrilling" theme. Joe Maross is an unemployed gambling addict who decides to track down the notorious silk stocking strangler to do in wife Beverly Garland because she won't aide him in paying off his debt. He comes up with a seemingly fool proof plan, but is there really such a thing? He distracts the police by coming up with another man to confess to the crimes just as wife Garland, thanks to her husband's familiar knock, opens up the door to a possible murder.

It's obvious that Garland is cheating on Maross, and that his claims of being killed by the mob for not paying his debt would set her free, so she's no innocent little victim. Once again, the pacing is slow, but in this case, it works very well. Charles Aidman and Warren Oates co-star in an episode that may not be perfect, but still surpasses a few of the episodes it followed.

Believable or not, who cares?

[searchanddestroy-1 · 7/10 · 14 April 2021]

Sure this topic is not that believable, but it has the quality, unlike so many others of the series, to look like an ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS episode scheme, or may I say, ending. Yes, the ending here is very surprising, a real, authentic twist ending, the trademark of AH PRESENTS and not particularely this series THRILLER, which episodes look more like mini movies - with movies schemes and classical, predictable, moral stories - than AH show.

Story of a Worthless Guy

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 11 November 2016]

This is very forgettable. A two bit gambler is in debt up to his ears. The people he owes want the money, and he has been rendered expendable. His wife, Beverly Garland, has had enough and won't help him. So he cooks up a scheme to have her killed and get the money. Most of the episode involves his using a sort of Jack the Ripper who has been killing women, to do the dirty work. He spends most of the time establishing an alibi, ending up at the police station for good measure. He is not very bright or he could have thought of ten other ways to get where he is going. Since the main character is so unlikable, it's hard to care about what happens to him. Mediocre episode.

Why should I care?!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 5 May 2014]

Ray (Joe Maross) is a gambler who has thrown away a lot of money over the years. Now, he's insisting to Ruth, his wife (Beverly Garland), that he MUST have her life savings of he'll be killed because of a debt he owes. However, she's heard this sort of story before--many times. So, she refuses to give Ray anything. So, he eventually enlists the help of a guy who might just be a serial killer (Warren Oates)!!

As I watched this show, I found myself wondering why I should care about Ray. After all, he created these problems and comes off as a pusillanimous little worm. And, because the show just isn't that thrilling (despite being an episode of "Thriller"), I don't think it's worth your time unless you are an absolute die-hard fan and don't mind the earlier episodes--which are by far the dullest of the series. Fortunately, they did improve a bit as the show progressed.