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W.W. Jacobs' Grand Guignol classic The Monkey's Paw had previously been filmed as a theatrical feature in 1933 when this updated version was presented on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. While on vacation in the Bahamas, Paul and Anne White (Leif Erickson, Jane Wyatt) attend a party where the guests are cruelly mocking a wizened gypsy woman (Zolya Talma). Defiantly, the old crone brandishes a tiny, severed monkey's paw, which Paul immediately identifies as a good-luck charm. Indeed, when the gypsy gives the monkey's paw to Mr. White, she informs him that the shriveled artifact will grant him three wishes -- but the third wish will be for death. A young Lee Majors appears as the Whites' son, Howard, whose grisly demise looms large over the story's heart-pounding climax.