4 reviews
Bridges does a really good job in this one....
When this episode begins, Mason (Lloyd Bridges) is at his mistress' apartment. As he looks out the window, he sees a man attacking a woman in the apartment next door. He sees her lying on the floor and she appears to be dead. So he calls the police...but doesn't leave his name when he leaves the report because he is naturally afraid of folks learning he's an old lecher. However, a bit later, an innocent guy is arrested and is going to go on trial! Can Mason live with himself if this innocent man is convicted? And, what he doesn't realize is that the real killer eventually realizes that Mason was a witness...and he's not about to give him a chance to talk...if this weasel would talk in the first place.
I really liked this episode. It isn't because the plot was so original but it was a really nice character study of a guy who really has some decency within him even though he's done some terrible things. Bridges is especially good.
I really liked this episode. It isn't because the plot was so original but it was a really nice character study of a guy who really has some decency within him even though he's done some terrible things. Bridges is especially good.
- planktonrules
- Oct 4, 2015
- Permalink
Pretty good episode of an undervalued series
A hero ain't nothing but a sandwich
***SPOILERS*** Having an affair behind his wife's back at his girlfriend Ruth Evens, Sandra Church, apartment overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge business executive Mason Eldridge, Lloyd Bridges, sees a woman being brutally attacked while looking out the apartment window. Calling the police to come over Mason doesn't leave his name in not wanting to get involved in that it would expose him in cheating on his wife Doris, Geraldine Brooks.
It's later when reading the morning papers Mason is shocked to see that the person arrested in being responsible for the woman's murder that he witnessed was the apartment building janitor Newton Yort, Debbs Green. Knowing that Yort is Innocent in the crime Mason is now facing the dilemma of by keeping quite he may well be responsible for having an innocent man end up in the San Quentin gas chamber! That in Mason keeping his mouth shut in order to save both his marriage and job as a big time executive in a San Francisco real estate firm!
Mason has both his girlfriend Ruth and best friend friend sculpture Scotty, John Ireland, in them by trying to help him out in testifying that they in fact saw the woman murdered and it wasn't Yort who did it! That leads to Scotty being exposed as lying under oath and perjuring himself when he story fall completely apart on the stand ! That also leads a guilt ridden and tortured Mason to debate with himself and his friend Scotty if he should come clean and finally do the right thing and testify in court in Yort's defense. It's then that things turn deadly with the real woman's murderer, Victor French, who's been following events in the case since day one decides to shut Mason up for good! With the killer trying to kill Mason he instead ends up getting killed himself when he tried to drive Mason's car off the road. Mason now realizes that justice was done in the killer getting his just deserts but there's still the fact that an innocent man Newton Yort is going to end up paying for his crime. Mason in him seeing no other way out finally decided, in what's a spur of the moment, just before Yort is to be sentenced to get on the stand and tell the truth and let the chips, his marriage job and reputation, fall where they may in him doing it.
***SPOILERS*** It took a lot of courage on Mason's part to not only get innocent Newton Yort off but in exposing himself as a sniveling coward who tried to get other to do, and almost end up behind put bars, what he should have done in the first place! But it was that one act of courage and decency that in the end not only saved Mason's both job and marriage, which in fact he thought by then he lost, but also made him a hero in the eyes of everyone. Including his long suffering wife Doris! Who despite him cheating on her felt that what Mason did in saving Yort's life more then made up for it!
It's later when reading the morning papers Mason is shocked to see that the person arrested in being responsible for the woman's murder that he witnessed was the apartment building janitor Newton Yort, Debbs Green. Knowing that Yort is Innocent in the crime Mason is now facing the dilemma of by keeping quite he may well be responsible for having an innocent man end up in the San Quentin gas chamber! That in Mason keeping his mouth shut in order to save both his marriage and job as a big time executive in a San Francisco real estate firm!
Mason has both his girlfriend Ruth and best friend friend sculpture Scotty, John Ireland, in them by trying to help him out in testifying that they in fact saw the woman murdered and it wasn't Yort who did it! That leads to Scotty being exposed as lying under oath and perjuring himself when he story fall completely apart on the stand ! That also leads a guilt ridden and tortured Mason to debate with himself and his friend Scotty if he should come clean and finally do the right thing and testify in court in Yort's defense. It's then that things turn deadly with the real woman's murderer, Victor French, who's been following events in the case since day one decides to shut Mason up for good! With the killer trying to kill Mason he instead ends up getting killed himself when he tried to drive Mason's car off the road. Mason now realizes that justice was done in the killer getting his just deserts but there's still the fact that an innocent man Newton Yort is going to end up paying for his crime. Mason in him seeing no other way out finally decided, in what's a spur of the moment, just before Yort is to be sentenced to get on the stand and tell the truth and let the chips, his marriage job and reputation, fall where they may in him doing it.
***SPOILERS*** It took a lot of courage on Mason's part to not only get innocent Newton Yort off but in exposing himself as a sniveling coward who tried to get other to do, and almost end up behind put bars, what he should have done in the first place! But it was that one act of courage and decency that in the end not only saved Mason's both job and marriage, which in fact he thought by then he lost, but also made him a hero in the eyes of everyone. Including his long suffering wife Doris! Who despite him cheating on her felt that what Mason did in saving Yort's life more then made up for it!
Do the right thing
Lloyd Bridges does a fine, no-frills job as the antihero of this story, a clearcut tale of basically an ordinary guy, caught up in the rat race (he's just been promoted to a top position as officer in his firm) who witnesses a murder but fails to come forward to testify, as it would jeopardize his job and his marriage. It's a story of a man on the spot: will he try to help make sure a hapless janitor is not convicted for this crime he did not commit?
A nice twist has his mistress (nicely played by a relative unknown, Sandra Church) coming up with an idea: she'll say she saw the murder and fill in for Bridges is setting the police on the trail of the actual killer. Guilt-ridden Lloyd is uncertain whether this ruse will work since Church already told the police a different story, but agrees to her offer -the fly in the ointment is that the killer saw Bridges and is a loose cannon in this situation.
It turns out that Ireland, Lloyd's artist college buddy, serves as the witness in his stead -he's a friend of Lloyd and his wife Geraldine Brooks. Ireland is forced to retract his testimony, resulting in a mistrial.
Suspense is maintained because the killer attends the trial in the audience and keeps tabs on Bridges, while things go from bad to worse, as the public defender is poised to make a plea deal for life imprisonment for his client the janitor. Pressure mounts on Lloyd.
Fate moves its huge hand, as the killer (played mutely by Victor French) tries to run Bridges off the road and plunges to his death off a cliff. Llolyd confesses everything to his boss, who takes the cynical position that the old janitor will be just fine living out his days in prison, and that it's useless for our hero to go to the district attorney and ruin his own life and career in what might prove pointless to clear the innocent man. Only his conscience can get Bridges to do the right thing.
This well-written piece, with its ironic title, hits the spot and handles some major issues with aplomb.
A nice twist has his mistress (nicely played by a relative unknown, Sandra Church) coming up with an idea: she'll say she saw the murder and fill in for Bridges is setting the police on the trail of the actual killer. Guilt-ridden Lloyd is uncertain whether this ruse will work since Church already told the police a different story, but agrees to her offer -the fly in the ointment is that the killer saw Bridges and is a loose cannon in this situation.
It turns out that Ireland, Lloyd's artist college buddy, serves as the witness in his stead -he's a friend of Lloyd and his wife Geraldine Brooks. Ireland is forced to retract his testimony, resulting in a mistrial.
Suspense is maintained because the killer attends the trial in the audience and keeps tabs on Bridges, while things go from bad to worse, as the public defender is poised to make a plea deal for life imprisonment for his client the janitor. Pressure mounts on Lloyd.
Fate moves its huge hand, as the killer (played mutely by Victor French) tries to run Bridges off the road and plunges to his death off a cliff. Llolyd confesses everything to his boss, who takes the cynical position that the old janitor will be just fine living out his days in prison, and that it's useless for our hero to go to the district attorney and ruin his own life and career in what might prove pointless to clear the innocent man. Only his conscience can get Bridges to do the right thing.
This well-written piece, with its ironic title, hits the spot and handles some major issues with aplomb.