A discharged schoolteacher desperate for cash blackmails a happy family. He knows that their youngest daughter is adopted, & comes from a tragic background - her father killed her mother, then himself. The middle-aged couple love raising their daughters in the picturesque Appalachin mountains. The husband, a forest ranger, wants to shield the daughter from taunts and gossip. The smarmy blackmailer keeps coming back for more, so the husband mulls other options and their consequences. Then the blackmailer is found murdered deep in the pines; his accomplice killed him. And now the accomplice is going to continue the blackmailing.
This is a stark, well done episode with some nasty villains, one played by Phil Coolidge and the other played by Mike Kellin. They are not pantomime moustache twirling villains but really mean and callous characters, and that adds to the tension as does the location and atmosphere. The acting was a great - Brian Keith is excellent, depicting the desperation his character feels very well.
This is a stark, well done episode with some nasty villains, one played by Phil Coolidge and the other played by Mike Kellin. They are not pantomime moustache twirling villains but really mean and callous characters, and that adds to the tension as does the location and atmosphere. The acting was a great - Brian Keith is excellent, depicting the desperation his character feels very well.