Joe is trying to find a missing teenage boy who was acquitted of murder on a technicality. The boy's small town is convinced he did it and Chief Harry Decken is not helpful.Joe is trying to find a missing teenage boy who was acquitted of murder on a technicality. The boy's small town is convinced he did it and Chief Harry Decken is not helpful.Joe is trying to find a missing teenage boy who was acquitted of murder on a technicality. The boy's small town is convinced he did it and Chief Harry Decken is not helpful.
- Eddie Decken
- (as Tony Geary)
- Rowdy
- (uncredited)
- Man Holding Coffee Cup
- (uncredited)
- Barroom Brawler
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDan White who portrayed Pop (uncredited) the father of Chief Harry Decken, portrayed by Howard Duff, was only 5 years 8 months older then Howard Duff.
- GoofsAs Chief Decken walks Joe Mannix to his motel room after Mannix checks in, about a half-dozen members of the crew and the dolly tracking camera are reflected in the plate glass window of one motel room that they pass.
- Quotes
Chief Harry Decken: Listen, we're a nice town. Got a little high-spirited element in it, but what's a kid who doesn't bust loose once in a while, right?
Joe Mannix: One of them, uh, looked like the leader. He was riding a silver and red bike, long yellow hair down to his shoulders. Now, I'm not putting long hair down, but this one I'd enjoy scalping.
Chief Harry Decken: License number?
Joe Mannix: Well, everything was one big blur.
Chief Harry Decken: We've got a kid answers that description every ten miles this part of the country. We can't haul them all in, can we?
Joe Mannix: Well, I'm talking about just one of them.
Chief Harry Decken: Believe me, we want to nail them as much as you do. This is a responsible community, but, uh, we really don't have much to go on, do we?
Joe Mannix: Yeah, well, let's just forget it, huh?
Chief Harry Decken: But... we're going to keep our eyes open. You can bet on that.
Joe Mannix: Oh, by the way, what's the motel situation here in Lindero?
Chief Harry Decken: Staying in our town, are you?
Joe Mannix: Maybe a day or two.
Chief Harry Decken: Lot of motels. I'd have to say La Posada is the best, though.
Joe Mannix: La Posada? Thanks.
Chief Harry Decken: Maybe see you around.
There are all kinds of problems in this one, including technical errors, character errors, bad acting, plot holes and clichés.
Things get off to a very bad start in the scene at the beginning with the bikers, where there are obvious continuity errors. At first Joe is getting very close to them and is almost about to crash right into them, then in the very next shot they're nowhere to be seen and Joe is inexplicably swerving his car for no reason since they're nowhere around, then in the next shot they're back to being very close to him again.
Then the scene where the car blows up is all messed up as all of the camera angles are crooked. This was very poorly executed.
Anthony Eldridge (who portrays Danny) is a lousy actor and it's no wonder he didn't have much of an acting career after this and pretty much disappeared a couple years later. He is really dreadful, as is Howard Duff, who overacts throughout in his role as the sheriff.
There's also a major contradiction regarding Danny, as he's portrayed throughout the episode by all of his friends and family as being a certain type of person, but then at the end he's exactly the opposite of that, which doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
Yet another mistake is having the sheriff and Eddie as brothers, which is laughable since Howard Duff is at least twice as old as him, if not more.
Then of course there are all of the usual small-town clichés - a cocky, corrupt and nasty sheriff who is hiding a secret and refuses to help Joe, all of which have been seen an endless number of times before.
For the very first time, parts of the fight scene in the strip club are shown in slow motion, which is a big disappointment as it reduces the effectiveness, excitement, and flow of the scene. This scene was very badly done.
Another big problem is it easily sets the record for the number of crew members that are visible in the various scenes. In the scene where Joe and the sheriff are standing at the hotel door and talking to Pops, you can see a crew member in a t-shirt reflected in the window to the left of the sheriff. Then when Joe and the sheriff are walking past the hotel rooms, you can see several crew members reflected in the hotel window. Then when Joe walks into the hotel lobby to check out, you can see the cameraman and the camera reflected in the window and you can see them once again when he walks out. Then when the sheriff is talking to Joe after he checks out, you can see numerous crew members reflected in the sheriff's sunglasses.
There's another obvious continuity error in the scene where Joe is talking to the teacher as a green decoration suddenly appears on her desk in the middle of the scene that wasn't there in any of the previous shots.
Then when Joe goes to meet Danny in the desert, the sheriff somehow miraculously shows up there when he had no way of knowing Joe and Danny were there.
This is by far the sloppiest episode to date, with an unprecedented number of mistakes. When it comes to production values, this is amateur hour. The producers were laughably inept here. This is certainly not what you'd expect on a prime time show on one of the three major networks. Shame on CBS for the lack of quality control and for allowing this episode to air in this condition.
- pkfloydmh
- Apr 17, 2015