I had an interesting give-and-take e-mail exchange concerning "The Fugitive: Season 3, Volume 1" with "DVD Talk" reviewer Paul Mavis this morning (Saturday, October 31, 2009). Here is that exchange:
DVP SAID:
Hi Paul,
In your DVDTalk.com review of "THE FUGITIVE: SEASON THREE, VOLUME ONE", you made a fairly decent-sized error when you said this:
"What never makes sense in the story ["Landscape With Running Figures"] is the fact that Gerard's wife doesn't recognize Kimble right off the bat. Once blind, she tells him straight she stared at him on the bus, so she DID see Kimble."
Actually, Marie (Barbara Rush) most certainly did NOT actually see Kimble on the bus at all. And we can verify she did not see him, as the camera is focused on Marie when Kimble boards the bus, and Marie isn't even looking at him.
She merely SAID she saw him later in the episode when she was desperate (at all costs) to keep him near her and to ultimately capture him. So she lied and said she had seen him, but she obviously didn't see him.
If she had truly seen Kimble on the bus, she most certainly would have bolted from the bus right then and there in order to notify her husband (and/or any nearby policeman). She wouldn't have driven XX number of miles on the bus, all the while knowing that the man she was truly running from (Dr. Kimble) was sitting right behind her. That would have been ultra-silly and would have had me screaming aloud at my television screen at such ridiculous writing on the part of the Fugitive screenwriter.
Anyway, as usual, I enjoyed reading your review, Paul. Although, I must say that I totally disagree with your predominantly-negative analysis of "The Fugitive: S3, V1".
I think you tend to over-analyze this particular brilliant TV series starring David Janssen. The first half of Season 3, in fact, contains some of the very best "Fugitive" entries, in my opinion.
And (FWIW), I think the second half of the third season is even better than the first half, with standout episodes such as "Ill Wind", "In A Plain Paper Wrapper", "Wife Killer", "The 2130", and Mickey Rooney's excellent performance in "This'll Kill You".
I know this is hard to do (since you probably watch nearly all of the episodes in any DVD boxed set you're reviewing in just a few days' time while preparing your DVD reviews), but if you could attempt to forget about Richard Kimble's earlier entanglements and predicaments and love affairs, etc., and focus on each episode of this top-flight TV series as a SEPARATE ENTITY unto itself, I truly believe your enjoyment of this show would increase a good deal.
"The Fugitive", after all, IS an "anthology" series. That fact, of course, doesn't mean that the viewer should totally ignore what has gone on in Kimble's life prior to the episode we are currently watching....but when a person has the built-in analytical and critical mindset which you, Paul Mavis, obviously possess, I think a little bit of "forgetting" and "ignoring" just might be a good idea when faced with watching a bunch of episodes of the same TV series in a back-to-back fashion. (Obligatory: IMO.) ;)
Thanks for the review, and take care.
Regards,
David Von Pein
http://www.DVP-Reviews.blogspot.com
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PAUL MAVIS SAID:
Thanks for writing -- I'll go back and watch it again, but I thought for sure she glanced at him coming on the bus.
As for "over analyzing" it, I'm not even sure what that means :) (and you certainly wouldn't be the first person to tell me that either -- point taken!).
But I do think you're mischaracterizing my take on the volume -- I don't think it's "predominantly" negative -- I just didn't enjoy these episodes as much as previous ones. I still said for the most part, these episodes are entertaining...I'm not sure how that's negative overall. And I left it open for improvement for the second half of the season (which you state is better).
Thanks again,
Paul
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EXACTLY 10 MINUTES LATER, PAUL WROTE AGAIN AND SAID:
You're right, Dave -- she doesn't see him. I was certain she did. I'll amend that in the review. But I still think, considering her state of mind (running away from her husband because he's obsessed enough with Kimble that he would cut short their vacation -- and importantly, with her knowing Kimble was on the run in that very area), and with all the inadvertent clues Kimble gives her that he is a doctor, she'd put 2 and 2 together quicker than she does. And I still think the threat of the flood (which near occurs and is never shown), and the standard-issue punks on a rampage angle ultimately go nowhere here -- although as I said in the review, I did think Rush was excellent.
Thanks again for reading my review so carefully (something I should have done when I proofed it!!). :)
Paul
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DVP SAID:
Thanks for the return mails, Paul.
Re: Marie Gerard and Kimble....
The one thing that had me scratching my head in the "Landscape" episode is this --- Why doesn't Marie recognize Richard Kimble's VOICE?
Kimble was in no way disguising his voice when he talked to Mrs. Gerard (he, of course, would have had no reason to disguise himself in any way, because he had no reason to think that Marie was a threat to him), and it seems to me that Marie would have certainly heard Kimble speak at some point prior to their meeting on the bus.
She might not have attended every session of Kimble's trial in Stafford, Indiana, years earlier, but wouldn't she have heard Kimble speaking at some point in time when he spoke to the press?*
* = I'll admit, I'm no expert on "criminal procedure", but surely Kimble spoke with the press on radio and TV somewhere along the line, and since Marie's husband was deeply involved in the Kimble case, I feel it's very likely Marie would have known what Kimble sounded like.
But, perhaps I'm lost in the JFK assassination most of the time (which, indeed, admittedly I am), which was a murder case that had the accused assassin of President Kennedy (Lee Harvey Oswald) being paraded in front of the press many times, with Oswald being heard on TV all across America during his two days of detention.
But, maybe we can assume that Richard Kimble was kept away from the probing television cameras after his arrest for his wife's slaying. So perhaps my Oswald/Kimble "press" analogy is overstated and inaccurate. I just don't know.
Anyway, that's just more of DVP's "2 cents" on "Landscape With Running Figures", which (btw) is an episode that author Ed Robertson proclaims to be "quite simply, the best episode of the [entire] series" [from Page 119 of Robertson's 1993 book, "The Fugitive Recaptured"
].
Regards to you,
David Von Pein
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PAUL SAID:
That's a good point. Here's another one that I didn't include in the review, but which bugged me when I watched it: how did the cops trace the call to the town of Tilden? Watch the scene where Marie gets through to her husband for the first time. She conveniently forgets the name of the town, and then hangs up (a bit too quickly) when he hesitates for a moment when she asks him to come get her. The filmmakers even emphasis the "click" of the receiver going off as she disconnects the call. So...how did the cops trace the call? Unless that line was still open and engaged, it would have been impossible to trace the call.
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DVP SAID:
Good point on the Tilden call, Paul. I hadn't thought of that. But, maybe the phone line somehow remained 'open' in some way.
I'd also like to know if Marie regained her sight in the Epilog scene. I really can't tell. I think that should have been emphasized for the viewing audience. (Although it's pretty clear--via mere implication--that Marie is going to see once again at some point in the future.)
Salutations,
DVP
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PAUL SAID:
That's a good point, too -- I'm not sure it's clear, either.
We've seen too many TV shows to know it was almost impossible to trace a phone call back then unless the caller was right on the line...and even then it was difficult and took many minutes. Still, I'm a big one for saying "don't nitpick" such continuity lapses in shows, so........:)
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Edited by David Von Pein - 10/31/09 at 5:06pm
