User Reviews

Two Czechs named Joseph Lanowski! One calls self Joe Lane (Balsam), other is just now immigrating back to usa (Wallach)

This half-hour teleplay begins with Joseph Lanowski (Eli Wallach) arriving in the USA to live from Czechoslovakia. However, he is detained because a person with his exact name is already in the USA and they both claim to be the same person...with the same parents, birth, etcetera. One of them is obviously lying. Is it the man who talks about being in a communist prison camp (Wallach) or the guy who's been in America many years and has Americanized his name to 'Joe Lane' (Martin Balsam). And, with the one who is lying...why? Is he a spy or a Soviet provacator or what?! It's up to the INS agents to determine the truth. Who knows? Perhaps BOTH are Joseph Lanowski.

I noticed one review talked about Wallach overacting, though I think considering what happened in the show, his outburst were realistic. Balsam, as you'd expect, is also very good in the story. And the story is interesting...and really has nothing to do with the more recent debates about immigration. It stands on its own as an unusual and worthwhile TV episode...though I do agree the ending is a bit weak.

An immigration topic drama speaking of a Czech refugee, Eli Wallach in one of his earliest role, who uses the name of an American citizen also an immigrant, Marty Balsam, to enter the United States. It's a story about refugees and hard life conditions behind the Iron Curtain, a tale about dreams for a better life. There is actually no good or evil guys here. You are moved all long this short story, no questions asked about who is lying between Balsam or Wallach. The sequences with both of them reunited are worth the watching.

A serious subject, immigration and American policies covering same, is bungled in a lousy screenplay that lacks subplots and subtexts in favor of an "in your face" one-note approach.

It's a standoff between Martin Balsam and Eli Wallach when Wallach is interrogated by an Immigration officer upon entering the United States, as Wallach is living happily under the name Wallach claims.

The suspense revolves around which one is telling the truth, the other being a liar, and the ramification that one of the two will be deported. Wallach's overacting is quite poor, and the show ends with a poor, dare I say corny, resolution of the dilemma, trivializing the issue.

Saddest thing for me is that the basic issue here has been made much worse over 63 years later, now that cretins like Trump's #1 jerk Stephen Miller have scapegoated immigrants -his solution to this Goodyear Theatre story would be to deport both men!