We see a convict, Les Davis, transported to a courtroom to serve as a witness. Outside the courthouse, a woman and a younger man watch. We learn the prisoner is husband and father to the people in the car. They speak about following the timing of their plot.
Les (dressed in a suit) is taken into the courthouse, into a room marked "witness room" by just one escort. The son, Ralph, enters after them, goes into the witness room and shoots and kills the guard. The pair rush out the door to their waiting car, where the woman, Myra, drives them away before anyone can spot the car.
No matter if they did, she drove into the country and they switched cars. Because it was in black-and-white, the other car was white, contrasted with what appeared to be a black car they ditched.
So with a car they know won't be linked to them, they drive back to the family home, where Dan and Sgt. Williams are already headed because they have already found the car that was ditched, thanks to a "witness description" which surprised me since the scene where they escaped was so clearly filmed to make it clear that nobody saw them leave the courthouse. Since the cops have no idea what type of car to look for, they figured to go to the home where the escaped con lived, where Dan knows that Myra is the brains of the family.
She has indeed hatched this escape plan, which involves leaving her husband and son in the wilderness for a while, going home, planting a stone on the gas pedal to leave the car running just a couple of minutes before Dan & Co. Arrive. She tells him she's been nowhere this morning--that she was letting it run like that because the battery had worn down and she wanted to charge it. She even lets gallant Dan turn off her engine and come inside to look around. After he leaves, putting a tail on her, she drives to pick up her family, hiding them in the trunk during a brief stretch when she's not under observation.
Then she drives them right back to her house to just hide in a bedroom. Dan and his friends have returned, knowing she drove away for a short time-long enough to pick them up-and she lets him look around again. About to enter the bedroom where father and son await to ambush him, Dan smells a trap and decides to leave.
Dan goes back to the others and they set up with a bullhorn, calling out the proverbial-"We know you're in there!" and for the next several minutes we have a gun battle. Just like on so many shows, after shooting from the safety of their house, Ralph decides to go outside to get a better angle-of course, he is shot while out in the open. You can guess how this all ends, including a Joe Friday-like quip from Dan at the end to Myra about how she "could have had a nice family."
For someone having the "brains" in the family, Myra wasn't too bright. They switched cars only to get into the family's own vehicle and drive to their known home? Might as well have taken their own vehicle all the way. Didn't get why she had to pretend the car wouldn't start and say she's been home all morning, to "explain" the hot engine when Dan first arrived. She could easily have said she went to visit a neighbor or to go to the market, or a dozen other things. Either they would know she's lying because they were following her-they weren't-or they would have no way of knowing she hadn't gone where she said if they weren't following her. As the wife of the escapee, she's not going to convince them she wasn't involved in the escape just by claiming she was home all morning.
Their plan was to hide out in their own home for a week until the heat was off then drive to Mexico. But when they saw her drive away just after Dan searched the house, and return in a few minutes, they had every reason to think she might have picked them up. If Myra was smart, she'd have waited longer, until nobody was watching to retrieve her men-folk. For that matter, her clever way of getting away from the man tailing her only bought her about one minute when she was out of sight. For all she knew-especially since it would have been expected-there were two or more plainclothes officers following her in different vehicles and a second one saw her hide her family in the trunk. There certainly should have been the expectation that someone was keeping an eye on the house and might see them get out of the trunk and go into the house.
But the planned ambush if Dan entered that bedroom was the part that seemed most unlikely. Just a bit earlier, Myra and family knew Dan had come with another officer, yet when he returned alone, they were going to shoot him and hope his partner now was nowhere nearby?
Waiting a week to drive to Mexico seems rather foolish. Why not take the head start they had and drive there right away, in either the first or second car they used? Or how about a real hideout they won't find instead of the family home? Frankly, the way they got away in the courthouse, which apparently had nobody near the entrance, nobody else in the witness room, making it easy for an escape, seemed a bit far-fetched. I'd expect a couple of deputies around, even in the 1950s, as well as other people in the hallway. Les deserved at least two officers to escort him.
This was an OK episode-a 5 rating, as there were no clever deductions from Dan-other than a 6th sense that kept him from opening the door and getting his head blown off. Now in that scene, as he stood at the door, slightly opening it before turning back, I couldn't help but think he's lucky the son, Ralph, didn't panic and start shooting through the door because he clearly could have blown Dan away through the wood of the door. There was no figuring out what mountain shack they could be using for a hideout. There was just nothing special about this one.
Again I note that the series really is consistent. Almost every young, honest female is an "attractive" woman and every dishonest one is clearly made up to look unattractive-makeup, hairstyle, clothing, all designed to put across the image that bad women are never good looking. Myra certainly fit that bill here. Also, in seeing her greet her husband, free from jail finally, there isn't the slightest hint of a romantic kiss or hug, only a somewhat awkward hug because they had things to do. The producers wouldn't want you to think the bad people ever had anything in their lives to make them happy.
Les (dressed in a suit) is taken into the courthouse, into a room marked "witness room" by just one escort. The son, Ralph, enters after them, goes into the witness room and shoots and kills the guard. The pair rush out the door to their waiting car, where the woman, Myra, drives them away before anyone can spot the car.
No matter if they did, she drove into the country and they switched cars. Because it was in black-and-white, the other car was white, contrasted with what appeared to be a black car they ditched.
So with a car they know won't be linked to them, they drive back to the family home, where Dan and Sgt. Williams are already headed because they have already found the car that was ditched, thanks to a "witness description" which surprised me since the scene where they escaped was so clearly filmed to make it clear that nobody saw them leave the courthouse. Since the cops have no idea what type of car to look for, they figured to go to the home where the escaped con lived, where Dan knows that Myra is the brains of the family.
She has indeed hatched this escape plan, which involves leaving her husband and son in the wilderness for a while, going home, planting a stone on the gas pedal to leave the car running just a couple of minutes before Dan & Co. Arrive. She tells him she's been nowhere this morning--that she was letting it run like that because the battery had worn down and she wanted to charge it. She even lets gallant Dan turn off her engine and come inside to look around. After he leaves, putting a tail on her, she drives to pick up her family, hiding them in the trunk during a brief stretch when she's not under observation.
Then she drives them right back to her house to just hide in a bedroom. Dan and his friends have returned, knowing she drove away for a short time-long enough to pick them up-and she lets him look around again. About to enter the bedroom where father and son await to ambush him, Dan smells a trap and decides to leave.
Dan goes back to the others and they set up with a bullhorn, calling out the proverbial-"We know you're in there!" and for the next several minutes we have a gun battle. Just like on so many shows, after shooting from the safety of their house, Ralph decides to go outside to get a better angle-of course, he is shot while out in the open. You can guess how this all ends, including a Joe Friday-like quip from Dan at the end to Myra about how she "could have had a nice family."
For someone having the "brains" in the family, Myra wasn't too bright. They switched cars only to get into the family's own vehicle and drive to their known home? Might as well have taken their own vehicle all the way. Didn't get why she had to pretend the car wouldn't start and say she's been home all morning, to "explain" the hot engine when Dan first arrived. She could easily have said she went to visit a neighbor or to go to the market, or a dozen other things. Either they would know she's lying because they were following her-they weren't-or they would have no way of knowing she hadn't gone where she said if they weren't following her. As the wife of the escapee, she's not going to convince them she wasn't involved in the escape just by claiming she was home all morning.
Their plan was to hide out in their own home for a week until the heat was off then drive to Mexico. But when they saw her drive away just after Dan searched the house, and return in a few minutes, they had every reason to think she might have picked them up. If Myra was smart, she'd have waited longer, until nobody was watching to retrieve her men-folk. For that matter, her clever way of getting away from the man tailing her only bought her about one minute when she was out of sight. For all she knew-especially since it would have been expected-there were two or more plainclothes officers following her in different vehicles and a second one saw her hide her family in the trunk. There certainly should have been the expectation that someone was keeping an eye on the house and might see them get out of the trunk and go into the house.
But the planned ambush if Dan entered that bedroom was the part that seemed most unlikely. Just a bit earlier, Myra and family knew Dan had come with another officer, yet when he returned alone, they were going to shoot him and hope his partner now was nowhere nearby?
Waiting a week to drive to Mexico seems rather foolish. Why not take the head start they had and drive there right away, in either the first or second car they used? Or how about a real hideout they won't find instead of the family home? Frankly, the way they got away in the courthouse, which apparently had nobody near the entrance, nobody else in the witness room, making it easy for an escape, seemed a bit far-fetched. I'd expect a couple of deputies around, even in the 1950s, as well as other people in the hallway. Les deserved at least two officers to escort him.
This was an OK episode-a 5 rating, as there were no clever deductions from Dan-other than a 6th sense that kept him from opening the door and getting his head blown off. Now in that scene, as he stood at the door, slightly opening it before turning back, I couldn't help but think he's lucky the son, Ralph, didn't panic and start shooting through the door because he clearly could have blown Dan away through the wood of the door. There was no figuring out what mountain shack they could be using for a hideout. There was just nothing special about this one.
Again I note that the series really is consistent. Almost every young, honest female is an "attractive" woman and every dishonest one is clearly made up to look unattractive-makeup, hairstyle, clothing, all designed to put across the image that bad women are never good looking. Myra certainly fit that bill here. Also, in seeing her greet her husband, free from jail finally, there isn't the slightest hint of a romantic kiss or hug, only a somewhat awkward hug because they had things to do. The producers wouldn't want you to think the bad people ever had anything in their lives to make them happy.