User Reviews

The story, setting and acting are Route 66 quality, but most of the credibility is lost the first time Beulah Bondi is said to be the recently deceased 25 year-old Mark's Mother. She is 72 years old and played Jimmy Stewart's mother in It's a Wonderful Life! What happened casting director? Did you have some debts to pay? Pat Hingle could be her son and he could be the deceased Mark's father. But no way Bondi is a mother to that Mark. I'm totally puzzled on this one. It ruined the episode for me. I've acted in movies and TV so know that stretches in age are made. But this was way out of bounds.

Tod and Buz are working on a chicken farm in Pennsylvania but aren't liking it too much. Their employer is a hard-boiled old lady, (Beulah Bondi), with a son, (Pat Hingle) who sees everything through the prism of the Old Testament, which he constantly quotes. The son of the family somehow wound up in Stockholm, where he fell in love with Inger Stevens, (who wouldn't?), but died before their son could be born. Now she's come to town with her baby to meet the family. Cold-hearted Mama thinks she's just a gold digger and that the baby probably isn't even her son's and Hingle thinks she's a sinner who must be punished. The boys disagree and hang around long enough to hold things together until the matriarch softens. Ol' Pat will just have to get used to having Inger and her kid around.

It's a good drama with strong performances, especially by Inger and I liked the reason the old lady gave for her sticking around.

Silliphant's quite dated story material kept me from becoming interested in this episode, set on a chicken farm in rural Pennsylvania. There's one fine scene at the end of the show, but nothing gripping before it.

All the guest talent comprises a family headed by matriarch Beulah Bondi, who delivers a solid performance. The point is that they are a rigid, religious brood, typified by Pat Hingle, stiff as a board in an unplayable role, spouting bible quotations and about as likable as a dead tree. M & M are working in a sort of chicken factory, and their contribution to the episode is rather pointless, as shown in a scene where Maharis' guaranteed weekly fight scene consists of him punching Hingle in the tummy, cueing some turgid pathos by Pat.

Inger Stevens as an unwanted daughter-in-law shunned by most of the family when she shows up after her husband's death bearing a surprise bambino (Bondi's grandson) in her arms, does get a fine confrontation scene with BB at the climax.

Briefly impressive and empathetic as Hingle's young sister, Ann Dee is an unknown and actress, who wound up her unsuccessful career making a couple of softcore porn movies a decade later (one of which I reviewed, "Diamond Stud"), just before hardcore porn took over.