User Reviews

It seems that when "Thriller" deals with psychological subjects or genuine horror (gothic or otherwise), it does much better than dealing with generic crime dramas. This is a very well acted and thought out tale of psychosis, dealing with the mystery of who is killing pretty little girls and why. First, the police need to figure out who is doing the killing, then they can try to figure out the why. Nehemiah Persoff is determined as the police detective in charge of the case, discovering that the mystery deals with the presence of a sweet looking laughing doll whom all the victims admired before becoming a victim. Have they arrested the wrong man in the sensitive but brutish looking Charles Middleton? He's a simpleton who looks like the sketch of the man seen at the scene of the crime, and he's too dumb to give evidence to clear himself, doing everything in his testimony but admit to the crime.

This isn't a crime that gives sympathy to the culprit, but there's a tender side to Middleton who admits finding little girls beautiful. While that implies something more nefarious than what happens to the sweet, trusting children, it really doesn't go that route, although if this was remade today, the idea of molestation would have been prevalent. Kevin Hague and Thayer Roberts costar in a story that seems definitely influenced by the German horror classic "M", but adds more detail to the actual killer's personality. The young Morgan Brittany has a key role as an important witness.

***SPOILERS*** A lot like the 1931 Fritz Lang crime classic "M" this "Thriller" episode has to do with an on the loose child murderer who has the local police baffled and the towns-people white with fright. It's up to police Let. James Wagner, Nehemiah Persoff, to catch the killer before he commits any more murders. Let. Wagner gets what seems like a solid lead in that this creepy and reclusive dishwasher Ohrback, Robert Middleton, who works at the town's Sunrise Diner may well be the killer.

As good as the lead is at first it later peters out with a blood sample of the killer found at the scene of the latest child murder doesn't check out with that of Ohrbeck's.Determined to catch the child killer before he strikes again Let. Wagner works round the clock to track him down making his efforts that much harder in him not getting enough sleep, and it shows in Persoff's acting, to be able to do his job effectively. With the help of Dr. Lascoe, Robert Stevenson, Let. Wagner get a number of leads to who the killer is from non other then Ohrback himself. That in Ohrback being on the scene of the latest child murder.

****SPOILERS**** Besides having an urge to murder children, little girls, the killer also has a doll fetish as well! And the dolls that he's nuts about are a special and expensive kind that can only be tracked down to this in house dealer Madam Salerno, Nina Varela, who as it turned out sold them to him! Shocking and heart stopping final when the child killer is finally cornered, by Let. Wagner & Dr. Lascoel, like a rat in a sewer and having no means of escape totally loses it! In what looks like a schizophrenic like breakdown he goes completely bananas and destroys, with a hunting knife, the very thing that he holds so dear and close to his heart! Something that means more then life itself to him!

This episode of 'Thriller' deals a little sleight of hand by shifting the viewer's focus in one direction with character Ohrback (Robert Middleton), then after a murder case is seemingly solved, it tails off in another with a kindly looking old gentleman (Thayer Roberts) with a penchant for dolls. It's never really explained why Ohrback has the guilt complex he does, or even better, why an artist's rendition of his likeness made it to the front page of the newspaper as the potential 'Mad Dog' murderer. I think I detect a plot hole here. I'm a little surprised with some of these episodes because they really weren't thought out very well. Another case in point was the preceding story in the series, 'The Merriweather File'; check my review on that one as well.

A couple of things stand out for me in this story. One was mentioned by another reviewer, that being the subject matter of child abduction and abuse, not uncommon today but back in 1961 this was raising the bar on taboo subjects for TV. The other interesting thing that really jumped out in an era not as racially and ethnically tolerant as today, was having a man with a Spanish surname, Martinez, actually spitting on a white man. This at a time when derogatory terms for minorities were still quite common, so this too seemed to break new ground.

You know, I had to consider something regarding actor Robert Middleton. Not the most handsome guy most would agree, but I had to wonder what he thought about his character being described as 'big and ugly like a monster in a movie'. I hope he didn't have a problem with self esteem, that line might have put him over the edge, don't you think? Then again, maybe it did.