User Reviews

A farmer is found dead, presumably he has been murdered. At about the same time a mental patient (played by Anthony George) escapes from a sanitarium. Learning of this, a neighbor of the dead farmer is sure the mental patient has killed the farmer and sets off to find and kill him. Mathews of course tells the neighbor that there is no evidence that in fact the patient killed the farmer. Hungry, the patient goes into a farmhouse to find something to eat and the owner, an older woman, Lucy Clifford comes upon him. They get along and Lucy trusts the patient and doesn't believe he killed the farmer. Her faith is justified as it is learned that the farmer actually died of a heart attack. When Mathews tells the neighbor who had tried to kill the patient he says something along the lines of "so what if I had killed him; what good is he anyway - just a burden on the taxpayer." That's cold, but we hear similar (if not quite so blatant) comments today. The one thing I wondered about is how likely is it that a woman alone would send Mathews off when a clearly mentally ill man was in her house? Most unlikely I would have thought.

**SPOILERS** Very good drama with it centering on (for the second time in two nights) a supposed sane man with a shotgun, who was the REAL nut. The quotation that Mrs. Clifford spoke was Matthew 25:35. The poor guy everyone was looking for was probably harmless, and she acted out of simple, Christian love. I've worked for a couple of shelters, and many times, people who are misunderstood are thought to be crazy. I agree with reviewer Paularoc; people are judged by the fear, or heat of the moment, rather than rational thought and the principles we are supposed to have been taught. I am, however quite happy with the shotgun toting maniac getting charged with A.D.W. (2 counts). 21-50 bye. (or words to that effect).