Newlyweds arrive at their isolated cabin and find a seriously injured man in it. The husband decides to walk to the nearest ranger station and leaves his wife, Frieda, with his rifle to watch the man (what?!?). The man, convicted felon Mickey Demarest, revives and quickly manages to get the rifle from Frieda and ties her up. Walt catches up with Demarest and is shot soon after Frieda frees herself. Mathews wants very much to find Demarest because he thinks Demarest can provide valuable information about some robberies. Using a helicopter, he spots Demarest. Given how injured Demarest was suppose to be, he limps along at a pretty good pace. This was just an average episode with no particularly memorable characters or interesting storyline.
3 Reviews
Another felon in the mountain hunted down by Dan's chopper
FlushingCaps24 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
A helicopter view of a couple entering a mountain cabin is the opening shot here. Newlyweds Walt and Frieda are entering the cabin. Before we get into the real story, we hear Walt tell his bride how far away "civilization" is, clearly excited to be out in the wilderness. Frieda gives us a reason to dislike her right from the get-go: Instead of trying to please her new spouse, she tells him how she "misses civilization" already. They just arrive at the place and she seems to already be complaining about where he has taken her.
Almost immediately they spot an unconscious man lying in the adjoining room. He is clearly wounded. Walt says he'll drive to a ranger station three miles away, but insists his bride stay here with the unconscious man. OK, so maybe Walt's smart in other things, but surely not here.
Right after he leaves, Frieda ignores what he told her about keeping clear of the man and she puts a blanket over him, and in the process discovers he has a pistol in his belt. She takes it away from him...but don't start thinking she is smart. She sets it on a table about 6 feet away from him, while placing the rifle Walt left her in the next room.
While Walt is at the ranger station, via telephone, is learning about the man being a robber connected with recent pharmacy robberies, Frieda gets real close to the man, and lets him trick her into helping him off the floor and to a chair-but instead as they near the table, he grabs the gun she stupidly left for him and makes it clear he doesn't trust her. She tells him all about where her husband went, so he ties her up to a chair and tries to escape on foot.
Our man Dan quickly goes into action when he learns that the felon, Mickey Demerest (probably not related to Uncle Charlie) is in this mountain cabin, ordering the police helicopter to whisk him there-it'll take half an hour. The ranger lends Walt a rifle to take back with him. We see Walt walking along looking to his left when he is surprised by Mickey coming up from the right pointing Walt's rifle at him.
Frieda has freed herself from the chair and she heads toward the ranger station, loudly calling out Walt's name whenever she can, just to make sure that if the bad guy is close enough, she won't surprise him-I guess that's why she did it. She finds the discarded ranger rifle and picks it up.
Mickey has taken Walt's car keys and wants only to escape in his car. But as they walk along, they hear Frieda bellowing out, "Walt!" Walt decides to try to jump Mickey and the gun goes off. We hear three shots, as does the ranger who reports it on his radio to Dan and the pilot.
They land and Dan soon finds Frieda just squatting next to Walt, sobbing hysterically. He's been hit in the shoulder, is totally conscious, but she isn't going for help or doing anything useful, just sobbing away. I can see her in 6 years when their son comes home with a bloody nose, and she is so broken up about the blood that she just sits next to him and cries until Daddy comes home from work. Do you get the impression I'm not fond of Frieda?
Dan loads the pair into the helicopter so they can be taken to the ranger station, while the pilot comes back to help catch the bad guy. Despite Mickey taking shots at the copter, Dan just wants to bring him back alive so he can give information about those hold-ups. Dan even is caught point-blank by Mickey and he keeps telling his partner not to shoot unless Mickey fires first-which would likely mean no more Dan. Of course, Dan correctly figured the wounded robber wouldn't fire and all turns out well.
Well, except for Walt, who's going to be stuck with Frieda for some time to come. Hey, maybe she's a good cook.
It was never explained why Dan thought this man would help him catch other thieves. The man thought he had killed two people (they were alive) so he believed he had nothing to lose by killing Dan, yet Dan goes toward him, while Mickey's rifle is pointing right at him, insisting his partner not shoot first, but let Mickey have the first shot. As another reviewer wrote, this is quite hard to believe.
My summation is that if Walt had only not left his bride alone in a mountain cabin with some trespasser, when the two of them got to the ranger station, they would have learned the man is a dangerous felon and Dan & Co. Would have been able to track him and catch him without the couple ever being in danger. If Frieda had just hidden the revolver instead of leaving it in plain sight, Mickey wouldn't have had that to hold on her. If she hadn't kept calling out Walt's name, the man might have just gotten to Walt's car and left him behind, unhurt-since all he wanted to do was get away and no highway patrol cars were near the area at the time-that's why Dan took the chopper. Or possibly, Frieda might have been able to sneak up on Mickey and Walt and get the drop on him with the rifle they left behind. Forget the last one. Had it happened, all Mickey would have had to do is walk toward Frieda. She's the kind who would never have pulled the trigger.
This episode just didn't have much of anything going for it. A typical hunt down the man in the woods using the helicopter to track him show, which they copied many times in this series. You wouldn't think it so easy for a helicopter to spot a man hiding in the middle of a forest full of trees and shrubs and all sorts of places where a man would be hidden from anyone looking from above, but they always seem to be able to spot their prey when Dan gets into his helicopter. I give this a 3, because overhead views from a helicopter were surely cool to watch in the mid-1950s.
Almost immediately they spot an unconscious man lying in the adjoining room. He is clearly wounded. Walt says he'll drive to a ranger station three miles away, but insists his bride stay here with the unconscious man. OK, so maybe Walt's smart in other things, but surely not here.
Right after he leaves, Frieda ignores what he told her about keeping clear of the man and she puts a blanket over him, and in the process discovers he has a pistol in his belt. She takes it away from him...but don't start thinking she is smart. She sets it on a table about 6 feet away from him, while placing the rifle Walt left her in the next room.
While Walt is at the ranger station, via telephone, is learning about the man being a robber connected with recent pharmacy robberies, Frieda gets real close to the man, and lets him trick her into helping him off the floor and to a chair-but instead as they near the table, he grabs the gun she stupidly left for him and makes it clear he doesn't trust her. She tells him all about where her husband went, so he ties her up to a chair and tries to escape on foot.
Our man Dan quickly goes into action when he learns that the felon, Mickey Demerest (probably not related to Uncle Charlie) is in this mountain cabin, ordering the police helicopter to whisk him there-it'll take half an hour. The ranger lends Walt a rifle to take back with him. We see Walt walking along looking to his left when he is surprised by Mickey coming up from the right pointing Walt's rifle at him.
Frieda has freed herself from the chair and she heads toward the ranger station, loudly calling out Walt's name whenever she can, just to make sure that if the bad guy is close enough, she won't surprise him-I guess that's why she did it. She finds the discarded ranger rifle and picks it up.
Mickey has taken Walt's car keys and wants only to escape in his car. But as they walk along, they hear Frieda bellowing out, "Walt!" Walt decides to try to jump Mickey and the gun goes off. We hear three shots, as does the ranger who reports it on his radio to Dan and the pilot.
They land and Dan soon finds Frieda just squatting next to Walt, sobbing hysterically. He's been hit in the shoulder, is totally conscious, but she isn't going for help or doing anything useful, just sobbing away. I can see her in 6 years when their son comes home with a bloody nose, and she is so broken up about the blood that she just sits next to him and cries until Daddy comes home from work. Do you get the impression I'm not fond of Frieda?
Dan loads the pair into the helicopter so they can be taken to the ranger station, while the pilot comes back to help catch the bad guy. Despite Mickey taking shots at the copter, Dan just wants to bring him back alive so he can give information about those hold-ups. Dan even is caught point-blank by Mickey and he keeps telling his partner not to shoot unless Mickey fires first-which would likely mean no more Dan. Of course, Dan correctly figured the wounded robber wouldn't fire and all turns out well.
Well, except for Walt, who's going to be stuck with Frieda for some time to come. Hey, maybe she's a good cook.
It was never explained why Dan thought this man would help him catch other thieves. The man thought he had killed two people (they were alive) so he believed he had nothing to lose by killing Dan, yet Dan goes toward him, while Mickey's rifle is pointing right at him, insisting his partner not shoot first, but let Mickey have the first shot. As another reviewer wrote, this is quite hard to believe.
My summation is that if Walt had only not left his bride alone in a mountain cabin with some trespasser, when the two of them got to the ranger station, they would have learned the man is a dangerous felon and Dan & Co. Would have been able to track him and catch him without the couple ever being in danger. If Frieda had just hidden the revolver instead of leaving it in plain sight, Mickey wouldn't have had that to hold on her. If she hadn't kept calling out Walt's name, the man might have just gotten to Walt's car and left him behind, unhurt-since all he wanted to do was get away and no highway patrol cars were near the area at the time-that's why Dan took the chopper. Or possibly, Frieda might have been able to sneak up on Mickey and Walt and get the drop on him with the rifle they left behind. Forget the last one. Had it happened, all Mickey would have had to do is walk toward Frieda. She's the kind who would never have pulled the trigger.
This episode just didn't have much of anything going for it. A typical hunt down the man in the woods using the helicopter to track him show, which they copied many times in this series. You wouldn't think it so easy for a helicopter to spot a man hiding in the middle of a forest full of trees and shrubs and all sorts of places where a man would be hidden from anyone looking from above, but they always seem to be able to spot their prey when Dan gets into his helicopter. I give this a 3, because overhead views from a helicopter were surely cool to watch in the mid-1950s.
Implausible
jameselliot-124 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The second half of this episode is ridiculous. I love Highway Patrol and Crawford's take on his character although I don't get why he wore a suit, tie and Fedora when going into rugged countryside. When they have the suspect cornered, Crawford tells the deputy (who's holding his pistol in a vertical position, barrel up, not pointing at the suspect) not to fire until the criminal shoots first, a move that's asking to be murdered. He talks the shooter pointing a rifle at him into surrendering in a very hard-to-believe ending. No cops in Crawford's position would do that. They would have shot the suspect when he turned with the rifle in his hand.
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