Denny Miller would never win any awards and was mainly a bit part actor playing heavies, but I think this, despite reservation about the subject matter, by some , was by far the best performance I have seen him give, I thought he did really well.
11 Reviews
Typical treatment for the era
EdinaJambo26 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Just to be clear regarding the review left by 'fbm72751' the cops never "gunned this poor guy down which no doubt fuels the notion that cops shoot first and ask questions later". He was throwing heavy objects at the deputies and a heavy chain thrown at one accidentally set off his gun, as he said he 'didn't mean to shoot at him'. People who leave reviews should at least be accurate in their reporting. For avoidance of doubt I've just watched this on UK tv as a UK citizen, so I have no axe to grind with American law enforcement.
Plot summary
ynot-1622 March 2009
Willie Turner (actor Denny Miller) is a strong young man of subnormal intelligence, whose childish impulses have hurt a child. The police are looking for him to place him in a mental hospital. Willie loves carnivals, and runs to one nearby where Kimble is working. The owner, impressed with Willie's strength, offers him a job, and puts him in Kimble's charge.
Kimble tries to leave him with his sister Mary (actress Collin Wilcox) but she cannot take care of him, and plans to marry next week. This causes Willie to go back to the carnival and Kimble. Willie is violently against any effort to hospitalize him, and the police involvement causes trouble for both Willie and Kimble.
Kimble tries to leave him with his sister Mary (actress Collin Wilcox) but she cannot take care of him, and plans to marry next week. This causes Willie to go back to the carnival and Kimble. Willie is violently against any effort to hospitalize him, and the police involvement causes trouble for both Willie and Kimble.
11/15/66 "Approach With Care"
schappe131 January 2016
This one is obviously inspired by "Of Mice and Men". Denny Miller plays the simple-minded giant, well- intentioned and friendly but who doesn't know his own strength and can hurt people in a fight. He tries to join some kids in playing football but pushes one of them down. The kid is mildly hurt but his mother wants Miller arrested. He runs and hides out at a carnival where Kimble is working.
Our hero finds him a job as a roustabout, not knowing the police are after him. He has a sister who has taken care of him but who wants to get married to a fiancé who doesn't know about Denny. She wants to institutionalize him to obtain her own freedom. The tragic ending is predictable, as is the episode. Dr. Kimble once again gets to show his gentle side.
Our hero finds him a job as a roustabout, not knowing the police are after him. He has a sister who has taken care of him but who wants to get married to a fiancé who doesn't know about Denny. She wants to institutionalize him to obtain her own freedom. The tragic ending is predictable, as is the episode. Dr. Kimble once again gets to show his gentle side.
Great series
LukeCoolHand8 April 2024
This was a really good episode of The Fugitive starring Richard Janssen and I thought Denny Miller gave a really realistic performance. The episode was quite engaging and went by very fast and I also enjoyed the episode more than a lot them. Also, there were a lot of familiar faces, and I did not even recognize Dabney Coleman with all that hair - I had to look him up to see who he was. David Janssen really created an iconic character with this great series. I watched this series on first run back in the sixties as a young teen and still enjoy it even more as a grown man. Getting close to the fianl episodes and cannot wait.
Sort of like a reworking of the classic story "Of Mice and Men"....and possibly the most depressing episode of all!
planktonrules18 May 2017
"Approach With Care" is my vote for the most depressing episode of all the excellent episodes of "The Fugitive". It begins with a mentally challenged man playing football with some kids. One of them gets hurt and whines and cries so much his mother goes to the police about Willie (Denny Miller). It seems that Willie is a runaway from a hospital...one that is for disabled folks like him. Sadly, institutionalizing folks was the norm back then...and it's no surprise that Willie does NOT want to go back there! Soon Willie is befriended by Dr. Kimble...and soon the plot becomes very similar to Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men".
As I said, this IS depressing. The way they treated the disabled was appalling back then and the end of the episode is just terrible....and will leave you feeling a bit miserable. Not wholly original but well done and VERY engaging.
As I said, this IS depressing. The way they treated the disabled was appalling back then and the end of the episode is just terrible....and will leave you feeling a bit miserable. Not wholly original but well done and VERY engaging.
Special needs.
kennyp-4417710 November 2021
This is a great episode, Denny Miller(Willie) is awesome, in every way. But his portrayal of a young man with special needs is very well done and not over the top,in fact he should have been nominated for an Emmy. The rest of the cast are good,and the direction, although I feel Dabney Coleman was underused this time around..
Hated the ending
Christopher3706 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
These final color season episodes have been hit or miss with me so far, so I start each episode now with trepidation rather than the excitement I had of the first three seasons.
I was drawn into the story by the first act and relieved that it wasn't going to be another bad episode. I empathized with all the characters and thought the actor who played Willie did an exceptional portrayal of a mentally challenged adult.
The episode sadly shows how people viewed those with mental disabilities during the era and also how the producers probably felt too by eliminating the character in the end rather than have him receive the help and care that he desperately needed.
Had this episode been made today I believe it would've had that kind of ending. By Act IV, the viewer has come to care about Willie which makes his death all the more sad and depressing.
There have been past episodes of The Fugitive where the protagonist bites the dust in the end and I was fine with those, but I was really rooting for Willie to get the help he needed in this one that it just left me feeling sad, and I wish it had a more uplifting ending than it did.
But even with the tragic ending, I think it's still one of the better season 4 episodes and well worth a watch.
I was drawn into the story by the first act and relieved that it wasn't going to be another bad episode. I empathized with all the characters and thought the actor who played Willie did an exceptional portrayal of a mentally challenged adult.
The episode sadly shows how people viewed those with mental disabilities during the era and also how the producers probably felt too by eliminating the character in the end rather than have him receive the help and care that he desperately needed.
Had this episode been made today I believe it would've had that kind of ending. By Act IV, the viewer has come to care about Willie which makes his death all the more sad and depressing.
There have been past episodes of The Fugitive where the protagonist bites the dust in the end and I was fine with those, but I was really rooting for Willie to get the help he needed in this one that it just left me feeling sad, and I wish it had a more uplifting ending than it did.
But even with the tragic ending, I think it's still one of the better season 4 episodes and well worth a watch.
Tragic ending
francespen27 November 2020
I agree with Dawlish03 - Willie wasn't 'gunned down', it was an accident. Maybe fbm72751 wasn't looking when that happened. What did surprise me was that no-one thought to ring for an ambulance or try and help him in any way, Willie was hit in the top right side of his body, had an artery been hit which meant there was no chance he'd survive? They all just stood about, one cop went looking for Richard Kimble but otherwise nothing. None of them were medically trained apart from Richard Kimble and he'd already gone. I'm a Brit too.
This one is a dud
ColonelPuntridge22 November 2021
One of Hollywood's most open non-secrets is that the judges who choose the Oscar winners adore movies about innocent, child-like, saintly, mentally-impaired characters. If the character is scary as well as saintly, so much the better. If the character's simplicity enables him to do something heroic, that's better still. It's a cliché, but they never seem to get tired of it. Charleton Heston pointed this out in an interview, saying: "If you want to win an Academy Award, arrange to play a retarded character." (This was long ago, when "retarded" was still the preferred technical term.) The obsession goes all the way back to Quasimodo.
Maybe Mr. Heston should have added: make sure you play the character WELL. Not the way this guy Denny Miller does. He plays the part so badly that I had to remind myself that BLAZING SADDLES was still 18 years in the future, otherwise, I would have thought that Miller was trying to do a parody of Mongo.
The rest of the performance is correspondingly awful. Bad acting by the entire cast (they look tired and bored), bad sets, bad costumes, bad camerawork, bad plot, bad writing. Dr. Kimble is even more unrealistically saintly and virtuous than the mentally-impaired guy. It has so much cloying, sugary goo, and so little substance that I had to check my blood-sugar when it was over. I thought I might need to go to an emergency room and get an injection of insulin. (And I'm not even diabetic.)
The only reason I give it any stars at all is that Malcolm Atterbury is in the cast. He's always fun to see. Other than that, this is a good hour for a nap.
Maybe Mr. Heston should have added: make sure you play the character WELL. Not the way this guy Denny Miller does. He plays the part so badly that I had to remind myself that BLAZING SADDLES was still 18 years in the future, otherwise, I would have thought that Miller was trying to do a parody of Mongo.
The rest of the performance is correspondingly awful. Bad acting by the entire cast (they look tired and bored), bad sets, bad costumes, bad camerawork, bad plot, bad writing. Dr. Kimble is even more unrealistically saintly and virtuous than the mentally-impaired guy. It has so much cloying, sugary goo, and so little substance that I had to check my blood-sugar when it was over. I thought I might need to go to an emergency room and get an injection of insulin. (And I'm not even diabetic.)
The only reason I give it any stars at all is that Malcolm Atterbury is in the cast. He's always fun to see. Other than that, this is a good hour for a nap.
This episode should never have been made.
fbm727518 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Mental illness is something that is indeed a subject that should be touched on. No problems with that as many thought back then that these patients are just crazy and need to be permanently locked up which we now know is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
It's the ending that angers me. The cops gunned this poor guy down which no doubt fuels the notion that cops shoot first and ask questions later. Why couldn't they have just have him give up and go back to an institution instead? How blood thirsty was this writer? It just made me sick just thinking about it. It's a no brainer that ABC and others involved likely received some angry mail over this, especially from those who work in the mental health field. I have not seen this episode in over 35 years.
The quality of the show dipped during it's final season which was now filmed in color. It was best that it ended when it did on August 29, 1967.
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