The Fugitive (TV Series) Crack in a Crystal Ball (1965) User Reviews

And I thought all psychics were honorable folks.....

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 14 April 2017]

In this installment of "The Fugitive", Richard Kimble has settled into a new identity nicely. However, his relatively quiet life is about to get a lot less quiet now that a traveling psychic has arrived in town. Using all sorts of tricks and deceptions, the guy soon convinces the local police that he does have psychic powers. And, after discovering Kimble's wanted poster and realizing he's in town, the guy decides to capitalize on it and create a huge publicity stunt to convince the public as well that he has ESP. But this plan is complicated and involves the psychic's long-suffering wife's help. Can Kimble realize he's just become a pawn in their plans before it's too late?

I appreciate this episode not just because it's entertaining but shows some of the deception folks like this use to convince the gullible that they are attuned to supernatural forces. Well worth seeing and unique, that's for sure.

Plot summary

[ynot-16 · 7/10 · 26 October 2006]

Psychic Sal Mitchell and his wife Joan come to a town where Kimble works as a gas station attendant. Mitchell has a scheme to improve ticket sales for his performances by acting as an adviser to police about a string of robberies. But when the robberies are solved early, Mitchell appears out of luck, until he happens to notice Kimble's wanted poster at the police station.

Mitchell and his wife embark on a plan to fool Kimble and arrange for his capture under circumstances that will prove Mitchell's psychic abilities are real.

This episode contains a fine performance by actor J. Pat O'Malley as McBride, a grumpy retiree who lives at the boarding house where Kimble lives.

I can see Kimble getting away

[jsinger-58969 · 8/10 · 15 February 2023]

Dick is working at a gas station, where his world class mechanic skills are put to good use. He stays at a boarding house, also the home of the cantankerous old codger J Pat O'Malley. Con man psychic Larry Blyden comes into town, stops at the gas station and then goes to the police station to offer his services in solving some robberies. That case has been solved, but he notices Dick's wanted poster on the way out. He's more observant than the cops. He comes up with a scheme to take advantage of this. It requires the help of his wife, the always adorable Joanna Moore. She's not keen on doing it, but she acquiesces. She sends a message to Dick saying she recognizes him and has seen one-arm Fred. Dick's fugey senses are on alert, but he goes along to where she says she saw him. Meanwhile, Blyden is convincing the cops he is getting vibrations from Kimble's poster and they are leading to where his wife is taking him. The news is picked up by TV and is seen at the boarding house, where J Pat at first says he knew something wasn't right with Dick. Eventually, he comes to realize that Dick is really a good guy and couldn't have killed anyone. Funny how many people reach that same conclusion. He puts things together and realizes Dick is being set up and calls to warn him, but Joanna gets the message and tears it up. She than takes the suspicious Kimble to where she says Fred is, but Dick finds out there was a message he didn't get. The place is crawling with undercover cops and although he sees them, they don't notice him, although they are looking for him. Unlike Blyden's fake ESP, Kimble's cloaking device is real. He calls J Pat, who tells him to get out of there, which Dick should have known by then anyway. So he does. Joanna is happy that Dick has eluded the cops and is still.....a fugitive.

9/28/65 "Crack in the Crystal Ball"

[schappe1 · 11 July 2015]

A strange and unsatisfactory episode, especially since it's written by William Link and Richard Levinson, the creators of Columbo.

Larry Blyden plays an entertainer who does a 'psychic' act and who spots Kimble working at a gas station. He goes to the police, saying that he 'senses' Richard Kimble is in town. He gets blown off but then gets on a local TV show with the same claim. Meanwhile his wife, (Joanna Moore), befriends Kimble and claims to have seen the one- armed man. She sets up clues about Kimble that allow Blyden to "predict" things and convinces Kimble that one armed man is running a souvenir stand at a park. Blyden arranges, though his "visons" for the police to be there. Kimble doubts the whole set-up but has to see if the one-armed man is there. A friend manages to warn him and he walks away. But he was clearly close enough for the several cops in the area to spot him. Instead they go home disappointed.

So will you.

Are we supposed to like Joan in the end?

[Christopher370 · 8/10 · 3 August 2023]

Joan goes along with her fake psychic boyfriend's scheme to trap Kimble for financial gain and glory over his capture even though she tells him it's wrong.

When he tells her they can get married, have a home and family off the money they make from it, she replies that it's like "building a home on another man's grave"...and she's right. It is.

She still follows through with the trap anyway, regardless of what her conscience says and leads a wary Kimble right into a lion's den that's waiting for him at a public park. Though it actually turns out to be a little kitty den since none of the undercover police waiting for Kimble sees him when he's literally standing in plain sight right in front of them just a few feet away.

It's an incredibly surreal scene to watch because Kimble is standing all alone right out in the open and none of these undercover clowns notice him. It's hard to believe this scene was shot the way it was and they didn't redo it to have Kimble behind some trees or bushes or even that big Lincoln statue to make it a little more believable.

In any case, Joan speeds away thinking she's leaving Kimble to his capture when she knew without any doubt he was innocent. She knew this because after she pulled the car over earlier and offered him to get out and leave when his suspicions mounted---she saw that he couldn't leave because he had to find the one armed man.

If he were really guilty, he would've got out and split, so this told her he was innocent---yet she still takes him to the park where police are supposed to be ready for his capture, yet too stupid to notice him when he gets there lol.

In the Epilogue, her fake psychic boyfriend Sal accuses her of being glad that Kimble got away and she smiles at the camera as if she is glad. Then why did she not warn him of the set up and allow him walk into the park to his expected demise?!

It seemed that the writers wanted the audience to like Joan by the end of the episode but she's still a nasty, heartless, cold piece of work for feeding Kimble to the lions (who turned out to be dumb little kitties instead).

I probably would've given this episode a solid 10 if it weren't for that incredibly surreal park scene where Kimble was in plain sight to all the cops yet none of them notice him. Not even the special dumb cop who banged on the phone booth door where Kimble was right inside. Good lord, was he blind?! This show is better than that. The episode is still a solid 8 for me...I just wish they had redone that ridiculous park scene.

He shoulda known better

[lor_ · 3 July 2023]

Larry Blyden does just fine in a character role -no jokes - as a semi-fake (if I can call him that) mentalist who poses a threat to our hero on the run as usual. The script has an interesting time with the whole issue of conspiracy theory thinking -there can be a germ of truth, but the extremist credulity we're currently suffering with is a major threat. And the moral issue of whether one should turn the fugitive in for personal gain is handled well.

Growing up in the '60s I was addicted to this show, and even more so to the Ben Gazzara imitation "Run for Your Life" -I suppose the identification with this classic Jean Val Jean sort of character is irresistible. And Janssen remains the most perfect embodiment.