The Fugitive (TV Series) The Homecoming (1964) User Reviews

A lot like "Gaslight"

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 30 March 2017]

If you've ever seen "Gaslight", then this episode of "The Fugitive" will seem very familiar. The story is a bit of a reworking of the plot...with many similarities and many differences.

When the show begins, Richard Kimble is working at the Pruitt Plantation in Georgia*. Mr. Pruit (Richard Carlson) has remarried and not told his daughter Janice (Shirley Knight) about her new step- mother (Gloria Grahame), Dorina. In fact, the pair have been married for months and now that Janice is coming home, she's gonna be in for a surprise! Janice is a bit apprehensive to accept new mom....and after a while you realize that she does indeed have reason. It seems that Dorina is trying to drive Janice out of her mind. Why and how...well, you'll just have to see the show.

This one is very entertaining but I took off a point simply because the idea is recycled. Still, it's well worth seeing.

*IMDB goofs noticed it, too....but the Georgia coast does NOT have mountains! The producers should have picked another locale or just said the show was in California.

Plot summary

[ynot-16 · 8/10 · 8 November 2008]

Richard Kimble, using the name David Benton, is working in the laboratory of Allan Pruitt (actor Richard Carlson) on his estate in Georgia. Kimble works on the development of goober (peanut) products. Also living on the estate is Pruitt's new wife Dorina (actress Gloria Grahame). Pruitt is from an old distinguished planter family, while Dorina is the lower-class daughter of a backwoodsman.

Janice Pruitt (actress Shirley Knight), daughter of Allan and his deceased wife, has been away. She comes home and learns of her father's marriage, of which she disapproves. Janice had been at a sanitarium after a breakdown stemming from an incident involving a child being attacked by dogs. Janice is close to another breakdown as she keeps hearing the howling and barking of aggressive dogs.

There is a great deal of tension between Dorina and Janice, and Dorina rightly comes to believe Kimble is on Janice's side. Pruitt is torn between his devotion to his daughter and his wife. Kimble wants to help, but is endangered by the involvement of Sheriff Floyd Warren (actor Warren Vanders), who has long been interested in Janice, and whom Dorina manipulates to put pressure on Kimble. Floyd is there to arrest Kimble on false charges made by Dorina when Janice runs into the woods to save a small boy calling for help amidst the sound of barking dogs.

Potter's dogs

[Christopher370 · 6/10 · 15 June 2023]

It's an ok episode but I just found it all a bit strange, and that Dorina gal sure was a piece of work. When she said to Kimble how she came from the gutter but washed the dirt off her, his reply "Not all of it" was perfect. What a hateful woman to do what she did to her husband's daughter. And when she was caught in her scheme to drive Janice crazy and get thrown back to the sanitarium she simply packs a suitcase, looks around the huge mansion she's losing, shrugs her shoulders as if saying "Oh well!" and leaves. She didn't seem to care much because she probably already had the next rich man on her list ready to try and swindle!

I was surprised how Kimble didn't put up any kind of a fight or attempt to flee when Dorina falsely accused him of assaulting her to the Sheriff. He simply walked to the closet to get his bag to be taken into custody when in later seasons we saw him fight or knock out a cop to flee. If Janice didn't scream at just that moment and the dogs didn't start barking, it's hard to accept that Kimble would have just agreed to be taken into jail without any attempt to flee.

I think the acting was great and I enjoyed all the performances but it's just not a favorite of mine, although it's not unwatchable either. I'd say that this and "Ticket to Alaska" are my least favorite season one episodes, but that still leaves 28 very highly enjoyable episodes left.

Pretty Good Southern Gothic

[dougdoepke · 24 June 2014]

Pretty good slice of southern Gothic. Kimball's hired on to a southern plantation where the family has a dark past. Actually, the strongest reason to catch this entry is cult actress Gloria Grahame as the sinister step-mother. Her looks are still distinctive and attractive for her 40+ years. It's also about 20-years before she died in relative obscurity. Good also to see that fine actor Richard Carlson as the reliable plantation owner, and doing something besides chasing space aliens and communists. Rounding out the cast is a delectable Shirley Knight as the afflicted daughter. If I were Kimball, I'd sure warm up to the boss's daughter. Speaking of Kimball, catch his well calculated, low-key reactions to events. Actor Janssen enhances stories without competing with them, a key, I think, to the success of the series. So, is Knight just imagining the barking dogs that earlier mauled a boy to death, or is somebody up to no good. And, if so, why. And will that jealous sheriff keep nosing around Kimball the fugitive from the law. Stay tuned.

Gloria Grahame in a pale scheming girl plot!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 18 November 2023]

Looking at Gloria Grahame as guest star already envisage what her role in the plot, bingo straight on target, Dorina a newest stepmother coming from lowest class in small town at Georgia in a big farmer where they have peanuts plants, a wealthy widowed senior owner Allan Pruitt (Richard Carlson) has just receives his unique daughter Janice Pruitt (Sheley Knight) coming from mental institution after a shock where mad dogs butchered a little kid in recent past years in nearby area, after recovering she is back to his father's home to stay without aware over his father marriage whereof she didn't ingest so easily at first glance, who is working there for a while our friend beloved David "Kimble" Benton, he soon predicts problems at sight, due perceive Dorina as scheming woman, she will do everything at your hands to keep her position whatever the matter, even Janice.

It doesn't take too long the scared Janice starts hearing dog's barking around the woods, thus it brings her fears about last happenings concerning the already died dogs, however such odd behavior promptly is exploited by the bleak Dorina hinting at to Allan about his daughter wasn't fully healed from her emotional distress whatsoever, when Kimble tries intervenes on behalf of Janice, the wicked woman threats him at once, in this menacing atmosphere the gloomy story unfolds.

Sadly the great femme fatale Gloria Grahame already aged and ton of make up to perform properly, nonetheless it didn't help too much, the time has charged its price, skinny body and that squeaky voice chanted by Grahame is what was left to a great actress of the last decade, too scarce for a her.

Thanks for reading

Resume:

First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.

Gentle and gracious

[MissClassicTV · 9/10 · 9 June 2016]

Dr. Kimble's living and working at a Georgia plantation. For a change, he's not working a menial job. His college education doesn't seem out of place this time. When the owner invites him for dinner and drinks in celebration of his daughter's homecoming, Kimble evidently enjoys dinner conversation with a judge and they talk about where they went to college.

Kimble's interaction with the daughter Janice is very gentle. After suffering a breakdown and spending time in a sanitarium, she's fragile. So Kimble is very protective of her. And she needs protection - from her new stepmother, who thinks of her as a threat to her position as lady of the house; from the unwelcomed advances of a persistent suitor, who happens to be the county sheriff; and from the terror of barking dogs, who remind her of the mauling death of a little boy. When Janice's stepmother Dorina realizes that Kimble is sympathetic to Janice, she gets the sheriff to threaten him.

There is a certain Southern charm to this episode. Kimble doesn't look stressed out or overly tired like he does sometimes. He's pretty calm. We see him listening to the radio, reading, taking walks. Outside of Dorina and the sheriff, everyone's pretty nice to him.

Hush Hush Sweet Janice.

[kindofblue-78221 · 9/10 · 25 August 2022]

Here's a familiar story that's retold very well.

If you like the Bette Davis version then you'll like this.

Gloria Graham plays her familiar typecast role very well. She's a class act. She was also so much better than her typecast.

Another very good episode in a very very good series.

Dick exposes a wicked stepmother

[jsinger-58969 · 9/10 · 31 October 2022]

The doc is working at an old Southern plantation, only this time he's working as a lab tech and not picking peanuts. The drama starts when the kindly plantation owner's daughter returns from a sanatorium after having a breakdown. Old dad has neglected to tell her that he's remarried after losing his loving wife. The new wife is.not happy about the daughter's homecoming. Without even being asked, she tells Kimble that there's only room for one sow at the trough, and that sow is her. Dorito is a classy belle. Anyways, the reason Janis was sent away was because she was present when some vicious dogs attacked and killed a young boy she took on a picnic. Ants are bad enough, but vicious dogs? So she had a breakdown and was sent away. Daddy is somehow unaware of Dorito's intentions, although they seem obvious and she blurted them out to Kimble. Her plan is to pay a local hound guy to bring his dogs into the woods at night and make them howl. No one else has heard the dogs except for Kimble, who heard them above his blasting radio. Dick likes his music loud. And yet no one else hears the dogs. When he says he heard it too, Dorito sics the sheriff on him. The sheriff happens to have a thing for Janis. Everything gets out in the open when everyone runs after Janis who is running into the woods when she hears the dogs again. And there are the dogs, in the flesh, along with their owner and Dorito. Well, the marriage is over and the sheriff apologizes in Kimble. Dick tells him his sister in having an emergency and he has to go see her. And he will give the sheriff the address as soon as he can figure out where she lives. So the doc has brought yet another family together and in the process, escapes to remain....the fugitive. A QM production.

4/7/64: "The Homecoming"

[schappe1 · 22 April 2015]

This one's a real dud. It's as if Tennessee Williams, (in his cups) decided to write an episode of a TV series. The result falls completely flat. Shirley Knight is returning home from being in a mental institution after being attacked by dogs. She finds he mother is dead and her father, (Richard Carleson), has remarried to a gold- digger played by Gloria Graham, (with the same accent she used as Ado Annie in "Oklahoma"). Shirley doesn't like Gloria and Gloria wants only one woman in the household. Gloria plots to drive Shirley nuts, even arranging for her to hear dog noises at night and hearing the cry of a small boy, (one had been killed in the attack). The place is a peanut farm and Kimble has somehow gotten a job as a "research technician" and somehow is living in the house with the others. He's sympathetic to Shirley so Gloria tries to get rid of him by telling the local Sheriff, who has a crush on Shirley, that Kimble has his eyes on her.

I recently saw Gloria Grahame in her glory period of the early 50's, when she won an Oscar for "The Bad and the Beautiful" and played opposite Humphrey Bogart in "In a Lonely Place". She's so good in that, it's disappointing to see her giving such an arch performance in this claptrap. I also have a friend who said he's seen an episode of The Fugitive on MeTV and, boy was that ever a lousy show! This might have been the one he saw.