The Fugitive (TV Series) Wine Is a Traitor (1966) User Reviews

Plot summary

[ynot-16 · 8/10 · 24 November 2006]

Kimble hitches a ride with 2 Mexican farmworkers in wine country. He learns there are labor-management tensions, and that at a recent meeting the driver favored a strike while the passenger disagreed. Suddenly, shots come from outside the vehicle, killing the driver and injuring Kimble's arm.

While being treated and questioned by police, Kimble learns that a man named Morales is under suspicion, for the killer used his rifle. Kimble did not know that Morales was the passenger in the car and thus could not be guilty.

Kimble discovers who the real killer is, Carl Crandall (actor Roy Thinnes), the son of wealthy winery owner Pete Crandall (actor James Gregory). The Crandalls have enormous influence over the local police, and Carl vows he will do anything to stop Kimble from making his accusation public. Meanwhile, Kimble faces danger from all sides as the Mexicans come to believe Kimble has falsely named Morales as the killer.

This episode has fine performances by actor James Gregory (Insp. Luger on Barney Miller) as the killer's father, and by actor Dabbs Greer.as the slimy hotel manager.

Competent episode lacking suspense

[dburton2 · 7/10 · 29 September 2019]

Even a less-than-perfect episode of The Fugitive is worth watching, and that's the case with "Wine is a Traitor" (the episode takes place in wine country, but the title is otherwise not descriptive of the plot). It begins with a (literal) bang -- the driver of the truck in which Dr. Kimble is hitching a ride is killed by a rifle shot. The killing, it turns out, is an assassination: the dead man was a grape picker organizing his fellow workers. When it's discovered that Kimble may have seen who did it, he is threatened by elements that don't want the crime solved. The episode keeps your interest, and is well-written and acted, as you'd expect from this series, but Dr. Kimble is never in serious of danger of having his identity found out or disclosed, so the usual suspense and plot elements aren't there.

The episode is noteworthy for two things. First, as other commenters have noted, it guest stars Roy Thinnes, who a few months after this episode aired would begin playing the Kimble-like protagonist in another QM production, the sci-fi series "The Invaders." Second, it makes liberal (and in my view, distracting) use of Dominic Frontiere's music from "The Outer Limits" -- I believe it's music from the OL episode "The Man Who Was Never Born."

It's time for the father to step up and do what it right...but will he?

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 11 May 2017]

When the story begins, Richard Kimble is walking along the road and a car full of migrant workers stop to give him a lift. Only moments later, shots ring out and one of the guys in the car is killed! The police investigate and Kimble has little to tell them. However, it soon becomes apparent that the son (Roy Thinnes) of the local vineyard owner (James Gregory) might know more about this killing. After all, he thought his father was being way too nice towards the workers and did not want to see them go on strike. And, what better way to avert it than kill their leader?! But what about the father? What will he do when it becomes obvious that the son is just plain evil?

This episode is a bit unusual because it's NOT about Kimble running but more about the murder and the vineyard. An interesting episode and yet another one which shows how much Kimble likes and gravitates towards these poor, hardworking people.

11/1/66 "Wine is a Traitor"

[schappe1 · 29 January 2016]

Kimble is back in California in the middle of grape picker's strike where the son of a major farm owner has taken matters into his own hands and killed one of the leaders. Kimble witnesses it but flees before the cops come because he doesn't want to be recognized. The grape pickers think he did it, too at first. He has to win them over and avoid the police, not for his usual reasons but because they are essentially in the employ of the father.

The father is played by the always excellent James Gregory. The son is played by Roy Thinnes who would become the star of Quinn Martin's next series about a wandering hero: The Invaders."

This is not Kimble's first encounter with Mexican agricultural workers: there is Episode 7, "Smoke Screen" where he is one of them but they are suspicious because they think he's an undercover immigration agent and Episode 59, "The Old Man Picked a Lemon", where he has to take sides between the workers and a sadistic new farm owner.

Bad son.

[kennyp-44177 · 7/10 · 27 October 2021]

Good episode, notable for the guest stars who were in other favourite films and shows of mine. Roy Thinnes playing the bad son who went into The Invaders, and the ever excellent James Gregory, the good dad, starred in Planet of the Apes.