User Reviews

***SPOILERS*** Very effective morality play about gun use as well as when to or not to use the deadly weapons. It's when Dr.Bert Andrews,Eddie Albert,home and dentist office is broken into by a neighborhood junkie,John McLiam, that he refuses to use his hunting rifle to gun the guy down as he was making his gateway in Dr.Andrews car. In showing a sense of humanity for the fleeing robber Dr.Andrews' wife Jo, Dina Merrill, and 14 year old son Rex, Peter Lazer, started to think of him as a gutless coward who won't defend his loved one's or family in their hour of need.

Not wanting to be the wimp his old man is Rex with his mom's encouragement begins to go to the local rifle range and practice sharp shooing in his spear time to the point where he can put five bullets into a bullseye from a distance of some 200 feet. It''s later that Rex and his friend Hank,Michael Winkeiman, in trying to prove to themselves the macho image they have of themselves start to harass elderly widow Mrs. Lyons, Isabel Jewell, every night pretending that their aliens from outer space trying to abduct her and preform medical experiments of the frail old lady. Menwhile Rex's pop Dr. Andrews tries to get his son away from his love of guns by trying to turn him into a both nature lover and bird watcher which he's been all his adult life! This all falls apart when Rex out bird watching with his father impulsively guns down a rare prairie falcon that Dr.Andrews was just about to photograph!

***SPOILERS*** It's when both Rex and Hank go all out to really drive the by now hysterical Mrs.Lyons out of her mind that that things really get out of hand. Getting her hands on her husbands rusty old WWI rifle that the two half wits,Rex & Hank,in fact provide her with a new fire pin and 20 rounds of ammunition just to even the playing field, go figure that out, the by now out of her skull Mrs Lyons starts firing away at her two tormentor! It's then that the wimpy,in both his wife and son's eyes, Dr.Andrews rushing to the scene shows just how truly brave he is! Not by any act of violence macho or bravado on his part but an act of kindness understanding and true, not phony, heroism. That in putting his life on the line Dr. Andrews not only defuse an out of control situation but showed, both Jo & Rex,that violence and gun play not only doesn't aways work but in fact can end up making things worse, far worse, then they already are.

Eddie Albert is the star of this ''Kraft Suspense Theatre'' episode, as a dentist that one night finds a drifter in his home. Instead of killing him, Albert gives him his wallet and the guy runs away from his house. His wife is angry with him because he didn't shoot to the guy. But Dr. Andrews felt that was easier to give the drifter his wallet and let him go.

His son, Rex, is very vicious. He enjoys tormenting a lonely old woman and he is fascinated in guns and killing. Andrews let the boy go to the old woman for excuses. Then they go bird-watching, but after Rex kills a hawk, his dad takes away the guns. While Dr. Andrews is a very harsh and caring father, his wife (Dina Merrill) is a mother that always defends her son for everything. And this has bad effects on the boy.

I liked this episode because it highlights the value of non-violence. Albert's character is seen as weak, but he is also tough when he needs to. Meanwhile his wife was the always forgiving mother no matter what his son was doing. A very tense and edge-of-your-seat episode.

This Suspense Theater TV episode was one that kept me guessing to the very end. It starred Eddie Albert and Dina Merrill as parents to a son who becomes good at shooting and who likes to play pranks on a old woman neighbor who is a little mentally unstable. The story begins with the father who fails to shoot a robber and then is looked upon as a coward by his wife and son. The father is also considered a disappointment because he ended up being a dentist instead of a doctor and also is a bird watcher. The mother encourages her son to become a marksman to make him more masculine. The son along with another friend play pranks against an old female neighbor by frightening her as planes fly by the area and makes it appear that aliens are coming to get her. The father tries to get closer to his son by inviting him on one of his bird watching trips. The son ends up shooting a bird as they observe several of them flying in the area. The father takes the guns away from his son as punishment, but the boy drops off some of the bullets with the old neighbor who has a rifle expecting her to begin a shooting spree when they play another prank on her. The parents look for the boy after he is missing from his room and the father has to make a decision regarding coming to the aid of the old neighbor who has become unhinged after another prank. He convinces the frightened neighbor to drop the rifle and calls for help from a doctor. At the end, the wife and son realize that the father is not a coward after all. I think the story was meant to show that a person's character should not be judged solely by their career choice or their reaction under duress. The gun did play a integral role in the plot and the outcome of each character would be determined by how they interacted with it.