Well acted, albeit rather cynical portrayal of America's upper echelon, circa 1950. Handsome David is the pampered son of wealthy calculating father who specializes in behind-the-scenes political fixes. Trouble is ne'r-do-well David picks up a hat-check girl while drunk and ends up with her dead in his car while he has no recollection. Nonetheless, it seems a piece-of-cake for veteran fixer Dad who specializes in bending rules his way, especially for his son. Meanwhile, David's coming to realize he will never be his own person until he disavows Dad's suffocating hand.
The hour's lasting highlight may well be a surprisingly honest insider view of political corruption. Dad knows just how to pressure public officials to do his bidding, whatever it may be. It's a particularly uncompromising glimpse of backdoor manuevering, and I expect were the show produced several months later, after the onset of the patriotic Korean War, it would never have reached the screen.
The drama itself culminates in a pretty good final court scene, with an unusually uncertain upshot. So there is some suspense. In their key roles, Ridges (Dad) and Sterling (David) manage emotion without going over the top. Calder's unlikely role as the friendly prison guard, however, strikes me as a contrivance aimed at bringing out David's inner thoughts. What I really like is the way the father's dominance is subtly accounted for in an ironic way. Anyway, it's an engaging hour of very early TV, when dramatic programs were expected to emulate the more prestigious aspects of theatre. Either way, it's worth a tune-in, especially for the bold cynicism that would soon disappear from Cold War channels.