Mon 12 Oct 2020
A TV Episode Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE FUGITIVE “The Other Side of the Mountain†(1963).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Drama[14] Comments
THE FUGITIVE “The Other Side of the Mountain.†ABC, 01 October 1963 (Season 1, Episode 3). David Janssen. Guest Cast: Sandy Dennis, Frank Sutton, Ruth White. R.G. Armstrong, Barry Morse, Bruce Dern. Narrator: William Conrad. Screenwriters: Alan Caillou & Harry Kronman. Director: James Sheldon.
A few nights ago, I watched “The Other Side of the Mountain,†a season one episode of The Fugitive. In this episode, Richard Kimble aka The Fugitive (David Janssen) runs afoul of the local authorities in a dying West Virginia coal mining town. The sheriff is portrayed by R.G. Armstrong, while his deputy is played by a youthful Bruce Dern who, as of the time, had not yet appeared on the big screen. The episode is a fairly strong one, bolstered by the presence of stage actress Sandy Dennis, who plays a local girl who provides sanctuary to Kimble. She also, not surprisingly, falls in love with him and all but begs him to take her with him.
I enjoyed the episode quite a bit. Seeing Dern as a smarmy lawman eager to pick a fight with Kimble was something else. Dern, unlike Armstrong, Dennis, and two others, was not given guest star status. He really was a supporting TV character looking for bit parts at the time.
Fast forward six years. Or, in my case, one day. And I sit down for an episode of Lancer (“A Person Unknownâ€), the CBS oater recently brought back into public consciousness for its “appearance†in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). In this episode, Johnny Madrid Lancer (James Stacy) runs afoul of a powerful man and his son. He not only is wounded in a fight. But is falsely accused of murdering his Mexican friend. A crime he did not commit. As it turns out, the injured Johnny has to hide out in an out of the way farmhouse in which he is provided succor by a young girl (Quentin Dean in her final acting role). Sound somewhat familiar?
One more thing you should know. The person hot on his trail, the very same person who is the real murderer is portrayed by none other than Bruce Dern. One could not help but compared Dern’s performance in the 1963 episode of The Fugitive with that from this Lancer episode from 1969. Dern had, by this point, definitely come into his own as an actor. Here he had all but perfected the sneering, quasi-psychotic villainy that was so disturbingly effective in The Cycle Savages (1969) which I reviewed here.
His scenes with Quentin Dean, who had appeared with Charlton Heston in Tom Gries’s excellent Will Penny (1967) which I reviewed here are just as effective as his first scene in which he taunts Johnny’s Mexican friend before killing him. All told, it’s a solid episode from a Western TV series that did not last very long, but benefited immensely from having some of the best character actors from its era as guest stars.
NOTE: Dern makes his first appearance in the video above at roughly the 7:00 mark.
October 13th, 2020 at 2:06 pm
You’d think that with its exposure in the Tarantino movie, there’s have been a DVD release for the LANCER series by now, but not so. I don’t know why.
Both THE FUGITIVE and LANCER can by seen on the Heroes and Icons channel, but that requires that it be carried by your cable company or the Dish network.
Shows from each also pop up from time to time on YouYube.
What I found most interesting in Jon’s review is the utterly random coincidence that Bruce Dern would show up in what he just happened to be watching, only one day apart.
Things like that simply blow my mind.
October 13th, 2020 at 3:28 pm
It’s a tribute to how ubiquitous Dern became in a fairly short period in television eventually carrying him into film.
He’s one of those rare actors that achieved the status of playing a type of role in films thought of by his name, “a Bruce Dern part.”
Later he would stretch that, but even in rare leading man roles he always has an edge.
October 13th, 2020 at 3:59 pm
I should note that Dern likewise appeared in Will Penny
October 13th, 2020 at 4:00 pm
And Dern also of course was in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood
October 13th, 2020 at 4:54 pm
Steve: You might want to correct the spelling of The Fugitive’s last name in Jonathan’s review. It’s Kimble, not Kimball.
October 13th, 2020 at 6:15 pm
Right you are, Bill. I missed that, too, but it’s fixed now. Thanks!
October 13th, 2020 at 5:07 pm
There was a huge talent pool of gifted actors in 1950’s and 1960’s dramatic TV. Some later became famous stars, like Bruce Dern and Sandy Dennis. But many others were character actors.
My favorite Bruce Dern film is Hitchcock’s FAMILY PLOT>
October 13th, 2020 at 6:20 pm
Once he discovered he could watch these shows on TV, Jon has been telling me that the producers on LANCER had a great eye for casting parts, even minor ones, who had a lot of talent, even early in their careers. Bruce Dern was only one of them.
As for some of them going on to be prolific character actors rather than stars, R. G. Armstrong is surely a great example of that. You could never ignore his presence, no matter what small part he played.
October 13th, 2020 at 7:28 pm
As it happens, the producer of The Fugitive in 1963 –
– and the producer of Lancer in 1969 –
– same guy: Alan A. Armer.
Coincidence?
You decide …
October 13th, 2020 at 7:35 pm
I don’t believe in that kind of coincidence. You have sharp eyes, Mike.
October 13th, 2020 at 7:55 pm
some of the guest stars or supporting actors I’ve seen on Lancer so far include Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, Warren Oates, Stefanie Powers, Martin Sheen, LQ Jones, Brooke Bundy, Bo Svenson, Jack Elam, Joe Don Baker, Cloris Leachman
December 29th, 2020 at 10:42 pm
Kimble is also misspelled toward the end of the 2nd paragraph.
You can watch every Fugitive episode online or stream for free at the below link. (No interrupting ads). Just scroll to the episode you want.
https://archive.org/details/The_Fugitive_Series
December 29th, 2020 at 10:45 pm
Thanks, Joyce, on both counts!
October 4th, 2023 at 4:18 am
I’m fairly certain my favorite Bruce Dern performance of all-time is his role in John Frankenheimer’s ‘Black Sunday’. He’s a reactor melting down in that movie. Leaping like wildfire from one emotion to another. Almost every scene displaying a different aspect of his character. And then when he’s finally behind the controls of that dang blimp. Good grief. Watch how fast he moves his hands over that equipment trying to get airborne.