SWC75
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THE FUGITIVE 11/10/64 “Dark Corner”
When I was in college there was a blind student on campus I always saw walking around with a cane. I wound up on a street corner waiting for a light with this person. I was a little nervous and really didn’t know what to do, if anything, but made myself ask him if he wanted any help getting across the street. He said “thank you” and held my arm as we crossed. I told him where the curb was. He thanked me. We were going in different directions from there so I wished him a good day and went on my way. I later read an interview in the student newspaper with him and he said it amused him when people supposed he couldn’t cross the street without assistance and that he let people help him while he was secretly laughing at them.
I got two lessons out of this: (1) Don’t underestimate people. If they really need your help, they will ask for it. (2) Don’t assume that because a person is blind that that means they are a nice person. Somehow, there’s a tendency to assume that a crippled person who can see and communicate well is frustrated and angry but that a blind or deaf person is sweet and gentle just because they don’t communicate as much and have to be patient to get along in life. At least there is that tendency in dramas such as “A Patch of Blue” or “Johnny Belinda“. In fact people with handicaps are just that: people, with the full range of personality traits, some of which may be a reaction to their limitations and some of which are unrelated to it.
Kimble is again fleeing the police, (interestingly, he has a limp which goes unexplained for a couple of scenes, suggesting that it might be the result of the wound he sustained in the previous episode- but then there’s a reference to his injured ankle). He hides in a barn, which turns out to also be the studio of a young blind woman, (Tuesday Weld), who is a sculptress. She uses her fingers to explore her subject, rather than her eyes. She decides she’d like to explore Richard Kimble. She lies to the police both to save him and keep him there, (it turns out these cops were after another guy but she doesn’t tell him that so he will continue to hide out). She becomes still another apparently helpful person with her own agenda.
And that’s what the story is about. She’s very pretty, (made up to look glowing and ethereal, while her sister, played by the normally glamorous Elizabeth McRae, has little or no make-up on). She has artistic talent and sensual fingers. She seems like a nice lady. But she isn’t. She’s totally selfish, spoiled and conniving. In fact, this episode resembles “The Bad Seed” more than Johnny Belinda. Tuesday went blind from a fall off a cliff when she was trying to push her sister over it. She’s now trying to steal her husband but takes time out from that to keep Kimble as her own personal man-toy. Her father tries to interfere and she puts his car in gear while he’s closing the garage door and runs him over! Then there’s that sculpture she’s made of Kimble’s face that might interest the sheriff.
IMDB: "The Fugitive" Dark Corner (TV Episode 1964) - IMDb
You-Tube: (entire episode for free)
When I was in college there was a blind student on campus I always saw walking around with a cane. I wound up on a street corner waiting for a light with this person. I was a little nervous and really didn’t know what to do, if anything, but made myself ask him if he wanted any help getting across the street. He said “thank you” and held my arm as we crossed. I told him where the curb was. He thanked me. We were going in different directions from there so I wished him a good day and went on my way. I later read an interview in the student newspaper with him and he said it amused him when people supposed he couldn’t cross the street without assistance and that he let people help him while he was secretly laughing at them.
I got two lessons out of this: (1) Don’t underestimate people. If they really need your help, they will ask for it. (2) Don’t assume that because a person is blind that that means they are a nice person. Somehow, there’s a tendency to assume that a crippled person who can see and communicate well is frustrated and angry but that a blind or deaf person is sweet and gentle just because they don’t communicate as much and have to be patient to get along in life. At least there is that tendency in dramas such as “A Patch of Blue” or “Johnny Belinda“. In fact people with handicaps are just that: people, with the full range of personality traits, some of which may be a reaction to their limitations and some of which are unrelated to it.
Kimble is again fleeing the police, (interestingly, he has a limp which goes unexplained for a couple of scenes, suggesting that it might be the result of the wound he sustained in the previous episode- but then there’s a reference to his injured ankle). He hides in a barn, which turns out to also be the studio of a young blind woman, (Tuesday Weld), who is a sculptress. She uses her fingers to explore her subject, rather than her eyes. She decides she’d like to explore Richard Kimble. She lies to the police both to save him and keep him there, (it turns out these cops were after another guy but she doesn’t tell him that so he will continue to hide out). She becomes still another apparently helpful person with her own agenda.
And that’s what the story is about. She’s very pretty, (made up to look glowing and ethereal, while her sister, played by the normally glamorous Elizabeth McRae, has little or no make-up on). She has artistic talent and sensual fingers. She seems like a nice lady. But she isn’t. She’s totally selfish, spoiled and conniving. In fact, this episode resembles “The Bad Seed” more than Johnny Belinda. Tuesday went blind from a fall off a cliff when she was trying to push her sister over it. She’s now trying to steal her husband but takes time out from that to keep Kimble as her own personal man-toy. Her father tries to interfere and she puts his car in gear while he’s closing the garage door and runs him over! Then there’s that sculpture she’s made of Kimble’s face that might interest the sheriff.
IMDB: "The Fugitive" Dark Corner (TV Episode 1964) - IMDb
You-Tube: (entire episode for free)
