CRISIS! The Gun
A friendly, bird-watching dentist Dr. Bert Andrews (Eddie Albert) tries to stay true to his peace-making ideals in a small Western military-base town in the 1960's as he struggles with a pubescent 14-year old son, Rex Andrews (Peter Lazer), who has been somewhat shielded by his mother, Jo Andrews (Dina Merrill). She encourages him to focus on marksmanship and his love of guns despite being constantly compelled to make trouble and perform random, often violent, rebellious acts.
The most disturbing conflict appears to be the son's secret torment of an old, cantankerous, opinionated, isolated and mentally troubled female neighbor (Isabel Jewell) during noisy yet eerie overhead evening jet aircraft drills. A rift between the mother-son pair and the father stems from a past home invasion by a burglar in which the father refused to respond with gun violence in order to avoid his or the other man's death during the unfortunate event.
Peaceful pursuits, acts of kindness and even sacrifices by the father are met with derision from the pair, yet he bravely maintains his principles and attempts to maintain equilibrium with his spouse as he struggles to defuse the increasingly dangerous, self-destructive behavior of his son which inevitably comes to a head. The tormented, Hitler-appreciating, Indian-hating, deer-killing old kook finds that her aged military rifle can be loaded and made operational as her young and supposedly Martian enemy comes one last time for an evening attack.
FROM: The IMDB synopsis I was compelled to write
I had to write this up after watching a late-night Retro Television Network program that was run on Saturday night. Sometimes random vintage TV programs or movies really speak to me, and this was one of those times. I wish I didn't have to slog through so much crap and so many commercials but it's sorta like listening to a good independent radio station... you just have to listen to catch the few mind blowing tracks.
The above Kraft Suspense Theater episode was truly bizarre and completely fits in with the imaginary epic opus art piece (Equal parts appropriated media, personal artwork and hybrids thereof housed in some sort of permanent installation) I continue to catalog in my head. This cataloging is more or less a set of snapshots or things that I identify with both in good and bad ways and explain me in abstract ways.
Too bad there's no way to find and rent this sort of thing so I can share it's creative genius directly with everyone. Somehow I always respected Eddie Arnold's character in Green Acres but this piece really makes Eddie Arnold my hero.
The only reason I watched the above piece is because of it's daring, stylized animated intro that followed directly after the Alfred Hitchcock Hour program that preceded it: Wally the Beard
I watched the entire episode, only because of the insanely appropriate opening interlude that I need to track down and record and share with friends at work.
If I ever needed a video avatar I would use the clip of the computer technician main character defending himself as his engagement of 6 weeks is rudely and painfully broken off by his keypunch girlfriend whom he also supervises. The entire story and his transformation is enjoyable and entertaining but the real gem is the opening setup: watch Wally The Beard on hulu.com... at least through the break-up. (You'll probably want to watch more.)
21 September 2008, 12:12 ::
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