This is a classic episode from a classic series. Not a minute of unnecessary script. Ironside cannot waste a moment as he desperately tries to save a man's life by proving he was wrongly convicted 19 years earlier. Repeated great scenes as the chief, with his no-holds-barred, cynical questioning of all those standing in his way, manages to draw out critical info from his hostile witnesses anyway, while jabbing them for placing self interest above the truth. Even the manner in which he gets his friend, the former convict now facing death row, to speak and thus reveal his true innocence, is masterful. There are also a few delicious scenes in which he has his way with the Commissioner, and a few in which he shrewdly uses the media for his purposes. Fine, aw-shucks acting from Victor Jory (who sounds eerily close to Jimmy Stewart) in the starring role, and the extra pleasure of seeing a young Harrison Ford as the suspect's son. It is all topped off by superb detective work, that is almost stumped by a stubborn admission of the suspect that threatens to doom his defense, until Ironside breaks it with a brilliant solution in the middle of the night. Finally, a slew of great one liners from the chief. They don't make 'em like this anymore.
2 Reviews
the missing hour
sol-kay24 June 2013
***SPOILERS*** Raymond Burr as special police consultant Robert T. Ironside goes back to his Perry Mason mode in exonerating upstanding and well respected San Francisco construction manager Walter Stowe, Victor Jory, from a murder conviction that goes back some 19 years. It was then back in New York when Stowe was known as Frank Tomacheck that he was convicted of the 1st degree murder of his employer Richard Chase. Now the long arm of the law has finally caught up with Stowe/Tomacheck and he's to be expedited back to New York's Sing Sing Prison to be executed for his crime. But Stowe's good friend Robert T. Ironside feels that he's innocent and is going to do everything in his power to prove it!
Taking a leaf from both the movie "Northside 777" and the TV series "The Fugitive" this "Ironside" episode has Chief Ironside uncover a load of evidence that the NYPD and NY state troopers overlooked 19 years ago. One major fact is that the late Richaed Chase was dying from a brain tumor at the time of his murder which Ironside feels was in fact a suicide. But the by now defeated and accepting his fate, the electric chair, Walter Stowe isn't any help in him not wanting to even help himself. He's been on the run for 19 years and now with Stowe feeling that there's no way out for him being electrocuted would be more then a relief.
***SPOILERS*** Ironside like Perry Mason finds a number of inconsistencies in Richard Chase's so-called murder that never came out in Walter Stowe's trial. The one thing that stumps him is the missing hour that Stowe can't quite account for that can in the end exonerate and free him. It's by Ironside's assistant the ex-convict Mark Sanger, Don Mitchell,mentioning something about the missing hour that gives Iornside a clue to what really happened and how it can prove that Stowe was in fact innocent. An with the help of the then, in 1967, state of the art photo enhancement it ends up doing the trick for both Ironside as well as Walter Stowe in it without a doubt proving his innocence.
P.S Check out a young Harrison Ford as Walter Stowe's son Tom whom Ironside straighten out from becoming a street hoodlum or worse into graduating top of his calls at Stanford University.
Taking a leaf from both the movie "Northside 777" and the TV series "The Fugitive" this "Ironside" episode has Chief Ironside uncover a load of evidence that the NYPD and NY state troopers overlooked 19 years ago. One major fact is that the late Richaed Chase was dying from a brain tumor at the time of his murder which Ironside feels was in fact a suicide. But the by now defeated and accepting his fate, the electric chair, Walter Stowe isn't any help in him not wanting to even help himself. He's been on the run for 19 years and now with Stowe feeling that there's no way out for him being electrocuted would be more then a relief.
***SPOILERS*** Ironside like Perry Mason finds a number of inconsistencies in Richard Chase's so-called murder that never came out in Walter Stowe's trial. The one thing that stumps him is the missing hour that Stowe can't quite account for that can in the end exonerate and free him. It's by Ironside's assistant the ex-convict Mark Sanger, Don Mitchell,mentioning something about the missing hour that gives Iornside a clue to what really happened and how it can prove that Stowe was in fact innocent. An with the help of the then, in 1967, state of the art photo enhancement it ends up doing the trick for both Ironside as well as Walter Stowe in it without a doubt proving his innocence.
P.S Check out a young Harrison Ford as Walter Stowe's son Tom whom Ironside straighten out from becoming a street hoodlum or worse into graduating top of his calls at Stanford University.
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