User reviews

There's a 'letter of the law' judge who is known for his harsh sentences--including some death penalties he's meted out to defendants. This is an interesting set-up--particularly since Judge Stimming is played by none other than Ronald Reagan--just s short time before he became governor of California!

Soon after the show begins, Sherman Tyler (Scott Marlowe) pops out of the back seat when the judge is driving home. At gunpoint, he takes the judge for a memorable little trip--and where Tyler himself is the judge and sentences Stimming to death for his crimes! And Tyler's wife is there to help him. What follows is a lengthy flashback sequence where Tyler explains why he was a victim of the system and the judge supposedly overstepped his authority.

So the important question is whether or not this is any good. After all, "Kraft Suspense Theatre" was a rather uneven series. For every great episode, they had one that stank and one that was mediocre. Well, I liked the plot--it was a pretty cool idea. And, it was also really macabre and affecting when you saw the folks strapping Tyler into the seat in the gas chamber!! Overall, a very well done and tense episode. I also really appreciate how the show does NOT tell you that the death penalty is right or wrong and it opens it up for a variety of interpretations and opinions.

Some lamer brains think there is a message here against the death penalty for human monsters.

If so, the writer failed miserably.

A judge who has no compunction for issuing a death penalty to men who have abused their gifts and talents and abilities and resources in murdering people whom they look down upon as inferior beings, is kidnapped by a man whose life has been a blessing, with a gorgeous wife and healthy body, who once murdered a man whom he felt was beneath his dignity to let live.

This murderer gets a reprieve from the death sentence, and he wants to make the judge suffer the agony of a death sentence.