After being on the run for 6 months, Richard Kimble falls in love with a beautiful woman who has a young son. She also has a physically abusive, estranged husband, that wants Kimble out of t... Read allAfter being on the run for 6 months, Richard Kimble falls in love with a beautiful woman who has a young son. She also has a physically abusive, estranged husband, that wants Kimble out of town, or dead.After being on the run for 6 months, Richard Kimble falls in love with a beautiful woman who has a young son. She also has a physically abusive, estranged husband, that wants Kimble out of town, or dead.
- Captain Carpenter
- (uncredited)
- Bus Passenger
- (uncredited)
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
- Narrator
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Sgt. Fairfield
- (uncredited)
- Mark Welles
- (uncredited)
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
- Ticket Agent
- (uncredited)
- Cleve Brown
- (uncredited)
- Miss Blaine (the babysitter)
- (uncredited)
- Evelyn
- (uncredited)
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
- Introductory Narrator
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis series was loosely based on Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables". The writer of this episode, Stanford Whitmore, has said that he chose the surname "Gerard" for Kimble's pursuer because it sounded similar to "Javert," who pursues Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables".
- GoofsWhen Vera Miles' character is playing the piano, the camera goes to a full body shot. Her right foot is not the on pedal, which it would need to be to produce the smooth soundtrack music. Instead, her ankles are crossed under the piano bench.
- Quotes
Narrator: [Continuing Act One Narration following a scene with Lt. Gerard and his superior, Capt. Carpenter. Viewers see Kimble opening a newspaper's Want Ads page] Ready? A job. What will it be?
[Kimble circles an ad that reads "Bartender - Work Nights. The Branding Iron. 109 South Scott Street."]
Narrator: Be ready for the questions and hope there won't be too many.
- ConnectionsEdited from The Fugitive (1963)
- SoundtracksI'll Never Smile Again
(uncredited)
Written by Ruth Lowe (1940)
[Performed at the Branding Iron bar by Vera Miles' character, Monica Welles]
In this first episode, which is my personal favorite, Kimble is working as a bartender in a Tucson nightclub under the pseudonym, Jim Lincoln. Vera Miles, who portrays a depressed pianist there, becomes understandably attracted (as do most women in the series) to our shy though always supportive hero. The problem is that she's being stalked by her estranged, though possessive cowboy husband, performed perfectly by Brian Keith...who also owns half the state and apparently has significant influence with the local police.
Being a physician with keen clinical acumen, Kimble is quick to pick up on the husband's dangerous paranoia, but is confronted with an internal moral conflict to flee in the interest of self-preservation versus to stay out of Hippocratic devotion to the desensitized pianist and her son. This turns out to be a recurring theme throughout the series, and exemplifies just how much doctors were deified in those days. Ultimately, there is a climactic and unnerving confrontation between Kimble and the psycho husband. (Janssen actually broke a couple of ribs in this scene, which is a testimony to its realism.)
In the epilogue, Phillip Gerard, "the police lieutenant obsessed with his capture" (as he is described in the opening credits), interrogates Miles' character on the whereabouts of Kimble. Now convinced of his innocence regarding the murder of his wife, she provides no clues to the perennially frustrated Gerard.
At the end of Fear in a Desert City, the viewer is left with mixed feelings of relief and sympathy for the good doctor, as well as a compulsive desire to follow Dr. Richard Kimble's plight to its end...4 years and 120 episodes later.
- zentners
- Dec 9, 2006
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- 7100 block of Willoughby between LaBrea and Romaine, Los Angeles, California, USA(RR tracks in ending scene with kitten and RR crossing sign in ending shot, used in ending credits)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime51 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1