TV and Movies

[Pearlee]

The Fugitive "Dossier on a Diplomat" starring David Janssen, co-starring multi-repeat Fuger Diana Hyland, Ivan Dixon, Diana Sands.

Like last week's epi, this one has flaws (dumb things!) but I still like it. Kimble is in D.C. because his case is a chapter in a book entitled Unjustly Convicted and he wants to meet with the lawyer whom he thinks might be able to get him a new trial. I like the D.C. settng and how it plays out in this epi.

Kimble sees a ruckus in the street where Ivan Dixon has fallen in front of an oncoming taxi so, being loyal to his Hippocratic oath, Dr. Kimble goes to help.  Dixon is bruised but unhurt. Kimble helps him walk to his destination, which is the embassy of an emerging African nation. Dixon is the diplomat of that nation. 

Dixon's wife, Diana Sands, seems to rule the roost with an iron hand. She finds out who Kimble is and what Kimble is doing in D.C. and wants him out of the embassy. The embassy is foreign soil. Dixon has diplomatic immunity and wants to shield Kimble inside the embassy. Sands wants him out badly enough that she calls the police and Gerard soon arrives on the scene.  After talking to the lawyer, Kimble has hopes if being granted a new trial, but it will take time; he needs the shelter of the embassy for at least 2 months!

Meanwhile, of course Dixon is sicker than just a fall.

Diana Hyland is Dixon's assistant. Unlike her prior Fuge appearances, she is not a psycho but is super annoying! She's of the Pleshette school of catching a handsome husband, in her case by being an annoying wisebutt.  She does look very pretty though, as does Sands who wears amazing 1960s clothes!  @twinsister   do you remember a clip in the hair right at top middle like she has? 

I do! I wore that but haven't thought of that in years!

I love Dixon's character in this. He's very good. He is famous for Hogan's Heroes but later directed many other TV shows of that era. Interesting detail: he was married at 18 and stayed married to his wife til his death.

Diana Sands is most famous for playing Sidney Poitier's sister on stage and in the film A Raisin in the Sun. I think her character and Hyland's were over the top in this epi.  About her in this role, I kept thinking "If looks could kill!"

NEXT WEEK! TA DA!  my 2nd fave epi after The Girl From Little Egypt.  The Walls of  Night, an epi I have mentioned a few times here over the past 4 yrs.  Big romance Kimble has with Janice Rule, with no doubt about what happens between them.  I was so jealous as a teen!   It's a good one....

[Group 5 minus 1]

Ivan Dixon-does anyone remember from an early Perry Mason?

[Pearlee]

---

@Group 5 minus 1 wrote:

Ivan Dixon-does anyone remember from an early Perry Mason?

---

@Group 5 minus 1  I don't just from Hogan's Heroes.

[Tique]

Epilog Picture

[Pearlee]

Excellent photos @Tique . Thank you.

There is that front and center hair clip, last photshows it clearly! 👍

I should have mentioned that Sands' clothes are very Jackie O. even

though she was no longer in the White House.

[twinsister]

@Pearlee - I wore those hair clips like shown in the picture too!  Also wore the small velvet bows in my hair.  We thought we looked so cool back then - LOL!

[Group 5 minus 1]

Those bows seen here and in other series of this era are to hide wiglines.

[twinsister]

I liked this episode and it held my interest.  The opening scene with Kimble getting out of the pickup truck looked odd to me.  A man so well dressed hitching a ride (which we assume is what he did) looked strange.

The ambassador's wife was one tough cookie. The fact that she took one look at the book title in Kimble's pocket and assumed so much was another implausible part.   @Pearlee - I agree that her wardrobe was very "Jackie O" and she wore the 1960's blue eyeshadow.    I also liked Diana Hyland's wardrobe.  Her character was nosy, to put it mildly, but her flirting with Kimble wasn't too over the top. To her credit, her plan at the end helped him to escape Gerard.  

I had a feeling that the ambassador knew what was really wrong with him. Ivan Dixon was very good in the role as was Diana Sands.  I don't remember seeing her in anything else.

I would watch this again.

[drizzellla]

Count me in as another person that liked the episode. Even though Gerard just seemed to appear tout de suite. 

Diana Sands really did jump to conclusions. But you saw that she had the best interest of her husband's carreer in mind. And you understood. But really, closing down the embassy in a day?

I liked the idea of diplomatic immunity as being a way to shield Kimble. And you wanted to root for him to get another trial. But was not to be. Still have other episodes before the season is finished.

[Pearlee]

@drizzellla   @twinsister   I'm glad you both liked this epi also. I agree that the diplomatic immunity angle was an interestibg new idea, esp after so many re-hashed ideas we'e seen.

I also thought Dixon was excellent. He had the African accent down really well, which leads me to remark again how well Barry Morse did an American accent. It wasn't til years after TF ended that I found out he really speaks with a British accent.

I stated in my OP that I liked this epi even though flawed.  Here are the dumb things:

--The police sending almost all the men after the moving co truck at the end and not leaving at least enough to cover all Embassy exits just in case Kimble hadn't yet come out. It was clever that we think Kimble probably escaped in a large moving box until Hyland did her routine.

-- Diana Sands was dumb to call the police to get rid of Kimble. She wanted to avoid bad publicity/bad U.S. relations/a scandal with her emerging native country by harboring a fugitive, but there was no publicity about him being at the embassy; no one but the lawyer knew he was. So her calling the police was completely self-defeating!