Thriller: Child's Play (1960)
Season 1, Episode 2
Somewhat static episode still has intelligent dialogue and tense scenes
26 May 2011
An 11-year-old boy (Tommy Nolan) neglected by his father (Frank Overton) gets so caught up in his fantasy world that he takes a real rifle to hunt down his made-up enemy, the evil Black Bart. This early episode, which according to the other reviews is atypical of the series, is probably a bit too static. Much of the screen time is given over to the mother (Bethel Leslie) and father having a domestic quarrel in their summer cabin. As a magazine writer, his job takes him mentally and often physically away from his family, and the wife yearns for him even while asking him for a separation. Still, I couldn't help but enjoy the heightened, intelligent dialogue of a kind that is only heard in the old TV dramas of the day. The director (Arthur Hiller) and writer (Robert Dozier) do a pretty good job of punctuating the talk with tense scenes of the boy putting himself, and eventually a poor fisherman he mistakes for his quarry, in danger.
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