Actor Martin Milner gets a great scene where his Officer Pete Malloy character has to figure out a way of saving a baby from a suicidal lunatic. Writer/Director/Producer and here, Actor Zalman King puts in a perfectly creepy performance of the would-be baby killer. Milner begins, playing the scene all sweet and tender - to the crazed young man. Ever so slowly and carefully, Malloy changes tactics to a successful attack of words. The baby saved, Milner then has Malloy practically collapse onto a sofa in exasperated relief. Both actors are exceptional in the scene.
One observation though: From the outside, the home in which the lunatic is threatening the baby and it's Mother, looks very nice. A nice house in a nice neighborhood. On the inside, the house is horribly drab and dreary. The interior is gloomy and downright depressing. I just wonder as to why such an awful set design was used for this scene. The Mother is dressed very nicely. Her surroundings look like a drug-den.
The majority of the episode has Malloy and Reed dealing with a nasty, hulking brute who has been unsuccessfully trying to terrorize a woman in an otherwise nice suburban neighborhood. She witnessed the brute's son commit a crime and is to testify in court against the kid. It was sort of surprising to hear that a dead cat was thrown through a window of the woman's house. Gross, but of course, the cat certainly wasn't seen. Gruesome, when you remember that the incidents seen in Adam-12 are true. So says the end credits of every episode.
There's an interesting scene in a bar where Malloy lies to a bartender. This concerns a possible police-prevented break-in via the bar's back door the night prior. Malloy really just wanted to get the bartender out of view of customers so he could pump the guy for some information. (Regarding the dead-cat tossing brute.) Besides the bartender, and perhaps Reed, Malloy had me fooled.
The highlight of the episode though comes from actor Kent McCord as probationary Officer Jim Reed. At the top of the episode, Malloy gives Reed one job to do. Gas up the squad car. Reed does, but he also cracks up the squad car. He puts a dent in the passenger-side front panel. (Reed has already forgotten Malloy's advice pertaining to the squad, from the first episode. You take care of it, it will take care of you. Oh well.) Reed tries to convince himself that it's hardly noticable, but pretty much every person who sees the squad that day immediately comments on the dent. Even a group of kids who come running up to the squad, possibly mistaking it for an Ice Cream truck. (Because they're all incredibly thrilled to see a squad car.) I thought the eldest of the kids, a boy named Harold, was being played by Barry Williams. Williams was later oldest son Greg, on "The Brady Bunch". It's not him, but it sure looks like him. Barry Williams will show up on Adam-12 in time.
Officer Reed spends pretty much the entire episode more focused on the dent than on his work. He frets about it constantly to the point of irritation for Malloy. Reed worries about this dent and accident remaining forever a "dent" on his official record with the department. Upset that seemingly every citizen in Los Angeles notices the dent, points at it and laughs, Reed says he might as well paint it red and hang a sign on it. Malloy assures him that everybody so far has spotted the dent, no problem.
Malloy eventually speaks to the Lieutenant Officer in charge regarding the dent and basically gets Reed off the proverbial hook. Unfortunately, that's where the ordeal of the dent concludes. We don't get to see Reed collapse in a pool filled with tears of relief (Ah... so soothing!) that he won't be fired or held for the cost of the repair.
Another very good episode of Adam-12.
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