Ironside (TV Series) A Matter of Love and Death (1969) User Reviews

For a momentary mistake you shouldn't pay with your life

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 19 August 2013]

***SPOILERS*** Cheigf Robert T. Ironside, Raymond Burr,m takes on the subject of illegal abortions here and uses his assistant Officer Eve Whitfield, Barbara Anderson, who's more then happy to get the assignment as an undercover young woman who's looking to get an illegal abortion. It was when the out of town and desperate young lady Arlene Dobbs, Connie Kreski,was found in a local park bleeding to death her condition was discovered to be that of a back alley abortion. With Chief Ironside determined to catch who was responsible for Arlene's death or murder he checks out all the hotel's that women, only single women, stay at feeling that was Arlene's last residence.

It's Officer Whitfied posing as single and pregnant Laura white who checks into the Vermont Hotel for single women who soon discovers that's the place where the victims, four of them, of these illegal abortions last resided at. Meanwhile Chief Ironside & Det.Sgt. Ed Brown, track down the person who got Arlene pregnant real estate agent Stanford Chase,Pat Tovatt, who's now in hot water not just for knocking her up but not trying to get her help in taking care of Arlene and her soon to be born child. Which had a desperate and confused Arlene Dobbs get the back alley abortion that eventually took her life.

****SPOILERS**** It's when the undercover Officer Whitfield was just about to get an abortion, that in fact she didn't need, the truth came out to who was the person who was not just aborting but murdering the young ladies at the Vermont Hotel. And before the abortionist was about to work on her both Chief Ironside and Det. Sgt. Brown by getting the single from Whitfield, in breaking a window, sprung to her rescue together with a squad of San Francisco policemen. It was too late for Arlene Dobbs but in cracking the abortion ring that ended up killing her many future Arlene Dobbs were spared the ordeal and suffering, As well as death, that she went through. And with abortion being made legal, by the landmark Supreme Court decision of Row vs Wade, in all 50 states four years later in 1973 illegal and back alley abortions were to gladly become a thing of the past.

A matter of life and death, and selfish convenience

[Abner_Kadabner · 4/10 · 23 July 2014]

A young woman dies after getting an illegal back alley abortion. Even though she is a complete stranger, Eve takes an intense interest in finding the person responsible for her death. Ironside reluctantly goes along. The young woman's residence, a hotel for single women, soon becomes the target of investigation. In it are four women, former associates of the victim, and conveniently drawn from the usual stereotypes: an intellectual (complete with a pair of big glasses ); a somewhat overweight woman (who always has a box of chocolate in hand); a token Afro-American model; and a somewhat mysterious woman, played by a young Susan Howard in one of her first roles. Naturally the guilty party is the one you'd least expect.

Eve goes undercover as another young woman "in trouble," to see if the person responsible for the first death will reveal herself. The ending is by the numbers.

Here we see a prime example of Hollywood bending the laws of common sense and logic to fit the politically correct mindset that would soon permeate all of America: people acting contrary to good behavior, getting caught in a bind, and resorting to extraordinary measures to fix their problem that's the result their own selfish needs, regardless of its effect on everyone else. It was still new then but There is an interesting note about the casting of Connie Kreski as the poor doomed girl who dies at the beginning. At the time of the show's airing she was the brand new Playmate of the Year, a timing of events that probably wasn't coincidental. In a way this is interesting in a sad sort of way. The Playboy lifestyle was leading to innumerable unplanned pregnancies and a commensurate number of illegal abortions. It was this societal change that led to the eventual Supreme Court ruling that allowed people to legally kill their unborn children.

It also marks the debut of Jeannot Szwarc as a script writer and director (he was already an associate producer of the show). He would go on to direct many a TV episode and even make it to the big league, with such notable disasters as Jaws II and Supergirl. The cream does not always rise to the top.