Ruth Roman is quite effective as a larcenous, lethal (and slightly unhinged) nurse (with the silly name of May Joyce Skinner), just as scary as Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) or Elizabeth Montgomery in Amos (1985), and in a much more compact, less overwrought, superior vehicle. (None of these can compare, of course, to T.C. Jones as "Nurse Betty Ames" in Hitchcock's An Unlocked Window (1965), who, needless to say, wins every imaginable award as the worst nurse ever witnessed in filmdom, LOL.) Excellent acting all around here.
5 Reviews
One of the best Ironsides - Very entertaining
TopekaBob5 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
There's several types of good Ironsides. There's the noir-ish ones that pop up, with mysterious characters and melancholy lives, there's the ones that focus on 1970's cultural issues such involving race, drugs, Vietnam, etc., there's character studies of the main characters, there's episodes with guest actors (hello William Shatner!) where just watching them is a blast - and then there's episodes that are over the top, entertaining, and wild! This is one of them!
This is One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest meets Perry Mason meets House of Frankenstein meets Boris Karloff! There's a whacko nurse, Ironside goes undercover in a nursing home and gets shoved over by Nurse Ratched, and Dracula himself, John Carradine, if featured. For the Boris Karloff reference, the wonderful Harry Townes appears, who was in a fantastic Thriller episode called "The Cheaters." Thriller was hosted by Karloff. Finally, Jon Lormer is in it, he of classic Twilight Zone.
Finally revel in the performance of Ruth Roman. She's nuts, and wonderful.
So sit back and enjoy and have some fun.
This is One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest meets Perry Mason meets House of Frankenstein meets Boris Karloff! There's a whacko nurse, Ironside goes undercover in a nursing home and gets shoved over by Nurse Ratched, and Dracula himself, John Carradine, if featured. For the Boris Karloff reference, the wonderful Harry Townes appears, who was in a fantastic Thriller episode called "The Cheaters." Thriller was hosted by Karloff. Finally, Jon Lormer is in it, he of classic Twilight Zone.
Finally revel in the performance of Ruth Roman. She's nuts, and wonderful.
So sit back and enjoy and have some fun.
Ruth Roman and John Carradine
kevinolzak13 November 2013
Warning: Spoilers
"Gentle Oaks" is the name of a convalescent home where 13 patients have died in the past 12 months. Ironside goes undercover as a professor patient, investigating the murder of Gentle Oaks' resident physician, whose fatal injury isn't consistent with the car crash made to look like an accidental death. Ruth Roman plays the administrator May Skinner, all smiles during the trial period, a scowling harpy once the patients are under her 'care.' Veteran scene stealer John Carradine is cast as 'The Creeper' (aka Isaiah Witt, with moustache), watching everything that happens but speaking to no one. In a private moment, he reveals how he remembers a previous case with Ironside (he was a member of the jury), which nearly proves his undoing. The finale is rather unlikely, as the villainess gives chase to the Chief's wheelchair.
Good episode
searchanddestroy-114 September 2017
Ruth Roman plays here a sort of ONE FLEW OVERA COCKOO NEST Louise Fletcher's performance, as a murderess matron, but in a nursing home instead an asylum. You can also think about AMOS, the TV movie starring Kirk Douglas...And I am sure there are many more stories about this scheme. Good tale, I repeat. John Carradine as good as ever.
Am I delusional or did that wheelchair chase really happen?
transformerOne15 March 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This episode was totally off the wall; the plot consists of Ironside going undercover (his ingenious disguise consists of; a beanie - huh?) at a nursing home where old folks are being bumped off.
Ironside goes all cat-burglar-sqe while snooping for evidence and nearly gets caught (read suspense) but manages to hide his 300lb butt behind a door. With a decent stretch of the imagination you could imagine missing a fat beanie wearing wheelchair bound detective 'hiding' behind the door in the dark but surely the heavy breathing and the trail of Twinkie wrappers might get the ol' spidey sense tingling? Luckily the show fast forwards (or was that me?) to the show down. Ironbutt confronts the killer who makes a run for it; queue car chase. On a technical note: is it a car chase when one of the vehicles is actually a wheelchair? is it still a chase when it mainly consists of a lot of gear grinding while the car tries to reverse over Ironside who hides between park cars? something that BTW, could never happen nowadays with bumper parking enforced.
This was the most ridiculous (and hilarious) episode of Ironside and further proof that aliens stole your dad's brains in 1971 - wow.
Ironside goes all cat-burglar-sqe while snooping for evidence and nearly gets caught (read suspense) but manages to hide his 300lb butt behind a door. With a decent stretch of the imagination you could imagine missing a fat beanie wearing wheelchair bound detective 'hiding' behind the door in the dark but surely the heavy breathing and the trail of Twinkie wrappers might get the ol' spidey sense tingling? Luckily the show fast forwards (or was that me?) to the show down. Ironbutt confronts the killer who makes a run for it; queue car chase. On a technical note: is it a car chase when one of the vehicles is actually a wheelchair? is it still a chase when it mainly consists of a lot of gear grinding while the car tries to reverse over Ironside who hides between park cars? something that BTW, could never happen nowadays with bumper parking enforced.
This was the most ridiculous (and hilarious) episode of Ironside and further proof that aliens stole your dad's brains in 1971 - wow.
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