Bart Matthews is the public defender for a man accused of shooting his wife. The Deputy DA is an obstructionist twerp to begin with but later works with Mathews to catch the real culprit. An elderly man who lives with his harridan of a daughter and her meek husband witnessed the culprit fleeing the house of the murdered woman. Although Grandpa is blind he has very keen hearing. The best part of the episode is the interaction between Mathews and the observant - and lonely, old man. There's a touching scene at the end where Mathews promises to come visit him. Grandpa looks so hopeful but also a little sad as though he's not sure Mathews will really visit. Although not credited in this episode nor their appearances listed in IMDb in their respective acting credits list, Clem Bevans played Grandpa and Max Showalter (using the name Casey Adams until 1962) played Deputy DA Conrad Martin. A very good episode.
2 Reviews
One of the better ones...in fact, it's really, really good
planktonrules19 June 2021
I'll be the first to admit that Reed Hadley, the lead in "Public Defender" can be a bit stiff. But this one is an exceptional episode in every way....well written, well acted and, surprisingly, very touching at the end.
A man comes home to find his wife in bed....dead. Soon, police arrive and he's arrested for her murder. Unfortunately, the prosecutor on the case is a young guy who is out to make a name for himself and instead of trying to figure out who killed the woman, he's intent on convicting the husband in order to impress his boss who is away on business. In fact, this assistant prosecutor goes WAY beyond this...to the point of being very unethical and even violating the law. How? He phones all the dead woman's neighbors and tells them NOT to talk to Bart Mathews, the accused man's lawyer! Can Bart manage to piece together what happened in spite of this unethical prosecutor?
The reason I loved this episode was the character, Grandpa (played by Clem Bevans). He was exceptional and very easy to like....and I was VERY taken by his final scene, where without using any words at all he was able to elicit a lot of sympathy from the viewer. Heck, he practically had me in tears. Very well done and well worth seeing.
A man comes home to find his wife in bed....dead. Soon, police arrive and he's arrested for her murder. Unfortunately, the prosecutor on the case is a young guy who is out to make a name for himself and instead of trying to figure out who killed the woman, he's intent on convicting the husband in order to impress his boss who is away on business. In fact, this assistant prosecutor goes WAY beyond this...to the point of being very unethical and even violating the law. How? He phones all the dead woman's neighbors and tells them NOT to talk to Bart Mathews, the accused man's lawyer! Can Bart manage to piece together what happened in spite of this unethical prosecutor?
The reason I loved this episode was the character, Grandpa (played by Clem Bevans). He was exceptional and very easy to like....and I was VERY taken by his final scene, where without using any words at all he was able to elicit a lot of sympathy from the viewer. Heck, he practically had me in tears. Very well done and well worth seeing.
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