While this film was a made for television film, it does not feel like one. It has been said that Landon admired three filmmakers that he was not taught by Orson Welles, John Ford, and Alfred Hitchcock. The influence of Welles and Ford can definitely be seen her. Yet, Landon does not copy them. The film is not cliche. Cliche is something that Mike was often accused of. Here he takes what he has learned from William F. Claxton and others on the set of Bonanza and techniques that he admires from the above mentioned filmmakers, and he knows when and where to use them. Like Ford, he shoots the picture economically. He uses long takes when necessary, so as to make his point and to make it without having NBC come in and edit the heck out of it. He uses bars and other natural objects to create separate frames like Welles, and the story is inspired a bit by something Hitchcock might do. It is a 70's film, but it is a Michael Landon film all day long. That man is what makes this motion picture a very fine motion picture.
