The Garden House

Harlan Guthrie and his sister-in-law are close....REALLY close. The pair have been having an affair and both have contempt for Ann, the wife. They constantly treat her like she's incompetent and she's come to internalize it. At the same time, Richard Kimble (David Janssen) is now working as a groom for this rich family...and he's been working to make Ann less afraid and more confident. He's very gentle and patient...and not only helps Ann but starts to notice the relationship between Harlan and the sister-in-law....and he's worried about Ann's safety. He tries to warn her but she'll hear none of it. In the meantime, the illicit lovers have come to figure out who their groom is...and now that they know he's a convicted murderer, he'd be the perfect patsy if they were to finally do away with Ann!

This is an unusual episode of "The Fugitive", as it's a mystery-suspense piece and usually the show involved Kimble just helping folks...but here he's being set up for a murder! Casting Robert Webber as the husband was not unexpected, as he so often played horrible, conniving characters...the FIRST you'd expect to cheat on his wife or kill her!! Very well made...one of the better ones in fact.

Kimble goes to work as a stable boy for the horsey set in CT. This is an episode where he has material comforts, but can't exercise authority. Mrs. Guthrie is a sweet lady who is about his age who is afraid of horses; she would be attractive if she had a bit more self-confidence. Her husband married her so he could run the newspaper she inherited. He is having an affair with her sister. The sister has no morals, is jealous that her sister inherited the paper, and encourages Mr. Guthrie to kill her. Kimble is asked to train Mrs. Guthrie to ride and shoot as well as the rest of them. This is a setup so the photographer sister can take photos that show intimate moments between them. It's a sham, and yet there is a rapport that builds up between Kimble and Mrs. Guthrie, as he leans across her saddle to adjust the reins, or holds her arm to aim a shot. "There are worse things than being alone," is the powerful advice he gives. There is no parting kiss, presumably because she is a married woman.

Kimble has a job at the home of a wealthy couple. The wife, Ann Guthrie, has inherited the wealth from her father, who left everything to her, cutting out her sister Carol. However, the two sisters are close, and Mrs. Guthrie denies her sister nothing.

The husband, Harlan Guthrie, actually hates his wife, and is having an affair with her sister. When Carol, a professional photographer, discovers Kimble's identity, she and Mr. Guthrie embark on a plan to kill Mrs. Guthrie and blame it on Kimble, who already has a history of murdering women.

Kimble must uncover and defeat the murderous plot before he can make his escape.

This plot shares many similarities with the plot of season 4 episode "Goodbye My Love."

Ida Lupino can take the most mundane script and turn it into a thing of beauty. The life-size dolls in the background (almost always out of focus or partially obscured) in the climactic scene, and the shots of characters shifting their gaze while keeping their heads still, for instance when Robert Webber's character asks Pippa Scott's character whether "Sanford" (Dr. Kimble) is "as handy with guns as he is with horses".

The doc is known as Fred Sanford in this one, working for a rather well off man and wife and the wife's sister at their country home. The wife is very sweet and naïve, clueless that her husband and her sister are having an affair. Kimble suspects something is fishy from the get go, as nothing gets past the doc. The wife has inherited the family fortune and that's why her husband married her. The two of them are not only playing footsey, but they plan on bumping off the wife. And they find out that Kimble is the fugitive and plan to blame him. Dick always seems to have problems with rich people. They're so devious. Of course, Kimble does what he's compelled to do and saves the wife from being murdered by getting into a fight with the husband after the husband inadvertently shoots the sister. The distraught wife pleads with her sister not to die, but she says she will if she wants. And she does. The fight with the husband is also pretty hokey, as it is obviously the stunt doubles getting into it. A well placed right knocks Robert Webber's double out, and Kimble quickly determines he will be unconscious for long enough for the wife to call the cops and for him to make a clean getaway. She says she will miss him and won't tell the cops he was there. And then she writes an editorial in her newspaper in support of innocent, handsome men being chased by police. Innocent.....fugitives.

However, it would seem like the ending was not quite so neat. Webber's plan all along was to pin a murder on Kimble. So he would surely try to pin this one on him. His wife would deny Kimble was there, but who, then, knocked Webber out? His wife was not capable. So what happened when the cops got there? We'll never know.

In all, not one of the better episodes. IMO anyway.