In a Plain Paper Wrapper

I can add anything to the very fine reviews available in this site. Great episode, one of the less predictable. However, I have a burning question... near the end, as the police are taking the boys away and Bing Russell is putting the rifle in the car - a neighbor in the curb is holding something to her ear. When I watched this 2 days ago (September, 2021), she looks like most of my neighbors - someone in a cell phone. Except they weren't invented, so this couldn't have even been sloppy staging. Is it a transistor radio or maybe police band radio that she was using to monitor police? Anyone have ideas?

This episode is sandwiched between two in which Richard Kimble is first outlaw, and later hiding out in a fishing community with laws of its own. The scene here is by contrast highly conventional, with Kimble working as daytime bartender Bob Stoddard, and Lois Nettleton playing the waitress Susan—both in rather silly outfits for the restaurant's Viennese atmosphere. They have a friendly dating relationship. Susan suddenly finds herself guardian for her orphaned 12 year old nephew, Gary. As we viewers know, Kimble would like a child, and at first he is far more enthused than she about the boy's arrival in her life. Lois has the life of a modern mother much more than most women in this series. She works all day, and sends her nephew to find friends on the streets. He falls in with a local tough (played convincingly by Kurt Russell) who persuades him to lie, cheat and steal. The social worker tells Lois she needs a man in her life, and indeed a working woman who is raising kids on her own really does need a partner, and one who can commit. Kimble on the run can't be that man. The very family that is so alluring to him dooms the relationship between Susan and Kimble. The magnet of the conventional world is strong for Kimble, and may not be so strong for many viewers, who have mortgage payments, kids, and reliable spouses. Other Fugitive episodes are appealing because viewers can fantasize about having no responsibilities. But it is also interesting to see Kimble's take on an ordinary life—something he longs for, but cannot have. The show reminds us once again that family is precious. The chemistry between Lois Nettleton and David Janssen is strong, as it was also in "Man on a String." The child actor who plays Lois' nephew is also quite good.

Richard Kimble has been posing as Paul Stoddard and has been working for some time at a restaurant. He's happier than usual in this role and has been dating his co-worker, Susan (Lois Nettleton). However, there is a fly in the ointment....Susan's nephew. He's an orphan and has recently come to live with her. But the kid has troubles and has fallen in with some VERY strange new friends. It seems that he and the other boys are pooling their money to buy a war surplus rifle...and the kids appear to be between about 8 and 12! And, apparently, in the old days you could buy one of these by mail...no questions asked*!!!! This is insane...and now the boys have a very powerful weapon AND they know who Paul Stoddard really is...and it's vigilante time!!

*I am not anti-gun. I have a few guns myself...but the idea of children mail ordering an Enfield rifle is just nuts!! Apparently gun laws in the States were insanely lax back in the day!! It's obvious that this was the point of the show---and it's a very reasonable point to make! This alone makes "In a Plain Paper Wrapper" an episode worth seeing.

Always loved this particular episode with young Kurt Russell and his father Bing in appearance together. But the reason I'm writing is my discovery as to where this episode was shot. Look up 12444 Magnolia Blvd. in Los Angeles and Wilkinson Ave., and you can see the same structures still standing, especially the castle like turrets that is now a post office building. May not be much, but I always find this location trivia really fascinating. As for the rest of the episode, it's interesting to see the "kids" in a Fugitive episode start to look like kids in the 60's wearing longer hair and tight surfer jeans instead of the standard phony look that did not reflect the times. And also the reference to Mail Order Lee Harvey Oswald type rifles didn't escape this viewer.

Kimble is a bartender again, developing a relationship with a waitress, (Lois Nettleton), who has been given custody of a nephew, (Pat Cardi), who desperately wants to fit in with the kids in his new neighborhood. The local gang is led by Kurt Russell and their dream is to obtain a rifle via mail order. They have the money for the gun but not the postage. They allow the new kid in if he will pay dues, which happens to be the amount of the postage.

Cardi resents Kimble at first and when he finds out he's a fugitive, the gang decides to "bring him in" with their new rifle. Meanwhile, a social worker is investigating Nettleton to see if she's supplying a good home. Knowing that a convicted murderer is romancing her won't help her case.

There's a lot of building suspense, aided by a strong musical score. But the climax is unconvincing and disappointing. Kurt Russell had previously played Lt. Gerard's son in "Nemesis", (10/13/64). Bing Russell, Kurt's Dad, shows up as a cop at the end. He winds up tossing the rifle into his police car and expressing disgust with the fact that a rifle could be so easily obtained by minors. I wonder what today's NRA would think of that?