Terror at High Point

Kimble is working at a construction company run by Buck Harmon (actor Jack Klugman). He has persuaded Buck to hire Jamie (actor Buck Taylor), who is of below-normal intelligence. The other workers pick on Jamie, and Kimble tries to protect him. Buck's wife Ruth (actress Elizabeth Allen) lives with Buck at the worksite. She helps Jamie to learn to read and they become close. She has no children of her own, and Jamie is like a child to her.

Ruth dresses sexily and attracts the attention of the men at the worksite. A man attacks her in the shower and leaves her unconscious. Her screams were heard by a neighbor, who sees Jamie leaving.

Jamie runs away, and everyone but Kimble is convinced of his guilt. Workers get their guns to hunt him down. From their talk Kimble fears they will kill Jamie. Kimble must protect Jamie, but this puts him up against Buck, who like the workers is convinced of Jamie's guilt.

This is a most unpleasant episode. I deplore rednecks mi deplore bullies. I deplore fascism.

I deplore this episode.

I really don't see the point of making this kind of story.

Jack Klugman is running a construction gang on a big project. His wife, (Elizabeth Allen) has convinced him, against his will to take on a semi-retarded worker Jamie, (Buck Henry). Richard Kimble is also part of the crew, doing the timekeeping. He befriends Taylor, who is constantly the butt of jokes among the crew, especially one played by James Best. Jack, (his character's name, ironically, is "Buck"), had a retarded brother he had to spend his early days looking after and he grew tired of it and l the attention the brother got. Then his wife is assaulted and Jamie is seen running from the trailer. Kimble again has to go into his sleuth mode to determine what actually happened.

This was filmed at an actual construction site. The head of the crew was an out-of-work actor who let them use his site if he could have a role in the story. Judging from his IMDb resume, I think he might have been Russ Vincent, who plays "Rufe", one of the troublemakers. Another one of the trouble makers, "Mike" is played by Billy Halop, the original leader of the Dead End Kids.

One of the common themes in episodes of "The Fugitive" is the bully who picks on a smaller or disabled person. Invariably, Richard Kimble, at considerable risk to himself, comes to the defenseless person's aid. In this case, it's a young man named Jamie. Jamie is intellectually challenged--and Dan (James Best) takes great delight in tormenting the guy on the construction site where they all work. Inexplicably, the other workers fall in line with Dan.

Later in the episode, after Kimble does his usual fistfight with the bully, Dan decides to get Jamie in trouble...and gets the guy fired. Soon after this, someone assaults the boss' wife and Dan is quick to foment a lynch mob mentality. This really makes little sense, as Jamie liked the lady and she was teaching him to read. Can Kimble figure out what REALLY happened?!

This is a good episode...in some ways like the episode "Fatso" just a couple episodes earlier. However, it's not nearly as good because the conclusion as to who attacked the lady NEVER is in any way in question. It does, however, reiterate that Kimble is a heck of a great guy....

Season 1 is so full of great episodes that i've rated a 10, and this is one of them. I really like how the story unfolds here and also the protective relationship Kimble had with Jamie, a mentally disabled co worker who's terrorized by neanderthal coworkers who seemed to be more mentally disabled than he was.

The scene where they are all terrorizing the poor kid was difficult to watch and I wondered what kind of person could treat another human being like that. Thankfully Kimble felt the same way and kicked the crap out of the head goon.

I liked how Kimble kept standing up for Jamie when the boss kept wanting to let him go. And when we learn just why the boss is so uncomfortable around Jamie, it's a very understandable and valid reason that made me not hate him as much as I did throughout much of the episode.

The boss's wife Ruth is another person like Kimble, who takes Jamie under her wing and gives him friendship as well as reading lessons after his work is done. I really liked how both Ruth and Kimble chose to help Jamie rather than terrorize or shun him.

In the final season, Kimble comes across another young man similar to Jamie but he isn't as kind and sensitive towards him as he is here and he's almost downright cold and mean. Perhaps being on the run for 4 years had taken it's toll by that point and he just didn't care to be everyone's savior anymore.

But it's really interesting to me how he treats both people with the same disability in season 1 and then again in season 4. It's like night and day. Btw, that 4th season episode i'm referring to is titled "Approach with Care".

But back to this episode.... How far Kimble went for Jamie was really admirable considering his own circumstances. So far as to boldly confront state police as Jamie's protector when he was wrongly accused of a crime just like he was. And to see Kimble fearlessly go up against the two cops to protect him, and even prove he was innocent took a hell of a lot of guts, and I believe this is why the character resonated with audiences so much. Kimble always stood up and did what was right at almost any cost to himself.

The only gripe I had with the episode is minor. There was one scene where Ruth strides over to the construction site to see her husband wearing skin tight shorts that are cut way too high. I'm no prude, but even in 2023---60 years from when this was filmed, I gasped and said to myself "Why on earth is she wearing shorts like that?!" And it's also a little surprising to see such an outfit being worn at that time, because I always thought such provocative dressing didn't become more a thing until the mid to late 60's.

I didn't like the implication it was making either....which was that she brought the later assault upon herself by the provocative and titillating outfit she wore---and while it WAS a highly inappropriate and poor choice of outfit for a construction site where she knew very well what kind of ingrates worked there, the assault scene could have been just as effective and believable had she worn a regular dress or jeans on the site. Needlessly putting the character into such a provocative outfit beforehand just gives the not so subtle implication that she invited the assault upon herself. Bad.

But it's a minor gripe and doesn't detract from this great episode which season 1 is so full of.

Also, I think this is the only episode where Kimble continues to work at the place he is at rather than move on by episode's end, because he's shown in the final scene still at work and driving the little jeep, so he probably stayed on that job for a little while more before moving on.

I like to think he stuck around to help Jamie find another job before leaving because that's just the kind of stand up guy Kimble is. This is an excellent episode as so many are in this wonderful first season.