MovieChat Forums > The Defenders (1961) Discussion > help identifying an episode

help identifying an episode

posted 14 years ago by jstielstra
7 replies | jump to latest

I saw only a minute or two of this episode when I was a child stalling before going to bed. It opens with a man being cuffed and chained into a trunk and being dropped in the river. My memory is that he was a Houdini-style escape artist, but that could well be a child's interpretation of a gangster killing! The man does not emerge. The trunk is pulled from the river and opened, and you catch a glimpse of the handcuffed corpse inside. It scared the living bejeezus out of me! I would love to identify the episode to lay this childhood trauma to rest! :-)

[–] nandue0929 13 years ago

The name of the episode is "The Last Illusion." It was televised on March 9, 1963. A magician's wife is accused of murdering him by altering the trunk he was supposed to escape from when it is lowered into the East River, New York City.

[–] gary_overman 9 years ago

Just thought I'd take a stab in the dark here and see if anyone can tell me the name of an episode where the state is trying to get medical treatment for a child whose parents don't believe in doctors and the parents go to court to try and block the state from taking over.

Does this sound familiar to anyone here?

[–] nandue0929 8 years ago

The episode was called "The Accident." It was first televised on November 4, 1961.

[–] gary_overman 8 years ago

The episode was called "The Accident." It was first televised on November 4, 1961.

You are quite right. I saw an episode of Night Gallery on DVD today and I recognized one of the actors in that segment (he was Lonny Chapman, BTW) and came over here to confirm it. The Accident was indeed the episode, that I was wondering about.

Thank you very much for helping to solve of the enduring mysteries of my life. 

[–] ebryan2007 9 years ago

Does anyone know the episode where a man is murdered or maybe beaten up outside of an apartment building and all the people in the apartment house are watching but none call the police and I think none are willing to come forth as witnesses? I think it was a 1965 episode.

[–] nandue0929 8 years ago

The episode was called "Eyewitness." It was first televised on January 14, 1965. It was similar and probably based on the tragic Kitty Genovese murder in Kew Gardens, Queens, NY in March, 1964.

[–] NewtonFigg 8 years ago

Help. I vaguely remember an episode where the son found himself in Deliverance country where the judge was as ignorant and rotten as the human primitives who inhabited the area, and he was thrown in jail. I thought at the time it must have been set in some state that had once seceded, but now that does not seem to be necessarily the case.