Recently the Ironside seasons 5-8 have become available as a DVD box. This is fortunate. Although the Ironside Facebook group offers interesting summaries, the real thing is obviously better. The Priest Killer is the first episode of S5 and special for many reasons. First, Eve Whitfield (Barbara Anderson) has unfortunately left the team for various reasons. Second, it is a 2-hours episode. And third, it is used as a pilot for the TV series Sarge, with Georgey Kennedy playing the principal role. Sarge is a former detective, who has switched to a career as a priest. In this episode he teams up with Ironside in order to catch a mentally disturbed killer. The film script is quite credible, and contains lots of suspense. In the first scenes a priest is killed. In the beginning the motive for the murder is unclear. But when two more priests are murdered, the real motives surface. During the second half of the episode the identity of the killer has been revealed. The end will be clear: Ironside always gets his target. But now the challenge is to stop the killer before he can do more harm. And the killer, although mentally disturbed, plans his deeds cleverly. In addition to the suspense, the psychology of the plot is well thought-out. This pilot is certainly one of the better Ironside episodes.
Review of The Priest Killer
