A Nice Little Town (10 Mar. 1960)

Director:

Paul Henreid

Writer:

Stanford Whitmore

Stars:

John Cassavetes, Christine White, Rayford Barnes

Cast

Episode credited cast:
John Cassavetes	...	Johnny Staccato
Christine White	...	Royal
Rayford Barnes	...	Ray Farragut (as Rayferd Barnes)
John Eldredge	...	John Farragut
Steve Gravers	...	Bundy
Joseph Sargent	...	Chester Hollis
Jason Wingreen	...	Desk Sgt. Harris
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Glenn Cannon	...	Purvis

Storyline

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 March 1960 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Revue Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revue Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

Detective Show Goes Out of Its Way to Make Political Point...

In this episode, Johnny Staccato went out of his way to make a political point, literally, taking the detective out of New York to a small town in some undisclosed state where a former soldier who defected to the Chinese during the Korean War was killed days after returning to his hometown. People in the town believe he was a traitor because he: 1) defected to the other side under torture and 2) wrote Communist pamphlets. As such, they're unconcerned about his murder. The episode takes a left wing caricature of rabid anti-Communists and what we get is an awkward strawman political debate. The criminals are not caught by the end of the show, and they kill the dead man's sister. Even after the town police agree to not tolerate any more violence, Johnny requests the body shipped back to New York City because he didn't think she'd wanted to be buried in the town. Overall, the episode was a big "Screw You" from New York and Hollywood to flyover country.