Today the Man Who Kills Ants Is Coming (7 Mar. 1962)

A mentally-stressed police officer suffers a debilitating breakdown over his family's poor financial condition, catalyzed by missing button on his uniform.

Director:

Robert Gist

Writers:

Howard Rodman, Ken Trevey (story),

Stars:

Paul Burke, Horace McMahon, Harry Bellaver

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Paul Burke	...	Det. Adam Flint
Horace McMahon	...	Lt. Michael 'Mike' Parker
Harry Bellaver	...	Det. Frank Arcaro
Nancy Malone	...	Libby Kingston
John Larch	...	Police Officer John Clinton
Geraldine Fitzgerald	...	Lillian Clinton
Milt Kamen	...	Police Officer Novi
Roger C. Carmel	...	Lowell F. Newton
James Greene	...	Prisoner
Jimmy Little	...	Police Sgt. Moroni (as James Little)
Billy McNally	...	Johnny Clinton
Carmen Costi	...	1st Patrolman
Ed Crowley	...	Druggist
Alfred Hinckley	...	Patrolman Eckert
Godfrey Cambridge	...	Detective Carlisle

Storyline

A mentally-stressed police officer suffers a debilitating breakdown over his family's poor financial condition, catalyzed by missing button on his uniform.

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Plot Keywords:

episode title spoken by narrator

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 March 1962 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Biograph Studios, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shelle Productions, Screen Gems

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During a 'roll call' of police officers for a special assignment, the sergeant calls out the name 'Silliphant', not the most common name in the world. Stirling Silliphant is the executive story consultant for the series.

User Reviews

Send an ambulance we have a man who needs help!

***SPOILERS*** Getting no respect on the job in the criminals that he deals with who have him up on a case of police brutality and at home where his old lady Lillian,Geraldine Fitzgerald,insults him by not treating him like a man and bread winner in front his kids NYPD cop John "Cry Baby" Clinton, John Larch, is like a ticking time bomb about to go off at any moment.

It's at the 65 Precinct where he works out off that the final insult against his ability to do his job and have pride in doing it finally sets the poor guy off! Told by his desk sergeant that he's got a button missing from his police uniform Clinton finally lose it and flips out of his skull! First by going AWOL and then when he's high as a kite on over the counter drugs Clinton goes back to 65th and holds the entire place, some 20 or so cops, hostage in a crazed effort to prove to himself and everyone else that he still got what it takes!

In what can be called a performance of a lifetime John Larch as the mentally unstable cop John "Cry Baby" Clinton could have easily won the Academy Award for best actor if in fact this, a Naked City episode, was a full length motion picture and not a one hour TV program. The guy was so great playing a borderline, who soon crossed the border, psycho that it was hard to believe for anyone watching that he was in fact only acting. Even the cops that he held hostage including his boss Let.Mike Parker, Horace McMahon, were so fascinated with Larch's performance they seemed too hypnotized to do anything even when he had his back turned and his pistol put away. They just watch him do his thing not bothering to stop him in just how incredibly mind boggling it was!

If course it was Clinton's very pressing problems that were the reason that caused him to freak out before his almost shocking gushing, almost drowning the entire cast with his tears, meltdown so he wasn't really responsible for what he did. But it was that missing button on his uniform that was the straw that finally broke the camel's back or Clinton's mental balance and grip on reality. And it was that button that pressed his button that finally set him off on a one way ticket to LaLa land. In the end it was Clinton who finally realized that he needed help, psychiatric help, and needed it fast that had him drop all his inhibitions about what it takes in being a cop and husband that got him to see the light. And for him to get that help that he so desperately needed before he really lost it, his mind, and ended up losing everything that he loved so dearly, his job family & friends, by being institutionalized in a mental hospital for the rest of his life!