The Fugitive (TV Series) The Ivy Maze (1967) User Reviews

Kimble, Gerard, And Johnson's First True Confrontation

[stp43 · 9/10 · 1 September 2018]

The Ivy Maze is a pivotal point in The Fugitive's run, as it contains one of the most powerful moments in the series as well as the usual strong interaction between Richard Kimble and those around him in his search for one-armed vagrant Fred Johnson, the man who killed his wife.

Fritz Simpson is a professor at a college, and a former college pal of Richard Kimble and Helen Waverly. Simpson now runs a unique experiment - dream withdrawal, an experiment where he can extract admissions from people lapsing into dream. Fritz summons Kimble to the college because Fritz has seen a new gardener at work there - a man named Carl Stoker who Kimble recognizes as Fred Johnson.

Fritz subjects the unsuspecting Stoker/Johnson to his dream withdrawal experiment and Kimble, in the guise of a magazine writer, is there to observe and pick up details only the guilty party would reveal. However Fritz's wife Caroline - who remembers Fritz' interaction with Helen Waverly during their college days - sees Kimble and confronts Fritz, while also telephoning Gerard.

When Gerard investigates the college he finds the evidence that tips off that Kimble is there, and as he closes in the inevitable eruption occurs - and for the very first time all three protagonists - Kimble, Gerard, and Johnson - confront each other at the same time in the same spot. It is easily the strongest moment of the series to this point.

The denouement looks even more frantic given the steady buildup of tension throughout the episode, and there are several especially engaging moments, such as Fritz' introductory lesson to students, one of whom is Jill Janssen, David's real-life sister, with her only speaking role in the series - an irony lost on many is soon after her appearance Fritz gets a phone call from Kimble, and remarks "I was afraid your sister" - Donna Taft - "couldn't get in touch with you." Gerard's phone call from Caroline Simpson where he's left pondering why the call is anonymous with a ten thousand dollar reward offered is also charming.

The fugitive series almost ended in this episode

[CCsito · 8/10 · 11 October 2013]

*SPOILER ALERT*

This episode has Richard Kimble returning back his college days to meet an old fraternity classmate who is now doing sleep research at the school. His former classmate (played by William Windom) offers to help capture the one armed man who is working at the school as a maintenance man. The professor hatches a plan to tape record a confession from the one armed man using sleep deprivation therapy to induce him to divulge past secrets (including Kimble's wife's murder). The teacher's wife, however, sees Kimble on the school campus grounds and calls Lt. Gerard about it. The professor was previously very close to Kimble's wife many years ago which made his present wife jealous of her. The professor gets the one armed man to volunteer for his sleep experiments with offers of money. He is able to get the man to tell certain aspects regarding the murder of Kimble's wife on tape. However, Gerard arrives on campus looking for Kimble. The one armed man hears the taped recording of his voice and is able to take the tape and destroy it before it can be given to Gerard. Kimble then has to escape with help from the professor's wife and by hiding inside the luggage compartment of a bus.

Plot summary

[ynot-16 · 8/10 · 10 November 2006]

Kimble is notified by his sister that an old friend wants to be contacted. The old friend is a former fraternity brother, Prof. Fritz Simpson, played by actor William Windom. The professor has two important pieces of news. First, he believes a one-armed man working as a maintenance man at his university is the one Kimble is looking for. Second, the professor is involved in dream-deprivation research, where subjects are allowed to sleep but are awakened when they start to dream. This can cause the subjects to lose inhibitions and admit things they otherwise would not admit.

Kimble arrives and identifies the one-armed man as Fred Johnson, the one he saw running from his house the night Helen Kimble was killed. Johnson, using the name Carl Stoker, is inducted into the experiment as a paid volunteer. Although Johnson talks about the killing in Stafford, complications set in when someone informs Lieutenant Gerard about Kimble's presence.

2/21/67 "The Ivy Maze"

[schappe1 · 3 March 2016]

This is an important episode in the Fugitive saga. An old school buddy, (William Windom) is running an experiment on the impact of sleep deprivation- one of which seems to be an inability to lie. One of his paid subjects is a care-taker at the school- who happens to have one arm. It's Fred Johnson, whom Kimble believes killed his wife. Windom summons his old friend to help him work on Johnson and get a taped confession.

Inevitably, there must be complications. Windom was in love with Helen Kimble before he married Richard and his wife, (Geraldine Brooks) resents it. Out of spite, she calls Lt. Gerard. But this could be a good thing – if they can get the confession before Gerard gets his claws on Kimble. Obviously things can't be allowed to work out- not yet. But one gets the impression that Gerard might finally be beginning to soften up and question Kimble's guilt. The endgame is coming.

Gerard goes back to Stafford empty handed yet again

[jsinger-58969 · 9/10 · 23 March 2023]

Dick's old frat brother Fritz is a college professor who notices a one-armed employee and notifies Donna with the news. Against all odds, this particular OAM is Fred Johnson, the guy who killed Helen. Dick shows up and IDs Lefty, but Fritz wants to get a confession by subjecting Fred to a dream deprivation study he's doing. Well, things look rosey, but there's just one thing. Fritz's wife, Caroline, spots Dick on campus and calls Gerard. Seems like Fritz was briefly engaged to Helen before she left him for the wonderful future Dr Kimble, and Caroline for some reason hates Dick for that. And she's not crazy about Fritz either. So Gerard, who no longer has to answer to captain Carpenter, is on his way to Wellington College. Carpenter is one of those characters who disappeared without explanation. It was assumed Gerard drove him to either early retirement or an insane asylum. Anyways, Caroline meets Dick and starts talking about old times, and instantly becomes besties with him. Johnson seems to be reminiscent of a student involved in Bill Murray's experiments in Ghostbusters, and soon starts talking about a Stafford job that went wrong, although his account of the murder differs greatly from what was shown in Judgement. Despite Caroline's best efforts, Gerard shows up on the scene and it's chaos. Johnson, groggy from lack of dreams, nevertheless overpowers everyone and grabs the tape with his confession and throws it into a convenient jug of acid. Johnson easily escapes as no one cares about him. Kimble's escape is more harrowing, but he is able to get into the equipment compartment of the bus carrying the football team, and he leaves in the rear with the gear. He later rolls out wearing a helmet in case anyone is shooting at him. And Fritz and Caroline are in a better place in their marriage thanks to Richard Kimble.....fugitive.

Could have been the finale.

[kennyp-44177 · 7/10 · 15 November 2021]

This is a convoluted affair, albeit with a great cast ( the excellent William Windom), and the terrific trio are here, Kimble/Johnson/ Gerard. But the main thing is Johnsons confession to murdering Kimbles wife being taped, which is more compelling than the finale we got, where another character is brought in to testify witnessing the event. Someone should have been guarding the tape room!

Was good until the final act

[Christopher370 · 7/10 · 22 April 2023]

I was really enjoying this episode up until the final act when everything suddenly went haywire and morphed into a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Why Gerard can't put aside his obsession with Kimble for just 2 seconds to do his job has never been more frustrating than here.

He's told there's a tape right there in front of him of the real murderer's confession, yet he doesn't want to hear it because his only focus in the whole universe is catching Kimble as he storms out of the room with absolutely no care or even an iota of curiosity of hearing the tape!! Wow. He really is that dense!

As a lieutenant, I believe it's his duty to listen to evidence presented to him and since there were other cops who could have chased Kimble when he ran, he could have stopped to hear the evidence presented to him but he really doesn't care!

He's so wrapped up in his cat and mouse chase with Kimble that he's lost sight of what's most important....which is getting at the truth.

I've never been more frustrated with a series than while I was watching Act IV. Everything too conveniently went haywire in order to place Kimble right back to square one again. At this point in the series it becomes tiring and I want to see things finally start moving forward without taking 10 steps back by episode end.

Let Gerard hear the tape for crying out loud. It would probably be inadmissible in court, but at least it would make Gerard start to finally wonder if he's been wrong all along and start helping Kimble. Or at least do his damn job and finding the truth. At this point in the series, something like that should be happening to keep things fresh and new, but it's the same old same old yet again with Kimble right back to where he was at the start of the episode, so what's the point?

And it was comical how Johnson was magically wide awake, lucid, strong and alert enough to fight Kimble, pull the tape out of the machine, run away and conveniently dunk the confession tape into a vat of acid when he's been tired and delirious from days of sleep deprivation. Please! It's insulting to the viewer because he wouldn't have been able to do all that in his condition. He would've been easily subdued in seconds.

And you would think something of this monumental importance would have more than just Kimble in the room to hear the confession. You'd think Fritz would have stationed a couple of people in the room to be witnesses just for back up purposes. Of course not! Ugh...it's just so damn frustrating at this point.

Gerard is so ignorant and inept at his job that he really should have his badge taken away from him. His obsession prevents him from doing anything outside of catching Kimble and that makes him unable to properly do his job.

When I finally reach the series finale, i'd love to see Kimble punch Gerard right in the face the moment he's exonerated for his wife's murder. A scene like that would make all this frustration well worth it! On the floor with a big fat bloody lip in glorious color would be such viewer satisfaction as a free Kimble walks away!

To end my review on a positive note, I enjoyed learning some new backstory with Fritz and his wife being friends with Kimble and his wife in their college days and the romantic issues with some jealousy and hatred going on between the foursome. That was interesting and done really well.

I also liked finally learning why Johnson killed Kimble's wife and exactly what transpired because all through the series it was strangely never revealed. We never even saw Kimble ask "Why did you kill her?" in the times he crossed paths with him and I always wondered why he never did.

Until now I didn't know it was just a basic robbery gone wrong when the wife surprised Johnson with her presence and that makes her murder all the more sad now.

I would give this an 8 or 9 rating had it not been for the frustrating and cartoonish absurdity of Act IV, but everything before it was good stuff so i''ll be generous and rate it a 7. I just hope that punch is coming in the finale lol.

This one just seemed awfully goofy to me.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 30 April 2018]

"The Ivy Maze" is filled with weird story elements and coincidences which made for a much more remarkable and unbelievable plot than usual...making it seem like a weak episode.

The one-armed man just happens to be working at a college where one of Dr. Kimble's old college chums works. Together, the two doctors come up with a weird plan....to pay the one-armed man to participate in a sleep deprivation study and get him to confess to the murder of Kimble's wife since his defenses will be lowered. Dr. Simpson (William Windom) has one glitch in the plan...he doesn't consider his wife...a woman who wants to see Kimble captured. Plus, no one seemed to anticipate the way the one-armed man would react once he's betrayed himself...a HUGE weakness in the plot as well.

I don't like "The Fugitive" episodes where you have to suspend disbelief as much as you do in this one. While it was all very novel, it also seemed like the writers had perhaps run out of ideas and were scraping together a plot which should have been tossed.

Implausible but entertaining.

[roadrunner-33877 · 6/10 · 14 February 2022]

Several implausibilities have been pointed out, such as Fred Johnson conveniently being employed at the University where Professor Simpson is employed, as well as him being able to identify him. But perhaps the most glaring example is the idea that a confused and REM-sleep-deprived Johnson is able to determine, in a split-second, which tape to steal while he's being chased in two rooms full of recording devices and computer banks. But this was 1960's episodic TV, and the strong draw of "The Fugitive" was for Richard Kimble to some how escape each week, against impossible odds, just in the nick of time.