We begin in the present day (1960) with a man on a city street seeing a newspaper headline about a mobster being killed in his big car, and he recalls a big event from "35 years ago."
Then we see two boys-presumable one of them the one just seen as the man in 1960, admiring a fancy car in 1925, but they are chased away by the car's owner, who seems to be some sort of a mobster.
The dark-haired boy, Iggy, is then seen admiring a golf club in the window of a sporting goods store, and he tells his friend, Clete, how he's saving up money in a big can and plans to buy the putter, and eventually all the clubs necessary to play golf like the top golfers of the time, Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen. There is a real nice scene with Iggy's dad walking with the boys, appearing to be the "All-American father."
The boys then decide to head to a local golf course-in Brooklyn-to "fish" for golf balls, meaning take off their socks and shoes and wade in the water hazards for balls they can sell. Just after they get started, they hear a car driving up at the edge of the course and the gangster they had earlier dealt with and his driver are beating the heck out of somebody, over double-crossing a bootlegger. They beat him up and throw him in the water hazard and take off.
Iggy has to convince Clete that they need to go help the man, who we then see is already getting up out of the water. He angrily tells the boys to scram. Now Iggy insists they need to tell a cop, where Clete says they shouldn't bother. "I don't even like the man"-the victim. Iggy says that doesn't matter, they have to do what's right.
So they are next seen entering a police station with the cop they found on the street. The police seem to think they're making it up, but decide, when hearing that the man who led the beating is a known-gangster named Rose, to have both Rose and Iggy's father come in, while the boys wait.
All along the way, Iggy brags about his father and how wonderful he is. But when Iggy and Clete tell their story in the presence of Rose, he denies being at the course and says the kid is trying to get even with him because he chased them away from his car earlier.
The most poignant scene is when Iggy sees the cops don't believe him and goes to his silent father telling him that he is not making things up, that they saw the whole thing. Dad has seen the look from Rose and believes he needs to keep quiet for his own health, so he lightly shoves Iggy and tells him not to say things that aren't true.
The boys are sent home, but before they leave, Rose tries to pacify them by giving Iggy a $10 bill. In the ending-as revealed by other reviewers here-we see how Iggy runs away from Clete, telling him how if his dad tries anything, he'll tell Mr. Rose about him-a huge switch in that the kid now looks up to Rose more than his father.
This was a very serious and very sad episode. I hated to see the ending, which since the other reviewers have not clearlyrevealed, I won't either-but I can say it surprised me.
As I write this, there are 6 IMDB reviews for this episode. The 5th one incorrectly states that the man beaten up was "late on his loan shark payments." Nothing of the sort is said-Mr. Rose only said that he wasn't a "small time bootlegger" that couldn't be "double-crossed." The first review incorrectly stated that the money given Iggy was a $20 bill, when it was clearly stated to be a $10 bill. The third review, written 5 years after the first corrects that mistake, but that reviewer incorrectly says the money would cover the cost of the "tennis racket" in the window.
Iggy talked about golf, named two golfers so famous they are remembered today by most golf fans, and was seen mimicking the actions of a golfer putting. Furthermore, I will say that the price tag on the window was shown close to a pair of rackets, which were behind the putter Iggy admired. However, these were clearly badminton rackets-you can tell by the narrow shafts AND you can contrast them in one shot with an actual tennis racket more in the corner of the window-one inside a holder for the racket.
I guess you can say these are all minor points, I just thought the various mistakes coming from half of the reviewers were interesting. When we first saw the store window, I thought the $10 sign was for the badminton rackets, but then saw the golf club in front of them.
To me, this was somewhat of a tear jerker story. The two kids were very normal, nice young boys and what happened was not pleasant. I naturally wanted a happier ending for both of them. I want to criticize the episode for not having Iggy's father explain to him why he felt he had to say what he did at the police station in front of the hoodlum. But we can certainly see how Iggy felt so hurt and betrayed that he just wouldn't accept his pop's explanation and would go off like he did.
I give it a 9-nothing funny, but a good drama here. Norman Lloyd (who I always remember as St. Elsewhere's Dr. Auschlander) did a bang-up directing job here, and also voiced the grown-up Clete in the two brief scenes we had of him in the 1960 scenes.
Then we see two boys-presumable one of them the one just seen as the man in 1960, admiring a fancy car in 1925, but they are chased away by the car's owner, who seems to be some sort of a mobster.
The dark-haired boy, Iggy, is then seen admiring a golf club in the window of a sporting goods store, and he tells his friend, Clete, how he's saving up money in a big can and plans to buy the putter, and eventually all the clubs necessary to play golf like the top golfers of the time, Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen. There is a real nice scene with Iggy's dad walking with the boys, appearing to be the "All-American father."
The boys then decide to head to a local golf course-in Brooklyn-to "fish" for golf balls, meaning take off their socks and shoes and wade in the water hazards for balls they can sell. Just after they get started, they hear a car driving up at the edge of the course and the gangster they had earlier dealt with and his driver are beating the heck out of somebody, over double-crossing a bootlegger. They beat him up and throw him in the water hazard and take off.
Iggy has to convince Clete that they need to go help the man, who we then see is already getting up out of the water. He angrily tells the boys to scram. Now Iggy insists they need to tell a cop, where Clete says they shouldn't bother. "I don't even like the man"-the victim. Iggy says that doesn't matter, they have to do what's right.
So they are next seen entering a police station with the cop they found on the street. The police seem to think they're making it up, but decide, when hearing that the man who led the beating is a known-gangster named Rose, to have both Rose and Iggy's father come in, while the boys wait.
All along the way, Iggy brags about his father and how wonderful he is. But when Iggy and Clete tell their story in the presence of Rose, he denies being at the course and says the kid is trying to get even with him because he chased them away from his car earlier.
The most poignant scene is when Iggy sees the cops don't believe him and goes to his silent father telling him that he is not making things up, that they saw the whole thing. Dad has seen the look from Rose and believes he needs to keep quiet for his own health, so he lightly shoves Iggy and tells him not to say things that aren't true.
The boys are sent home, but before they leave, Rose tries to pacify them by giving Iggy a $10 bill. In the ending-as revealed by other reviewers here-we see how Iggy runs away from Clete, telling him how if his dad tries anything, he'll tell Mr. Rose about him-a huge switch in that the kid now looks up to Rose more than his father.
This was a very serious and very sad episode. I hated to see the ending, which since the other reviewers have not clearlyrevealed, I won't either-but I can say it surprised me.
As I write this, there are 6 IMDB reviews for this episode. The 5th one incorrectly states that the man beaten up was "late on his loan shark payments." Nothing of the sort is said-Mr. Rose only said that he wasn't a "small time bootlegger" that couldn't be "double-crossed." The first review incorrectly stated that the money given Iggy was a $20 bill, when it was clearly stated to be a $10 bill. The third review, written 5 years after the first corrects that mistake, but that reviewer incorrectly says the money would cover the cost of the "tennis racket" in the window.
Iggy talked about golf, named two golfers so famous they are remembered today by most golf fans, and was seen mimicking the actions of a golfer putting. Furthermore, I will say that the price tag on the window was shown close to a pair of rackets, which were behind the putter Iggy admired. However, these were clearly badminton rackets-you can tell by the narrow shafts AND you can contrast them in one shot with an actual tennis racket more in the corner of the window-one inside a holder for the racket.
I guess you can say these are all minor points, I just thought the various mistakes coming from half of the reviewers were interesting. When we first saw the store window, I thought the $10 sign was for the badminton rackets, but then saw the golf club in front of them.
To me, this was somewhat of a tear jerker story. The two kids were very normal, nice young boys and what happened was not pleasant. I naturally wanted a happier ending for both of them. I want to criticize the episode for not having Iggy's father explain to him why he felt he had to say what he did at the police station in front of the hoodlum. But we can certainly see how Iggy felt so hurt and betrayed that he just wouldn't accept his pop's explanation and would go off like he did.
I give it a 9-nothing funny, but a good drama here. Norman Lloyd (who I always remember as St. Elsewhere's Dr. Auschlander) did a bang-up directing job here, and also voiced the grown-up Clete in the two brief scenes we had of him in the 1960 scenes.