Ironside (TV Series) The Hidden Man (1973) User Reviews

A Tale of Two Fathers

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 14 January 2014]

This Ironside episode deals with two fathers, one is an organized crime capo put into prison by the activities of the second who was a cop working undercover in his mob. Harold J. Stone sitting in the joint would like nothing better than to take revenge on Warren Kammerling. But Kammerling is in hiding, he's even hiding from his own son played by Cliff Potts who is a Green Beret on leave.

Stone may not do something about it from where he is , but Zalman King who is his son is a rich punk who has grown up on gangster lore even though the operation is now 100% legitimate. And Stone's former consigliere James Gregory would like to keep it that way.

Potts wants to see his father and nothing will deter him. So Raymond Burr and the team make that work for them. As for the outcome, the bad guys should have all listened to Gregory.

Zalman King gets acting honors as a really loathsome little punk who won't use the little gray cells.

Suicide by cop was not an option on Ironside

[TopekaBob · 8/10 · 4 April 2022]

Before my short review on this episode, an interesting observation: In the Ironside series it's remarkable how hesitant they were to show any of the police actually use their guns. This was not usually the case in TV shows of lore - gun battles were part of the excitement. But in Ironside there is kind of deal of, hey, what do you have to do to provoke getting shot in this show!

At the end, Zalman King walks up to a cabin with a machine gun and opens fire, spraying everything! Could have been kids in there, people in a boat behind it, whatever. Didn't matter. Let me repeat: a machine gun! Instead of gunning him down, Ironside gets on the bullhorn and tells him, hey, drop that, again, machine gun (!) and come on out!

I'm not saying that that isn't how it should be done or shouldn't be done, but in this case and some others on Ironside, the police restraint is laughable given what normal humans would do. But maybe that's what made Ironside different and why people like him? The tough, law and order guy with a heart who didn't gun down people.

As for the episode, it's interesting and exciting, especially the scene near the end where only music plays and they're tracking King, a staple of Ironside. This is before drones so they must have gotten the car driving shots from overpasses or helicopters or planes, and they're cool, but what make it is of course the music. I admit I'll watch cars tailing each other for a long time if the Ironside theme music is playing.

Zalman King is super freaky as the punk kid bent on revenge. He kills basically his Uncle, James Gregory, and we feel sorry for Gregory, who isn't a good guy either! King and Gregory are the stars of this episode, especially Gregory. And the interior of the house they live in! Looks like a church. Incredible.

The Vietnam connection also interesting, with Cliff Potts returning from a North Vietnamese prison camp, a la John McCain.

Another low-key star of this episode is Gene Lyons as Commissioner Randall. Very intense.

The Ironside/Star Trek connection shines through again: Gregory and Lyons starred in episodes of the Star Trek original series and Potts was in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Oh, one cool director's move is when Potts gets in a cab and the camera slowly pans over and it's Ed driving it. That last fake-out sequence of Potts taking the bus and going to the cabin was very well done.