The name: Dr. Richard Kimble.
The destination: death row, state prison.
The irony: Richard Kimble is innocent.
Proved guilty, what Richard Kimble could not prove
was that moments before discovering
his murdered wife's body,
he saw a one-armed man running from the vicinity of his home.
Richard Kimble ponders his fate as he looks at the world
for the last time...
and sees only darkness.
But in that darkness fate moves its huge hand.
The Fugitive.
A QM production.
Starring David Janssen as the fugitive.
With guest stars:
Shirley Knight,
Richard Carlson
and special guest star,
Gloria Grahame.
Tonight's episode: "The Homecoming."
The Pruitt family home.
The tidewater south, Georgia.
In antebellum years,
a home graced by gracious women.
And even after cotton was no longer king,
the Pruitt women were gentle and well-bred.
Richard Kimble, fugitive,
pauses here in his endless flight.
For as long as he dares,
he will be David Benton,
research technician.
Are you hurt?
I don't think so.
Oh, oh...
Thanks.
Oh, uh...
Oh, thank you.
What happened?
A horse threw her.
I don't think she's too badly hurt.
Fine, I'll call Dr. Brewster.
No, I-I'm all right.
Just-- Just-- You go ahead.
Well, I--
I can't leave you like this.
If you need to.
If Janice is expecting you. Uh...
I was about to meet my daughter
on the 2:15 bus.
I'm going into town.
Can I pick her up for you?
Would you, David? I'd appreciate that.
Take the wagon.
Come on, darling.
Oh, Allan,
you don't think it'll--?
It would be too much for her?
I-- I mean,
being met by a stranger and everything?
Wait here a minute.
David.
There's just one thing.
My daughter doesn't know I've remarried.
It might be just as well if I tell her myself.
Of course.
Come on, darling.
Miss Pruitt?
Yes.
My name is David Benton.
I work for your father.
He asked me to pick you up.
Why, is anything wrong?
No, there's nothing wrong.
I was coming into town anyway so, uh...
My car is down the street. Are those your bags?
Yes.
You're new, aren't you?
Well, I've been here long enough to know
that you, um, don't call goobers peanuts.
Your father gave me a job in the lab.
I thought he would--
I was sure he would meet me.
Well, he's been busy.
Besides, I was glad to do it.
He's done so much for me.
For me too.
Oh, I'm being silly.
I'll be home in 20 minutes.
It's as though I've never been away.
Have you been on a trip?
Yes. A long one.
I had a breakdown.
I've been in a sanitarium.
Honey.
Oh, honey,
it's been a million years.
Come on in the house.
Uh, David, bring the bags, would you, please?
Oh, Papa,
I'm so glad to be home.
Honey,
I've got a little surprise for you.
I--
I know you're gonna like it.
I-I...
I would have told you sooner,
but I've been saving it.
Dorina,
this is Janice.
Dorina and I were married
six months ago.
Honey, I've been waiting so long.
I couldn't tell you sooner. Dr. Starke said--
Forget Dr. Starke.
She's home now, Allan.
Come on, darling,
you need some tea or something.
If you don't mind,
I'm a little tired.
Of course,
we should have realized.
I, uh...
I invited Judge Parker and Ellie over for dinner.
But if you don't feel up to it...
No, I...
I'll be all right.
I'd like to see them.
Ah-ha.
Let me take those, David.
Mr. Benton, did I ever say thanks?
Uh, let me see,
about, uh, ten or 12 times.
Well, I never said my thanks.
Come and have dinner with us tonight.
Well, if I'm not, uh,
cutting in on the family reunion.
You're not.
Come early for drinks. Follow me, honey.
Northwestern. That's the Big Ten, isn't it?
Yes, sir.
I went to Williams myself, up in Massachusetts.
My family thought I'd seen enough magnolias.
Wanted me to find out what ivy looked like. Ha, ha.
What brings you down here?
Well, I, uh--
Miss Parker?
Cookies. Ha, ha. Oh, dear, I couldn't.
Oh, that's our latest goober product.
Just out of the laboratory this morning.
Very low on calories.
Well, now, here's Floyd.
Excuse me.
Sorry I couldn't make it for dinner.
You ask me again sometime.
Judge. Floyd.
Miss Ellie.
Hello, Janice.
It's nice to see you, Floyd.
Floyd, Mr. Benton.
He works in the lab.
How do you do?
Floyd Warren,
our county sheriff.
And you'd better watch your P's and Q's.
I don't think I've seen you around.
I reckon I work him too hard.
David's gonna be with us just for the summer.
Excuse me.
I'd like to talk to you, Janice.
Y-yes.
Of course, Floyd.
Call me. Um...
maybe tomorrow.
I was hoping tonight. It's...
It's been a long time.
Uh, I think I've got a prior claim.
Your mother always had a brandy for me.
My father still has.
I'll get it for you.
Just like her mother,
gentle and gracious.
She's a lady.
That's something that's born in you. Hm.
Floyd, I appreciate your coming out tonight.
Have one of mine?
Yeah. Thank you.
I'll take that in, my dear.
My mother always served the judge's brandy.
Honey,
your mother is gone.
I think we have to understand that.
I'm Mrs. Allan Pruitt now,
your father's wife.
You're Mrs. Pruitt.
You'll never be his wife.
Please tell my--
My father I'm going to my room.
I-- I don't feel well.
Well.
How are things this morning?
Floyd was real disappointed.
He left early with the judge.
Honey, maybe that dinner party
was a little too much
a little too soon for you.
We'll go slowly,
just as slowly as you want.
Papa,
how could you marry that...?
Her?
Janice.
And so soon after Mama died?
Well, I waited almost a year.
Oh, honey, there--
There are some things
I can't expect you to understand.
This big, empty house,
and a man gets lonely.
Janice,
you know what your mother meant to me,
but she's gone.
We can't keep on crying forever.
I wanted to come home so much.
I used to dream about it.
Well, you don't have to dream anymore.
She doesn't want me here.
Dorina, you're wrong. Me,
or Mama,
or anything that's left,
anything that used to be.
Honey, you're wrong.
Well, she's just been counting the days.
She was just afraid that you wouldn't like her.
Janice,
I know you've had a real rough time,
almost a year.
I'm sure when you get rested up...
What's the use?
Janice.
I want you here.
Oh, Papa.
There now. There.
It's all right, Janice. It's all right.
It's just someone with some hounds.
I'll-- I'll go send 'em away.
These hounds come from my best litter. Heh.
They're gonna make fine coon dogs.
Even good enough for a cousin that married rich.
Heh-heh. Now, hush up. Hush up.
Hush up. And you.
Now, you. You set tight.
You wanna get lost again?
Come here. Come here.
Thank you.
Seth!
Get those hounds out of here.
Janice is home. Haven't you any sense at all?
You know how she is about dogs.
Well, Dorina told me to fetch 'em over.
You said you were going to buy some new hounds.
But not this morning.
Oh, I'm sorry. I-- I forgot.
I told him last week.
You'd better load up and get.
Fast.
I'll give you a hand.
Making a pure fool out of me like that.
Like what?
She never told me last week.
She told me yesterday.
Am I slowing the wheels
of new Southern industry?
Not so you'd notice.
You're sorry for Janice, aren't you?
Well, shouldn't I be?
If you can spare it,
try being a little sorry for me.
Well, I think you're doing all right, Mrs. Pruitt.
You think so?
You think it's easy coming into a house like this,
knowing somebody was here before you?
It's almost like living
three in a bed.
It ain't easy,
especially when you come from where I did.
Where did you come from?
Red-dirt clearing in Potter's Woods.
All of 12 miles from here.
It might as well have been
the other side of the moon.
Five kids and seven hogs.
And the red dust so thick on all of us
that Ma could hardly tell which was which.
I pulled out of that.
I pulled out of the dirt.
I got into town and I went to school,
stood number three in my high school class,
and worked the afternoons
and weekends in Willison's store.
I've crawled and I've scraped
for what I've got,
and she's not gonna take it away.
So you wanna run her out, is that it?
I had a grandmother, used to say:
"There's only room for one sow in a pen."
I talk big.
It doesn't mean anything.
The truth is, I like her.
I've tried to help her.
She doesn't want any part of me.
I tried to be her friend.
I could be yours.
Well, if I need a friend, I'll, uh...
let you know.
Hello.
I thought you were asleep.
Well, it's, uh...
It's too early to sleep,
and, uh, too late to read.
You don't have to apologize
for enjoying the night.
My father wanted to take my mother
to Europe when she was sick,
and Mama said there was more medicine
in a Georgia night
than in all of Europe put together.
I think she was right.
You were very close to her, weren't you?
Very close.
We used to come here
in the afternoons when I was small,
and Mama used to let me pour the tea.
That was before she took sick.
How long was she sick?
For a long time.
For the last five years,
she was an invalid.
I used to come here alone
after she died.
I'm sorry.
Don't be.
It's nice to be able
to talk with someone about it.
Everyone should have someone to talk to, don't you think?
Yeah, sure.
Are your folks back from town?
No.
Will you be all right out here alone?
Of course.
Janice.
Janice. Janice, what happened?
David! The dogs!
They've come back!
Look, I-- The dogs!
The dogs?
You heard them. You had to hear them.
You heard them!
Look, we'll talk about it later. Come on inside.
No, now!
You've got to tell me now.
Papa.
Papa!
Papa, Papa.
Oh, honey, honey, easy. Papa.
Tell me about it. Now, tell me all about it.
They've come back, Papa.
Potter's dogs.
I just heard them in the woods.
Honey,
you don't hear 'em now.
I heard them before.
I did, Papa.
I did hear them.
Don't you believe me?
We hunted down those dogs a year ago.
Janice,
Potter's dogs are dead.
I heard them.
Come on, honey.
We'll go inside.
I had her take a pill.
She'll be sleeping soon.
I told you we shouldn't have gone out tonight.
Honey, she seemed so much better.
You thought so yourself.
She keeps insisting she heard those dogs.
Did you?
No, sir.
No, of course not.
But I had my radio on.
Maybe it covered up the sound of the dogs.
But-- But wouldn't you have heard them when--?
When you ran out?
Yeah, I suppose so.
She said, uh, "Potter's dogs."
Are they something special?
I thought somebody had told you.
Potter was an old redneck,
a sharecropper.
Lived by himself.
Too mean to live with anybody else,
except his dogs.
Two big, ugly brutes.
Potter kept 'em tied up with ropes,
half-starved, vicious.
And when Potter died,
the dogs chewed through the ropes
and headed for the woods,
went wild.
They attacked Janice?
No.
No, not her.
Janice took some children into the woods,
a picnic.
One of the little fellas, Jeffie Coombs...
Jeffie Coombs.
She never missed him 'till she heard him screaming.
Well, she drove off the dogs.
Some of the older children helped her.
That night in the hospital,
Jeffie died,
her sitting right there beside him.
Couldn't get her to leave.
I don't know if she'll ever get over it.
I don't know.
But she's my daughter,
and I'm not going to send her away again.
I wouldn't dream of letting you.
Allan Lee,
she's my daughter now too.
Well, I'll put the wagon away.
She's got Allan to worry about her.
Take my advice,
stay out of it.
Good night, Mr. Benton.
Floyd, come in.
Allan's in the study.
Floyd,
thanks for coming so soon.
I was heading to Mason Corners.
The office relayed your call on the two-way.
Anything wrong?
Janice?
Yeah.
She gave us sort of a bad time last night.
Said she heard Potter's dogs
out in those woods.
Potter's dogs?
Well, it can't be.
We got rid of 'em a year ago.
There's no dogs out in those woods anymore.
I didn't say there were.
Janice says so.
She keeps insisting she heard them.
You have to understand, Floyd.
There's nothing really wrong with her.
It-- It was just the shock.
All she needs is some rest,
being home
and seeing her old friends.
That's why I called you.
I thought perhaps you'd want to help.
Help?
Well, you used to come out quite frequently
before she went away.
I thought perhaps if you'd start coming out again...
I did come out the other night.
I wouldn't say she was overjoyed to see me.
Is she around?
She's in her room, resting.
Well, maybe later on my way back.
Thanks, Floyd.
I'll see you out.
I thought she was in her room.
Well, she was,
the last time I looked in.
Though I can't say
I'm exactly surprised.
He's been after her ever since she came home.
Who is he?
Where'd Allan find him anyhow?
We put an ad in the Atlanta paper.
Somebody to work in the lab.
Allan says he's smart.
He must be.
He sure hasn't lost any time.
Of course,
that's up to you, I guess.
Floyd.
I wanna talk to you.
I'll be in shortly.
Now.
I'm sorry, I can't now.
We can talk in the car.
Floyd, please.
You're hurting her.
I hear you're smart.
You stay away from her, hear?
When she asks me to.
When I ask you to.
Unless you wanna eat cornbread and beans for a month.
That goes for dinner in our jail.
Wouldn't you have to have some charges?
I'll find charges.
'Cause I wanna pin something on you.
I'll find a way.
Driving a car,
crossing the street,
tearing up a piece of paper.
Everybody breaks the law every day.
Only I'll be watching you.
Come in.
Packing?
I was gonna tell you.
I just talked to my sister.
Her husband's sick.
Why, I'm sorry.
Do you have to leave?
I should.
Well, I find I have to go up to Atlanta for a day.
I'll be back tomorrow night.
Well, I...
I just thought if you could stay a few days...
I mean, you seem to be so good with Janice.
She's relaxed with you,
calm.
Allan Lee,
I can take care of Janice
if Mr. Benton is pressed for time.
Well, actually I'm not that pressed.
Well, we wouldn't want to impose.
You're not, believe me.
Well, I can't begin to thank you.
I don't think we could.
I'll be back as soon as I can.
Janice!
Janice.
David. You heard them.
You heard the dogs!
I heard the dogs.
But they're not--
They're not barking now.
They weren't barking before either, were they?
Of course they were. Of course. Were they?
No, you're just saying that! You're just trying to help me!
You couldn't have heard them!
You couldn't have!
Potter's dogs are dead!
Honey,
you shouldn't be out here like this.
Just a bad dream, that's all.
Come on, let's get you back to--
Poor girl.
She'll swear she heard those dogs.
Suppose I said I heard them too.
If I were you,
I wouldn't say that to anyone.
Why, because you want 'em to think she's still sick?
Because you'll just make a fool of yourself.
Because the whole county knows Potter's dogs are dead.
Are they?
Don't go looking.
You wouldn't last five minutes in those woods.
You'd be so lost,
you'd maybe never find your way out.
You might not be as lucky as me.
You grow up in those woods,
you learn your way around,
like an animal.
My Pa used to shake his head and say:
"That Dorina's more wild critter
than girl."
I guess that's hard for you to believe,
all of the dirt washed off.
Not all of it.
Darling.
Allan, you're early.
I wanted to get home before dark.
How is she?
She's been in her room most of the day.
Wouldn't eat or talk.
Allan...
...I've tried.
She heard those dogs again last night.
Did you?
Allan,
I wish I could tell you.
What can I do for that child?
What can I do to help?
You expect too much of yourself.
You're not a doctor.
Maybe...
Maybe you'll-- You'll just have to--
Oh, but--
But talk to her first.
Mr. Benton.
I'd like to talk to Mr. Pruitt.
He's busy.
Will you wait in the study?
But, honey,
not to eat anything all day...
Can't I bring you something?
No, thanks.
But you have to eat.
I'm not hungry.
Janice, I, uh...
I understand you heard the dogs again.
Dogs?
Potter's dogs,
last night.
I didn't hear any dogs.
Dorina says that--
I don't care what she says,
she's wrong.
Honey, don't you think--?
She's wrong. I didn't hear anything!
Now, please, stop asking me, and leave me alone.
Please, just leave me alone.
So you're gonna tell him.
Well, you just go ahead and try.
See if he'll take your word against mine.
Happy days.
Operator, this is Allan Pruitt.
I wonder if you'd get me the Glenaire Sanitarium
in Hazlehurst.
No. No, person-to-person, please.
Dr. Starke.
And would you rush it? It's important.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, David.
You're going to send her back.
Well, if you do,
there's a chance she may never get well.
What else can I do?
Bringing her home hasn't helped any.
She heard those dogs again last night.
I heard them too.
You?
Potter's dogs?
I don't know whose dogs they were,
but I heard them out in the woods.
They sounded mean.
But how is that possible after all these months?
That's impossible.
Maybe somebody wanted them to be there.
Why?
Who?
Allan,
I think he means your wife.
Well, you were-- Were out there, Mrs. Pruitt.
Of course I was.
I followed you.
Allan, I saw him from our window.
Janice was with him.
In her nightclothes.
I heard the dogs.
I ran out,
and Janice was already there.
A very cute story.
If there'd been any dogs.
Ask Janice.
I did ask Janice.
She insisted she didn't hear 'em.
Allan,
she was screaming.
That was because of the dogs, Mrs. Pruitt.
They weren't there.
She just thought they were.
Well, then why would she insist to me that--?
I don't understand this.
I don't understand this at all.
Look, Mr. Pruitt,
will you wait and ask the doctor?
Maybe I will.
All right, David. If I need you, I'll call you.
Yes, sir.
Well, I guess I'd better look in on her.
Sheriff's office. Warren speaking.
Floyd? Dorina.
You better make tracks out here.
What goes?
Mr. Benton.
You didn't slow him down much.
He was out by the woods with her last night.
Just the two of them.
And she was in her nightgown, and--
Floyd? You hear me?
You can just scare a man so far.
If she wanted to walk out there with him...
What about me?
You?!
That's the kind he is.
Came after me too.
You wanna make a charge?
If you can't run him out.
I can run him out.
I don't like her out there alone.
I better check long distance again.
Get your stuff, mister.
We're going in.
I still haven't heard any charges.
Attempted assault.
Sheriff, I don't think you're gonna
get Janice to testify to that.
Not Janice.
Help. Help.
Help me. Help me, please.
Help. Help.
Jeffie?
Help me, please!
Jeffie?
Help me!
Jeffie!
I'll have to get back to you.
Jeffie!
Potter's dogs.
Jeffie?
It's Janice.
Jeffie?
Help me.
Jeffie?
Help me, please!
Where are you, Jeffie?
Janice?
Janice!
Jeffie?
Janice!
Jeffie?
Help me!
Help me, please!
Janice?
Jeffie?
Jeffie. Jeffie.
You're not Jeffie Coombs.
Janice!
Don't you be frightened anymore.
Nothing's going to hurt you.
You're all right.
Janice?
Janice.
Janice, honey.
Papa. I was right.
I was right, they were here.
I was wrong, honey. I was the one that was wrong.
That's Seth Crowley's kid.
No.
Now, go on and tell 'em.
Those were Potter's dogs, weren't they?
They're mine.
Did somebody put you up to bringing them here? Who?
Go on, tell them. Who? Do you want the sheriff to ask you who?
Her.
Mrs. Pruitt.
Not anymore.
Well, she said she'd
give me $100 if I'd just take 'em out in the woods
and make 'em start to sound off.
Well, it's been a bad year, and $100...
You took the boy with you?
Oh, no, sir. No.
He must have followed me and got lost.
First I knew it is when he started yelling.
And then she--
She got to him first.
All right, Seth. All right.
Good night.
Would one of you gentlemen
like to drive me to town?
Me.
It'll be a pleasure.
I got some apologies to make to you.
Afraid you'll have to do it by mail.
David's leaving us tomorrow.
Well, maybe if you leave your address...
I'll send it to you when I get settled.
Someday.
Someday Richard Kimble will be settled.
When he can take his own name again.
When he finds the man who killed his wife.
Until then, he must be what he is now:
a fugitive.