The Fugitive Corner of Hell (1963–1967) Online

Corner Of Hell introduces us to Moonshiner land. Local police never invade this area of illegal activity because the cost benefit of such action is highly negative.

R.G Armstrong plays a strong role as Tully, the Moonshiner patriarch while Sharon Farrell (Elvie) and Bruce Dern (Cody) put on excellent performances as his children.

While the sheriff (played by Dabs Greer who appeared in several minor Fugitive TV series roles including episodes 1 & 118) avoids Moonshiner country like the plague, our ever persistent Lieutenant Gerard (played by Barry Morse) has other ideas.

Kimble heads into Moonshiner country to avoid capture and Gerard decides to follow. After proving himself in front of our Moonshiner clan, Kimble gains respect in Armstrong's eyes. Gerard descends into deep trouble and is faced with the Shiner's judgment.

Corner Of Hell is special in that it's perhaps the only Fugitive episode in which Lieutenant Gerard is forced into and realistically feels what it's like to be in Kimble's shoes.

I first saw Corner of Hell in the 1967-1968 wave of reruns. All of these years and I always remembered the episode in which Tully proclaimed his famous catch phrase - "Go Fetch Em'"

The police are hot on Kimble's trail. He jumps from a moving truck and runs into the countryside. Lt. Gerard is shocked when the local police refuse to help him chase Kimble, who has run into moonshine country. The local police stay out because when invaded the moonshiners set fire to the woods, and the chance of the government to make up the tax revenue would not compensate for the cost and trouble caused.

The moonshiners, led by Tully (actor R. G. Armstrong), hate outsiders, but ultimately warm to Kimble, who saves the life of Cody (actor Bruce Dern). Gerard pursues Kimble on his own, but is captured and harassed. As an outsider, a cop, and a man wearing a store-bought suit, Gerard has three strikes against him. When Tully's daughter is beaten into unconsciousness, the moonshiners take the law into their own hands, wrongly accuse Gerard, and plan to lynch him. Ironically, Gerard cannot prove he saw a man running from the scene of the crime, and must turn to Kimble to try to prove his innocence.

One of the great episodes of this great show. The tables get completely turned around as Gerard follows Kimble into hillbilly territory, (as he did in the third ever episode, "The Other Side of the Mountain", which also had Bruce Dern in it). Kimble wins the trust of the local people by saving the life of one of the patriarch's sons with his medical skills and then doing the same for their daughter. They also empathize with him because the law is his enemy, as it is theirs. They rough up Gerard when he barges in. The daughter drives off in his car. Gerard follows on foot. One of the boys, (Dern) gets involved in a friendly wrestling match with the daughter, (played by Sharon Farrell) and accidentally tosses her onto a rock, giving her a concussion. Gerard catches up and Dern runs away. When the rest of the family catches up to Gerard, they think he did it. His defense: he saw a man running away from the scene. There's even a scene where Gerard, trying to escape, falls into a puddle, just as Kimble did in the original opening to show, after the train wreck. He's captured and the family puts Gerard on trial with Kimble essentially acting as his defense attorney! They both get out of it but Gerard is unmoved by the irony of the predicament that he was in- on the surface, anyway.

When the show begins, Girard is right on Kimble's tail...chasing him down in some southern town. However, when Kimble runs onto land controlled by a clan of violent moonshiners, things take a real wild turn. While Kimble is eventually able to convince these folks that he's harmless, Girard is not so fortunate. They ASSUME he attacked a woman and beat her and are going to string him up for a crime he didn't commit...yet, oddly, Girard never considers that his predicament is in so many ways like Kimble's. And, when Kimble helps Girard escape death, Girard, as usual, is all business and won't give up his dogged chase. Nice to see the man learned absolutely NOTHING from the episode, huh?!

This is a decent episode except that all the hillbilly histrionics are a bit tough to believe and are very stereotypical. Still, worth seeing but not among the best of the shows.