When The Wind Blows

Filmed August 1965

In early sixties television there were no large writing staffs such as existed later. The producer and story editor of a dramatic series were the ones responsible for delivering scripts. They interviewed freelance writers who came in to pitch story ideas. The rules of the Writers Guild were that the pitch should be no more than a long sentence. (I was not a member of the Guild, so that was what I learned from writer friends and what I remember today of what I gleaned then.) If the pitch seemed potential, it was bought and the writer would be given the go-ahead to develop the idea into a full story. If the story proved satisfactory, the writer would be given the go-ahead to write the script. I bring all of this up because I think that is one of the reasons that stories on THE FUGITIVE could veer off into so many different and interesting directions. Sure there would be many of the usual variations on Les Miserables; but then occasionally someone would show up with an idea for an unusual relationship for Richard Kimble. I think that’s what happened to produce the script, WHEN THE WIND BLOWS.

When I completed photography on AN APPLE A DAY, I stayed on at the Goldwyn studio to direct my fourth (and final) THE FUGITIVE. Again I was disappointed (momentarily) when I read the script that was assigned to me. It was further off the dark beaten track of my first two Richard Kimble outings and even gentler, more introspective and with less action than AN APPLE A DAY. Kimble’s major involvement was with a nine-year old boy, considered by his teacher to be a problem child. This was not foreign ground for me. Many years earlier my friend, Max Hodge, had written for his thesis at the Pasadena Playhouse a lovely stage play, A STRIPED SACK FOR PENNY CANDY. It was the story of a six-year old  boy who wanted a magic set that his widowed mother couldn’t afford to buy for him and the almost tragic circumstances that ensued. I had directed a production of it the following year in Mason City, Iowa. What I didn’t know as I started breaking down my new script was that young Kenny was the first in what would be a long line of disturbed cinema children I would be dealing with in my future.

The previous week the hilly canyons at the west end of the San Fernando Valley had stood in for Colorado. For the new script, which was based in Wyoming, the location manager took me north of Los Angeles to the small town of Piru at the base of the mountain range. I thought it was perfect. It not only was a fine stand-in for the mountain state, the small village and surrounding area provided the barren background that would enhance the story I was about to tell.

In April, 2010, after my blog (RALPH’S TREK) published the first two THE FUGITIVES, I received the following e-mail:

Mr. Senensky,

Looking forward to your 1965 episodes. Passed thru Piru today with my wife.

Thought you’d like this photo comparison. Funny to note that a small film crew was toiling around the same intersection as you put Janssen thru his paces almost 45 years ago. The suspension bridge from the episode is still there but is now blocked off and detoured around.

THE FUGITIVE was really an anthology show, but with restrictions. It had a recurring character, but his identity was different each week, his name and occupation changing as he moved around the country. The one other recurring character who didn’t change was the pursuing Lt. Gerard, but he only appeared in five or six episodes during a season. In those episodes in which Lt. Gerard did not appear, the scriptwriter was required to provide another version of the original Javert of Les Miserables in order to continue the pursuit by the law of convicted wife killer, Dr. Richard Kimble. That was accomplished in the opening sequence in the diner of WHEN THE WIND BLOWS. And next Kimble, with a new name, needed to be employed in his location of the week.

And finally Kimble needed to meet the protagonist of the week, preferably in an unusual way. In WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS he hopped on a freight car and met a young blond girl with a baby; in DETOUR ON A ROAD GOING NOWHERE he had several interesting meetings with the various members of that week’s ensemble; and in AN APPLE A DAY, fleeing from the law, he woke up on a doctor’s examining table. I felt his meeting Kenny in WHEN THE WIND BLOWS was original and charming.

A little research has revealed that third season episode #75, WHEN THE WIND BLOWS, written by Betty Langdon, was only the third episode of THE FUGITIVE written by a woman. The first season was totally male-authored. The second season had an episode written by a husband and wife writing team and one co-authored by two women. Further research at the Internet Movie Data Base revealed that WHEN THE WIND BLOWS was the only screenplay written by Miss Langdon to be produced.

This was the second of many times I would work with Don Hanmer. He was the dog trainer in SHADOW OF A STARLESS NIGHT on BREAKING POINT. The deputy was Harry Townes, another fine actor whose filmography is almost a history of Classic Television — live and film.

The fact that Dr. Richard Kimble had been a pediatrician I’m sure spurred the interest of producer Alan Armer in this off-the-beaten-track story for THE FUGITIVE.

According to the Internet Movie Data Base this was only Johnny Jensen’s fourth or fifth screen appearance. He worked as a child actor for a few more years and then disappeared from the profession.

If a location was within thirty miles of the studio (that’s the distance I remember, but I won’t swear to it), everyone reported to the location. If the distance was farther, everyone reported to the studio and then was bused to the location. I have the schedule but not the call sheets for this production, so I don’t remember where we reported. Since the fourth day of filming was to be split between the location and the studio, I think we must have reported to the studio and been bused.

When working with child actors I did the same thing I did with adult performers. In filming a closeup if the actor’s performance didn’t come alive emotionally until midway through the scene, rather than calling “cut” at the end and doing the next take, I would say, “Keep it rolling and go from the top.” That way the emotion the actor was feeling was preserved to build on. It worked for adults and it worked with the kids. One time on another production I did that while filming the closeup of a young boy. The adult man in the scene (who was playing off camera) questioned the necessity. He didn’t like the extended take. I told him I wasn’t doing it to accommodate him. It was the boy’s closeup and I was doing it for the boy’s performance. David never questioned that procedure.

When dealing with child actors, the goal is to keep them from acting. Just be yourself. Just say the words like YOU would say them. And LISTEN to the other actor. David’s overpowering charisma affected any performer playing opposite him and he deserves a lot of the credit for the believability in Johnny’s performance.

The fourth day of filming started at the Piru location, where we filmed two and an eighth pages. We moved back to the Goldwyn Studio where we filmed two and seven eighth pages in Lois’ living room. There was an additional short scene of deputy Russ on the phone that didn’t get filmed that day. We ran out of time. The next day was a heavy scheduled shoot — nine pages, which ended with a short night sequence off the lot. I remember I had Fred Ahern, the wonderful production manager, totally perplexed. The final sequence on stage, the longet scene of the day, was a scene in Kenny’s cave between Kimble and Lois. The problem was we finished too early, which meant there was too long a gap before it got dark, and Quinn refused to shoot day for night. I wrote before that I thought David, like Mickey Rooney, had a photographic memory. I remember before we started this sequence, David took the script and quickly looked it over. Then he and Georgann Johnson proceeded to do the master and the two closeups in one take each. Fred’s perplexity came from the fact the day before we couldn’t finish six and a half pages in a full twelve hours and this day we finished almost nine pages in about seven hours.

One of the invaluable tools in filming was the cue light. It was a long cord with a small light at one end and a switch in the hand of the director at the other end. It was used mainly to cue entrances, when the actor, waiting to come into the scene, couldn’t see the action and had to be cued to enter.

There was no way that nine-year old Johnny Jensen would be allowed to jump off a moving truck. But the necessity of finding an adult small enough to double for him did present a problem, but not an unsolvable problem.

The original script called for there to be a shack nearby that Kimble and Kenny would enter. When we scouted the location, there was no nearby shack, but I saw the abandoned gas station and realized that it was a better substitution for what the script requested. The interior of course was constructed back at the studio..

Filming for this episode began on a Friday at the motel in Piru. As I’ve written, night scenes were usually filmed on Fridays because of the turnaround clause in the actors’ contract. Since there were night scenes at the exterior of the motel, they were scheduled and shot the first day, that included the scene near the end of the script of Lois driving off followed by the deputy sheriff.

As Richard Kimble continued his flight down the highway (in a final shot of stock footage that  I didn’t film), I closed my chapter of THE FUGITIVE. I did not realize in 1965 that in 2011 I would be writing about it as I am doing. THE FUGITIVE is truly one of the most classic of those series that are now considered Classic Television. Who was responsible? Many people but mainly Alan Armer, for his amazing stewardship of the eighty-nine episodes he produced, all but the final season of the series. Quinn Martin, for the high standards he demanded in his productions at a time when many studios were settling for less to meet budgetary demands. And finally David Janssen, who I personally feel is most responsible for the lingering and eternal success of the series because of the magnetism and humanity that he provided that was the very heart of THE FUGITIVE.

The journey continues