Review of The Judgment: Part I

I always remind myself: two-part finales are often not as good as viewers expect. This first of the two parts would have been pretty hum-drum (IMHO) except for one show-stopping actor: the immortal Michael Constantine, who apparently had already been around doing TV character-roles forever. (I recognize him because I used to be a devotee of the cheesy late-1980s show "Friday the 13th: the Series", in which he very memorably played the corrupted father of one of the protagonists.) With his pudgy body, round face, expressive brown eyes, flutey voice (which would be a sweet tenor if it weren't so husky and whispery), and deceptive smile, by 1967 he had already been typecast for characters who are guilty but sympathetic, characters who had tried to get rich by taking one big risk rather than by working hard over time like normal people, and who had gotten into something illegal and dangerous, too big for them to handle. Characters who make you think "there, but for the grace of God, go I."

So it's nice to see him playing a pure-evil character this time: a sneaky, greedy, ruthless, low-class bail-bondsman, who manipulates his prisoner (the one-armed man), and plans to "squeeze" his own mysterious client in most unscrupulous fashion. Constantine obviously enjoys playing an unambiguous bad-guy, a character we love to hate, rubbing his hands together and chuckling with glee at his own cleverness, like a cartoon villain or like King Richard the Third. (Spoiler: he gets what's coming to him.)

Definitely don't overlook his work in this first part of the finale!