User Reviews

Julie Adams who in the 50s was a leading lady to folks like Jimmy Stewart steals this Big Valley story as the trophy wife of Harry Townes who is looking for him to make a big killing in the rice import market from China. The problem is that if he corners the market and dictates the price, a lot of Chinese will starve. Something the Chinese Association headed by Keye Luke and the local Tong headed by Philip Ahn will not permit and the Tong can get real nasty.

But nowhere near as nasty as Adams can get. This deal will make her husband fabulously wealthy and she'll stop at nothing to see it goes through. That includes arson and kidnapping, the latter specifically of Barbara Stanwyck who has the final say over who buys a consignment of rice that Richard Long arranged the purchase of and is due to arrive in San Francisco shortly.

If there is a weakness in this episode it is the assumption that everyone knows how important rice is to the Chinese diet. It is THEIR staple crop, taking the place of wheat, corn, barley, oats, etc., that westerners use. Controlling the price would produce starvation.

In any event Julie Adams who was never this kind of evil in her younger days on the big screen gives a bang up performance. Almost the kind of part Barbara Stanwyck used to do on the big screen.

At the beginning of this episode, it appeared we were going to get another routine story about Victoria being held, against her will, while chaos abounds all about. But a set of characters that proved to be unique and guest-stars that made the entire production believable -- made for an entertaining story.

The plot involved the purchase and selling of rice within the areas of California. The Chinese Association has been the prime dealer and distributes the rice at a price where very little profit is made. However a man named Warren Masters is set on buying the distribution of rice in which he will raise the price with the intentions of getting rich. This will cause the price of rice to rise making the food staple, for the Asians, nearly out of reach. And for some reason, Victoria has the say-so into which side will be given the right to purchase the rice.

But Walter Masters has a secret weapon in his wife, Janet played by Julie Adams. Janet kidnaps Victoria by hypnotizing her with periods of different color lights. Janet is going to make sure that her husband is the one that will get the rice deal in order to make her rich.

Julie Adams did a nice job of making sure that she gets her way, even at the cost of others. She made the show interesting and brought the viewer right into the plot. It was rather strange to see the strong-headed Victoria Barkley being able to be hypnotized so easily - but with Julie Adams performance it was hard not to be influenced. A good watch in this third season.

Julie Adams as Janet Masters gives an outstanding performance. Julie Adams usually plays a strong willed domineering woman.

Harry Townes as Warren her husband a cowardly pathetic greedy male role --- a role that he has played many times. These two worked well together and in this story their performances are at their best.

This episode is quite believable considering the times when there were many Chinese immigrating into California in this time period.