Although he's pretty much forgotten today, Frank Lovejoy played a lot of roles on 1950s TV--particularly hardboiled noir-types. Here he's not quite as tough but he's still very effective as a professor who gets himself into far more trouble than he'd anticipated.
It all begins with the professor teaching his class in criminology. He contends that eyewitness testimony is very unreliable by staging a fake crime in front of the whole class and then taking their eyewitness accounts--and showing how widely their versions varied. He also likes pushing his claim by appearing in countless police lineups--where he often is identified by witnesses as the criminal! No, he IS NOT on some wacky crime spree--but soon his little hobby bites him in the butt because this time there is evidence he might have committed murder and he's now having a hard time convincing the cops he didn't do it!
Overall, I liked this show for many reasons. The acting and writing were very nice but I also appreciate how it does expose how crappy eyewitness accounts can be--a serious concern that needs to be more widely known. Well worth seeing.
It all begins with the professor teaching his class in criminology. He contends that eyewitness testimony is very unreliable by staging a fake crime in front of the whole class and then taking their eyewitness accounts--and showing how widely their versions varied. He also likes pushing his claim by appearing in countless police lineups--where he often is identified by witnesses as the criminal! No, he IS NOT on some wacky crime spree--but soon his little hobby bites him in the butt because this time there is evidence he might have committed murder and he's now having a hard time convincing the cops he didn't do it!
Overall, I liked this show for many reasons. The acting and writing were very nice but I also appreciate how it does expose how crappy eyewitness accounts can be--a serious concern that needs to be more widely known. Well worth seeing.
