- Near Bodie Air Force Base, a mild mannered dentist has problems getting respect from his wife and son following a robbery by a junkie over his reluctance to use a gun. Further complicating his life is his slightly mentally disabled son, who finds perverse joy in teasing a somewhat touched and lonely old lady neighbor.—dubchi
- A friendly, bird-watching dentist Dr. Bert Andrews (Eddie Albert) tries to stay true to his peace-making ideals in a small Western military-base town in the 1960's as he struggles with a pubescent 14-year old son, Rex Andrews (Peter Lazer), who has been somewhat shielded by his mother, Jo Andrews (Dina Merrill). She encourages him to focus on marksmanship and his love of guns despite being constantly compelled to make trouble and perform random, often violent, rebellious acts.
The most disturbing conflict appears to be the son's secret torment of an old, cantankerous, opinionated, isolated and mentally troubled female neighbor (Isabel Jewell) during noisy yet eerie overhead evening jet aircraft drills. A rift between the mother-son pair and the father stems from a past home invasion by a burglar in which the father refused to respond with gun violence in order to avoid his or the other man's death during the unfortunate event.
Peaceful pursuits, acts of kindness and even sacrifices by the father are met with derision from the pair, yet he bravely maintains his principles and attempts to maintain equilibrium with his spouse as he struggles to defuse the increasingly dangerous, self-destructive behavior of his son which inevitably comes to a head. The tormented, Hitler-appreciating, Indian-hating, deer-killing old kook finds that her aged military rifle can be loaded and made operational as her young and supposedly Martian enemy comes one last time for an evening attack.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content