My Thoughts - The Andy Griffith Show: Prisoner of Love (1964)
Synopsis: When the state police use the Mayberry Jail to temporarily house a female prisoner (Susan Oliver), she quickly charms both Barney (Don Knotts) and Andy (Andy Griffith) and threatens to put the jail's security at risk.
My Thoughts -
Do the police normally let female prisoners wear jewelry when they incarcerate them? That pearl necklace the prisoner was wearing looked like it presented all sorts of dangerous possibilities, ranging from it being used as a weapon to it being used as a means to commit suicide. Plus, did anyone bother to search her bag? What if she was carrying a gun?
While I get Barney being charmed by the prisoner, Andy being swayed by her seemed a little out of character. It's not like they haven't had females in the jail before. Seeing Andy practically fighting with Barney over someone that is accused of grand larceny is just something I wouldn't expect to happen. I wonder if it was because it had been a long while since he last had a girlfriend.
Plus, aren't they supposed to have a matron? When Andy arrested a female speeder, he had Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) come in to take care of her. It seems a bit odd that they wouldn't do the same this time around. It kind of feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen. At minimum, you would think the state police would have sent along a female to watch her since it was their prisoner.
Talk about negligence of duty. Was Andy really going to send Otis (Hal Smith) back out in public while he was still drunk? Good thing Barney mentioned how bad of an idea that was.
I thought Susan Oliver did an awesome job in this episode. I think the thing I liked most was the way she portrayed the prisoner in a way that, at times, made it easy to wonder if maybe she was wrongfully arrested. That, in turn, made the episode slightly less predictable than I thought it would be.
I am going to say I liked how this episode ended. There was a good mix of comedy but, at the same time, it left open a lot of possibilities, especially with the way the prisoner was trying to charm her police escort. Overall, it was a fun couple of moments.
Final Opinion: I'm still a little curious why there was no female escort for the prisoner but, overall, I did find I enjoyed this episode more than expected, largely because of Oliver's performance, and would recommend it.
My Grade: A-
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