"Quincy M.E." Stain of Guilt (1981)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Ray Danton

Writers:

Sam Egan (writer)
Glen A. Larson (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Quincy M.E." (1976)

Original Air Date:

14 January 1981 (Season 6, Episode 8)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Crime

Plot:

While working as a technical advisor on a reality movie, Quincy uncovers that the murder being filmed was unjustly prosecuted. |

Plot Keywords:

Coroner | Murder | Cult Favorite | Courtroom | Amateur Detective

Cast

Jack Klugman	...	Dr. R. Quincy, M.E.
Garry Walberg	...	Lt. Frank Monahan
John S. Ragin	...	Dr. Robert Asten
Val Bisoglio	...	Danny Tovo
Robert Ito	...	Sam Fujiyama
Joseph Roman	...	Sgt. Brill
Carolyn Jones	...	Victoria Sawyer
Ed Begley Jr.	...	Kit Sawyer
Stewart Moss	...	Movie Director Burrows
William Sylvester	...	District Attorney Harrison
Susan Powell	...	Cassie Spencer
Ezra Stone	...	Judge Edwin Simon
Martin Rudy	...	Mr. Jason Newlands
Bobbie Jordan	...	Mrs. Newlands (as Bobbi Jordan)
Sid Haig	...	Hatch

The best episode from season six.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Quincy M.E.: Stain of Guilt starts with Los Angeles medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman) moonlighting in Hollywood as a technical adviser on a film dramatising the infamous case of Victoria Sawyer (Carolyn Jones) murdering her husband Harland several years earlier. While examining actual crime scene photo's in order to set the scene properly Quincy notices discrepancies between the police reports & what was said to have happened & the blood splatter evidence contained in the photo's. Quincy talks to Victoria who has spent the last six years in San Remos women's prison & is convinced she is innocent, taking his suspicions to the DA (William Harrison) his ideas are rejected as too flimsy but that doesn't stop him as Quincy is determined to catch the real killer & free an innocent woman...

Episode 8 from season 6 this Quincy story was directed by Ray Danton I have to say that I personally think Stain of Guilt is the best single episode from the sixth season by a fair margin. Stain of Guilt is yet another new type of story for Quincy & it just show's how versatile the format of the show was, I found this a fascinating episode & a real forerunner of show's like CSI in which it's not so much the autopsy that solves the case but all the little tell tale clues left at the crime scene which paints the picture of what happened. From tiny blood splatter patterns Quincy realises that an innocent woman is in prison & sets out to free her but there is no body & the case is six years old so has to rely on crime scene evidence to make his case. I think this is the only time in which Quincy actually proved a case through crime scene evidence alone & recreation complete with mannequin & dowling rods to show the trajectory of the bullet, in fact Stain of Guilt is one of the very few Quincy episodes which doesn't feature an autopsy at all. At only fifty odd minutes in length the pace is good, the story is intriguing & probably one of the first of it's kind, there's a decent murder mystery here although I don't understand why the killer would wear those strange shoes which would surely lead the police straight to them, there's some nice humour & the whole making a film within a film type scenario is also a first for Quincy as he gets to be a technical adviser in Hollywood & pit his wits against a young ambitious director. A great episode & a personal favourite of mine.

Here it is said the reason for Quincy to moonlight is that his boat is infested with termites & needs to be fumigated while there's a running comedy subplot about him constantly falling asleep. There's a comedy ending at Danny's in which Quincy reveals that the director wrote a small apart for him in the film to which everyone laughs & says 'what do you know about acting?' which I found rather ironic since Klugman has more acting ability & talent than anyone else there put together. Cult exploitation actor Sid Haig appears as a bad guy who gets murdered himself while veteran actor Ed Begley Jr. makes the third of his three guest appearances on the show as a stand-up comic.

Stain of Guilt is surely the best episode from the sixth season of Quincy which has been variable to say the least, fans of the show & crime dramas in general should love this one as much as I do although the actual murder plot might have been a little better now that I come to think about it...