Frenzy

 first shown January 30th 1972

 

'A family of Serbian immigrants have fallen on some tough times. Back in Serbia the husband was from a poor peasant family and his wife was from a well-off shopkeeper family. He feels she wants more than he can give her, and he cracks.'

 

Guest Stars: Michael Pataki as Nicholas Kosovo, Kathleen Widdoes as Anna Kosovo, Jason Karpf as Sandor Kosovo, David S Cass as Sheriff, Emile Meyer as Cherokee, Troy Melton as Slim.

 

 

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The story involves a Serbian immigrant family where the husband and father is mentally ill and abusive and Ben becomes involved with helping the wife and son. Despite Lorne's excellent performance (as always) I found the episode to be tediously boring and repetitive and I just couldn't engage with any of the characters. Clem Foster has some minor action while Hoss and Joe are restricted to cardboard cut-out roles.

This isn't a patch on "The Dark Gate" which deals with the same sensitive subjects of mental illness and abuse but in an infinitely better and gripping way. It also has Adam interacting with his family while Ben is entirely alone in "Frenzy".

The episode begins with Ben out riding when the little boy, Sandos, runs to him and tells Ben that there is trouble at their house. Nick has been staring at flowers and not working while Anna is angry with him. Nick throws over a dresser of china but he and Anna tell Ben it was an accident. In a later discussion Anna explains, very poorly, about Nick's state of mind so that Ben doesn't really grasp what is happening. Only when she speaks about the physical beatings can Ben understand.

One night, Nick sets the house on fire. He then goes into Virginia City, behaving in a very disturbed way, and a fight ensues with other customers in a saloon. Clem takes firm control and locks them all up but Nick escapes and starts making his way home.

Anna has already fled with Sandos when Ben meets them on the road. After numerous scenes of the three of them hiding in the undergrowth, because they have seen Nick nearby, Ben heads for a local Serbian friend's home where the family will be safe.

Meanwhile Clem is very worried about Nick's behaviour and wisely heads for the Ponderosa to discuss the matter with Hoss and Joe. The latter set out to follow Ben.

Ben and Anna discover the Serbian friend shot dead by Nick and only just manage to hide in the house, though not before Nick shoots Ben in the leg. After lengthy scenes with Nick prowling around the house, breaking windows and shooting, he manages to get in upstairs. Ben follows but Nick throws himself through the window. Downstairs, Ben, Anna and Sandos hear gunshots and Nick (presumably having shot himself) stumbles through the door and dies.

In the final scene Anna thanks Ben and Hoss drives them to friends where they will start a new life.

I feel that there were three problems with this episode. Firstly, Kathleen Widdoes doesn't portray the necessary fear that an abused woman would do – Anna seems more frustrated and angry with Nick and much of her behaviour seems bizarre e.g. in the scene where Ben finds her and Sandos in the road, she refuses to get in the buckboard. In contrast, Delphine Marquette was a really tragic and convincing character in "The Dark Gate".

Secondly there were scenes that I would describe as "the sound of one hand clapping". Lorne was doing splendidly but almost on his own, without the realistic involvement of the Anna character. There were not enough scenes with other people to show Nick's mental deterioration though Michael Pataki did a great job alone, especially with his eyes, of showing the tragedy of mental illness. In contrast, the deterioration of Ross Marquette in his interactions with Delphine and Adam in "The Dark gate" was very well portrayed.

Thirdly, there were such tediously repetitive scenes where Ben, Anna and Sandos went round and round the same shrubbery before they reached the friend's house and then the same type of boring, repetitive scenes of creaking doors etc. in the house.

I have to say that there were only two bright spots for me – a couple of good Clem scenes and the other an unintentionally funny scene with Joe. I find Clem rather stolid in his earlier appearances but by now he is really lively and confident – perhaps because he has taken over from Roy Coffee and has the confidence and authority in his new post? I liked the way he handled the fight scene and his trust in the Cartwrights.

Now for Joe. When Clem turns up at the Ponderosa, Hoss and Joe are having a meal. Joe's/Michael's pants were so spectacularly tight that I marvelled that he could get up from the chair, walk to the door and then sit down again without the material giving way LOL!!!! I was, of course, recalling the time that Michael split his pants on stage during a public appearance tour! Well that was a "no underwear" time but at least he was wearing underwear in the "Frenzy" episode LOL!

Well, I've always said that I wanted to watch every Bonanza episode and so I did with this one but I wouldn't recommend "Frenzy" unless viewers simply wanted to say that they had always watched a Bonanza episode right the way through.