Belongs right up there alongside “The Sweet Smell of Success” as a meditation on the nature of power and the public in mid-Twentieth Century America. Andy Griffith’s performance is shockingly visceral and utterly convincing—it’s as if he put so much into this role that he had to spend the rest of his career just recovering in the chill out room of television.

Also, I can’t wait for Elvis Costello’s musical adaptation of this.