Name: The Town Budget
Genre: Drama
Released: 1958-12-15
Duration: 30 min
Rating: 8.2
Cast: James Whitmore, Marilyn Erskine, Timothy Carey

James Whitmore is reliably super-sympathetic as the man on the spot in this hard-hitting episode of Alcoa Theatre. The script errs on the side of exaggeration, but it's still a crowd-pleaser.

Giving it must-see status is the casting of Timothy Carey, who with another typecast heavy Arthur Batanides robs a bank safe and heads for a small town where Whitmore is the sheriff. It just so happens that the town council is voting that same night on whether to give Whitmore (whose wife is about to have a baby) a much-deserved and much-needed raise. The double-dealers on the council are all palsy-walsy with James, but when it comes to a vote all but the kindly town doctor deny him a raise.

He resigns and is through with dealing with his hometown skinflints, but the two robbers end up, after Carey kills a motorcycle cop in cold blood, in town with car trouble and then kills the auto mechanic played by O. Z. Whitehead. Whitmore has decided he's through with defending his fellow townsfolk who don't care at all about him, but he's forced by circumstances to a showdown with the robbers and a fight to the death.

The ending of this show is uncompromising and pounds home the story's message with great power.

The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)

Excellent character study of a small town lawman who risks his life despite the qualms of his pregnant wife and a town council that refuses to give him a small raise.

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The Town Budget

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