Appreciative examination:
Living In Harmony - Harmony
"Why don't we do a western?" - this, alledgedly, was David Tomblin's, McGoohan's co-producer with Everyman Films, reaction to the decison to produce only 17 episodes of THE PRISONER. And time to hire new scriptwriters was running short. The script basis of this episode is a story by Ian L. Rakoff.

GUNSMOKE, YES AND NO, BUT NOT CLINT EASTWOOD IN RAWHIDE - IT'S PATRICK McGOOHAN in
"LIVING IN HARMONY", ANY SIMILARITY COULD BE ON PURPOSE.

The idea and the images are just great, this paraphrase on countless westerns and on THE PRISONER itself: The opening sequence shows a man on a horseback riding through the plains. Next he is seen front of a Marshall removing his sheriff's badge from the vest, laying down his gun and holster on the desk. With the saddle on his shoulders he leaves only to encounter a couple of rogue gunmen a few hills on waiting for him with sinister plans. The man is kidnapped and taken to a place unknown to him, welcome to Harmony.
There is the Judge who then takes him under "protective custody" until the man resumes his former Sheriff's job. Which the man refuses to do. There is a saloongirl who appears to be the sole ally to the man. But there's also a hot-tempered young adorer with a quick draw. So, it's a critical situation for the would-be-no-more-Sheriff without a gun. All builds up to a shoot-out where the man gets shot. And we are back from the western world in a well known Village.

No credit sequence, just actor McGoohan and some rather neutral indicating titles, it is only near the end of the film that viewers get the notion of a PRISONER episode they had been watching.
"Living In Harmony" is among a small bunch of episodes that were created after the filming had been resumed and where the production crew had changed almost completely. Out of the 17 episodes this one stands out not only because of its unusual story with an unfortunately rather mediocre resolution. It is a fresh approach using previously unseen locations instead of the Village. It may not be necessary to mention that the exterior shots of the prairie were made, of course, in England. Also, an american accent is spoken by the actors to complete the image. What's more, there is excellent, and partly hand-held, stylizing photography and there is a, at the time, young and unknown actor, Alexis Kanner, who plays "the Kid" expressively, full of oppressed desire and with a physical presence which is unique within the whole series. Kanner was seen also briefly in "The Girl Who Was Death" and in Fallout" where he performed the hippie Number 48.

ALEXIS KANNER: NOT YET THE END OF THE MATTER BETWEEN THE KID AND NUMBER SIX

But what Kanner was allowed to display and embody, on the other hand, was denied to Kathy actress Valerie French. Lying on the ground, the mere notion of her breast nipples under her clothes had McGoohan call for more shadow over that part of her body.

If Tomblin had written and directed more than one or two epsiodes, who knows what outcome one could have expected with this series.

In the USA this episode wasn't aired at first. There are various guessings about the reason for this. Some say it was censorship because of the Vietnam war, others regard legal issues as the reason.

 

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