This is perhaps the greatest social problem and not just of our own age, but men have always been beating up their wives, and it's not until the last hundred years or so that the wives have been able to do something about it, like getting a divorce. We don't hear much about abused wives in earlier centuries, while John Galsworthy's "The Man of Property" could be the first one to actually pinpoint the problem. There are three wives here, actually four, who all are grossly mishandled by their husbands on a rising gradient for the worse, until one of them actually is beaten to death, and of course he didn't mean to do it. It just happened that way. Two of the husbands get violent and abusive by drinking, and they always keep promising not to do it again, while they always keep doing it again. Finally one of them stops drinking, and there is hope, while the greatest hope is for the one who actually persists on getting a divorce and obviously triumphs - we never learn what happened to that husband, not to the other husband who beat his wife to death. The dramaturgy here is great, it starts slowly to gain momentum half way, and then the drama becomes indispensable, and you will stick to it to the end. Karen Grassle as the lawyer's wife is the great character here with her son as a witness saying nothing until it is over, but all the actors are excellent.

At the time I caught this, the big intrigue was Caroline Ingalls being beat up by BJ Hunnicutt off MASH. I knew who LeVar Burton was, wasn't familiar with Chip Fields, and this was probably the first time I was seeing Howard Duff and Joan Blondell.

When I started watching this way way back, Farrell suddenly had Grassle cornered at the top of the stairs, Burton was beating up Fields and Duff threw Blondell thru a glass display cabinet.

The police were called on Burton and Duff. Duff was arrested. Can't recall what became of Burton.

The impact of Farrell beating Grassle began affecting their son, who was now yelling at mom as well.

I remember one bit where Grassle had stopped her car in the road or something, and some fellow came up and hit the door window, cracking it. Bless her heart.

Unfortunately, the power went out and I have never seen how this ended up for any of these.

I tried asking about (back then with no internet) and the best I could find is that at least one of the wives shot her husband, but don't know which. I think it was either Blondell or Fields (probably Blondell).

When Blondell got Duff out of jail the next morning, she was very apologetic and he turned and grabbed her by the face and said he'd belt her right now if they weren't outside the police station.

Would be interested to see how this ended sometime. The only bit I've managed to find online is pretty much the scene I recall.