The Big Valley (TV Series) Alias Nellie Handley (1969) User Reviews

Undercover Victoria

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 11 October 2016]

Barbara Stanwyck got to dust off the Irish brogue she used in Union Pacific and The Plough And The Stars for this episode where the Barkley matriarch goes undercover in a prison. Victoria Barkley is on the prison reform board and there have been rumors about the prison that Richard Anderson is the warden of.

If anything the prison is worse than anything described. Stanwyck is put in a cell with Susan Oliver who gets by with a little sex for the staff. And her family does not know where she is, at least at first.

The guest stars and Barbara Stanwyck really shine in this story. I should also mention that Gavin McLeod is in this episode as a brutal guard and Edith Leslie is cast here as an outlaw mom and a brutal prisoner.

Reform comes to the California penal system in a fine Big Valley story.

This is an episode you will remember long after viewing.

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 23 April 2013]

This episode features another show dealing with prison mistreatment and prison reform. It appears that someone in the production staff had someone in prison since they had at least one episode per season dealing with this issue.

Barbara Stanwyck gives an outstanding performance in this episode as she, for some unknown reason, wants to experience a woman's prison so she can give a true account of the terrible conditions. Victoria decides to become a petty thief so she will be placed in the prison. Not wanting to use her real name she uses the alias of Nellie Handley, an Irish woman with a criminal background. So it kind of different when we hear Victoria using an Irish accent and language while the state prison.

Without giving a spoiler alert, I am sure that you can guess that Victoria experiences a wide variety of humiliating and filthy duties. From a brutal guard to a near death incident with a serious illness, Victoria gets the full gambit of late 1800 prison life.

When the warden finds out the true identity of Nellie Handley, Victoria's life is in major jeopardy. When the only person that knows about Victoria in jail ends up dead, the warden wants an accident to put an end to Nelly Handley's life for good.

The episode is packed with some fine actors. Gavin MacLeod, Richard Anderson and Susan Oliver all give fine performances in this show. But the real stand-out in this episode is Barbara Stanwyck. Ms Stanwyck gives 100% of herself to this show making an otherwise uninteresting topic entertaining. This is one episode you will remember long after viewing.

Memorable Episode

[summerfields · 8/10 · 14 April 2010]

Personally, I have always liked this episode because it shows the sheer gutsy personality of the show's matriarch: Victoria Barkley.

Stanwyck is terrific as always ("I promise you, I cannot walk on water" said Stany at an Awards Dinner at the podium once); apparently Stanwyck knew she was great in this show and that the series was a winner.

She was right on both accounts.

Here, Victoria purposely poses as a thief "Nellie Handley", an Irish gal who was once real herself. Purpose is to find out personally and first-hand - the conditions of the deplorable women's prison.

Memorable is sleezy Gavin McLeod as a prison warden-type and Big Mary - a gal who eventually helps Victoria.

Susan Oliver is here as Kate, who eventually befriends Victoria. "She's no more Irish than I am" says Kate when Victoria is talking in her sleep in a mental frenzy due to having the flu.

Big Mary

[nowillb · 23 July 2011]

Big Mary in this episode was my Great Aunt Edith Nowill Leslie. She was a bigger then life woman with a heart of gold. She was a opera singer whom had to leave the business after a collapse lung. She was married to Albert who made all her clothing. She never did have children but all her nieces, nephews and great niece's and nephews where hers. She came from Springfield Mass and had a sister Elsie and brothers Ben and Harold.

Our Aunt has been sorely missed for a great many years and was taken from us way too soon. I was 10 when she died but came remember her visits East where always a treat..

Love you Aunt Edith.

Bonnie

Really Subpar

[starmmjaid · 3/10 · 5 October 2013]

This is one of my favorite "Big Valleys" because it's so bad. I am surprised Barbara Stanwyck let this go to air. The plot is old (Stanwyck goes to a women's prison under cover to expose mistreatment and horrible conditions). The plot then thickens.

Don't get me wrong. I love Barbara Stanwyck and I love Susan Oliver, but this plot is so contrived and the dialogue is so lame, it's funny. The mistreatment isn't so bad, either -- not by today's standards anyway. You have to love both Stanwyck's and Oliver's mascara and eye shadow. How bad can the conditions be when you get to wear Revlon inside the big house? And do we really believe Oliver "washes in the trough with the others" when her face and hair (if not her prison clothes) look like she's ready to walk the ramp in a beauty pageant? Stanwyck's Irish brogue isn't consistent (maybe she thought after reading the script, "Why bother?"); Gavin McCleod does a cartoonish "Snidely Whiplash" type; the list goes on.

"Do you think Kate traveled miles with a bullet in her leg just to tell that ridiculous story?" Just one of many memorable lines that will keep you in stitches.

Alias Victoria Barkley

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 17 October 2016]

This is an episode people either love or they hate. If you're a Barbara Stanwyck fan, you probably love it. If you're just a fan of the show instead of the actress, you are likely to consider it one of the weaker, more far-fetched episodes.

In the story, Victoria Barkley has decided to go undercover as a jewel thief. This is because she wants to be arrested by a sheriff who will have her put into a women's maximum security prison. We learn the sheriff is in on the plan. Once inside she intends to observe first-hand the harsh conditions experienced by the inmates. And that is exactly what she does. But when the sheriff is killed and the corrupt warden and his associate learn she's really Victoria Barkley, not Nellie Handly-- they decide to do away with her so she can't get out and go to the prison reform board, of which she is a member.

Notice that I am spelling Handly without an 'e.' On the IMDb, this episode is listed as 'Alias Nellie Handley' but the opening credits of the episode show the title as 'Alias Nellie Handly' with no 'e.'

There are several far-fetched elements which make the episode most implausible. For one thing, we do not see a trial where a death certificate of the real Nellie who died on a boat would likely have been produced. And how would her picture not appear in a newspaper, especially if she was a notorious jewel thief. Thus her capture would be printed in papers across the region, and any printed photo would reveal her real identity to the people back in Stockton, namely her own family.

Another problem is the inconsistent Irish brogue Stanwyck uses while undercover in the prison. This is done so when she talks in her sleep, her cellmate will know she's someone else. But the accent is as phony as they come, and since Stanwyck doesn't really do a convincing job with it, it just seems silly. In my opinion, it would have worked better if she came into the prison and acted as if she was in shock; or out of defiance, refused to speak at all. Then it would be surprising when she talked in her sleep as Victoria.

All of this might be overlooked, since there is an exciting climax where Victoria is being drowned in a lake and Jarrod rides in and rescues her. However, there are continuity errors in that scene. In some shots, Stanwyck's hair is fully wet with all the curls gone out...then in other shots she still has curls and her hair is merely damp. My guess is she was completely dunked when they were filming the long shot, but for the close-ups, which were done later, she didn't want to get her whole head wet again so she wasn't dunked that time.

These things, in addition to the obvious use of mascara and hairspray on the inmates, should have been addressed so some amount of realism could be achieved. While the episode tries to depict the brutality of a women's prison at the time, and manages to do so in a fairly entertaining way, it is practically sabotaged by the inconsistencies.

"Das ist kein mann!"

[grizzledgeezer · 1/10 · 16 January 2016]

"The Big Valley" -- an uncompromising TV series that blazed a trail of artistic verisimilitude marking a new era in dramatic honesty for American television!

Not.

This ready-for-MST3K episode begins with a rider dressed in black leather being shot by a lawman. As he turns over the unconscious rider, we see that "he" is actually a woman -- Victoria Barkley, in fact. I expected him to declaim Siegfried's (in)famous line, but -- no opera lover -- he didn't. I started laughing anyway, and continued for quite some time.

This ludicrous episode has Victoria working undercover for the governor, to confirm the wretched conditions in the woman's section of a state prison -- a dangerous task that any wealthy woman who exploits the masses would be honored to perform. (We know it's a state prison, because when Victoria arrives, the sign says "State Prison".)

The lawman has warned her about the terrible things that happen to women in prisons, but (other than Big Mary), no female even remotely resembling a lesbian -- stereotypical or otherwise -- shows up.

"The Big Valley"'s insistence on historical accuracy and realism is confirmed by the way Victoria's eye shadow is toned down from its heavy application in preceding scenes.

Victoria, guarded by a leering Gavin McLeod, is brought before the prison's warden, Richard Anderson. Apparently realizing he's surrounded by mass quantities of ham, Anderson wisely restrains himself.

Victoria, pretending to be an Irish immigrant, affects the worst Irish accent in theatrical history, sounding as if she has a head cold, enlarged adenoids, //and// a bag full of marbles in her mouth.

Another reviewer describes the plot as now thickening, but congealing is a better adjective. What follows is as predictable as dropping an egg on the sidewalk. This includes Victoria mumbling in her sleep and giving away everything.

"Alias" is very much a "party" movie to share with friends. Strongly recommended if a you need a really good laugh.

PS: On 1/16/2016, "Alias" was followed on MeTV with "The Odyssey of Jubal Tanner", a Gunsmoke episode that shows what you can do with a good story and a carefully written script that lets the actors actually act.

Awful

[mlbroberts · 3/10 · 28 April 2020]

Mama Victoria has herself imprisoned without telling any members of her family about it, which is the stupid start of a really bad episode. The stupid middle is why would a woman like Victoria Barkley do that when she had a lawyer son who could have checked into the supposedly corrupt prison much more effectively and safely? The stupid end is where everyone in the family apparently forgives her, even though Jarrod nearly drowns himself and has to kill two men to save her. How Victoria got away with this without her family at least refusing to let her out of her room for a week, much less out of the house, is beyond me.

IMO this is the worst episode of the whole series, just because the premise is so stupid.

Note - I've heard that this originally was intended to be an episode about Jarrod going into prison as an inmate, not under disguise but in there for some trumped up crime against him to ferret out the bad guys as Victoria goes in for. But Stanwyck saw the script and wanted to do it herself, so Richard Long bowed out. It might have made more sense as an episode if Jarrod went in instead of Victoria, but you didn't buck Stanwyck when she wanted something.