Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series) Escape to Sonoita (1960) User Reviews

Stranded in the middle of no where with some scum.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 13 April 2021]

A father and son are driving an oil truck through the desert, near the Mexican border (Burt Reynolds and James Bell) when the truck develops engine trouble. Soon a couple rogues (Murray Hamilton and Harry Dean Stanton) come zooming down this dirt road and nearly hit the disabled truck. Their car has to swerve and they smash up their vehicle...and it's now undrivable. At first, it just seems like an accident and nothing more...until one of the truck drivers looks in the disabled car and sees a woman on the back flood....bound and gagged! Obviously the men in the car are kidnappers...and the gun they pull proves they aren't exactly social workers!! Soon the drivers are able to repair their truck...and the kidnappers take it and leave the others stranded in the middle of no where. What's next? See the show and find out for yourself.

This is a really good episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" because it features some fine actors and some great writing. A wonderful twist and folks getting their just desserts makes this one to see! Very satisfying to watch from start to finish.

"I got to do some figuring."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 1 January 2022]

Wonderful irony for this episode. It all hinges on the truck labeled 'Max Bell Oil Company'. The thugs (Murray Hamilton, Harry Dean Stanton) who hijacked the tanker from Andy (James Bell) and Bill Davis (Burt Reynolds) never took the next step to discover their saving grace was within reach if they were only the least bit curious. The only issue I had with the story was how quickly Pop Andy made it back to their stranded location with the authorities. Didn't he have to walk twenty five miles? At best it would have taken at least eight hours to reach safety, and a bit more time to get back to where he started from. Even so, it was cool to see Burt Reynolds in this episode. He was primarily a television actor until a big break came with "100 Rifles" in 1969. That film was notable for an interracial on screen kiss between Raquel Welch and football player Jim Brown.

P. S. Stick around after the show concludes to watch Hitchcock play tic-tac-toe with the weather girl.

Burt Reynolds heads an excellent cast

[kevinolzak · 7/10 · 27 October 2012]

"Escape to Sonoita" features an exceptional cast of up and coming actors, such as Burt Reynolds, Murray Hamilton, and Harry Dean Stanton. James Bell and Reynolds play a father and son pair of truck drivers who make a stop in the middle of the Arizona desert to allow their overheating vehicle time to cool off. Before long, a badly damaged car rumbles into view, carrying two thirsty men (Hamilton and Stanton) who soon reveal themselves to be kidnappers of a young woman (Venetia Stevenson) tied up in the back seat. The villains decide to transport their ransom money by stealing the tanker and heading South for the Mexican border, leaving the three innocents to broil under the harsh desert sun. The final twist provides a most fitting sting in the tail for the hapless kidnappers. 24 year old Burt Reynolds was in his third year on television, while 34 year old Harry Dean Stanton began in 1954, and 37 year old Murray Hamilton from 1951.

Some Plot Problems

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 3 May 2023]

I did enjoy this. It was one of my favorite episodes from when I was a kid. When the radiator was overheating, before the bad guys came, wasn't there an obvious solution, in hindsight. Burt Reynolds was quite young in this one, already playing a type. The plot is fun and very Hitchcockian. We have suspense and irony. There are some weaknesses if we think too much about it. If you ever saw the silent movie "Greed" there is an element of that here where money trumps everything, including the risking of lives in the desert. The cast is quite good all the way through. It's always fun to see a couple of dopes hoisted on their own petards.

COULD I HAVE SOME WATER???

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 9 December 2023]

Bill Ballinger, a Hitchcock favorite, wrote this desert adventure. Hitch had good taste as Bill wrote the gruesome cult classic, THE STRANGLER (1964), starring manacing Victor Buono. Watch for it.

I have read all the reviews... and I can only add one thing. This is human nature at its absolute worst. This is a very good role for young Burt Reynolds, starring as a truck driver, who along with his dad are stuck in the middle of the California desert.

It's just their luck to run into a couple of kidnappers, and the girl they are holding hostage, to seal the deal. These characters are a despicable bunch, a reworking of the OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT, only without shade!

Their car gets smashed up, and now they have their bloodshot eyes on Burt's truck.

Good luck, Chuck, and with a 100 degress to keep them company. The ending is pure Hitchcock, and so fitting.

This is also the kind of role that brought Burt Reynolds a lot of attention. He was a natural.

One of the best, for character development and originality. From SEASON 5 EPISODE 37 remastered Universal dvd box set.

Escape to Sonoita

[coltras35 · 5/10 · 15 May 2022]

Two kidnappers think they have made their escape when they hijack a tanker in the dry desert, leaving the occupants and a female victim behind to die.

Ok episode that has plenty of drama and horrid villains to keep you interested. The twist at the end was ok, but nothing too remarkable. It's just watchable with Venetia Stevenson sizzling with her beauty.

I am not sure what confuses people about this episode

[cpotato1010 · 5/10 · 2 February 2019]

This story all hinges on the ability of the father to mislead the two kidnappers about the availability of water, and to a lesser extent, the distances to the nearest help.

He surmised that if it was too easy for the kidnappers, he, his son, and the kidnap victim might be killed sooner, rather than left to die in the heat.

However, the idea of drinking the water out of the car's radiator would have been fatal. Cars since 1926 had been using ethylene glycol as anti-freeze in the car's cooling system, and it is poisonous.

As for the truck, it was used, and had a misleading label on it, so there was no obvious reason for the kidnappers to suspect it was full of water. But what if the kidnappers had asked, or even checked for themselves? For all his claims, the guy in the suit was not that smart.

Also, you do not die from lack of water quite that fast. Even in the hot sun.

It was kind of sloppy writing, all in service of the twist, which was not that interesting.

It is the acting of James Bell that makes this episode of any interest at all.

Other than the looks, Burt Reynolds does not add much to this. Of course, he was just starting out, and he got better. Much better.

i don't understand

[stluke1128 · 3/10 · 5 January 2015]

OK.. when i came here to check out if anyone else noticed the inconsistency i immediately saw that it had 8.2 stars. my only thought was this. it's because it had burt reynolds in it. who cares? OK. so now to the inconsistency. at the early part of the show, the old man says that they will wait for a while and start the truck back up and continue going. the radiator was dry. there was no evidence it was a water truck. and the only explanation was that they were going to wait a bit, then start it again and see how much further they could go. then at the end we find out it's a water truck? very poorly executed plot. very unclear. mixed messages sent. 8.2 stars? yeah, right.