Thriller (TV Series) Man in the Middle (1960) User Reviews

"When you kidnap somebody, you're supposed to take care of them, Sam."

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 22 January 2012]

Only one word needed to describe this 'Thriller' entry - it's a mess. I spent just way too much time rewinding certain scenes to see what I was missing, but guess what? I wasn't missing anything, the story just didn't make any sense.

Consider this - it's bad enough that Sam Lynch (Mort Sahl) overhears a conversation between two hoods (Werner Klemperer and Julian Burton) who were going to kidnap a wealthy socialite. They later pay him a visit and beat the snot out of him to insure that he keeps their secret. So what does he do? After failing to convince Kay Salisbury's (Sue Randall) father and fiancée that she's become a target, he winds up kidnapping her himself! Except it wasn't really a kidnapping, she was about to go with him voluntarily until she knocked herself out getting into his car. Then, when they arrive at Lynch's out of town cabin, she's bound with a belt across her upper body. Why??!!

And what was the deal with Sam's pal Eddie? After delivering Sam's message to Clark (Klemperer) off-screen, he returns to the bar to meet Sam for a recap. With a bloody outstretched hand and a heavy thump (again off-screen), Eddie's dead! So tell me - how did Sam manage to make it out of the bar with a dead guy in his booth? The bartender was clearly visible from where they sat, and presumably they were visible to him. So it's not like Sam wouldn't have been questioned at some point about dead Eddie. But it just never came up again.

Somehow I think host Boris Karloff might not have thought much about this entry either. This was the first one after thirteen episodes to start the series that he didn't claim it was going to be a Thriller. He might have been better off to quote Sam himself, who stated at one point to the bartender - "Sometimes it's a lousy show Fred, but you stay in your seat." Just like I did.

Mort Was an Actor?

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 12 November 2016]

When I was growing up, the edgiest comedian I knew was Mort Sahl. He, along with Lenny Bruce, wasn't afraid to attack the mores of the day. He was not a likable man, but I liked his approach to comedy. In this one, he plays a play-it-safe kind of guy who gets in over his head. Of course, the wheels fall off this episode when a couple guys, one of them Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink) set up a kidnapping in a restaurant, talking loudly enough so most of New York could hear them. Sahl's character is sitting in the next booth and doesn't need to try to eavesdrop. Soon, he is in the middle of their enterprise, beaten, not believed, forced to leave his comfort zone. One question: Why didn't the guys just kill him. They had no scruples. Still, it became apparent the Mort Sahl is a decent actor and his character is about all that recommends this offering.

Good rule of thumb: don't discuss mob business in public.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 8 October 2019]

Forgotten comic Mort Sahl finds out that being in the wrong place at the wrong time is actually being in the right place at the right time for a wealthy man's daughter (Sue Randall), kidnapping her before mobster Werner Klemperer and his gang does with the intention of killing her. They realize that Sahl overheard them and make threats against him, causing Sahl to take matters into his own hands. Sahl is indeed a goofy type of hero, and his performance isn't really convincing. There are a few exciting moments, including a climactic chase, but overall, the episode really isn't all that interesting.

Mort Sahl directed by Fletcher Markle

[kevinolzak · 3/10 · 14 October 2008]

Producer Fletcher Markle's eighth and final episode (but the only one he directed) provides a rare leading role for political comedian Mort Sahl as an innocent bystander who overhears a kidnapping plot being discussed in the booth next to his in a local watering hole. By the time he exits the bar, the villains are well aware of his unwanted presence and take violent steps to ensure that he chooses not to interfere. Sahl himself opts to kidnap the socialite victim (Sue Randall) after her wealthy father (Hollywood veteran Frank Albertson) refuses to believe his warning of danger. That's about as complicated as it gets as a genuinely intriguing premise is undone by the weak script and performances, especially its "Man in the Middle," Mort Sahl, who comments throughout that everything he's done has turned out wrong. As the lead villain, a low key Werner Klemperer (HOGAN'S HEROES) proves to be just as bland as the hero, engendering no menace whatsoever. Sharp eyed viewers can spot former silent film comedian Snub Pollard in a silent unbilled walk on as a waiter in the bar. All of Fletcher Markle's eight episodes had the same uninspired look and feel so it was quite justified that he be removed as producer, with William Frye handling the horror entries and Maxwell Shane handling the crime ones, at least until Frye became the sole producer by episode 27. From the seventh episode on, THRILLER became a different series and viewers were rewarded thereafter.

Does this episode make any sense at all? Nope....it doesn't!

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 20 October 2018]

Mort Sahl stars in this episode of "Thriller". Most today have no idea who Mort Sahl is, but he was a stand-up comedian from the 1960s and was quite popular back in the day. Unfortunately, this sort of bilge did nothing to help further his career.

When the story begins, Sam (Sahl) is in a bar and overhears two guys talking about kidnapping a local lady. But when Sam goes to the girl's father, they don't believe him and in desperation he does something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever...he kidnaps the girl so that the kidnappers cannot find her! Huh??!!

To say that none of this makes any sense would be an understatement. While quite a few episodes of "Thriller" were duds...this one is the granddaddy of all duds. Pointless and annoying.

Not Involving

[AaronCapenBanner · 3/10 · 29 October 2014]

Mort Sahl plays a TV writer named Sam Lynch who one day in a restaurant overhears two men plotting the kidnapping of young socialite Kay Salisbury(played by Sue Randall) One of the men(played by Werner Klemperer) catches Sam in the act, and later has his henchman rough him up in order to keep him silent. Sam however becomes enraged and determined to warn Kay's father, but he doesn't listen in time, and after Kay is in fact kidnapped, decides to take direct action to save her... Weak episode with a most unconvincing script and a seriously uninteresting lead character, with a miscast Sahl doing his best, but failed entry is yet another unwanted crime story.

Man in a muddle

[blerpnor · 4/10 · 6 March 2024]

Mort Sahl tries to muddle his way through a script that would have had even a competent actor wondering how on earth to put across a character so poorly written. Is the guy a cynical nonconformist, a reluctant hero, or... someone who opened a long-expired jar of mayonnaise and simply can't erase the memory of the awful odor? (This would explain his ready-to-gag expression throughout.) The story--if there is one- is so disjointed, I'd have to view the thing again to know whether (for example) Sahl's character abducts Miss Landers--er, Sue Randall--AFTER his buddy dies from a bloody palm (we can only assume that it's blood) and an off-screen "clunk!" or BEFORE that event. But does it matter? Would that scene be justified in any possible context?

And much suspense as the bad guys tail Mort--for all of maybe three minutes. Then, I guess, they went back home to see what was on TV. "No point in being too persistent: He only heard us plotting our kidnap-murder plan." "Yeah, and I was just thinking: Maybe we should 1) refrain from discussing such plots in public or 2) loudly enough for everyone in the establishment to take in." The hoods assure Mort that, should he have them nabbed by the police, they have compatriots ready to kill him. Scary, scary. If the compatriots are half as accomplished, it'll take them two weeks to cross the street. After which they'll forget who they were supposed to target. "Did somebody write down his name? Anyone?"

After Sahl, whose only knowledge of firing a gun consists of pulling the trigger, expertly knocks off the baddies with one bullet apiece, Sue thanks him for inspiring her. Inspiring her to live (get?) in the world, I guess, or whatever his catchphrase is. I love how Sahl preaches an ethic of non-engagement while telling people to live with zeal. And, for someone ambivalent about getting involved (in general), he sure wastes no time jumping into the path of danger. Minus the four-personalities-rolled-into-one hero, plus a proficient lead performance, this might have amounted to something. What, I have no idea.