This rather weak "damsel in distress" story for GE Theater starring Joan Crawford was a shock to my system: imagine my disgust when it turned out to combine my two least favorite gimmicks of storytelling: the shaggy-dog story and red herrings included. Ughh!
Even worse, this is not the work of some hack TV writer, but IMDb lists three unusual and distinguished scribes: Andrew Solt, Gavin Lambert and playwright John Whiting!
What we get is Joan portraying a syndicated columnist who specializes in "human interest stories", driving from London to Edinburgh to cover the famous theater festival there that had been founded seven years earlier. She has a flat tire (a gimmick I had coincidentally just watched in her 1963 guest appearance on "Route 66") and is helped by a passerby (John Sutton), who gets a ride from her after putting on the spare tire.
The rest of the show is lots of voice-over of her thoughts, as Joan becomes afraid that the guy is an escaped murderer from a neary prison, as per a radio news bulletin. Red herrings include a cute kid with a toy gun playing like a Cowboy when she stops at a gas station and a ridiculous subplot of an American soldier popping up who also needs a lift, and turns out to be Chuck Connors, of all people.
This show goes nowhere and was a complete waste of time (and talent). The only good thing about it was that on YouTube the Ronald Reagan intro was omitted - I hate that bum, who started the right-wing revolution that now is (with the accelerant applied by Trump) destroying our country.
Even worse, this is not the work of some hack TV writer, but IMDb lists three unusual and distinguished scribes: Andrew Solt, Gavin Lambert and playwright John Whiting!
What we get is Joan portraying a syndicated columnist who specializes in "human interest stories", driving from London to Edinburgh to cover the famous theater festival there that had been founded seven years earlier. She has a flat tire (a gimmick I had coincidentally just watched in her 1963 guest appearance on "Route 66") and is helped by a passerby (John Sutton), who gets a ride from her after putting on the spare tire.
The rest of the show is lots of voice-over of her thoughts, as Joan becomes afraid that the guy is an escaped murderer from a neary prison, as per a radio news bulletin. Red herrings include a cute kid with a toy gun playing like a Cowboy when she stops at a gas station and a ridiculous subplot of an American soldier popping up who also needs a lift, and turns out to be Chuck Connors, of all people.
This show goes nowhere and was a complete waste of time (and talent). The only good thing about it was that on YouTube the Ronald Reagan intro was omitted - I hate that bum, who started the right-wing revolution that now is (with the accelerant applied by Trump) destroying our country.