User reviews

In spite of some mistakes and unexplained turns already mentioned by other people, what makes this episode of "The Streets Of San Francisco" interesting, is the fact that there is some kind of "salute" to ALfred Hitchcock's classic. Not only the city of Frisco itself, with some of the same spots(they seemed to me), but the plot also contains elements... it is about a man who recreates the same lover, over and over again. Is like the "dark" side of James Stewart (Scottie Ferguson felt guilty, but was no serial killer). There are even some remarks about the hair of the girls, as Stewart did with Kim Novak... By the way, the name of one of Powers' characters is... Kim.

Stephanie Powers and Edward Mulhare both guest star in this episode. It's an unusual show because there are some interesting parallels--perhaps intentionally so. One reviewer noticed the many similarities to "Vertigo", I was struck by how much it was like "Pygmalion" and "My Fair Lady"--which is REALLY ironic consider that Mulhare came to fame by playing Professor Higgins on stage in "My Fair Lady" (the musical version of "Pygmalion"). The big difference? This Henry Higgins-like character is freaking nuts!

The show begins with Avery (Mulhare) getting into an argument with a woman and killing her! Next, he's at an escort service* and is hiring a woman (Stephanie Powers) that looks almost exactly** like the dead lady. And, when they go out, he begins to remake her into the dead woman! The police get involved after they discover the last body. Can they find the lady in time to avoid her being next?

This is an enjoyable episode but one that really strains credibility--as have some of the previous installments. The psycho angle is interesting but also far-fetched. What's also far-fetched? The police discovering that Avery has taken his new girlfriend to Monterey and they take off that way with their siren blasting. This is a two-hour drive! And, oddly, they INSTANTLY found him about to kill her after this drive! Ridiculous. In fact, though enjoyable there are just so many silly plot devices in this one to take it very seriously.

*This escort service is an actual escort service--not a cover for prostitution. Surprising, huh?

**In a cheesy move, Powers played BOTH ladies. Now I know the plot needed them to look very similar, but the notion of identical strangers is a stupid cliché and made the show seem a bit dopey.

Edward Mulhare was the star of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir tv series, and later he was the owner of KITT from the Knight Rider tv series. I always liked his acting.

In this episode, he plays a deranged middle aged man who has the money, the car, but no woman in his life. He keeps picking up escorts that look like Stephanie Powers, who was 33 in 1975, but she looked several years younger.

The plot holes are massive. How could there be three women that looked exactly like Stephanie Powers in San Francisco? Who cares! It was great to see so much of Stephanie Powers in cheesecake mode! After all, this is fictional, it is not Dateline.

So Mulhare is obsessed with making Stephanie Powers (all three versions of her) into his magical dream girl. Unfortunately, the first two buck his desires, and they end up dead.

Malden and Douglas finally start tracking down the coincidences and get hot on the trail of Mulhare, but at that point he already has his mitts on gorgeous Stephanie Powers (#3).

It is a funny final scene where he is screaming his love to her as she runs away, and he chases her down a hill and loses his footing and rolls down the hill. The good guys arrive just in time to arrest him, after his embarassing final flop as a lothario.