A very sick businessman brings his wife's piano playing ex-lover into his home in order to carry out his sadistic plan.A very sick businessman brings his wife's piano playing ex-lover into his home in order to carry out his sadistic plan.A very sick businessman brings his wife's piano playing ex-lover into his home in order to carry out his sadistic plan.
Photos
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaLast show of the series.
Featured review
Great casting
Character names are well-chosen in this excellent Kraft Suspense Theatre offering. The memorable bad guy played by Don Gordon is a sadist named Severin, taking the name of the iconic masochist of the classic novel "Venus in Furs". And hero Gary Lockwood is Connery, he of then-current James Bond fame.
Gary plays a jazz pianist, enmeshed in a deadly love triangle that catches up with him right in the first scene. He's flirting with a cutie (Jean Pyne, an actress who never quite made it, though she did have a bit part on "Star Trek" a year later), when two goons sit down at the piano bar and "take him for a ride".
A well-written and suspenseful story is quickly developed, as Gary is brought to the mansion of gangster Gordon, who has married Gary's old flame Sally Kellerman and is a memorably cold and calculating control freak. It soon is revealed that Sally saved Gary's life by marrying Gordon, from whom Gary had "stolen" her, to use the rather dated male chauvinist terminology that fits the story and its '60s backdrop.
Plot twists are very fine: Don is ridiculously nice to his new prisoner, getting Gary's trio (with jazz greats Shelly Manne and Ozzy Mathews guest starring) back together and mapping out his career renaissance with recordings and key major bookings.
This tense situation, in which both Sally and Gary feel trapped (and really are) continues until a spectacular climax at Don & Sally's anniversary party, where Gary finally makes a stand. It's a stylish, exciting finish to a classic episode.
Made right before Gary landed his tremendous career break co-starring in "2001: A Space Odyssey" (though he unluckily had his role cut back by Kubrick after "running too long" previews three years later), it makes one wonder why Coleman never became a big star. He and Kellerman reunited quite successfully on the pilot episode of "Star Trek" a year later, even before DeForest Kelley joined the cast.
Gary plays a jazz pianist, enmeshed in a deadly love triangle that catches up with him right in the first scene. He's flirting with a cutie (Jean Pyne, an actress who never quite made it, though she did have a bit part on "Star Trek" a year later), when two goons sit down at the piano bar and "take him for a ride".
A well-written and suspenseful story is quickly developed, as Gary is brought to the mansion of gangster Gordon, who has married Gary's old flame Sally Kellerman and is a memorably cold and calculating control freak. It soon is revealed that Sally saved Gary's life by marrying Gordon, from whom Gary had "stolen" her, to use the rather dated male chauvinist terminology that fits the story and its '60s backdrop.
Plot twists are very fine: Don is ridiculously nice to his new prisoner, getting Gary's trio (with jazz greats Shelly Manne and Ozzy Mathews guest starring) back together and mapping out his career renaissance with recordings and key major bookings.
This tense situation, in which both Sally and Gary feel trapped (and really are) continues until a spectacular climax at Don & Sally's anniversary party, where Gary finally makes a stand. It's a stylish, exciting finish to a classic episode.
Made right before Gary landed his tremendous career break co-starring in "2001: A Space Odyssey" (though he unluckily had his role cut back by Kubrick after "running too long" previews three years later), it makes one wonder why Coleman never became a big star. He and Kellerman reunited quite successfully on the pilot episode of "Star Trek" a year later, even before DeForest Kelley joined the cast.
helpful•10
- lor_
- Jan 31, 2024
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content