The episodes made : (the ✔️ marks the ones I've seen)
I'm sorry if it's written in bigger and smaller characters, but blogger won't save my changes. I've tried many times to correct it, but it doesn't work.
season 1
1-my wife Geraldine✔️ with Charles Boyer
2-Dante’s inferno
3-the lost silk hat
4-backstage
5-welcome home
6-the island
7-the officer and the lady
8-knockout
9-the man on the train ✔️ with David Niven
10-trail’s end
11-sound off, my love
12-man in the box
13-no identity ✔️ with David Niven
14-the man who walked out on himself
15-the last voyage
16-night ride ✔️ with David Niven
17-ladies on his mind
18-to whom it may concern ✔️ with David Niven
19-shadowed
season 2
1-finale ✔️ with David Niven
2-the squeeze
3-a place of his own
4-love at sea
5-the witness
6-a matter of advice ✔️ with David Niven
7-search in the night
8-moorings
9-the hard way
10-for art’s sake ✔️ with David Niven
11-the girl on the park bench
12-the room
13-a man of the world ✔️ with David Niven
14-the gift
15-house for sale
16-the test
17-the bad streak
18-a string of beads
19-indian taker
20-second dawn
21-the gun
22-the bomb ✔️ with David Niven
23-meet McGraw
24-detective’s holiday
25-an operation in money ✔️ with David Niven
26-lady of the orchids
27-the book ✔️ with David Niven
28-a study in panic
29-masquerade
30-village in the city ✔️ with David Niven
31-the doctor and the countess ✔️ with Charles Boyer
season 3
1-the man in the cellar
2-never explain ✔️ with David Niven
3-interlude
4-the wallet
5-the adolescent
6-the contest
7-vote of confidence
8-my own dear dragon
9-marked down
10-meet a lonely man ✔️ with David Niven
11-bourbon street
12-a championship affair
13-the answer ✔️ with David Niven
14-go ahead and jump
15-a bag of oranges
16-stuffed shirt
17-breakfast in bed ✔️ with David Niven
18-the good sister
19-a kiss for mr. Lincoln
20-fair trial
21-the wild bunch
22-tusitala
23-the returning
24-Eddie’s place
25-Henry and the psychopathic horse ✔️ with David Niven
26-night at Lark Cottage
27-the girl on the bridge
28-the collar ✔️ with David Niven
29-Madeira, Madeira ✔️ with Charles Boyer and David Niven
30-with all my heart
31-the house always wins
32-uncle Fred flits by
33-alias Mr Hepp
34-Trudy
35-broken journey
36-the executioner
37-the frightened woman
38-award
season 4
1-the firing squad
2-face of danger
3-let the chips fall
4-full circle ✔️ with David Niven
5-a spray of bullets
6-the devil to pay
7-here comes the suit ✔️ with David Niven
8-looking glass house
9-something very special
10-a place full of strangers
11-one way out ✔️ with Ida Lupino
12-dark meeting
13-magic night
14-tunnel of fear ✔️ with David Niven
15-high stakes
16-the listener
17-safe keeping ✔️ with David Niven
18-no limit
19-command
20-once to every woman
21-red wine
22-to die at midnight
23-desert encounter
24-the story of Emily Cameron
25-the rites of spring
26-autumn carousel
27-wall of bamboo
28-touch and go ✔️ with David Niven
29-a long way from Texas
30-that woman
31-the other room
32-one forty two
33-beneath the surface
34-watch the sunset
35-second chance ✔️ with David Niven
36-woman afraid
37-the stacked deck
38-distinguished service
39-yellowbelly
40-the stand-in
41-success story
My wife Geraldine
Mr Graham (Charles Boyer) is under suspicion of having killed his wife Geraldine. When his landlady goes to tell him that an investigator will come with questions for him, he tries to explain the truth to her. He was a lonely man with little hope, until one day someone answered his job application. Mr Martin values age and responsibility over youth, and is ready to give him a good job, but is startled to learn that he has no children. When Mr Martin asks him if he is at least married, he knows that he will lose the job if he tells the truth, so he lies and says yes. He starts a different life that includes a wife: he rents a larger apartment, he buys women clothes and perfumes and magazines, he writes letters addressed to her, everything to make everyone believe that he has a wife. Geraldine became such a part of his life that people didn't even realize that they had never seen her. One day he is hit by a car coming out of a parking lot, and a man from the hospital keeps calling home to let Geraldine know, but nobody answers of course. Neighbours complain about the phone ringing night and day and the landlady Rose Barton goes to check. She finds the apartment empty, while his boss comes to see if Geraldine's alright because Mr Graham told him she was ill. Confronted with these lies, they start suspecting that something happened to her, but instead of calling the police Mr Martin calls the firm's investigator.
Rose wants to help him because he's afraid that nobody would believe him and also he'd lose his job, so when the investigator comes she pretends to be his wife until he goes away.
She tells him that the easiest way to solve things would be to get married for real, but now Geraldine is so real in Mr Graham's mind that he can't imagine to give her up...
My wife Geraldine
Mr Graham (Charles Boyer) is under suspicion of having killed his wife Geraldine. When his landlady goes to tell him that an investigator will come with questions for him, he tries to explain the truth to her. He was a lonely man with little hope, until one day someone answered his job application. Mr Martin values age and responsibility over youth, and is ready to give him a good job, but is startled to learn that he has no children. When Mr Martin asks him if he is at least married, he knows that he will lose the job if he tells the truth, so he lies and says yes. He starts a different life that includes a wife: he rents a larger apartment, he buys women clothes and perfumes and magazines, he writes letters addressed to her, everything to make everyone believe that he has a wife. Geraldine became such a part of his life that people didn't even realize that they had never seen her. One day he is hit by a car coming out of a parking lot, and a man from the hospital keeps calling home to let Geraldine know, but nobody answers of course. Neighbours complain about the phone ringing night and day and the landlady Rose Barton goes to check. She finds the apartment empty, while his boss comes to see if Geraldine's alright because Mr Graham told him she was ill. Confronted with these lies, they start suspecting that something happened to her, but instead of calling the police Mr Martin calls the firm's investigator.
Rose wants to help him because he's afraid that nobody would believe him and also he'd lose his job, so when the investigator comes she pretends to be his wife until he goes away.
She tells him that the easiest way to solve things would be to get married for real, but now Geraldine is so real in Mr Graham's mind that he can't imagine to give her up...
The man on the train
Bill Langford (Niven) speaks to a man on a train, but then the man’s brother-in-law tells him that it’s impossible, that it couldn't have happened. He’s questioned by him and also by sir Charles and by an inspector: they all say that the man disappeared after stealing 75000£. Sure of what he saw, Bill goes to sir Charles’ secretary’s house: he saw the man talking to him at the station, and yet the secretary denied it; after seeing the mysterious man entering the house, Bill confronts the secretary, telling him to look at the man in his apartment. The secretary then sees him too and starts crying out that it’s impossible because he killed him after taking the money. The police arrest him but they find nobody in the house. The case is now wrapped up, and at the end we see that the man was a ghost, and he vanished after having accomplished his mission.
No identity
No identity
Lovely and touching. Mitch (Niven) and Lynn (Frances Rafferty) Carver have been married for a year, when on a fishing trip Mitch meets a nine-year-old boy, Tommy, who lives in an orphanage. Mitch was adopted when he was little, and he had no identity, he was simply found. When he hears that Tommy was found too and has no identity, he’s struck with the desire to adopt him. Lynn doesn’t want to hear about it, she wants a family of her own, but Mitch grows very fond of the boy during his visits to the orphanage, and one day he brings him home. Lynn comes home happy to tell her husband that she’s pregnant, and is faced with the surprise of the boy in her home. She can’t adjust to him, although he’s a lovely, polite, good boy, she resents his presence and the affection that Mitch has for him. A few months go by, but at last Mitch realizes that the situation is not improving, and thinks he’ll have to bring the boy back to the orphanage.
Mitch’s mother tells him that she didn’t love him at first, it was very difficult for her, but she did eventually and her love grew deeper and deeper, and tells him to try and understand Lynn’s point of view. To save his family, Mitch tells her that when he’ll get back from his business trip, he’ll take Tommy back.
While Mitch is away, Lynn falls down the stairs; Tommy is deeply worried but hurries to the phone to call the doctor, and says “this is Tom Carver, my mother just fell down the stairs” and then calls Mitch’s office “This is Mr Carver’s boy, Tom; you better find my father right away and tell him to get back here”. Then, he tries to make her comfortable while waiting for the ambulance, and tells her “you mustn’t be scared mother, there’s nothing to be scared of” and “you rest … you’ll see, I’m going to take care of the both of you, honest I will” and he kisses her…
Maybe I was already in some kind of emotional state, but when he said on the phone “my mother” it was the most touching thing, and the way she looked at him said it all.
Tom waits at the hospital, when finally Mitch arrives. They are told that she’s ok, and her daughter is alive too, although small. When Mitch can see her, she tells him how wonderful Tommy was, and when Tommy calls her Mrs Carver again, she asks him what did he call her when she fell down the stairs. “I called you…mother” - “that’s right, mother, don’t you ever forget it”.
Now Tommy finally has a family, as he always wanted, and a little sister too :-)
Night ride
Interesting, it somehow reminded me of DW’s ep Midnight, because of the violence that can derive from panic.
Five people on a night train, the doors close before two policemen can get on board. Four men and a woman start theorizing on the reason why the cops were there: were they looking for somebody on the train? Two people had been killed near the train station, so maybe they were looking for the killer? That means that one of them is a murderer. Phil (Niven) tries to keep cool, to convince the others that all they need to do is simply wait a few minutes for the next stop, when the police will sort it out. A man can’t keep it together, and when the lights go out he takes the train’s emergency axe “to defend himself”. Not knowing who he is, Phil feels that he shouldn’t have a weapon, and tries to take it from him. The little man convinces the others that Phil must be the murderer, calling him manipulative only because he was the only one who didn’t lose his head, and they all turn against him, and hit him. When they finally reach the next stop, the woman runs out to a policeman shouting that they caught the maniac, but it turns out that the real killer had been caught fifteen minutes ago. Three of them are ashamed of how they reacted, they panicked and couldn’t think straight. The fourth man claimed to be a mere spectator of the dance of death, and yet he was amongst those who left their mark on his face; at least the others had the decency to feel ashamed afterwards, which makes him the worst of them all.
To whom it may concern
A sad story. Mr Bingham writes a confession: he stole money from the bank where he works, bought some stocks but lost everything. He mails this letter then he's about to shoot himself when he reads a shocking news on the newspaper: the stocks he bought went to the roof, worth a fortune! He tries everything to get his letter back, but fails. In the morning, his boss tells him that he's been promoted, and speaks of his honesty and integrity, then as Bingham walks to the door he prepares to open his mail.
He's in a desperate state and his neighbour (I think) thinks that he's not well. He shouted at her to leave him alone the night before, so when the postman comes, saying that he didn't put enough stamps on his letter, she doesn't want to disturb him and pays it for him... while she says goodbye to the postman, we hear a gunshot, which they misinterpret as traffic noise. The end..
Finale
Steve and Roger Carlyle are cousins, and since their fathers were twins they too look just alike. Steven is a talented actor and a kind man, but is desperate because he can’t find any acting part because of their resemblance. Roger is not as talented as he is, but somehow is already a famous actor. Jealous of his younger cousin’s talent, he does all he can to make sure that Steve won’t be offered any part, even buys a play on which Steven had put a lot of hope, because it stars two characters looking just alike… Roger has no intention of appearing on stage alongside his cousin, instead he takes it to Hollywood because in a movie he could play both parts. Steven even thinks of killing him and take his place, but he can’t do it. Discouraged, he undergoes plastic surgery to change his features. While recovering at the hospital, he learns that Roger had died and the studio would like him to take his place in the movie…. it ends with Steven’s hands desperately over his face, because of this cruel joke of destiny…
A matter of advice-1954
Jonas Gentry is a doctor, a pediatrician with a lot of patience and love for children. He has three of his own. The eldest is excited about her new play, she'll be playing Juliette and her parents will be present... but then the play is disturbed by an "emergency call" for him! It's a new-mother that keeps worrying over nothing, always calling him for stupid things: he's very patient, always says "anytime.
Later though he's rather upset, thinking he's a bad father, not seeing that his other daughter is growing up, ruining his oldest daughter's play... but it wasn't ruined and all's well, because the way she reacted to the interruption was very appreciated so she has no resentment at all for him, his whole family loves him and they are about to enjoy a quiet family night when there's another call: that mother called to say that the baby is finally asleep...
For art's sake
Ted Parker is a mature rich bachelor collecting young girls: the latest one is 21-year-old Lois (Nancy Gates), a terrible painter. He's trying to woe her by making her think that she's a success. Ted asks his friend Addy Bancroft (Barbara Billingsley), a famous art critic, to look at her paintings, then contrary to her opinion he sets up a gallery for Lois, asking people he knows to visit and even instructing his cleaning lady to buy one. Addy goes along with it only because she's in love with him. Lois' dad comes too, telling Lois that Tommy from Texas wants to talk to her and she's so happy she runs to phone him. Daddy knows Addy already, and seeing the two of them holding hands makes Ted jealous, and he finally realize that he loves her too, and always has. She says "I know" and they finally kiss.
A man of the world
Andy Bush is a very predictable man, about to take his usual annual trip. His wife helps him pack his bag and fixes him something to eat on the train. He resents that everybody seems to know him so well, he want to think that when he's away alone he can be a different man: "I leave my home and my familiar routine and I become a man of the world". On the train he meets a pretty young woman who starts talking to him. She accepts his invitation to have dinner together, wants to see his compartment and leaves her things there saying that she'll retrieve it "later"... she tells him that they could be together in New York a whole week, seeing each other every day, doing everything they want... then she adds that she's in trouble because her husband died and she's pregnant, so she stole some money to make a new life for her and her baby, but a detective is looking for her, and she asks Andy to cover for her saying that they are husband and wife... when a man comes, she takes Andy's arm and says that he's her husband, but when he's directly asked to confirm it he says "no, I only met this young lady half an hour ago, right here...", rather frightened and uncomfortable with such a situation. Later he learns that the woman and the fake-detective were actually accomplices, that it was all a con-game, that they would have blackmailed him for his lie... a real detective on the train finally caught the in the act and ran after them. Andy sits alone in his compartment, eating the food his wife gave to him...
Jonas Gentry is a doctor, a pediatrician with a lot of patience and love for children. He has three of his own. The eldest is excited about her new play, she'll be playing Juliette and her parents will be present... but then the play is disturbed by an "emergency call" for him! It's a new-mother that keeps worrying over nothing, always calling him for stupid things: he's very patient, always says "anytime.
Later though he's rather upset, thinking he's a bad father, not seeing that his other daughter is growing up, ruining his oldest daughter's play... but it wasn't ruined and all's well, because the way she reacted to the interruption was very appreciated so she has no resentment at all for him, his whole family loves him and they are about to enjoy a quiet family night when there's another call: that mother called to say that the baby is finally asleep...
For art's sake
Ted Parker is a mature rich bachelor collecting young girls: the latest one is 21-year-old Lois (Nancy Gates), a terrible painter. He's trying to woe her by making her think that she's a success. Ted asks his friend Addy Bancroft (Barbara Billingsley), a famous art critic, to look at her paintings, then contrary to her opinion he sets up a gallery for Lois, asking people he knows to visit and even instructing his cleaning lady to buy one. Addy goes along with it only because she's in love with him. Lois' dad comes too, telling Lois that Tommy from Texas wants to talk to her and she's so happy she runs to phone him. Daddy knows Addy already, and seeing the two of them holding hands makes Ted jealous, and he finally realize that he loves her too, and always has. She says "I know" and they finally kiss.
A man of the world
Andy Bush is a very predictable man, about to take his usual annual trip. His wife helps him pack his bag and fixes him something to eat on the train. He resents that everybody seems to know him so well, he want to think that when he's away alone he can be a different man: "I leave my home and my familiar routine and I become a man of the world". On the train he meets a pretty young woman who starts talking to him. She accepts his invitation to have dinner together, wants to see his compartment and leaves her things there saying that she'll retrieve it "later"... she tells him that they could be together in New York a whole week, seeing each other every day, doing everything they want... then she adds that she's in trouble because her husband died and she's pregnant, so she stole some money to make a new life for her and her baby, but a detective is looking for her, and she asks Andy to cover for her saying that they are husband and wife... when a man comes, she takes Andy's arm and says that he's her husband, but when he's directly asked to confirm it he says "no, I only met this young lady half an hour ago, right here...", rather frightened and uncomfortable with such a situation. Later he learns that the woman and the fake-detective were actually accomplices, that it was all a con-game, that they would have blackmailed him for his lie... a real detective on the train finally caught the in the act and ran after them. Andy sits alone in his compartment, eating the food his wife gave to him...
The bomb
Interesting. Jane (Margaret Sheridan) tells her boyfriend Richard( Niven) that she’s going to marry Charles Quine (John Dehner). He seems to take it very well, all considering. He congratulates them and goes away without fuss. They need to get going to meet his family for the engagement celebration. Richard takes a piece out of Charles’ car, so that when they try to leave it won’t start. Richard shows up again, with the excuse that he got her a wedding present, and offers to drive them himself. Janet doesn’t seem keen on the idea, she thinks he’s plotting something, but it’s late at night and therefore not easy to find a mechanic, and they’re late, so they accept.
A flat tyre and the heavy rain will force them to take shelter. They enter an abandoned place but then they discover that there’s a bomb in there, a German bomb that didn’t explode. They’d be glad to get the hell out of there, but are trapped by a cave-in.
The police had been informed by two kids of its presence, but are unable to enter for the same reason. When they realize each other’s presence, the colonel sends them a phone so they can communicate. Charles wants them to get them out of there, but that would take a lot of time, and the bomb has already start ticking, getting slower with time. Richard knows that when the ticking will stop, it will explode, so he takes the phone and asks the colonel if there’s something he could do. The colonel gives him instructions on how to defuse the bomb. Charles is very frightened, and finds it a very bad idea, but of course had no other solution.
Richard follows carefully every instruction, but at some point Charles panics and tries to stop him. The two men fight until Janet hits Charles on the head with her torchlight.
Charles had broken the phone, so now they’re alone. It’s the last step, but the bomb has already stopped ticking, so there is no time to waste, and Richard is faced with the usual dilemma.
This is a black&white movie, so no red or blue wire here. Instead there are three pieces of metal. Two of them are ok, the third will make it explode if touched. Richard simply takes a chance, thinking that they have no more time and no other chance; before touching one, Richard and Janet confess how they really love each other and then , luckily, he touches one of the right ones and the bomb is defused.
It ends with Richard and Janet kissing each other while Charles comes to. Richard admits that his present was the piece of the car, and that all’s fair in love and war..
An operation in money - 1954
A funny little thing :lol: Andy Fields (Niven) has been working in a bank for eight years, but now that he wants to marry his fiancée, he realizes he can’t do it with his current salary. He asks for a raise but it’s denied. He even gets threatened with a decrease. Tired of being taken for granted, to the point of disrespect since they don’t even know his name, he makes a plan. There’s going to be an important merger between the bank and Mr Hepplewhite, and auditors will be checking the accounts. Even the slightest error might make him rethink the deal. Andy hides 100.000 $ to force the board of directors to give him a raise. He says that a scandal, as well as the loss of money, would break the deal. He even spends his own savings to make them think that he’s spending their money, to try force their hands. They seem to capitulate, when they’re informed that the audit will be postponed, so they’ll be able to find the money to cover the loss, and he’ll be left with nothing.
With an astute plan b, Andy befriends Hepplewhite and subtly convinces him that it should be wiser to do the audit at once, so the directors sign a new contract for him, at 300$ a year for his current position. Then, they promote him to vice-president only to invalidate the contract and then they fire him. It seems everything’s lost when suddenly Hepplewhite comes in, and is very happy to meet him, even invites him and his fiancée over for dinner, but when he learns that Fields ‘might have to go away because ‘they haven’t reached an agreement on his salary’ he says that if they let him go, “if this organization is as short sighted as that I don’t want any part of this merge” … so it ends with Fields and his now wife entering the bank all smartly-dressed, and going into his new office as the new vice-president in charge of security, “non negotiable” :-p
The book
Mr Mason is a writer of famous adventure books. He never travels, he gets his inspiration from books in the library. This time he borrows a specific book on Tibet that is wanted by another man, who approaches him and then later tries to steal the book from him, but in his hurry he doesn't look and gets hit and killed by a car. Mason doesn't know at this point that he was an assassin.
When he finds a note hidden between two pages glued together, with an address, a time and the name Clarissa, he goes to the appointment. He meets Linda and another man, and he's rather shocked when they give him a gun and he learns that Clarissa is the name of the ship where he's supposed to kill a man, a foreign minister of some Country (not specified). He can't pull back now, he goes along looking for a way out at every turn. Nobody knows what the assassin looks like but he's supposed to wear the uniform of a sailor looking much like him. When the sailor shows up and they see that he's much shorter than Mason, they understand that Mason is an impostor. They don't shoot him right away so not to make noise in a public place, and while they are going out Mason intentionally bumps into a man so that he would start a fight. Mason escapes, sees the woman trying to run away and stops her. A policeman sees him, whistles for a back-up and they all go back inside. Presumably all the dangerous conspirators are arrested. What we see is Mason in his own apartment making up the end of his new novel, where he grabbed the woman, hold her tight and silenced her screams with kisses... (that is, in the fictional novel :p )
Mr Mason is a writer of famous adventure books. He never travels, he gets his inspiration from books in the library. This time he borrows a specific book on Tibet that is wanted by another man, who approaches him and then later tries to steal the book from him, but in his hurry he doesn't look and gets hit and killed by a car. Mason doesn't know at this point that he was an assassin.
When he finds a note hidden between two pages glued together, with an address, a time and the name Clarissa, he goes to the appointment. He meets Linda and another man, and he's rather shocked when they give him a gun and he learns that Clarissa is the name of the ship where he's supposed to kill a man, a foreign minister of some Country (not specified). He can't pull back now, he goes along looking for a way out at every turn. Nobody knows what the assassin looks like but he's supposed to wear the uniform of a sailor looking much like him. When the sailor shows up and they see that he's much shorter than Mason, they understand that Mason is an impostor. They don't shoot him right away so not to make noise in a public place, and while they are going out Mason intentionally bumps into a man so that he would start a fight. Mason escapes, sees the woman trying to run away and stops her. A policeman sees him, whistles for a back-up and they all go back inside. Presumably all the dangerous conspirators are arrested. What we see is Mason in his own apartment making up the end of his new novel, where he grabbed the woman, hold her tight and silenced her screams with kisses... (that is, in the fictional novel :p )
Village in the city - 1955
Interesting, a mystery story with a twist. Of course nowadays I’ve seen everything so it didn’t really surprise me, but I like how it was made, it was nice and interesting.
It starts with hands stealing a ring from a girl that has been strangled. It is not explained how she was found, who called the police, but it happened very quickly, before in the morning the police are already investigating. The murder happened in the studio of a talented painter, Royal Thurston (Niven). He’s dismissed as a suspect right away because Leslie Lorraine (Antony Eustrel) says he’s been in his house all evening and all night. Roy is doing a portrait for him, but a terrible headache forced him to spend the night there. Roy explains that he picked up some kind of disease in India that no doctor knows how to cure: he calls it “Thurston’s folly”. Lorraine describes Roy as “the world’s greatest living artist”.
Roy was in love with the girl, she had been his model for a year, but she loved many men, couldn’t love just one, “she was very democratic” as Roy put it. He’s so shaken up by her death, that he wants to find her killer : “I’ve always been very good at anything I ever attempted; this time I’m gonna try extra hard”.
He questions a man who gave her many gifts, jewels that she loved, and he explains that it wasn’t a crime of passion. He had given her a very precious gift, a ring, very valuable, which was not found on her body. Next Roy goes to question his cousin Mario, who is in the criminal business I’d say, since he sends two men to beat him up good. He stands his own quite well, until a terrible headache knocks him down. Police sirens stop them from hitting his head with a brick, and a girl, Sally, helps him up and takes him home. She looks around, among his stuff, and for a moment I thought she might be bad news, but only for a moment.
Next thing we see, Roy is finishing a portrait he made of her. Leslie comes to him and appears annoyed by it, saying that he did a lot of those, but in her memory Roy wants to complete this one with the jewels she liked the most: a necklace and a ring, “I’m dreaming it up, it’s the sort of thing she would have loved”. Leslie asks to buy it, but Roy doesn’t want to sell it.
Sally comes back saying that she forgot something, while he’s having another one of his headaches, his “spells”, as he calls them. This time it’s unbearable, so Sally takes him to Leslie’s house to retrieve his medicine. While there, Roy finds the ring, hidden; a ring looking exactly like the one he painted. When Roy finds a gun into Sally’s bag he realizes that she’s a policewoman. He gives it back and tells her to hide while he talks to Leslie, because she might hear something interesting. Leslie comes home with the portrait of the girl that Roy just finished, but he blackened out her hand. Roy says “you always hated Sharon, haven’t you?” and “was it this what you wanted?” and Leslie replies “I had to make it look like robbery so I took the ring, I thought it was the safest thing to do”, and then Roy calls Sally. She comes gun in hand, and it’s all supposed to make us suspect Leslie of the murder. He says that now he’s asking too much of him, but Roy isn’t asking anything. He starts talking, saying that he’s come to realize that he’s not just unconscious during his blackouts. When he comes to he finds himself writing about places he’d never been to, or painting things he never saw before… Sally:”you think you killed the girl?” - “I think I must have, I can’t remember”. He asks Leslie to tell him what happened, he doesn’t want to. He tells him not to cover up for him. He insists, until Leslie lets something slip and then tells the whole story: Roy went out that night and he followed him “like you always do” and heard them having an argument, while she taunted him with the ring not realizing the state he was in (a year modeling for him and she never knew about his condition??) and after Roy left Leslie went inside and found her dead, so he took the ring “but I tell you he’s sick, he isn’t to be treated as a criminal”.
Leslie loves him, and has tried to help him as much as he could, but “I’ve always been able to master everything I’ve ever tried. I would have been so disappointed if I hadn’t become a good detective” and Sally calls homicide. Roy solved the case, finding out that he himself is the killer.
The Doctor and the Countess
A famous plastic surgeon (Charles Boyer) is approached by a woman on a ship. The countess tells him that her husband is dead, and she seems very interested in his job. She asks him to join her at her villa, saying that it’ll be full of people. He agrees, and arranges for his bags to be sent to the polyclinic in Rome, but as he arrives at her villa he discovers that there’s nobody else there, and that she misdirected his bags to be bought there. He asks for an explanation: she says that her husband Andrea’s mother had died in a fire, and in trying to save her Andrea had remained disfigured. Still, it is not for him, who is still alive, that she wanted his services. Andrea is so consumed by pain and guilt that stays all day locked up in his room and won’t let any doctor operate on him.
She loves him so desperately that she asks the doctor to make her face hideous so that she’ll be able to share her husband’s life again. Of course it’s madness, the doctor wouldn’t agree to that, but she won’t listen to reason. He tries to talk to Andrea about it, but he refuses to believe that he’d ever do such a thing. With the help of a friend, the doctor prepares everything for the operation, right there at the villa, but then Andrea comes to stop them, yelling that he’ll do anything, but they must stop it. The woman flies into his arms, loving him as much as ever, and the doctor is satisfied now that his plan has worked.
Never explain-1955
Marjorie (Barbara Lawrence), a new girl from the social welfare office, is sent to talk to a man who lives alone with his two children: he is a widower who appears to have no job and refuses to sent his children to school. He tells her that “the world would be a much better place if there were fewer people going around telling the others how to improve it”. Hal Winters (Niven) kisses her and promises to send them to school and find a job, but he doesn’t, so Marjorie and her boss Mr Carter go to his house together. A woman is there and Marjorie gets jealous. He’s out fishing with the kids, and teaching them French. As an explanation, he says that he had a meeting with his children and they chose not to go to school. Carter calls the police to investigate his case, and it turns out that he’s qualified to teach his children after all, and that the woman in his house is his sister-in-law, so Marjorie runs to him. He has a saying: “never explain, your friends won’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway”. After another meeting he proposes to Marjorie and they kiss …
Meet a lonely man
A man is run over by a car. He goes into Burt Sommers room.
A p.i. friend asks George Buber what did he get himself into that they tried to kill him. George tells him his story: he's been a hotel clerk for fifteen years, "fifteen years of being an accommodating nobody in a world of somebodies" yet he liked the job but he felt alone "no messages, nothing waiting for me in that room, no family, no friends, no real life outside the hotel, no fun, no romance, just years disappearing, an existence of too little life and too much loneliness". (I don't remember having ever seen such a raggedy Niven before)
One day he meets young and rich Janice, who appears sure that she knows him already, and she thinks he is Burt Sommers whom she met in Texas last year and who works in oil. He tries to tell the truth, but she doesn't let him, he doesn't know what to do they go out to dinner together so he doesn't say anything anymore. He thinks that for one night only he could enjoy the experience, and is unable to confess. She's already a widow. They dance, and it's like a dream. This wasn't the end of it though. The next day she called him because she left her purse in his pocket, so he takes a day off to go to her and give it back. To better impersonate Sommers, he buys a used car with a Texas plate for 4000$. Her father tells him that after years of sadness she finally seems happy again now, and tells him "she's being pursuing you" to which he replies "I don't think Jan could really being pursuing me because she would have caught me by now, I've not being running very fast" :-)
He wants to tell the truth, "I must". She thinks that he might be married but he's not, so she kisses him... and he doesn't tell her. Now he fakes his (Sommers') presence in the hotel using again his own money to rent a room, "saving of fifteen years had disappeared" , but you know, he was happy now, until... Jan cancels her trip to Paris to come back to him, she talks of marriage and love, but "marry you? that's impossible, I never even thought of that" and then "I could never give you the things you're used to" which of course breaks her heart, to think that he never even considered a life with her, and about the money "I don't want the things I'm used to, I want you". He says "you want me? you want me when I tell you that the money I put in that I. stock is the only money I've got, and the oil in this thing is the only oil I've ever owned" (the thing is something like a lighter I guess but I don't know what he says there so I wrote 'thing' ) and also "I mean that I'm a room clerk on the hotel Gregory, you decided to put me in the oil business" and "my name is George Buber, I've been a room clerk for fifteen years, I've never been near Texas" and "I never thought the time would come I'd have to explain, I never dreamed you might love me. I kept telling myself that it couldn't last and at the same time praying that somehow it could".
He wants to explain himself but she's angry, she thinks that he played her for three weeks. She borrows his car to go to the airport and that's when she hit him. It was dark and she was crying and she didn't see him.
She calls him and the p.i. (who must be a house detective of the hotel) tells him "she doesn't seem to know she hit you". She came back so he runs to her, they kiss and she'll marry Buber :-)
The answer
The Deacon (Niven) is a brilliant writer and an alcoholic. His knowledge is so great that he trades it for drinks. He tells people to ask him any questions and verify his answers on an encyclopedia that he carries around with him. He gets thrown out of Rocco's bar because they think Deacon cheats somehow, but then Rocco's nephew comes home: he is a Hollywood screenwriter in search of himself. Seeing a new face, Deacon tries again and answers three questions correctly. Bart Thomas, Bartolomeo's Hollywood name, is intrigued. He buys Deacon a couple of drinks, and the Deacon offers one free answer in return. Bart asks what exactly is his play about. Deacon has never revealed that to anyone, but he likes Bart and this time he answers: the world has only a few hours left to find a solution that will bring world peace forever. All the major scientists of Earth gather round and put their knowledge into the greatest, most advanced machine ever built. Deacon says that this is where he got stuck 15 years before, when he felt that he had to know everything too. Bart admires him intelligence and his dedication and commitment, and his lack of regrets too.
Deacon finishes his story: the machine finally gives an answer, what will bring eternal world peace, and in the complete silence, with all the faces looking at him, he starts quoting the ten commandments... simple right? but it's true of course. If humanity respected a few simple rules, there would be world peace. Only these: respect your parents, don't fight your neighbours, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't kill.... what else does the world need to know?
At the end, the Deacon leaves, saying that he'll go for a walk by the river and think, and Bart joins him, and they go out together, like kindred spirits.
Breakfast in bed - 1955
Charles (Niven) is draws pictures of women with food for advertisements companies, when a young model makes him think that he's wasting his talent. Germaine (Gloria Talbott) starts talking about Van Gogh and other great artists who did their best work while they were broke and starving, so Charles makes up his mind to enter a competition for oil paintings (her idea, so that her pictures would he hung in a gallery) and leaves home to go to his cottage in a small island. His wife Nina (Barbara Billingsley) doesn't like the girl's influence on her husband, and plans to have him come back to his senses by hiding every comfort in the cottage. Without food and without a fire he's very uncomfortable and in a bad mood, but when Germaine finds the food that Nina had hidden, Charles understands the sabotage and is angry, and he goes away to finish his painting of Germaine.
At the competition, Charles didn't invite Nina because he's not at all happy of what he did, he doesn't like it and openly complains to Germaine, when suddenly he finds out that he won another competition, for watercolors and drawings! Nina secretly submitted his last drawing of her with a loaf of fresh bread and it won all the prizes :-)
The credits read 'Charles', but I thought they all said Chazz.
Meet a lonely man
A man is run over by a car. He goes into Burt Sommers room.
A p.i. friend asks George Buber what did he get himself into that they tried to kill him. George tells him his story: he's been a hotel clerk for fifteen years, "fifteen years of being an accommodating nobody in a world of somebodies" yet he liked the job but he felt alone "no messages, nothing waiting for me in that room, no family, no friends, no real life outside the hotel, no fun, no romance, just years disappearing, an existence of too little life and too much loneliness". (I don't remember having ever seen such a raggedy Niven before)
One day he meets young and rich Janice, who appears sure that she knows him already, and she thinks he is Burt Sommers whom she met in Texas last year and who works in oil. He tries to tell the truth, but she doesn't let him, he doesn't know what to do they go out to dinner together so he doesn't say anything anymore. He thinks that for one night only he could enjoy the experience, and is unable to confess. She's already a widow. They dance, and it's like a dream. This wasn't the end of it though. The next day she called him because she left her purse in his pocket, so he takes a day off to go to her and give it back. To better impersonate Sommers, he buys a used car with a Texas plate for 4000$. Her father tells him that after years of sadness she finally seems happy again now, and tells him "she's being pursuing you" to which he replies "I don't think Jan could really being pursuing me because she would have caught me by now, I've not being running very fast" :-)
He wants to tell the truth, "I must". She thinks that he might be married but he's not, so she kisses him... and he doesn't tell her. Now he fakes his (Sommers') presence in the hotel using again his own money to rent a room, "saving of fifteen years had disappeared" , but you know, he was happy now, until... Jan cancels her trip to Paris to come back to him, she talks of marriage and love, but "marry you? that's impossible, I never even thought of that" and then "I could never give you the things you're used to" which of course breaks her heart, to think that he never even considered a life with her, and about the money "I don't want the things I'm used to, I want you". He says "you want me? you want me when I tell you that the money I put in that I. stock is the only money I've got, and the oil in this thing is the only oil I've ever owned" (the thing is something like a lighter I guess but I don't know what he says there so I wrote 'thing' ) and also "I mean that I'm a room clerk on the hotel Gregory, you decided to put me in the oil business" and "my name is George Buber, I've been a room clerk for fifteen years, I've never been near Texas" and "I never thought the time would come I'd have to explain, I never dreamed you might love me. I kept telling myself that it couldn't last and at the same time praying that somehow it could".
He wants to explain himself but she's angry, she thinks that he played her for three weeks. She borrows his car to go to the airport and that's when she hit him. It was dark and she was crying and she didn't see him.
She calls him and the p.i. (who must be a house detective of the hotel) tells him "she doesn't seem to know she hit you". She came back so he runs to her, they kiss and she'll marry Buber :-)
The answer
The Deacon (Niven) is a brilliant writer and an alcoholic. His knowledge is so great that he trades it for drinks. He tells people to ask him any questions and verify his answers on an encyclopedia that he carries around with him. He gets thrown out of Rocco's bar because they think Deacon cheats somehow, but then Rocco's nephew comes home: he is a Hollywood screenwriter in search of himself. Seeing a new face, Deacon tries again and answers three questions correctly. Bart Thomas, Bartolomeo's Hollywood name, is intrigued. He buys Deacon a couple of drinks, and the Deacon offers one free answer in return. Bart asks what exactly is his play about. Deacon has never revealed that to anyone, but he likes Bart and this time he answers: the world has only a few hours left to find a solution that will bring world peace forever. All the major scientists of Earth gather round and put their knowledge into the greatest, most advanced machine ever built. Deacon says that this is where he got stuck 15 years before, when he felt that he had to know everything too. Bart admires him intelligence and his dedication and commitment, and his lack of regrets too.
Deacon finishes his story: the machine finally gives an answer, what will bring eternal world peace, and in the complete silence, with all the faces looking at him, he starts quoting the ten commandments... simple right? but it's true of course. If humanity respected a few simple rules, there would be world peace. Only these: respect your parents, don't fight your neighbours, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't kill.... what else does the world need to know?
At the end, the Deacon leaves, saying that he'll go for a walk by the river and think, and Bart joins him, and they go out together, like kindred spirits.
Breakfast in bed - 1955
Charles (Niven) is draws pictures of women with food for advertisements companies, when a young model makes him think that he's wasting his talent. Germaine (Gloria Talbott) starts talking about Van Gogh and other great artists who did their best work while they were broke and starving, so Charles makes up his mind to enter a competition for oil paintings (her idea, so that her pictures would he hung in a gallery) and leaves home to go to his cottage in a small island. His wife Nina (Barbara Billingsley) doesn't like the girl's influence on her husband, and plans to have him come back to his senses by hiding every comfort in the cottage. Without food and without a fire he's very uncomfortable and in a bad mood, but when Germaine finds the food that Nina had hidden, Charles understands the sabotage and is angry, and he goes away to finish his painting of Germaine.
At the competition, Charles didn't invite Nina because he's not at all happy of what he did, he doesn't like it and openly complains to Germaine, when suddenly he finds out that he won another competition, for watercolors and drawings! Nina secretly submitted his last drawing of her with a loaf of fresh bread and it won all the prizes :-)
The credits read 'Charles', but I thought they all said Chazz.
Henry and the psychopathic horse-1955
Henry (Niven) is a city man, a psychiatrist, who met his fiancée Claire (Barbara Lawrence) while she was there to attend med school. They got engaged but she hasn’t had the courage to tell her father. She loves her father and will do anything he wants, so Henry has to prove himself to him.
The man has a ranch and only speaks about horses. Their neighbor Cal wants to marry Claire too, and proposes a challenge. Whoever will be able to ride Sundance, a wild black horse, will marry her.
Honestly Claire is pretty yes, but also very very annoying. She told Cal she doesn’t want to marry him, now she tells Henry that by accepting that challenge he basically gave her away since he can’t win; she tells him not to ride that horse or he’ll get hurt; tells him that if he doesn’t try it means he thinks that she’s not worth it… very pretty indeed but I couldn’t stand her.
Anyway, Henry starts talking to Sundance every day like a patient, brings him food, calms him down… when finally Cal comes to try, Sundance throws him down. Next morning, while shaving, Henry hears Sundance quite loudly: looking out the window he sees Cal hurting the horse in punishment, promising to break him :’( so Henry runs out, stops him and they fight. When Henry is down, Sundance hits Cal :-)
Claire’s father is rather impressed by what he thinks Henry did, and wants Cal out of his property once he learns that he mistreated the horse, but even if he’s out of the way Henry says that he wants to ride Sundance. Half-shaved, in a pois-dressing-gown, he rolls up his sleeves and approaches the horse :-p
They’re friends now, so Sundance lets him… and father and daughter can’t believe their eyes.
At the end, Henry chases Claire for all she put him through.
The collar
Interesting. It’s about religion and conscience. Capt. Webber is giving order to kill an entire village of Indian people, the blackfoot, when a man comes in asking to talk to him. He says he’s an Anglican minister, name’s Wyeth (Niven), and he was their prisoner for two years, and is now come to ask that they be spared. They don’t understand him, so he tells them his story.
He was an arrogant priest (with no mustache) who knew more about practical things than about God; quite normal as we all know but here his bishop is a true religious man who sends him far away because he says that mission work will help him find himself and his spirituality. The journey itself was very tiring and wearying; at last he collapsed, he had no more food or water, and was found by the blackfoot tribe. Their chief had a bad history with white men : a priest once laughed watching him being whipped by the soldiers; he was beaten up, chained, showed around like a beast with a collar around his neck, while people went to see him, to laugh and throw stones at him. Finally he was sent to a school where they tried to teach him to be like them but he ran away. Now he hates white men, and takes it out on him. Wyeth tries to tell him that there are good people, but his history with them tells him otherwise. Wyeth is made to wear the same collar the chief brought back with him, and he was whipped, and tortured with thirst. The second year he was put to work as a slave, and then freed of the chains. He lived among them until that same day, when the chief told him that they were to be massacred in the morning, and there was nothing he could do, but his punishment had ended, and now he was like a brother, and there was no need for him to die with them. The chief let him go to his own people, towards safety.
The captain tells him that he’s free now, he’ll be taken home, but he says no, he says that they are his people now, that they helped him to find something in him that he had never found before. He doesn’t hate them, he understood and he saw the hunger in them too, and now asks for their lives to be spared.
The captain replies that he’s a soldier and must refuse his plea. Wyeth chooses to go back to die with them, otherwise everything that he’s been teaching them will have been in vain.
As a last prayer, Wyeth tells the captain that he’ll have the children and the women ride in front of the others, so that maybe he might spare them at least. After he’s gone, the captain orders his lieutenant to let the women and children ride away, although the men will have to die.
Madeira Madeira
Jacques (Charles Boyer) goes to Madeira to find out what happened to an old friend, William, who wrote in one of his letters that his wife “would be the death of me” and shortly after that the papers reported his death. He goes to meet the widow, to see if it might be possible that she killed him. She (Angela Lansbury) is immediately happy to meet him, offers him even begs him to stay there for some time in her husband’s studio, and instantly proposes that he starts writing there. Jacques is a writer who never had anything published, not for lack of talent but for lack of trying. She has a typewriter sent to him and encourages him to write 1000 words every day. She sends his work out without asking him, and since he’s in some trouble financially, she proposes that they get married, because she has enough money for the both of them, and without troubles he could even write 2500 words a day! Jacques agrees, it seems he can’t say no to her, but is not excited at all about it. Shortly before the wedding, William (Niven) appears in his studio, alive and well. He pretended to be dead to escape, because his wife’s lust for success was driving him crazy. Still, he doesn’t want him anyone else to know that he’s alive, he only came to ‘save’ his old friend, so Jacques does exactly what William did, he tells her that he’ll “just go for a little swim” and then disappear…
Full circle-1955
I didn't like this, it was very plain and I didn't like the girl or the ending. It starts with Maxwell (Niven) watching a terrible play and then going home to write his review. He's a critic, and rightly destroys it, but actress Terry (Joanne Woodward) takes it very badly, saying that they rehearsed and rewrote everything again and again and then he destroyed their careers just like that! She wants revenge and that night she goes to his home with a little gun in her hand. He's not at all frightened for himself, he only looks annoyed, and doesn't believe her when she threatens to kill herself in his apartment. She calms down but asks to stick around a while while he goes back to sleep. In the morning she's still there, making him breakfast. He tells her that he has a good technique as an actress, but she's not convincing, and that she should live a little, get to know real people, before she can act convincingly. They start seeing each other from time to time, until after only a few weeks she asks him to coach her for a new play. She reads her lines in front of him, but he tells her again that she's not convincing, that she doesn't seem really in love, and she tells him that she is, that she loves him, and he looks at her and believes her. During a party with their friends, to celebrate their engagement, she makes a big speech about how much she wanted revenge, how he wrote that she was not convincing and yet she convinced him that she loved him! He's devastated. Terry doesn't feel happy about her victory though, and is surprised when he shows up at her door again. He says that she doesn't fool him, that the critic in him recognizes when she was sincere and when she wasn't, and that she can't convince him that she doesn't love him. She hugs him, says "I do love you" and it's the end... honestly, the actress was really not convincing, throughout the episode she was plain and not involving.
Full circle-1955
I didn't like this, it was very plain and I didn't like the girl or the ending. It starts with Maxwell (Niven) watching a terrible play and then going home to write his review. He's a critic, and rightly destroys it, but actress Terry (Joanne Woodward) takes it very badly, saying that they rehearsed and rewrote everything again and again and then he destroyed their careers just like that! She wants revenge and that night she goes to his home with a little gun in her hand. He's not at all frightened for himself, he only looks annoyed, and doesn't believe her when she threatens to kill herself in his apartment. She calms down but asks to stick around a while while he goes back to sleep. In the morning she's still there, making him breakfast. He tells her that he has a good technique as an actress, but she's not convincing, and that she should live a little, get to know real people, before she can act convincingly. They start seeing each other from time to time, until after only a few weeks she asks him to coach her for a new play. She reads her lines in front of him, but he tells her again that she's not convincing, that she doesn't seem really in love, and she tells him that she is, that she loves him, and he looks at her and believes her. During a party with their friends, to celebrate their engagement, she makes a big speech about how much she wanted revenge, how he wrote that she was not convincing and yet she convinced him that she loved him! He's devastated. Terry doesn't feel happy about her victory though, and is surprised when he shows up at her door again. He says that she doesn't fool him, that the critic in him recognizes when she was sincere and when she wasn't, and that she can't convince him that she doesn't love him. She hugs him, says "I do love you" and it's the end... honestly, the actress was really not convincing, throughout the episode she was plain and not involving.
Here comes the suit
It was nice :-) Philip (Niven) likes to read crime stories and hopes for a promotion in his toy firm, but is offered an assistant position instead. As a publicity stunt a man offered him a free suit for a dollar, and he took him on his word. Mr Simpson puts his guy Stanley to work on it, but when he tries it on they hide his own suit so that he’s forced to go out with that flashy, striped suit.
He thinks it’s terrible and embarrassing, but he has to walk with it on.
He’s twice mistaken for someone else and even brought in by the police. They think him a gangster and order him to “just talk!”, so he spends the night talking and confessing and explaining, making it all up from the stories that he read. A lie detector finally reveals that they are all lies, and the whole thing is cleared up. Still, he comes out a different man, more confident and resourceful. At a firm meeting, a colleague who stole his latest idea makes fun of his suit, which is his first false step because the boss likes it. Philip explains his new, much better idea and is offered the vice president position, then he kisses the boss secretary and walks out.
One way out
Diana (Ida Lupino) is a rich woman who is about to leave her husband. King (Scott Forbes) only married her for her money, and now they loathe each other, to put it in his own words. She leaves California and goes to New York, where her friend Connie has found an apartment for her. A very nice one, in a new building, completely empty so she’ll be alone.
The place is so nice that Connie says she would have taken it herself, if only she could afford it, and only Diana could not read envy in such a remark.
Finally Diana settles in with her bags, and is trying to rest when the phone rings, but nobody answers. She tries to call, but it doesn’t work. The piano doesn’t work either. She decides to go out but the door is locked. Frightened, she checks the whole apartment. All the drawers are empty, the living-room windows are totally boarded up, there is no light, only the fridge is full of food. Looking around she finds a suitcase “for her enjoyment”; it contains a phonograph with a record. She plays it and a male voice says that she is completely locked in, and that some of the food might be poisoned but it won’t matter when she will get hungry, but there is one way out if she can find the right key. She frenetically searches for it: the clue is obvious: look up; she sees that there is a key up high but can’t use any chair or table because they’re bolted to the floor. She uses her suitcases and reaches it, but doesn’t know what it opens. She searches the place again for a hidden door and finds one, only to discover that it leads to a small closet with only a noose inside. The sick joke is that her only way out is to hang herself. She screams.
Next thing we see, but we don’t know how long has it been, is King entering the apartment and calling her. She seems oblivious of his presence, and acts as if she’s still in California and must prepare her bags. Connie comes in too, they planned it together to drive her crazy, put her in an asylum and have all her money for themselves.
Diana doesn’t respond to their presence, doesn’t seem to notice either of them. Connie wonders if she might be pretending, but King is sure that she’s gone crazy, and starts searching for the record, but can’t find it. While both King and Connie are in the kitchen looking for it, Diana slips out the door and locks it behind her, leaving the building and the two of them screaming inside the apartment.
Wow, the vengeful ending… still, I’m a bit sorry that it wasn’t better explained at the end: how long has it been? Is she really crazy, or was she simply pretending? The way she locks them in seems very deliberate, so she wanted to do it, but will she be alright now?
Tunnel of fear
Sir George is a millionaire philanthropist. Larkin (Niven) is a man who spent twenty years in prison for the diamonds that "his friend George" stole many years ago. George is now an invalid. Larkin approaches him on the train, threatens to kill him as soon as the train reaches the tunnel, unless he signs a confession and gives him lots of money. George signs, but then says that his signature means nothing without witnesses, and that he's a fool and a coward who never really intended to kill him. Larkin is angry, tells him that he will, pulls a knife out of his jacket. The train enters and exits the tunnel... Larkin didn't do it, admits that he couldn't kill in cold blood, that he lost but somehow he's not even angry anymore... George doesn't reply and Larkin calls his doctor. George died of a heart attack. Larkin learns that George left him good money in his will, but on one condition, that he'd be far away at the moment of his death... at which point the doctor asks for his name... and the episode ends...
Safe keeping
Rather a plain one, not very interesting. It's set in a foreign country, not specified, so that they can brag about how civilized and respectful of human rights England is without offending anyone :-/
yeah, right.
Frank (Niven) is a journalist, and with his photographer he meets a chancellor who asks him a big favour. The man knows that he'll be arrested for treason, and also knows that he won't be able to resist if they torture him, so he wants Frank to smuggle a letter out of the Country, a letter in which he says that anything he may have confessed was only due to torture, that he is no traitor. Frank has his partner take a picture of the letter, so that they might double their chances of succeeding. The photographer uses a very small camera, pretty much like the one used in Roman Holiday, and we're supposed to believe that the picture will be perfectly readable.. anyway, that's not the problem. The episode is very slow; the photographer is taken very soon, and we learn nothing more about it for sure, only at the end Frank 'is told' that he's alright..
Frank himself seems to be in constant danger, although you don't really feel the danger. A former lover, Krista, goes to him in search of the letter. He knows about her job, but she tells him that she wants him safe. He hides the letter in his typewriter and nobody finds it :-/ later some man bring him the chancellor himself, who tells him that they didn't torture him, he came to realize his betrayal by himself, and is ashamed of it and sorry for putting him in a difficult position he asks him to give him back the letter. At last Frank accepts, and gives it back. Before saying goodbye, the chancellor's last words are about him painting a good 'picture' of him, and follow his will to the 'letter'.. so Frank understands that he confessed only to avoid torture but he really wishes for him to make his letter knows, thru the photo that they took. Krista now has it, because he had hidden it in his handkerchief that she took as a memento. When they say goodbye and he's about to leave, he takes the handkerchief back, but it's empty. She has it, and she hands it to him. She kept it safe for him. They say goodbye and he leaves.
Touch and go-1956
Ted (Niven) goes to Walter Pomeroy to ask him 10.000$ to start a new job that could mean a lot to him. They’ve known each other for years but are not friends; Walter laughs in his face and makes fun of him so Ted punches him once. Walter falls down and hits his head. Ted calls him and shakes him but he won’t get up, so Ted thinks he killed him and panics.
He’s about to leave the room when he notices that there was a woman on the phone who heard their whole conversation. He thinks he must find her and explain everything to her, that it was an accident, but doesn’t know his name. It’s a long search but with a lot of persistence and a bit of luck he manages to find her. He sees a cop talking to her, and then she takes the morning newspaper. He thinks he must do something before she reads what happened to Walter, and follows her. He sort of lures her into a dark street and when he sees a policeman he tries to cover her mouth with his hand so that he won’t hear them, and then he kisses her because in the movies that’s the perfect way to shut a woman’s mouth… luckily for Mr Charming she’s not angry about it at all, quite the contrary; he tells her very openly that he had intended to kill her, but came to his senses and couldn’t do it, and could never do her any harm, and when she asks why, asks him to tell her what has been troubling him all along, what has he done to Walter, he finally tells her everything. She listens to him very calmly and then reads to him what the newspaper says: Walter is not dead, he only has a concussion and has not named the man that was with him. Ted is extremely relieved of course. “I’d better go now” - “no” - “after what happened?” - “nothing that a cup of coffee won’t cure” and they walk away together like a couple….
Second chance-1956
Quite plain really. A writer hasn’t had much success lately, until he stumbles on a good story. He writes a new script that could become a Hollywood picture, but is trouble when the lead part is offered to his young fiancée. Lee (Niven) keeps saying that Holly (Beverly Garland) although talented, must start low and learn the acting craft before she can play a big part and become a start. When he refuses to sign the contract after knowing that she’d be in it, she gets furious with him and leaves him. She says she’ll marry another guy who is in love with her and star in his movies and become a star. Shortly after that, he comes home to find her there. He’s very surprised, and she says that she felt lonely and thought about it and understood what he was giving up for her and how much he loved her and came back to him, telling him that he could do his movie without her and it’d be okay. He tells her that he’s been thinking too and maybe she was right and he was afraid that a beginner might ruin his big comeback. At the end, they agree to get married first and worry about their careers later..
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