Motorist John Forsythe, taking the back roads to San Francisco for a job interview, hits a man standing in the middle of the street; believing he's killed a pedestrian, Forsythe goes for help--but when he returns with the local sheriff, the body has been taken away (the lawman doesn't believe clear-thinking Forsythe, per the usual backwater sheriff in these type of movies, and accuses him of being drunk). Everything that follows is a con job on the poor driver, and it takes Forsythe a while to get the message he's being used as a patsy in an unexplained plot that involves everyone from a bartender to a motel clerk to a garage mechanic to a housekeeper anxious to get out of town. TV drama keeps the suspense level high, even when our hero acts stupidly (finding a body in a freezer, Forsythe cries and panics, which I guess is where the title comes into play). Jack B. Sowards' script doesn't always play fair with the audience (Anne Francis' mystery lady appears out of nowhere in a bar...and vanishes just as easily), however Forsythe's nightmare is an intriguing one...at least until the finale where (intentionally) nothing is solved. This must be the writer's definition of irony.
Review of Cry Panic
