An intense performance by John Forsythe in this TV movie produced by his future "Dynasty" employer Aaron Spelling (one of several that he did) is the highlight of this intense but basically average TV movie that once again shows a man in jeopardy while on the road. Like "Duel" and at least half a dozen other TV movies I have seen from that era, it focuses on what can happen when an obvious city slicker goes through the sticks.
A man appears on the road as the film begins, and in spite of trying to Swerve to avoid him, Forsyth runs him over, and believes that he's killed him. Nobody in the town really want to become involved in this case, and Sheriff Earl Holliman basically wants to drop the whole thing. But you have a femme fatale played by Anne Francis as well as several other shady characters, and it's obvious that something is going on.
It's the performances, not the script that makes this watchable, although there are several scenes that are very intense. A scene of Forsyth finding a dead man in a meat locker is certainly one of the scariest moments I've seen in a TV movie of the week. Forsythe and Francis get the bulk of the best moments, but it is frustrating that someone can't drive cross country in one of these movies without finding terror. It's that cliche that just turns us into a standard movie of the week that most likely was forgotten for years until it popped up to be rediscovered.
A man appears on the road as the film begins, and in spite of trying to Swerve to avoid him, Forsyth runs him over, and believes that he's killed him. Nobody in the town really want to become involved in this case, and Sheriff Earl Holliman basically wants to drop the whole thing. But you have a femme fatale played by Anne Francis as well as several other shady characters, and it's obvious that something is going on.
It's the performances, not the script that makes this watchable, although there are several scenes that are very intense. A scene of Forsyth finding a dead man in a meat locker is certainly one of the scariest moments I've seen in a TV movie of the week. Forsythe and Francis get the bulk of the best moments, but it is frustrating that someone can't drive cross country in one of these movies without finding terror. It's that cliche that just turns us into a standard movie of the week that most likely was forgotten for years until it popped up to be rediscovered.