Tales of the Unexpected: Run, Rabbit, Run is set in France during 1954 some ten years after American teen Bobby Simpson (James Aubrey) lived there during the war lodging in a house owned by Nathalie Vareille (Leslie Caron) & her husband Jacques (Constantine Gregory). Robert is now a writer & currently researching a book about the French resistance & he knows that Jacques was a member, although now dead his wife Nathalie is still alive & more than happy to talk about her husband & his association with the resistance. However since ten years have passed Nathalie is finally able to tell Robert a strange & perverse story...
This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 4 from season 5 & originally aired here in the UK during May 1982, the third of six Tales of the Unexpected episodes to be directed by John Jacobs this is pretty poor stuff. The story by John Bakkenhoven was dramatised by Robin Chapman & one has to say that I'm not sure what the Tales of the Unexpected production team were aiming for with Run, Rabbit, Run. The story is largely told in flashbacks as Nathalie recounts the bizarre (not to mention throughly dull) story of her husband Jacques, the resistance & twisted revenge but since you know she's still alive & that Jacques is dead at the very start there's not much the writer can do, I mean it's pretty straight forward stuff & far from shocking. Millions of people died during World War II be it soldiers or innocent Jews at the hands of the Nazi's so the odd death of one guy is hardly shocking during that time period is it? Then there's the fact the ending which isn't really a twist is narrated during the present day & not shown while anything else Nathalie says has been shown in flashback which also lessens the impact of what would have been a poor ending anyway. A waste of twenty five minutes.
Shot entirely on videotape in a studio, the Paris street seen at various points in Run, Rabbit, Run is one of the poorest looking sets I've ever seen, it really is that bad. It just scream 'really bad studio' every time you see it. Despite being set in France everyone speaks in English although the French speak in unconvincing thick accents just so we know who are meant to be who. Usually you can count on Tales of the Unexpected to throw up a decent cast & a few familiar faces but Run, Rabbit, Run is populated by no-one I've ever heard of & full of terrible performances, I mean just check out those awful French accents & then try to disagree with me.
Run, Rabbit, Run is a poor Tales of the Unexpected episode which has a rubbish story without any sort of twist, terrible production values & awful acting. One to avoid unless your a die hard fan of the series & I doubt there are many of those about.
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