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Run For Your Life
Starring Ben Gazzara
Episode:
The Assassin
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To contact us, click Homepage link above
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Synopsis: Paul tries to stop another dying man who has nothing to lose by committing murder to revenge the college prank which crippled him. With Arthur Hill as Bill Dagen, Andrew Duggan as Lieutenant Jim Seabourne, Harold Gould as Phil Colby, Joan Shawlee as the Landlady, James Seay as the Police Chief, Don Gazzanica as the Detective, Joan Swift as the Woman, Sean Kennedy as the Service Man, Paul Sorensen as the Plainclothes Officer, Don Lorbett as the Mechanic, Kent McCord as the Policeman, Harvey Gardener as the Motorcycle Officer, Frank Baron as the 1st Hoodr, Jim Driskill as the 2nd Hood, Harry Klekas as the 4th Hood, Sharon Dean as the Girl
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Episode 53
Season 2 - #23
First broadcast on
February 27, 1967
Written by Henry Slesar
Directed by Nicholas Colasanto
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SEE INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS OF ENTIRE CAST AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE

Creative Team
Producer
Jo Swerling Jr
Associate Producer
Paul Freeman
Music
Pete Rugolo
Director of Photography
John L. Russell A.S.C.
Art Director
Robert MacKichan
Film Editor
Jean Jacques Berthelot
Unit Manager
Hilton A. Green
Assistant Director
Earl J. Bellamy
Set Decorators
John McCartey &
Robert C. Bradfield
Sound
Lyle Cain
Color Coordinator
Robert Brower
Color by Technicolor
Editorial Dept. Head
Richard Belding
Musical Supervisor
Stanley Wilson
Costumes by Grady Hunt
Makeup
Bud Westmore
Hair Stylist
Larry Germain
Assistant to Executive Producer
Robert Foster
Links to Other Episodes
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 Dagen arrives to find Paul and the landlady
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The Plot:
In San Francisco Paul is trying to see Bill Dagen who doesn't answer his knock. The landlady says she hasn't seen her tenant for a while, and Paul breaks down the door, saying that he fears that Dagen is suffering from depression, and may have harmed himself.
The apartment is empty, but they discover a cache of guns. Dagen then arrives, and engages in a firey argument with the landlady over the guns which he says are perfectly legal, but she tells him to leave.
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Dagen says no one can stop him killing Phil Colby
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Paul explains that he has come as a request from Dr. Mason who has diagnosed both with the same terminal illness. He says the doctor thought he might help Dagen, having adjusted well with his predicament - believing a cure will be found, and meantime living a little harder and faster. Dagen scoffs at the idea, saying that Paul obviously has money that allows him to enjoy the time he has left. But Dagen adds that, while the sentence was initially difficult to cope with, he has found a way of giving meaning to the time remaining to him, declaring that he intends to kill Phil Colby,
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Paul tells Jim that he thinks Dagen is serious
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He adds that there is nothing anyone can do to stop him. Paul tells his friend Jim Seaborne, now with the San Francisco police, about the threat, but Jim declares Dagen to be a harmless crank. When Paul explains about Dagen's terminal illness, both men visit the intended victim at the savings and loan he runs to inform him about the threat. Colby says he hasn't seen Dagen since college, but goes on to tell of a student prank whereby Colby and others locked Dagen out of his room before important exams when the top student desperately wanted to study his notes.
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Paul and Jim tell Colby about the threat
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Dagen's reaction was to try to enter his room through a second-story window, but a fall from the narrow ledge put him in the hospital for two years. He never graduated, and ended up with a permanent disability. Colby appears to look on the event as a trivial matter that was Dagen's own fault, and dismisses the idea that he is in any danger. But when Paul tells him about Dagen's arsenal, Colby is outraged that the police won't stop him. Jim explains that Dagen will deny he made the threat, and all the police can do is harass or hold him for a day. Colby says that he will get some private protection, and Jim says that it is his right to do so.
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Jim promises police protection to Colby
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When Paul and Jim come out of the Colby savings & Loan Building, they spot Dagen waiting outside with guns in his car. Jim warns him about any move towards Phil Colby with the guns - which he has to admit are perfectly legal - and Dagen cooperatively admits that he only vaguely remembers the name from college days. After he drives away, Jim and Paul go back up to Colby's office. Jim relates their experience in the street, and tells Colby to lock himself in, and wait for an armed police officer who will escort him home. To Colby's question, Jim says that he'll keep him protected in this way as long as possible.
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Jim guesses Paul's secret
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Driving away Jim says to Paul that when a man knows he's going to die any day, nothing scares him, then asks him how he knew about Dagen.
To Paul's reply that it was through a mutual friend, Jim brings up the question he had asked months ago about why Paul had given everything up to join the “jet crowd,” but says that now he knows the answer. Paul replies, “maybe you do,” and Jim's reaction is that was no better than the earlier response. When Paul says that's the way he wants to leave it, Jim agrees.
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Paul declares that he's running after life
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The next day Paul gets together with Dagen to try and dissuade him from killing Colby. But Dagen describes being wired up for some years before spending a further two years in a wheel chair and a year on crutches.
Paul talks about the progress of research done to cure their disease, but Dagen is uninterested. “I live on hope,” Paul declares, “but I do live - maybe fuller than most people. Fuller than I ever lived before,” adding that he's running after life now, and saying, “I'm going to experience everything I can in the time I have left.”
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Dagen shows interest in sailing to Hawaii with Paul
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Dagen says that's easy enough to do with two good legs, but Paul cuts in, “if I had to crawl after life, I'd still go after it.”
Then, almost as a continuation of his conversation, Paul mentions that he is taking a friend's boat to Hawaii, then invites Dagen to come along with him.
Mistrust is Dagen's first reaction, asking Paul if this was the police's idea to get him out of town. But he obviously is interested in the idea, even to the point of worrying about becoming seasick.
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The thug tells Dagen to get out of town - or else
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But when they come out of the restaurant Dagen and Paul are jumped by three thugs while a fourth holds a gun on the plainclothes detective following Dagen from a parked car.
One of the hoods tells Dagen to get out of town with an inducement of further violence against him. Paul's struggles against another attacker finally bear fruit, and the thugs then leave quickly.
The plainclothes officer immediately reports the event over the radio and calls an ambulance, then goes to offer help.
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Colby is outraged
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Jim and Paul go to see Colby at his home, but he denies hiring the hoods to rough Dagen up, adding “just the way Dagen denies trying to kill me.”
Jim replies that if anything happens to Dagen, he'll go after Colby. Without admitting anything, Colby asks if Jim knows a better way to handle Dagen, and Paul interjects that five minutes before the goons jumped Dagen, he was ready to forget about Colby.
Colby insists that Dagen is a monomaniac.
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Jim says that he's calling off the surveillance and protection
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But Paul tells him that Dagen had agreed to sail to Hawaii with him, and he'd have had a week alone with the disturbed man to work on his psyche.
Jim then informs Colby that the surveillance team is being removed from the case as a result of the attack, and tells him to get out of town and join his family on vacation in Oregon.
In turn Colby threatens to create some bad publicity for the police, and then dismisses Jim and Paul.
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Dagen shoots Colby
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The next day Dagen goes up to the roof of a parking structure, and shoots Colby. Dagen escapes and abandons his car, but takes his guns with him. Paul is surprised that he didn't give himself up, but Jim tells him that Dagen must have seen Colby crawl under his car, and knows that he's still alive.
When Dagen goes into the rest room of a garage to assemble his gun, a service man happens to come in and see the arsenal, and races away to call the police. Dagen runs out, and when the man on the phone shouts to colleagues, a mechanic tries to stop him, and Dagen kills him.
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Dagen holds a girl at knife point
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Dagen breaks into an empty house to hide, but when the occupant comes home, he threatens her, holding her against her will. On the radio he hears that Colby has died from his injuries, and he tells her, “a dead man just saved your life.”
While a patrol officer is giving a driver a ticket, the woman sees Dagen and screams, but hands up, Dagen turns himself in to the policeman. When Jim and Paul arrive on the scene, Dagen is full of self-satisfaction over his accomplishment, but they tell him that the news announcement was a fake, and Colby is alive and recovering.
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NNotes & Comments: Arthur Hill gives a performance that leaves the audience wondering all the while if he is sane or crazy, with an equally convincing role executed by Harold Gould.
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Arthur Hill as
Bill Dagen
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Andrew Duggan as
Lt. Jim Seabourne
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Harold Gould
as Phil Colby
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Joan Shawlee
as the Landlady
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James Seay as
the Police Chief
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Don Gazzanica
as the Detective
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Joan Swift as
the Woman
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Sean Kennedy as
the Service Man
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Paul Sorensen as
the Plainclothes Officer
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Don Lorbett
as the Mechanic
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Kent McCord as
the Policeman
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Harvey Gardener as
the Motorcycle Officer
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Frank Baron as
the 1st Hoodr
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Jim Driskill as
the 2nd Hood
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Harry Klekas as
the 4th Hood
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Sharon Dean
as the Girl
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