|
|
|
Run For Your Life
Starring Ben Gazzara
Episode:
The Carpella Collection
|
|
To contact us, click Homepage link above
|
Synopsis: Though only a pawn for the real thieves, Paul is suspected of stealing jewels worth many millions from wealthy financier Erich Krieger (Helmut Dantine). With Jeanne Rainer as Michele Deneuve, Alfred Dennis as the Police InspectorCelia Lovsky as Mrs. Krieger, Mercedes Molinar as Yvette, Walter Alzman as Dieter, Rolfe Sedan as the Waiter, Robert Apollo as Henri Duchamp
|
Episode 54
Season 2 - #24
First broadcast on
March 1, 1967
Written by Robert Foster &
Philip De Guere, Jr.
Directed by Alexander Singer
|
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
Les Orlebeck
Unit Manager
Hilton A. Green
Assistant Director
James Hogan
Set Decorators
John McCartey &
Robert C. Bradfield
Sound
Ed Somers
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
|
|
Paul has looked forward to meeting Erich Krieger
|
The Plot:
In a Rome restaurant Paul joins his friend Michele Deneuve who has arranged a meeting with the high-powered financier she works for, Erich Krieger.
But the dinner with Krieger is cut short by a phone call from Zurich that takes him away. He wishes Paul and Michele a pleasant cruise on his yacht, saying that he regrets not being able to join them, but looks forward to getting together again after Paul has driven in the Turin Grand Prix race.
|
|
Michele and Paul part after their yacht cruise
|
After completing their short cruise, a car brings them to the Rome airport where Krieger's plane will take Michele to Switzerland, Paul boarding another for France.
As Paul travels through the mountains, a car suddenly begins ramming his on the driver's side, and try as he may, Paul is unable to shake the man off - until the dangerous maneuvers cause the driver to lose control of his vehicle, and plummet off the road, killing him instantly. Paul finds a passport in the man's jacket, identifying him as Henri Duchamp.
|
|
Paul relates his experience to the police
The intruder turns out to be Michele
|
Paul shows the passport to the local police inspector who seems highly suspicious of the attack on Paul.
When he gets back to his hotel and opens his luggage, one of the cases contains women's clothing, a mixup that must have occurred in Rome due to the fact that he and Michele had identical pieces - something that can be sorted out when they see each other after the race.
During the night Paul senses someone entering his room. He jumps out of bed, and goes for the intruder's legs, and after a brief struggle, gets a hold of their gun. It turns out to be Michele who says Paul nearly killed her, but Paul says that if he doesn't get a good explanation, he'll be filing charges against her for attempted murder.
She goes across the room and opens the suitcase that was exchanged with Paul's identical one, taking out two books which are actually containers. Inside each are large handfuls of gems.
When Paul says he hasn't seen the jewels before, Michele explains that Krieger thinks that Paul stole them by switching the two cases
|
|
Paul says that he never saw the gems before
|
Michele tells Paul that Krieger isn't aware that she has come to him, and until now, she was not sure herself that the switch was an accident, the luggage being so uncommon.
When Paul asks, Michele confirms that Krieger has men out looking for him, but is surprised that he knows since Krieger believed him to be going direct to Turin, and not making the road trip that only she was aware of.
Paul relates how the man trying to kill him went off the road, but Michele denies that Krieger would have such a thing done.
|
|
Michele explains the Carpella's deal with Krieger
|
She tells him the jewels were not being smuggled, but only “transported” - belonging to an Italian industrialist named Carpella. Paul immediately recognizes the name of the famous gem collection, and demands an explanation, which Michele is reluctant to give, being sworn to secrecy. But Paul's threats to bring in the police force her to disclose that Carpella's industrial empire is on the verge of collapse. To avoid scandal and ruin, his close associate, Erich Krieger, lent him forty million dollars with the gems as security. If Carpella's problems were to be publically known, Michele says that it would cost Krieger five times the forty million.
|
|
Michele extends Krieger's invitation to Paul
Krieger's mother declares the gems to be fakes
|
Michele phones Krieger immediately to advise that the jewels are safe.
Back in Switzerland, she tells him that he owes Paul an apology, since he'd been unaware of the existence of the gems, the switch of identical bags being only an accident.
Krieger agrees, and asks her to extend his invitation to Paul for skiing after the motor race, saying jovially that if he doesn't come willingly, Krieger will have him brought by force.
Michele rings Paul at the hotel in Tente to tell him of the invitation, and as they speak, Krieger's mother, an expert in precious stones, is examining the Carpella Collection.
She declares the jewels to be excellent fakes.
And while Michele is still on the phone with Paul,adding the joke about her boss having him brought to Krieger by force if he doesn't come skiing willingly, Krieger is on another line with his security personnel, ordering that two men bring Paul and everything in his possession to Switzerland immediately from the French side of the Italian border.
|
|
Krieger accuses Paul of stealing the gems
|
When he comes into his room that evening, Paul is jumped by Krieger's men, drugged and brought to Switzerland. Krieger compliments Paul on his scheme, and adds that, had his mother not been coincidentally present when the stones were brought back, they would have been put away in a vault for years without being noticed.
Both speak angrily, Paul denying any knowledge of the theft and Krieger saying that there is more at stake than money, and the welfare of thousands of people will be affected by Paul's deed.
|
|
Paul counters Krieger's argument
Krieger accuses Paul of killing Duchamp
|
Krieger stresses his belief in the law, but says the loss of the jewels cannot be made public, and he must extract from Paul the location where they are hidden.
Paul tries to use logic, saying that he'd never seen the gems to make copies of them, but Krieger counters that they are aware of his association with Carpella's former security guard, Henri Duchamp.
When Paul says that he thought Duchamp was working for Krieger, the financier accuses Paul of killing him.
Paul says that there is a more obvious suspect than he.
Krieger says that he's eliminated Michele because her unusual and costly luggage was bought a year previously, but Paul's was purchased three months earlier, around the time the negotiations with Carpella began.
Referring to Paul's career, Krieger says that the expensive lifestyle Paul was leading since leaving his law practice required a huge injection of cash.
|
|
Paul grabs Krieger's mother to make his escape
|
Just then, Krieger's mother walks into the room, and Paul makes an impromptu decision.
He knocks Krieger over, then uses his mother as a shield, quickly exiting the room and locking her into the office with Krieger and the security guards.
Men run after Paul, shooting at him, but he escapes through a wood to the road, and when Michele happens to be driving by and stops when she sees him, he jumps in her car and speeds off, guns firing after them.
|
|
Paul tries the Interlaken number in Duchamp's passport
|
He returns to Tende and the police inspector who'd investigated the incident with Duchamp. The inspector is angry that Paul left town without informing him, but also noted that he left several personal items behind him. Paul says that he has been running from a powerful man for days, and needs help in solving the mystery of Duchamp. The inspector shows Paul a card that was in Duchamp's passport case. On it is a telephone number which the inspector has already determined is not in France or Italy, but he says the Swiss authorities would not cooperate with him to find an address to match it.
|
|
Paul tells a phony story to a phone office worker
|
Paul goes to Interlaken, and stops a girl coming out of the telephone office,She is offended, but Paul goes on to say she reminds him of a woman who worked at the phone office whom he knew when in a Paris hospital during the War. This softens her up, and they go to an outdoor café where he admits the story was a hoax, and what he really wants from her is the address to match a phone number. Sympathetically, she tells him it would be against the law, and she might be dismissed from her job. He tells her that his life depends on it, and she says that it would have been easier, were he the lecher she originally thought him to be.
|
|
Paul brings Michele into the house at gunpoint
|
That night Paul goes to a house in Interlaken and manages to break in. He looks around until a car drives up. Paul then goes back outside, and grabs Michele just as she's about to go to the door and wrests her gun away. Despite all they've meant to one another, Paul says that he'll shoot her if he has to.
They go inside, and he picks up the phone to call Krieger, but isn't able to reach him immediately. Michele tells Paul that if Duchamp tried to kill him, it was his own idea.
|
|
Paul tells Krieger to pick up his secretary and his gems
|
She goes on to say that Duchamp had carefully picked Paul from a list of people who had luggage like Michele's.
The whole plan rested on Paul, and that's why she got to know him. Michele says that there's still forty million dollars at stake, and she knows where the jewels are. But Paul says that he does too, holding a note that there is a package waiting for her at the post office.
The phone rings, and it is Krieger. Paul tells him to come to Interlaken and pick up his secretary - and his gems.
|
|
Krieger expresses his indebtedness to Paul
|
After the Turin race Paul is a guest for a party in Krieger's home. He expresses his appreciation to Paul that he has said nothing about the jewels or Carpella's problems. Krieger adds that many men would have been vindictive in Paul's position, and that he did something for Krieger that he didn't deserve, so that he will be glad to reciprocate any time.
Just then Paul notices Michele, and Krieger says that he's kept her on for her boldness and imagination, though he doubts he will ever involve her in anything so sensitive again.
|
|
"Meeting you might have saved my life" he tells her
|
Paul asks Krieger about the offer of help, and asks him to make out a check for a million dollars to The Garms Clinic. When Paul confirms that it is for medical research, Krieger says that he's not a philanthropist, but will send a half a million, then asks if the appeal was a revelation about Paul's lifestyle. Paul just excuses himself, and goes over to Michele. She is a bit taken aback, but he tells her not to be frightened, and adds, “you might never understand this, but meeting you might have saved my life.” Then he toasts her in Spanish, and she says the words in English, “health, money and love, and time to spend."
|
|
Notes & Comments: Soaring beyond the extreme borders of preposterousness, this episode is, in it's way, more frustrating than some of the lowest points of the series, not only due to the utter nonsense, but because the story had the potential to be genuinely interesting and entertaining.
As it stands, it almost has the quality of a dream where one moves from event to event without transition and nothing makes sense. Viewed as such, it is bearable. Well …… if all the holes and necessity to suspend reality were removed, The Carpella Collection is actually an episode with a lot of charm.
In any case, the whole thing is worth Paul's line at the end to the woman who betrayed both him and her boss, “you just might have saved my life.”
|
Helmut Dantine
as Erich Krieger
|
Jeanne Rainer as
Michele Deneuve
|
Alfred Dennis as
the Police Inspector
|
Celia Lovsky as
Mrs. Krieger
|
Mercedes Molinar
as Yvette
|
Walter Alzman
as Dieter
|
Rolfe Sedan
as the Waiter
|
Robert Apollo as
Henri Duchamp
|
|