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Run For Your Life
Starring Ben Gazzara
Episode:
The Committee for the 25th
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To contact us, click Homepage link above
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Synopsis:Susan Sinclair (Brooke Bundy), daughter of former San Francisco mayor Dwight Sinclair (Wendell Corey) has been addicted to drugs by Las Vegas mafia boss Carl Cappi (Edward Asner), and Paul uses the threat of a committee to amend the US Constitution to thwart him. With Edward Faulkner as the Assistant District Attorney, Peter Brocco as Joey Cana, Tom Signorelli as the Bellboy, Jay Ose as Hotel Proprietor, John McCann as Steve, Henry Hunter as Hearing Officer, Bobby Johnson as the Taxi Driver, Don Rizzan as Charlie, Myrna MacMurray as Cana's Office Girl
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Episode 34
Season 2 - #4
First broadcast on
October 10, 1967
Teleplay by Luther Davis
Story by Tom Allen
Directed by William A. Graham
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SEE INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS OF ENTIRE CAST AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
and watch a video clip from the episode on the same page!
Creative Team
Producer
Jo Swerling Jr
Associate Producer
Paul Freeman
Music
Pete Rugolo
Director of Photography
William Margulies A.S.C.
Art Director
Howard E. Johnson
Film Editor
Carl Pingitore
Unit Manager
Hilton A. Green
Assistant Director
James Hogan
Set Decorators
John McCartey &
James M. Walters
Sound
Earl Crain Sr.
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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Paul wins a jackpot on arrival in Las Vegas
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The Plot:
Paul arrives in Las Vegas, and before going up to his room, plays the slot machine and wins a jackpot on his first try. Recognizing a girl dancing in a cage, he asks the porter if she's Sara Sinclair, but the jaded porter says it's not his place to carry on a conversation. Paul asks him to take the bags upstairs, and waits to meet Sara, daughter of Pauls friend who is a former San Francisco mayor.
The porter goes to the hotel owner and points out the man at table 16 knows Sara.
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Paul stops Sara after her dance
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Paul greets her when she's finished dancing and left her cage. He asks her if her father knows she's here, and she asks him the same question back. He invites her to have a drink with him, but she suggests that he meet her when she's off work at 4 am in a soda fountain, and there,
Sara sings the praises of Las Vegas as the new way everyone will be living someday. She tells Paul of the failure of the marriage her parents objected to, and when she asks Paul challengingly if she looks like she's hurting anywhere, he replies that she looks and talks as if she died some time ago.
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Sara claims her tawdry life to be wonderful
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He speaks of remembering her beauty, her high IQ and the money to do anything she wanted. Irritated, Sara gets up, and Paul says goodbye, but then, before leaving, she adds, “if there's anything I can do for you while you're here ….”
He replies that she could come with him to see the Grand Canyon the next afternoon. She seems amused by his idea of somewhere interesting to go, doesn't respond, but tells him to give her love to her father when Paul sees him. However, Paul replies that he doesn't expect to see him.
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Three heavies in smart suits hassle Paul
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Shortly afterwards three men come to Paul's hotel room. His identification is checked, and he's asked his plans.
Two thugs then nearly break his fingers. The next afternoon, when he goes to pick up his car for the trip to the Grand Canyon, he finds a note inside from Sara, and she joins him on the drive. She speaks in an odd way, as if she were on drugs, talking of the sunrise being like a bloodshot eyeball and disparaging ordinary life. She says that she's happy being a Las Vegas chorus girl, and has found her town.
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They drive to the Canyon and Sara babbles about life
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Then she notices Paul's damaged fingers, but he asks if she came on the drive so that Paul would give a good report to her father.
He says he'll tell him that Sara is well, but adds that between them, he can see she's in trouble, and wants to know if she needs any help.
She says that she's not in trouble, so Paul asks why three thugs jumped him the night before, and told him to leave town.
Sara suggests that it might be because he cheated at the gambling tables.
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Paul finds Sara about to inject herself
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He replies that he'd hardly do that at a casino controlled by the mob, and Sara replies, “everything is controlled by something.”
They view the canyon, and take a donkey ride to the bottom, then check into a motel.
When Paul has gone to his own room, Sara desperately opens her bag, and takes out a needle to inject herself with drugs. Then Paul walks back in, and asks, “is it heroin?”
She tells Paul it's a special formula they've made up just for her - cocaine, heroin and a few other things.
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The desperate Sara is grateful for her fix
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He talks about her being hooked, but Sara says that she doesn't like the word. Eventually, he wrests the syringe away from her, but just as he does, the mafia boss Carl Cappi enters the room followed by his henchmen who grab Paul, and take him into the bathroom when the proprietor knocks with ice cubes.
Though the man hears signs of a struggle, and knocks again, he is told to go away, and obeys. Cappi sorts out Sara's fix, and she kisses his hands
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Paul tells Cappi he's filing felony charges in Arizona
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The next day Paul tells Cappi that he's filing charges in Arizona for the assault. Cappi says that Paul is out of his mind, and that a dozen witnesses will state that he was in Las Vegas at the time - any time Paul names. Paul replies that he's called Sara's father, and then she walks up herself, apologizing to Paul. However, she then steps behind Cappi in solidarity when Paul says he wants her to testify against the mobster. Cappi declares that he and Sara aren't just an item, but the real thing, and suggests that Paul drop his pursuit, but Paul says he doesn't like the way the real thing was achieved.
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Sara says that she may be an addict, but she's fine
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Paul visits the Las Vegas District Attorney's office, but they say little can be done against Cappi and mobsters like him without witnesses who frequently have a problem with memory loss, but agrees to go to Arizona for the preliminary hearing of Paul's charges against Cappi.
Sara's father, former mayor of San Francisco arrives, and Paul fills him in. When her dance in the cage is done, Sara comes to their table, and an uncomfortable conversation ensues, ending in some sharp words. When her father apologizes and says he understands that she is sick,
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At the hearing the hotel man contract his affidavit
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Sara declares that she's fine. Then she admits that she's in deep, but that her father is off target, and he tells her to call him any time she needs him.
At the hearing in Arizona the hotel proprietor recants on statements made in his affidavit, describing completely differently the men who beat Paul up, and saying that Paul had pressured him earlier. A taxi driver also says that he couldn't identify anyone.
Dwight Sinclairdecides to return to San Francisco, leaving his daughter to whatever fate she chooses.
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They ask Cano to have Cappi put in jail
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But Paul stops him, and reminds his friend that Sara is sick and he's all she has. They come up with a plan, and visit Joey Cana, the virtual boss of Cappi.
Paul tells Cano that they want him to help put Cappi away for ten years. He doesn't bother to respond, and is completely disinterested in their goals, though Paul advises they plan to do something that will put Cano out of business.
He leaves the room, and it is through the door that Paul shouts about their intention to form a committee.
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Paul explains about the 25th amendment plans
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It will support an amendment to the American constitution - to outlaw gambling in all states. They point out that most citizens would support it, and the FBI sees open gambling as allowing many unsavoury practices in the country. Paul says that it took only a year and a half to pass the 24th amendment, and the 25th could be ratified even quicker. Sinclair declares his millions and those of his friends would be available to back the 25th amendment, and he wants Cappi stopped. Paul adds that he wants Cappi jailed for the assault on him. Cano says that he can't help and wouldn't want to if he could, and asks them to leave.
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Sara tells her father that she needs his help
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Sinclair and Paul are about to depart for the airport when the Assistant District Attorney arrives to say that they'll be getting a personal escort from the hotel to the plane, telling them that the Arizona witnesses have changed their minds, and are now willing to testify against Cappi.
The bell boy enters the room, and tells Sinclair that his daughter wants to speak to him in the hall. Sara tells her father that she is about to need a fix, and has no way of getting the drugs. The bellboy says that Cappi has cut her off, asking if it's true that his boss will be going to jail.
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Sara decides to go with them
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When the bellboy has departed, Sara tells her father that she'll do anything, give him any names of people involved in illicit activities, if he'll just give her the money to get the drugs she needs.
Sinclair says he'll help her, but with treatment, not more drugs. She runs away then, and Paul catches up with her, saying that she should take her father's help, and that no one in Las Vegas will supply her with drugs now. She decides to accompany her father, and they are just going to the car when many shots ring out from Cappi's gun, firing at the party.
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Cappi kills Sara
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Both the policeman accompanying them and Sara fall to the ground. Paul fires back, and wounds Cappi, but Sara is dead.
Her father is coming to terms with his daughter's death when Paul sees him off at the airport, but Sinclair says that nothing has changed, and Cappi is still running his private empire.
Paul tells him that it might have been a ploy, but their idea about a constitutional amendment was a good one, and Sinclair says that he will pursue it.
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Notes & Comments: Too predictable and implausible to be a good episode. Enormously full of holes from Paul suddenly having a gun to shoot Cappi to the father's comment that the man would continue running his racket when that issue had supposedly been settled. The fact that the heavies would damage Paul's fingers when he'd done nothing, but let him return to the scene with threats, and do him no harm beggared belief. Also difficult to imagine Cappi getting a ten-year sentence for injuries in the hotel from which Paul recovered almost immediately.
We can suspend belief for important dramatic purposes, such as the fancy that a mafia boss would harm one of his brother criminals over a few people forming a constitutional committee, but this went too far.
and watch a video clip from the episode on the same page!
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Wendell Corey
as Dwight Sinclair
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Brooke Bundy
as Sarah Sinclair
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Ed Asner
as Carl Cappi
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Edward Faulkner as Asst District Attorney
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Peter Brocco
as Joey Cana
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Tom Signorelli
as the Bellboy
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Jay Ose as
Hotel Proprietor
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John McCann
as Steve
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Henry Hunter as
Hearing Officer
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Bobby Johnson as
the Taxi Driver
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Don Rizzan
as Charlie
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Myrna MacMurray as
Cana's Office Girl
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