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Run For Your Life
Starring Ben Gazzara
Episode:
Hang Down Your Head And Laugh
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Synopsis: Traveling by bus across America Paul meets Tina (Kim Darby), a runaway teenager who alternately threatens him, then pleads with him to take her to Los Angeles. With Jacqueline Scott as Dorothy Baker, Larry Ward as David Baker, Marvin Brody as the Bus Driver, Fabian Dean as the Truck Driver, Meg Wylie as Woman Passenger, Robert Sorrells as 1st Station Attendant, Bing Russell as the Deputy
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Episode 42
Season 2 - #12
First broadcast on
December 5, 1966
Written by Adrien Joyce and Jack Curtis
Story by Jack Curtis
Directed by Michael Ritchie
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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
David Eric Rawlins
Unit Manager
Hilton A. Green
Assistant Director
Ronnie Rondell
Set Decorators
John McCartey &
James M. Walters
Sound
Frank H. Wilkinson
Color Coordinator
Robert Brower
Color by Technicolor
Editorial Dept. Head
Richard Belding
Musical Supervisor
Stanley Wilson
Costumes Supervisor
Vincent Dee
Makeup
Bud Westmore
Hair Stylist
Larry Germain
Assistant to Executive Producer
Robert Foster
Links to Other Episodes
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Tina takes the seat next to Paul on the bus
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The Plot:
Making a scene when she gets on a bus travelling to Los Angeles,a precocious and unconventional teenage girl asks to sit next to Paul and after being rejected by another passenger. She says her name is Tina, and she's wearing oversized boots, but will not explain this or tell anything else about herself. Tdue to a breakdown, passengers have to spend the night on the bus or the ground beside it until a replacement reaches the service station where it stopped. Saying she's frightened, Tina insists on sleeping next to Paul even though he asks her not to.
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Tina begs Paul to go with her to Los Angeles
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From this point onwards Tina uses a combination of threat and appeal to Paul's pity to get what she wants without ever revealing anything. The bus journey begins again, and Paul gets off where he is to change for a route to San Francisco, but with worry over Tina, he checks her bag and sees she has no money. Suspecting she is a runaway, he wants to help, but she only wants him to get back on the bus to Los Angeles with her. As he tries to board his bus, she pulls him back, and says he stole her blind like everyone else . Then she runs from the Los Angeles bus with two men pursuing her.
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Paul finds Tina hiding in a crate
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Paul removes his bag from the San Francisco bus, and goes in the direction Tina ran into a shed full of crates. He hears her guitar in one of them, but she won't come out, and makes him get inside.
She won't tell him who the men were, and begins to threaten that she'll accuse Paul of statutory rape if he doesn't take her to Los Angeles.
Tinasays she's willing to do anything to destroy her enemies, and wants to know whether or not he's a friend. He suggests calling her bluff, and walks out of the shed.
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Paul claps his hand over Tina's scream
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But she then begins screaming at the top of her lungs. Paul races back and claps his hand over Tina's mouth, saying that she's a delinquent and a liar, and could cost him a month of his life. Then he says, if she tells him what she's headed from or to, he will take her to Los Angeles if he can. But Tina declares belligerently that she's already answered all these questions.
So Paul tells her that she is on her own, and walks away. She goes from being sweet again to threatening him with charges, and back again. And Paul as well turns away, stops and turns away before stopping again.
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Tina insists on staying in Paul's motel room
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So Paul goes ahead and rents a car to drive Tina to Los Angeles. They stop at a motel, but she leaves her room to come to his, and insists on sleeping there. She even enters the bathroom while he is taking a shower, supposedly to drink endless glasses of water.
As they are driving west the next day, she asks if they might be going anywhere near Albuquerque, telling him she wants to get some boots there, though first saying she knew a place where she could score. Paul says they can go to Albuquerque, and then they hear a siren behind them.
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Paul throws Tina out of the car
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Tina tells him to pretend he is her father, and she calls him “daddy” in the deputy's presence. After looking at Paul's license, the deputy says that he's searching for a runaway girl who might be hitch hiking in the area. When he drives away Tina is gleeful, but Paul tells her it's the end of the road, and if she doesn't unconditionally tell him her true story, he will leave her here. Tina utters a loud no, and talks about all the bad things that could happen to her by the side of the road. Then she again threatens to turn him into the police for molesting her. But Paul has had enough, and makes her get out of the car, and drives away.
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Paul reads in the paper about Tina running away
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But he comes back and picks her up again. They stop at a service station where Paul tells Tina to stay in the car, but instead she chats with a truck driver about taking her to Albuquerque. Paul approaches, flashes some identity, and tells the driver that Tina is wanted in New Jersey for hijacking trucks, and that he just took a weapon from her. She goes back to the car with him, and he reads from a newspaper he has just bought about the search for Tina who has runaway from her grandparents home in New Jersey after a lengthy court battle between them and her recently married father who lives in Albuquerque.
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They talk about Tina's family situation
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Tina says that her father doesn't care about her since he has a new wife.
She claims then that she's only wants to go to Albuquerque to get a quick look at him before going on to Los Angeles, which was always her true destination. But Paul points out that he wouldn't have taken his case to the State Supreme Court if he didn't want her very much.
Tina counters that her father hasn't written to her since his marriage, then asks if Paul is going to turn her in. He says no, and hands her some food from the service station.
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They arrive at her father's bookshop
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They start out for her father's home in Albuquerque, and talk about her family situation. Then Tina goes searching in her bag for something.
Is this what you're looking for?” Paul asks, having confiscated amphetamine tablets from her earlier. Tina is angry, but he tells her they're for people without the courage to discover. Then he gives her a lollipop to bite on until the pain passes.
Tina is not really ready when they arrive at her father's bookshop, but Paul gets her out of the car and inside.
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Her father's wife introduces herself
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Her father's new wife greets them when they enter, then quickly realizes that it is her husband's daughter, and full of delight, introduces herself and hugs Tina.
Then her father comes out, also with a look of joy. They embrace warmly.
Her father tries to reach Tina's grandparents to let them know she is all right. He tells her that, on advice from his lawyer, he stopped writing to her while the case was in the courts. Paul tells them that the chances are good that Tina will be able to stay in New Mexico.
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Tins's father and his wife offer hospitality to Paul
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Tina's father says he'll spent every penny necessary to keep her with them, and invites Paul to stay a while, but he declines, and gets up to leave. Tina goes out to the car with Paul to say goodbye.
She says she'll never see him again, and starts to cry. Then she starts up again with the game they've been playing since meeting on the bus - guessing at who Paul really is, and the nature of his true story. Tina says that while hunting for ivory in the Congo, he contracted a rare and fatal disease, and you're rambling all over the world to forget your fate.
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Tina feels sure that she's guessed Paul's secret
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The last words she almost forces out of her mouth, having caught something in Paul's reaction.
“Tell me I didn't guess it,” she says tentatively. He laughs, and asks, “did I scare you?” Handing her the guitar from his car, he apologizes, and says it was all in the spirit of the game. “That guess was just as wild as all the others,” he assures her. But she tells him she got so scared, feeling she'd guessed right. Paul tells her she was wrong, kisses her on the forehead, gets into his car and drives away, but Tina clearly still believes that she was right.
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Notes & Comments: While the frequently irritating and often pathetic character of Tina is all too realistic, Paul's behavior is totally uncharacteristic, and even flawed in comparison with the sharp intelligence he displays through most of the series.
This is an all too different kind of risk taking than driving fast cars and jumping out of planes, but the suspense of wondering if he'd end up in jail for an extended period turned into a damp squib.
and watch a video clip from the episode on the same page!
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Kim Darby
as Tina
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Jacqueline Scott
as Dorothy Baker
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Larry Ward as
David Baker
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Marvin Brody as
the 1st Bus Driver
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Fabian Dean as
the Truck Driver
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Meg Wylie as
Woman Passenger
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Robert Sorrells as
1st Station Attendant
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Bing Russell as
the Deputy
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