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Run For Your Life
Starring Ben Gazzara
Episode:
Make the Angels Weep
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To contact us, click Homepage link above
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Synopsis: An old friend of Paul's is on the run, suspected of murdering his lover's husband, and Paul returns to his home town to investigate the case. With Carol Lawrence as Rosinha Fielding, Anne Seymour as Mrs. Fielding, Mario Alcalde asTony Oliveira, Don Dubbins as Robin Fielding, Alberto Morin as Sebastian, Charles Seel as Rudy Fowler, Jeff Scott as Cal Jameson, Jack Krupnica as the Attendant, Kirk Duncan as Johnny Deedrick Allen Jung as the Bartender
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Episode 13
First broadcast on
Cecember 13, 1965
Teleplay by John T. Dugan
Story by John Thomas James
Directed by Leslie H. Martinson
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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
Nick Musuraaoa A.S.C.
Art Director
Howard E. Johnson
Film Editor
Robert Watts A.C.E.
Unit Manager
Willard Sheldon
Assistant Director
Joseph Cayalies
Set Decorators
John McCartey &
Perry Murdoch
Sound
Frank H. Wilkinson
Color Coordinator
Robert Brower
Color by Pathe
Editorial Dept. Head
David J. O'Connell
Musical Supervisor
Stanley Wilson
Costumes by Burton Miller
Makeup
Bud Westmore
Hair Stylist
Larry Germain
Paintings by Ben Roberts
(Courtesy of His Collectors)
Links to Other Episodes
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The sheriff talks about the murder of Robin Fielding
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The Plot:
Paul arrives at his home town of Almeria, California, and is greeted by a former sheriff who remembers him.
They talk about the murder eight months earlier of Robin Fielding, and how the new sheriff would like to get a hold of murder suspect Johnny Deedrich who's gone on the run.
Though Paul claims his visit is social, the old sheriff appears sceptical that Paul is back home just to have a look around.
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Mrs. Fielding speaks of her son's self portrait
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Paul then visits the home of the victim, and pays respects to his mother, now in a wheelchair.
She speaks about her murdered son Robbie, often looking over to a self-portrait the painter did of himself. She refers to the picture as “a joke he painted to humor me.”
After the brief visit, Paul drives to a quiet location nearby, and when he sees a station wagon leaving the house, he follows it. The driver stops at a service station, and so he does too.
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Paul brings up her romance with Johnny Dietrich
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The person he's followed is Rosinha Fielding, Robbie's widow. She thanks Paul for visiting her mother-in-law, and he asks her to have dinner with him, but she declines firmly.
From a nearby town, Paul then phones Johnny Deedrich, the supposed murderer, in Laos, and tells him of his limited progress in Almeria.
Paul then returns to the Fielding home, claiming to have a dinner engagement with Rosinha. He is escorted into her studio, and she is surprised to see him.
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Rosinha agrees to meet Paul for lunch
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He again asks her to have dinner with him, but she once more refuses. So he brings up her affair with Johnny Deedrich, and how Johnny was supposed to kill her husband. Rosinha says the stories are true, so Paul tells her that he needs to talk to someone about the events that made his best childhood friend and war buddy a fugitive from justice, and that he needs to find out the truth about what happened with her husband. Rosinha appears agreeable to that, and so he suggests going away from town for a picnic lunch the next day, and she names a place he remembers.
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Rosinha talks about her marrige
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As they lunch Rosinha tells Paul of a loveless marriage to insanely jealous Robbie, which after three years, led her to an affair with Johnny Deedrich, and resulted in Johnny killing her husband. Not able to face what she'd caused, she ran away, but her mother-in-law had a stroke and was paralysed. Now, Rosinha will never leave her, even though she feels ostracized in the town where the District Attorney, whom she'd dated before her marriage, had questioned her relentlessly about the murder. Paul believes Johnny to be incapable of the crime, and suggests a dinner engagement to talk again.
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Paul questions Rosinha about the missing cash
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When he drives back into town, Paul is met by a deputy sheriff who says the District Attorney wants to see him. Olivera tells Paul that, for a year, Rosinha made deposits in an account in her name, then withdrew the entire $84,000 on the day of her husband's death, but appears no longer to have it. Paul then admits to Olivera that he knows where Johnny Deedrich is.
That evening Rosinha meets Paul for dinner, and he asks her about the missing money.
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Paul asks to see Rosinha again, but she says no
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She says that her husband asked her to bank it for something like tax reasons, and that she withdrew it and gave it all to him in cash on the morning of his death. Everyone believes she gave the money to Johnny, to make a getaway, but Paul believes she didn't.
Rosinha then tells Paul that the romance between herself and Johnny was already over when her husband was killed. She'd told Johnny that she would get a divorce, but he said that he didn't want to marry her, and wasn't in love with her.
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Robbie's mother asks Paul to leave the house
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Paul is touched when she says that she's never told anyone that, and asks to see her again, but she says there's no point, and she's driving to Carmel the next day
Nevertheless, Paul goes to the house even though he knows she's not there, saying he'll wait until she gets back. Robbie's mother tells him that she doesn't like Rosinha seeing Paul, saying that she wants to shield her daughter-in-law after the great aftermath of her affair with Johnny. Mrs. Fielding says that Rosinha is not capable of living with her guilt, and therefore made her promise to stay with her mother-in-law forever.
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Paul looks at her, and then responds, “you're punishing her, Mrs. Fielding?”
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Paul shows Rosinha the note sent to Johnny
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She wheels herself away crossly, but Paul presses her. She asks him to leave, but he says that he'll wait in Rosinha's studio. There, he tries typing something on her typewriter, and then pulls out another sheet from his pocket and compares it. Rosinha then walks in and confronts him. He questions her, and she confirms that she always used the machine to type notes to Johnny, signing them with her initials. Paul shows her a note matching the machine and signature/ It asked Johnny to go to the cottage where they always met, on the night of the murder. Rosinha says she never wrote the letter.
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Paul says the note was used to frame Johnny
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When she sees the note, Rosinha asks where Paul got it, and he says that it came from Johnny, who is now in Laos, where Paul saw him the previous week. Rosinha is relieved that he is safe, but Paul says that Johnny wants to come home, that he isn't guilty, having found Robbie dead when he went to the cottage in response to Rosinha's note.
When she responds that two witnesses saw Johnny, Paul replies that they only saw him running from the cottage, something he did, realizing that he'd been framed.
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Sebastian goes to call the police
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Shortly after leaving the house, Paul finds that his breaks have been tampered with, and his car crashes, only sparing him by some skilful driving. He returns to the house to tell the women, and Robbie's mother feels that he is accusing her of the attempt on Paul's life. He goes to leave, and Rosinha stops him, saying that no one there would try to harm him.
Paul is perplexed, asks her some questions, then tells her to take him to the cottage in Pacific Grove where she used to meet Johnny.
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Rosinha screams in horror when she sees their attacker
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Inside the cottage, Rosinha tells Paul that the murder occurred in the bedroom. When they start in that direction, they hear a creak, and are put on their guard. Then suddenly, glass is broken and shots ring out, as someone fires at them. They take cover behind a sofa, and when the firing stops,Paul runs to the front door to go after the assailant. Outside, he spots the man, and chases him into the adjacent woods, Rosinha following behind. Paul finally catches the man, and knocks him down. When Rosinha runs up and sees the man on the ground, she lets out a scream of horror.
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The District Attorney explains what happened
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In the following scene, Paul is pacing nervously, and then the District Attorney comes in, saying that he has a full confession.
He says that Robbie had been planning to fake his murder for up to a year, when he started getting Rosinha to put money into an account to have for the day when he found a man who fit his general description, someone no one would ever be looking for when they went missing. He offered the vagrant a job, got him dressed in his own clothing, and then shot him in the face with a rifle.
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Paul insists that Rosinha leaves Almeria
A quite mad Robbie justifies himself
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He adds that Robbie's mother knew that her son was alive, and helped to hide him, adding that felony charges were being filed against her. There follows a sequence of Robbie speaking on his own from a cell to no one in particular, justifying his actions to “defend his home.”
Paul goes to the hotel where Rosinha has been staying. She is planning to go see her husband and mother-in-law, but Paul tells her not to, that she's done her penance.
He tells her that she's going away, to San Francisco, to stay with her sister whom he has phoned. She resists, and Paul tells her not to even go back to the house, to let anything she needs be sent onwards.
The scene returns to Robbie speaking in his cell in a perverse sort of way about his wife and Johnny, how it was better to leave them alive and punishing themselves forever while he will be free.
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Notes & Comments: Although most of this episode smacks of soap opera, it is interesting for the overabundance of aggression - often bordering on rudeness - displayed by the usually courteous Paul Bryan who is ever diffident until pushed to the edge.
Also marked by an outstanding performance by Anne Seymour whose correctness never belies what is hiding behind the mask - a performance within a performance, as it were.
Unfortunately, the setting of Paul's home town is exploited in no way to give the audience any insight whatsoever into his background, and might, just as well, been anywhere else in America.
Certainly, listening to Ben Gazzara's strong New York accent, often pronounced, one wonders why the scripts couldn't have been adjusted to have him coming from New York, and just being educated and living the rest of his life in California.
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Carol Lawrence as
Rosinha Fielding
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Anne Seymour
as Mrs. Fielding
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Mario Alcalde
asTony Oliveira
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Don Dubbins
as Robin Fielding
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Alberto Morin
as Sebastian
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Charles Seel
as Rudy Fowler
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Jeff Scott as
Cal Jameson
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Kirk Duncan as
Johnny Deedrich
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Allen Jung as
the Bartender
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