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Run For Your Life
Starring Ben Gazzara
Episode:
The Man Who Had No Enemies
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To contact us, click Homepage link above
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Synopsis: As prime suspect in the murder of his sailing companion, Paul is held on the island of Bonaire while the real murderer is exposed by an old friend as three people from the same Arkansas city meet there. With Joanna Moore as Kay Mills, Nancy Malone as Katherine, Kurt Kasznar as Inspector Kronig, Victoria Shaw as Eileen Trotter, John Lodge as Neil Trotter, Jean Durand as Lt. Duvali, Ward Ramsey as the Consul, Jason Wingreen as the Harbormaster, Kai Hernandez as the Maid, Barbara Blake as the Desk Clerk, Violet Rensing as Mrs. Van Gorle
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Episode 40
Season 2 - #10
First broadcast on
November 21, 1966
Written by John W. Bloch
Story by John Thomas James
(Roy Huggins)
Directed by Michael Ritchie
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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
William Margulies A.S.C.
Art Director
Howard E. Johnson
Film Editor
Budd Small
Unit Manager
Hilton A. Green
Assistant Director
Donald Baer
Set Decorators
John McCartey &
Robert C. Bradfield
Sound
Frank K. 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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The harbormaster phones the US Consul
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The Plot:
Having recently met wealthy Neil Trotter, Paul is accompanying him on his sailboat from New Orleans to Trinidad to pick up a crew for a race starting in Rio de Janeiro. When their experimental auto pilot malfunctions, they are forced to stop at the island of Bonaire. They are hassled a bit by authorities, but eventually allowed to land with the American consul's help.
Neil gets on the phone to ave his plane flown from Arkansas to New Orleans . He wants a new part made for the boat.
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Paul spends a boring evening waiting for Neil
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After it's made he asks for his engineer to fly the part out to Bonaire to make repairs on the auto pilot,
When he's off the phone, Neil says that they have a hair's breath of being able to make their deadline, and then goes to the boat, telling Paul to remain at the hotel.
Paul waits restlessly around the hotel looking for something to do, and is disappointed to receive a note that Neil won't meet him for dinner there. Becoming clearly bored in the bar, he turns in early.
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Inspector Kronig questions Paul
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In the morning Paul checks to see if there are any messages for him, and finds himself arrested and brought to the police department where he learns that Neil has been shot dead, his body found in the sea. Although Inspector Kronig really doesn't believe Paul to be the murderer, he is, no less, the prime suspect, and therefore, stands to be detained indefinitely, according to the advice of the US Consul.
Eileen Trotter, the victim's wife, flies in, and comes to see Paul, wanting to know what he did to her husband, but Paul says he knows almost nothing.
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Inspector Kronig asks if Mrs. Trotter knows Katherine
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Inspector Kronig then knocks, and tells Mrs. Trotter that there is an American living on the island.
She comes from the same city she lives in - Hot Springs, Arkansas, but the name means nothing to her.
This woman, Katherine Cumiford, is highly thought of by locals, and thus, the Inspector is not really in a position to bring her in for questioning. So he asks Paul to talk with her on an informal basis, arranging with the Governor for them to meet at a party in his home.
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Paul chats with Katherine Cumiford
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Paul meets Katherine, and she says she knows of the name Trotter, but never met Neil, and expresses her sympathy to Paul, offering him any help she might give. Paul reports back to Inspector Kronig that nothing she said would lead him to believe that she was concealing anything.
Mrs. Trotter is then brought into the office, and Inspector Kronig asks her why she was concealing vital information from him. When she is bewildered by the question, he says her husband was connected to organized crime.
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InSpector Kronig accuses Mrs. Trotter
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He says that the gun that killed mafia member Tony Polo was also used in her husband's murder.
She tells him that, even when gambling was legal in Hot Springs, Neil didn't go near it, and that it is impossible that he had connections to mobsters.
After she is gone, Paul and Inspector Kronig discuss the possibility of the killing being a mafia hit or just a murder by a private assassin. Paul says that Neil made enough phone calls to alert someone to their unexpected presence on the island.
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Katherine rejects Kay's invitation
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Inspector Kronig then puts forward the possibility that Paul is the killer, and tells him that if he tries to leave the island, he will be imprisoned.
From the hotel pay phone, Kay Mills rings Katherine Cumiford, and asks her to meet her there to receive some valuable information. Katherine balks at the idea, and says she'll go nowhere, but if the caller wants to see her, she can come to her home.
Distracted after the call, Kay bumps into Paul.
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Kay tries to cheer the gloomy Paul
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Eager to have someone to talk to, he invites her for a drink, but she declines, and tells him that she's just gone through a divorce.
Later they do have a drink together. Paul says the piano music in the bar makes the room feel even emptier, and he explains how the friend he arrived at Bonaire with was killed, adding that the island feels like a large prison.
Kay advises to try and make the best of it, venturing that they might help one another, saying that she'd planned to leave Bonaire tomorrow, but might stay on a little longer.
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Katherine greets Kay with friendly recognition
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Paul then suggests that they have dinner together and go dancing afterwards, but Kay replies that she has something she must do that evening.
Kay arrives at Katherine Cumiford's palatial home, and is greeted with both friendliness and recognition. Katherine invites Kay into the library, but as soon as they are alone, she asks her guest pointedly what Kay is doing there.
Kay says that she was on the point of suicide, when she read about the murder of Neil Trotter.
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Kay said she was near suicide when she read the news
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Calling her hostess Sylvie, and saying that she was her best childhood friend, Kay says she married Johnny Mills who took everything she had.
Then Kay says, as she read on about the murder in Bonaire, she learned that she herself apparently lived there too.
So she decided to come to the island to find out who was impersonating her. Katherine - or Sylvia - smiles, and says she guesses Kay wants an explanation why she has taken Kay's name.
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Sylvie listens carefully to what Kay says
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Kay says she needs no explanation, because she found out the previous night - that Neil Trotter and Tony Polo were shot with the same gun. And she realizes that Sylvie needed a new name in order to get a passport. When Katherine / Sylvie ask Kay what she wants, Kay refers to the fact that their last meeting on graduation night was one of pure happiness, and that she was never happy since.
But her friend appears to have done very well, and Kay feels that she could be happy again with the money Sylvie is going to give her, having stolen Kay's name.
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When Sylvie appears to go for a gun, Kay warns her
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When asked how much she wants, Kay suggests $30,000 a year, and receives an outright no.
Kay goes on to mention Sylvie leaving Hot Springs with a gangster who was murdered four years later, and points out that they never found Tony Polo's killer.
When Sylvie appears to reach for something in a drawer, Kay quickly tells her not to go for a gun - saying that all the information has been written down, so as soon as they settle how the payment will be handled, she will leave.
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Kay says she wants immediate cash
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Sylvie says she could never pay the amount Kay wants. But Kay points out the papers called Sylvie's boyfriend the mafia banker, and Sylvie responds that though she saw Tony distribute a million in cash on a single night, all she was able to get away with was $300,000 which paid for the house and a few investments which only bring in a thousand a month. “I don't have anything else!” she insists. Kay suggests borrowing $60,000 on the house to cover the first two years. “What about the years after that?” Sylvie asks, but Kay says she might even get married, and Sylvie might never see her again.
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Paul is depressed and drinking heavily
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Then she tells Sylvie that she needs some cash immediately to cover her expenses.
Sylvie goes into another room, and brings out some money, handing it to Kay.
But she says, that's all there's going to be- no $30,000. “$60,000” Kay corrects her.
When Kay returns to the hotel she finds Paul drinking heavily in the bar.He says that Mrs. Trotter thinks he killed her husband, then she apologizes and starts again, declaring it's the same with Inspector Kronig who insists on keeping him at Bonaire.
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A drunken Paul apologizes to Kay
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Kay tries to get Paul to eat, but he continues to drink. She eventually gets him up to his room, completely inebriated. He collapses on the bed, but when she tries to take off his shoes, Paul jumps up angrily, and makes himself another drink. He then apologizes to Kay, and falls back into the bed. Paul dozes off, hallucinating that the stripes on her dress are prison bars, and moans, “let me go.”
Kay stays with him until he's fully asleep, and leaves a note when she goes. At 5 am she's just gone to bed herself when Paul knocks at her door.
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Kay says she needs legal advice
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He's carrying Kay's letter. He says his behavior was out of line, and she tells him kindly that he didn't have to come and tell her that as soon as he woke.
Paul asks her what she wanted to see him about, and Kay says she needs legal advice, adding that she knows who killed Neil Trotter. Her concern is that when she tells the police, they'll realize she's known for days, and she fears they'll charge her for obstructing justice. Paul is only interested to know who killed Neil, but Kay just asks if she'd be in serious trouble. “Why didn't you tell them?” Paul suddenly asks angrily.
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Kay says she must go to the police
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She answers directly that her knowledge enabled her to get some money blackmailing the murderer, a way of changing her life from dingy living and unpaid bills, maybe fulfilling so many long-held dreams. But Kay says that, because of Paul, she can no longer go through with the plan. She says that he talked a lot in his sleep, and she put all the lines together, and knows why he feels as if he is living in a cage.“You haven't long to live,” she says, then asks him to correct her if she's wrong.
Kay says that she must go to the police, or else Paul could be on Bonaire for months.
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Kay explains about knowing Neil in her teens
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Paul only replies, “tell me who killed Neil,” and Kay says it's Sylvie Marsh, the woman he's met as Katherine Cumiford. Paul wants to know why, and Kay refers to being a dreamer since childhood, her dreams seeming to come true when she met Neil.
They only dated a few times, and he let her off gently, saying she was too vulnerable.
Kay then tells Paul that her maiden name was Katherine Cumiford, and that when he arrived at Bonaire, Neil must have seen her name and gone to find her, only to encounter Sylvie masquerading as Katherine.
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Mrs. Trotter says she recognizes Sylvie
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She must have killed Neil for fear of being exposed as an imposter, her true identity and lavish lifestyle leading police to connect her with the death of Tony Polo.
Paul phones Inspector Kronig with the information, and Mrs. Trotter goes to visit Katherine Cumiford (Sylvie). When she recognizes Sylvie vaguely from Hot Springs. Sylvie says she's not Katherine, but rather her secretary, and that, being indisposed, Katherine won't be able to see Mrs. Trotter today, perhaps tomorrow. Mrs. Trotter says she's flying out today, but might return later in the week.
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Sylvie offers to take Mrs. Trotter to the airport
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She asks the secretary's name, again saying that she looks familiar. Sylvie says they may have known one another from Akron, but Mrs. Trotter says she'd seen her in Hot Springs, Sylvie replying she'd never been there.
When Mrs. Trotter then asks if she could use the phone to call a taxi, Sylvie volunteers to take her to the airport, saying it's on her way to a planned destination. Sylvie leaves to get her handbag, and places a gun in it, and when she returns, Mrs. Trotter says she's sure to remember where she's seen the woman before on the drive into town.
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Mrs. Trotter says they're on the wrong road
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After they've left Inspector Kronig arrives at the house, and learns that the two women have left together. He calls police units to search for Katherine Cumiford's maroon convertible. As she is supposedly being driven to the airport, Mrs. Trotter recognizes the road leading to the spot where Inspector Kronig showed her where her husband's body was found. She questions Sylvie that this is definitely not the route to the airport. At this point Sylvie stops the car and pulls out the gun from her handbag, pointing it at Mrs. Trotter, and telling her to get out of the car. Mrs. Trotter refuses, trying to wrest the gun from Sylvie's hand.
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Sylvie walks toward Inspector Kronig
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They struggle over it, and eventually the gun goes off harmlessly, just as Inspector Kronig, Paul and Kay arrive on the scene.
Seeing the police car both women jump out of the convertible, Mrs. Trotter racing towards the group which has appeared, and Sylvie running to the high cliff overlooking the ocean.
Inspector Kronig shouts at her not to jump, saying that if she comes with him and stands trial, at least she will live. Sylvie turns away from the sea, and walks slowly toward InSpector Kronig, Paul and Kay looking on.
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 Notes & Comments: Using a lot of visual imagery suggesting bars - from Kay's striped dress to window blinds and various bits of décor - Paul's sense of being caged up on the island gives some additional insights into his state of mind.
The slow pace of the episode adds a little to the sense of endlessness in only a few days without totally stalling an interesting murder mystery plot.
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Joanna Moore
as Kay Mills
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Nancy Malone
as Katherine
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Kurt Kasznar as
Inspector Kronig
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Victoria Shaw as
Eileen Trotter
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John Lodge
as Neil Trotter
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Jean Durand
as Lt. Duvali
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Ward Ramsey
as the Consul
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Jason Wingreen as
the Harbormaster
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Kai Hernandez
as the Maid
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Barbara Blake as
the Desk Clerk
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Violet Rensing
as Mrs. Van Gorler
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