Richard Conte stars as a retired hit man named Frank Burns now living the good life with his attractive wife at a lakeshore cottage. But he has a problem. A reporter named Cullen (played by Stacy Harris, who was almost a regular on Dragnet in different roles, sometimes a criminal, sometimes not) knows about his past and has been blackmailing him. When Burns takes his little boat out on the lake for a day of fishing, he is first meeting Cullen, this time in an attempt to call off the blackmailing. Unable to convince him, he says he'll come back this evening at 5 o'clock and make his payment.
Instead, Burns calls his old crime boss, a Mr. Nicholson, played by John Anderson, to arrange for him to be supplied with a hit man to meet him at his lake at 4:30 this day. Now I thought he wanted someone else to do the job so he could be with his wife and others that evening so nobody could say he did it. But instead he meets this new guy, Mace, and walks with him to meet Cullen.
To the surprise of Burns, Mace was hired by Cullen prior to the arrangement with Burns, so he is set to kill Burns. Since other reviews posted here have revealed the finish, there's no real spoiler alert needed by me. Cullen tells Mace he will wait while Mace takes Burns back down to the lake to finish him off. But Cullen is a bit sloppy and gets overpowered and drowned by Burns, who then goes back around and gets the drop on Cullen and finishes him off as well, making everything look like a boating accident on these two men.
But now comes Nicholson who needs Burns, since he has recently lost his top killer. He "entices" Burns to come out of retirement, with his wife still thinking he is a retired engineer who traveled around fixing problems. Alfred tells the audience at the end that Burns wound up being caught in his last job, so no happy retirement for him.
I had great difficulty believing this retired hit man would want to hire a hit man unless he was setting up an alibi for himself. Since he wasn't, it just seems like it would have been a lot simpler if he handled it himself-the woods by the lake meeting spot would have made it simple for him to find a way to come up from behind the blackmailer.
So this was no more than a reasonably good show-a 7.
I wish to note the character names: Frank Burns and his wife Loretta. A decade later we MASH viewers were treated to regular characters Frank Burns and his mistress Hot Lips, who was played by Loretta Swit. I'll go you one better though: Burns' and "Loretta's" boss on MASH was Henry Blake, played by McLean Stevenson. A couple of years earlier, he had portrayed Doris Day's boss on her series, a Mr. Nicholson. I'll add to it: The actor who played Nicholson, John Anderson, was actually a guest star on an episode of MASH. If only Cullen's character had been named Pierce...
Instead, Burns calls his old crime boss, a Mr. Nicholson, played by John Anderson, to arrange for him to be supplied with a hit man to meet him at his lake at 4:30 this day. Now I thought he wanted someone else to do the job so he could be with his wife and others that evening so nobody could say he did it. But instead he meets this new guy, Mace, and walks with him to meet Cullen.
To the surprise of Burns, Mace was hired by Cullen prior to the arrangement with Burns, so he is set to kill Burns. Since other reviews posted here have revealed the finish, there's no real spoiler alert needed by me. Cullen tells Mace he will wait while Mace takes Burns back down to the lake to finish him off. But Cullen is a bit sloppy and gets overpowered and drowned by Burns, who then goes back around and gets the drop on Cullen and finishes him off as well, making everything look like a boating accident on these two men.
But now comes Nicholson who needs Burns, since he has recently lost his top killer. He "entices" Burns to come out of retirement, with his wife still thinking he is a retired engineer who traveled around fixing problems. Alfred tells the audience at the end that Burns wound up being caught in his last job, so no happy retirement for him.
I had great difficulty believing this retired hit man would want to hire a hit man unless he was setting up an alibi for himself. Since he wasn't, it just seems like it would have been a lot simpler if he handled it himself-the woods by the lake meeting spot would have made it simple for him to find a way to come up from behind the blackmailer.
So this was no more than a reasonably good show-a 7.
I wish to note the character names: Frank Burns and his wife Loretta. A decade later we MASH viewers were treated to regular characters Frank Burns and his mistress Hot Lips, who was played by Loretta Swit. I'll go you one better though: Burns' and "Loretta's" boss on MASH was Henry Blake, played by McLean Stevenson. A couple of years earlier, he had portrayed Doris Day's boss on her series, a Mr. Nicholson. I'll add to it: The actor who played Nicholson, John Anderson, was actually a guest star on an episode of MASH. If only Cullen's character had been named Pierce...