The Borgia Stick (1967) (TV)

Director:

David Lowell Rich

Writer:

A.J. Russell (writer)

Release Date:

25 February 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Drama

Plot:

A suburban couple discovers that they are pawns for a powerful crime syndicate. They try to break away from the cartel and go legitimate, but the syndicate doesn't want to give them up so easily. |

Cast

Inger Stevens	...	Eve Harrison
Don Murray	...	Tom Harrison
Barry Nelson	...	Hal Carter
Fritz Weaver	...	Anderson
Sorrell Booke	...	Alton
Marc Connelly	...	Davenport
Kathleen Maguire	...	Ruth
Dana Elcar	...	Craigmeyer
Barnard Hughes	...	Doctor Helm
Sudie Bond	...	Wilma
Frederick Rolf	...	Rigley
Hugh Franklin	...	Willoughby
Ralph Waite	...	Man from Toledo
Valerie Allen	...	Louise
John Randolph	...	Smith

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1969) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Universal TV

Trivia:

First ever movie to be "made for TV".

Fine, tense cat-and-mouse crime syndicate drama.

Tom and Eve Harrison seem to be living the good life. Nice home, picket fence, trendy life style, sporty friends. However, its not at all what it appears. In reality, their life together is a sham. Tom and Eve are covers for a crime syndicate and their "marriage" a mere front for the criminal activities therein. By day, Tom goes off to "work" donning disguises and wheeling-and-dealing syndicate money while Eve sets up a responsible household, caters to her "husband", takes part in civic activities and sees to it they blend into the unsuspecting community. Living together but ultimately lonely, separate lives and not knowing a thing about each others' past as per syndicate code, a wrench is thrown into the proceedings when they discover that they are deeply in love and want to leave the syndicate to lead a "normal" existence together. The syndicate has other plans.

Don Murray and Inger Stevens are perfect in their roles of two pawns trapped in a much bigger chess game. The virile Murray, in particular, shows a natural fortitude for this type of edgy, clean-cut anti-hero. Usually wasted as a frivolous love interest, the gorgeous, honey-voiced Stevens gets the fleeting chance to display her dramatic talents especially as their sedentary lives begin to unravel.

Durable Barry Nelson acquits himself well here as the next-door-undercover cop whose onto their charade while Fritz Weaver offers smooth, cultivated menace as a syndicate leader. Along the way you'll spot a number of familiar TV faces in minor, pre-stardom roles, including Conrad "Diff'rent Strokes" Bain, Ralph "The Waltons" Waite and Sorrell "Dukes of Hazzard" Booke.

The movie is appropriately tense throughout and there are a number of interesting plot turns and twists to keep the cat-and-mouse proceedings moving as our couple desperately try to elude both the police and the syndicate. One eerie moment occurs in a funeral parlor where Murray and Stevens are laid out. The fact that Miss Stevens died a suicide only three years later offers a sad, peculiar foreshadowing for this lovely and tragic leading lady.

A most adroit and intriguing time-filler.