Man in a Suitcase - "Day of Execution"

"Day of Execution" is a very strange episode on Man in a Suitcase. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, Man in a Suitcase is about a disgraced ex-CIA agent known only as McGill who operates as a sort of trouble-shooter/private detective based in London. McGill was played by the method actor Richard Bradford, and boy does it show. I first came across Bradford in Arthur Penn's slice of Southern Gothic, The Chase with Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, and Robert Duvall. I'm a huge fan of the film, and thought Bradford's performance was great.

Bradford as McGill is probably one of the most unsympathetic heroes of the time. When compared to similar ITC shows like The Saint, Gideon's Way, or The Baron, McGill stands out like a sore thumb, and he does his best to be as sullen, uncooperative, rude and surly.

"Day of Execution" is fascinating for several reasons. The screenplay was written by Dennis Spooner, who is an unsung hero of British fantasy television. Spooner's writing credits appear on numerous, and popular, drama series, including The Avengers, Doctor Who, Stingray, Thunderbirds, and co-created Man in a Suitcase, Department S, The Champions, and Jason King (Spooner was nothing if not prolific). What I also like about this episode, and many other ITC series, is the appearances of actors from other shows. For example, McGill's girlfriend in this episode is played by Rosemary Nichols who played Annabelle Hurst the computer genius from Department S. Donald Sutherland also turns up as McGill's duplicitous best friend (in McGill's murky world you can't trust anyone). A great deal of Sutherland's early career was spent appearing on British films and TV, often playing psychotic gangsters, and he pops up many times in ITC shows of the time. Sally Geeson also makes a quick appearance as the "Girl at Cleaners" - two years later, she would appear topless in the odd sex comedy What's Good for Goose (Golan, UK., 1968), Norman Wisdom's cinematic swan-song.

"Day of Execution" never really gets going, and a lot of time is spent in a hotel room with McGill receiving mysterious telephone calls, and getting more frustrated and angry, while at the same time being nasty towards his girlfriend, as well as his best friend from college. It is only in the final few minutes that the audience actually starts to see some action. McGill is trapped in his hotel room by a trio of gunmen seeking revenge for an assassination that he was involved in during his time as a spy in Beirut. McGill escapes by throwing several molotov cocktails through the hotel door and setting the gunmen alight, and then (incredibly) the episode ends. As an action story, it fails miserably, but as a showcase of how the American method acting works (as represented by Bradford and Sutherland) in contrast to the stiffer, formal performances of the British actors, the episode is not only a masterclass, but also a bit of an oddity.

Man in a Suitcase is a patchy series, but I'll try to find some more highlights during later discussions.

Next: Shirley's World (an even stranger choice of actor and subject matter made by ITC)