Final Escape

"Final Escape" is an episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" I saw decades ago...and I certainly could not forget it! It's very well done and its only problem is that it goes on a bit long. In other words, the hour long format works against it a bit and I could see how it could be remade years later as a half hour show instead.

Captain (Steven McNally) is a prisoner at a work camp and he wants to escape. He formulates a plan when he realizes an elderly prisoner can assist him get away from the place. How? Well, this older guy is one of the few who is allowed to leave the grounds...as his job is to bury the dead when this occurs. His plan? To climb inside the coffin and have the old guy take him outside the prison walls and bury him...and then uncover him later so that he can escape. Naturally, the plan goes awry.

This is an excellent and creepy episode...well worth seeing. As I mentioned above, it is overlong but it's still awfully good and well worth your time. And, it's one you won't soon forget!

Edd Byrnes who played Kookie on "77 Sunset Strip" is a prisoner in a lumber camp. He is a big time bank robber who has always managed to get away. But this prison is incredibly ruthless. He has the disadvantage of being combative and obvious. Mostly it involve an escape effort in a coffin set in motion by a drunken carpenter named Doc. The Captain (a sort of camp warden) keeps tabs on Byrnes daily so a plot is aways potentially on the radar. I'm afraid that the conclusion is a little obvious and a disappointment. One thing I have trouble with is when the person in question never has a snowball's chance. This is one of those.

This was also remade for the "color" Hitchcock reboot series in the 1980s. It's well made and well acted with a convincing and grim work- camp setting and exterior locations and a really solid script. The main character is a well balanced bit of crook and hero, one you still root for enough for the whole thing to work. It's mostly a three character piece of crook, old con and guard and all are well written and preformed to have enough depth to escape the cliché.

It's paced and feels more like a feature film like the best of the hour long Hitchcock's do. Effectively tracked with music from other episodes and contains many effective camera angles. It's nearly perfect but the ending is kind of spoiled by the director. He allows the camera to show and see too many things that the main character can't and this may spoil the powerful ending for regular fans of this type of fiction and show. The final couple of shots also are repeated perhaps due to fear of something not being clear to the audience.

I think this version is better than the remake however I remember the ending working better in that version. Hithcock introduces the show from an enormous wine vat while stomping grapes.

Memorable Thriller!!! The greatest piece of movie irony ever seen on TV!

It's a one-note plot, but thanks to a thoughtful script and persuasive acting, the story works, though you may see the major twist coming. So how's young Paul (Byrnes) going to escape prison; after all, he's got a slick reputation to protect. Besides, the head guard (McNally) is one arrogant son of a gun, and keeps challenging Paul to just try to escape. Also, how's old broken-down inmate Doc (Keith) going to help since he sort of totters around.

For fans of old 77 Sunset Strip (1958-64) Byrnes' turn here comes as a revelation. Who would figure that the jive talking Kookie of that detective series could actually play a hardened criminal; still, he's quite good. Then too, judging from his frail appearance, I'm not surprised the aged Keith would soon pass away. Too bad, because he's an unusual TV presence here. Also, production did a good job faking a dead-end lumberyard that the cons labor in. This is definitely not a place to put in prison time; no wonder Paul's desperate to get out. Note too, that the cemetery markers don't bother with names, just numbers. I guess they let God sort 'em out.

And, oh yes—guys-- there's absolutely no eye candy in this 60-minutes, so be prepared for a gang of ugly screws and cons. All in all, it's a different Hitch, with the usual ironical, but not too surprising, ending.