45 Minutes from Home

This episode is a little "Death of a Salesman"-ish in that it chronicles the travails of a good man with bad luck who makes horrible choices. I won't recount the plot again here as some other reviewers seem to confuse the idea of providing an opinionated review with providing a beat for beat synopsis of an episodes entire events. But suffice it to say that after seeing lead William Windom in many parts including (But of course not limited to) "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" (Where he played a JFK like President), his personal favorite of all his performances the "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery, and MY personal favorite from him "The Doomsday Machine" from the original Star Trek, take it from me if you haven't seen him in much that he is ALWAYS interesting to watch. He makes this episode like Janice Rule made the previous one. Like someone once said, at least 50% of a successful piece of entertainment (Be it episodic television like this or features) is great casting it looks like Quinn Martin and company understood that all too well.

The show begins with a young lady literally hopping into a man's car and asking him to drop her off after he goes over the Golden Gate Bridge. However, when he drops her off at his house, she tries very hard to seduce him. At first, he starts to give in--then pushes her away and runs. However, in the process, she is knocked backwards and hurts herself. He isn't sure if she's alive or dead but runs because her boyfriend just pulled up outside. When the boyfriend enters the room, he finds her dazed--and kills her himself! Oddly, the boyfriend calls to report finding his girlfriend dead! He gives the police SOME of the information concerning the man who ran from the home but he has a hidden agenda--to find the innocent man and blackmail him. And, since the innocent guy thinks he MIGHT have accidentally killed the girl, he'll pay.

This episode, starring William Windom, is interesting, though I'll admit that I have seen a similar plot twist several other times (where a person THINKS they killed someone but the person who discovered the injured person finishes the job)--so it's not exactly 100% original. But it was handled well. And, in an odd twist, the motivation for the killing turns out to have something to do with the killer's impotence--the sort of plot twist you certainly would NOT have seen only a few years earlier!