Cry Panic

While on a long trip, David Ryder (John Forsythe) hits and kills a man with his car. After calling the local Sheriff, David heads back to the accident site. However, when he returns to the scene, the Sheriff (Earl Holliman) is there, but the victim is gone. This is only the beginning of a very strange, unsettling experience for David.

CRY PANIC is a disorienting made-for-TV mystery-thriller. Forsythe is quite convincing as the everyman caught in what appears to be a web of deception and conspiracy. As the story unfolds, we are just as confused as David, and just as suspicious.

Holliman is the perfect lawman, who just might not be on the up-and-up. Ralph Meeker is the town mechanic who seems to be hiding something. Anne Francis plays a woman who might know what's really going on.

This movie makes you hold on, right up to the closing credits!...

This is a thoroughly enjoyable film. The acting is of a high calibre, the elements of suspense are present, and there are just enough twists and turns to keep one interested. John Forsythe, as usual, delivers a strong performance. I truly recommend this little made-for-television gem (and note how it is full of t.v. faces you will recognize from elsewhere, for sure).

Taut and relatively brief [running time 74m], "Cry Panic" is an above-average TVM. The tension and suspense build nicely and the twists that emerge keep the viewer's interest from waning.

This was shown on TV here the same week as "One Of My Wives Is Missing" - and thankfully I managed to record both.

7/10

David Ryder (John Forsythe) is riding cross-country when a guy steps in front of his car. He's distracted and hits the man--killing him instantly. David is a very decent person and wants to do the right thing. After checking unsuccessfully to save the guy, he goes to a nearby house to call the police. Things seem pretty normal so far...so far! But soon things start getting weird. The police claim they can't find the boy and the sheriff (Earl Holliman) seems determine to just chalk it all up to a mistake by Ryder...and refuses to investigate further! Then, folks in town start lying and twisting things. Something obviously is going on and things only escalate...to the point where David is in fear for his life! What is going on here?!?!

This is a relatively common plot for TV mystery shows. "Mannix", "Quincy", "Cannon" and other mystery programs of the era have used the stranger walking into town with a conspiracy idea. But they didn't handle it this well...and this is really one of the best "ABC Movie of the Week" installments I have seen...and I've seen quite a few. Tense and well worth your time.

Motorist John Forsythe, taking the back roads to San Francisco for a job interview, hits a man standing in the middle of the street; believing he's killed a pedestrian, Forsythe goes for help--but when he returns with the local sheriff, the body has been taken away (the lawman doesn't believe clear-thinking Forsythe, per the usual backwater sheriff in these type of movies, and accuses him of being drunk). Everything that follows is a con job on the poor driver, and it takes Forsythe a while to get the message he's being used as a patsy in an unexplained plot that involves everyone from a bartender to a motel clerk to a garage mechanic to a housekeeper anxious to get out of town. TV drama keeps the suspense level high, even when our hero acts stupidly (finding a body in a freezer, Forsythe cries and panics, which I guess is where the title comes into play). Jack B. Sowards' script doesn't always play fair with the audience (Anne Francis' mystery lady appears out of nowhere in a bar...and vanishes just as easily), however Forsythe's nightmare is an intriguing one...at least until the finale where (intentionally) nothing is solved. This must be the writer's definition of irony.