Incident in San Francisco

INCIDENT IN SAN FRANCISCO is a pretty gritty 70's television movie that made quite an impression on me when I was only 10. Yes, fairly heady stuff back then for a kid but I was already above my age, etc. & I was completely pulled in by the innocent man/good Samaritan being falsely accused of murder. Richard Kiley gives an excellent performance as does Christopher Connelly - who I always liked & sadly died of lung cancer at 47 - the flick is expertly directed by TV veteran Don Medford, who directed multiple episodes of such classics as THE FUGITIVE and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. The rest of the supporting cast is filled with such terrific actors like John Marley, Leslie Nielsen, Claudia McNeal & Dean Jagger.

Long before Harrison Ford, Richard Kiley was a great "everyman" actor. He played fathers, lawyers, teachers and an occasional outlaw. But he's at his best playing an average joe. In this made-for-TV movie is just a guy who tried to do the right thing and intervene when he saw a fellow citizen being mugged. Now he's accused of a crime, and neither the police nor witnesses will speak on his behalf. He's risked everything and it looks as if he's going down. Chris Connelly, another good character actor, is great as the tenacious reporter who wants to believe Kiley. Also good is Tracey Reed as the trying-to-climb-out-of-the-ghetto daughter of one of the witnesses. The pacing of the movie is good--you feel the frustration of a man who stepped up and now has no one backing him up. You also taste the emotional roller-coaster--exhilaration, fear and indifference--that many of us associate with living in a big city where crime in a matter of course.

Twenty-nine year old Christopher Connelly ("Peyton Place") played an idealistic young reporter in this 1971 Quinn Martin pilot. The "also starring" roles in the resulting series would have been filled by Tim O'Connor (also a "Peyton Place" veteran) as Connelly's editor and Dean Jagger as the paper's publisher. The pilot was on the ABC Sunday Night Movie.

Connelly was good, but he was overshadowed by Richard Kiley's performance as a "good Samaritan" in big trouble. Kiley (I think without toupee) made a very appealing everyman. Leslie Nielsen also gave a forceful performance as a smart police lieutenant. This was Nielsen's first role after "Bracken's World" was canceled in mid-season.

The script by Robert Dozier ("The Young Stranger") was intelligent. Dozier was later a producer of "Harry O". Dozier is married to the marvelous Diana Muldaur.

Director Don Medford ("The Organization") made fine use of the San Francisco location.

Two previous series had followed the adventures of an idealistic young reporter. One was "Saints and Sinners" (1962) with Nick Adams and the other was "The Reporter" (1964) with Harry Guardino. Both of those shows had strong writing and dazzling guest stars along with fine lead actors. But neither show could figure out how to plausibly get their reporter hero in the center of the action. "Lou Grant" finally showed how to make a great newspaper drama in 1977.

Quinn Martin revamped the premise of "Incident in San Francisco" a year later with "The Streets of San Francisco" pilot. His protagonists were now cops instead of a reporter. Leslie Nielsen and Christopher Connelly might have been interesting as the two cops on that show. Or maybe Richard Kiley could have played the older cop. Quinn Martin, of course, went instead with the great Karl Malden and Michael Douglas.

Christopher Connelly starred with Jodie Foster in a series version of "Paper Moon" in 1974. The series was based on the Ryan O'Neal-Tatum O'Neal movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Connelly had played Ryan O'Neal's younger brother on "Peyton Place".

Christopher Connelly died from cancer in 1988 at the age of 47.

Quinn Martin made two other pilot movies in 1971 in addition to "Incident in San Francisco". Both were for CBS. One was "Travis Logan, DA" with Vic Morrow and the other was "Cannon" with William Conrad.