Morte sui binari

Telly Savalas is the only good thing about this film. Looked like a very bad "B" cop TV show. Acting is just a lame too, again minus Telly Savalas.

So this woman is looking out of a subway train - right at the very beginning of the film. She sees someone push a woman right in front of the train. Naturally the train stops, she gets off, and sees Brody (Savalas) and he sees her. Inspector Joe Brody walks on. She reports what see saw and tries for the rest of the movie to convince the police that Inspector Joe Brody is the man she saw pushing the woman. Of course no 1970s cop show is complete without a few action chase scenes.

I dislike these types of movies - even TV Movies filmed in this style. I am not a fan of action "B" police shows. I also dislike a boring story and this one is Bore-ring! 1/10

Anyone that knows and understands the Giallo subgenre of fright flicks will see right through this made for t.v., wants-to-be-a-giallo terror tale. Watered down telefilm has a 'Cat O' Nine Tails' plotted murder on a train and the identity of the killer as the catalyst of the female protagonist's dilemma. There is some style to spare in this film with a staircase scene in a restaurant that has the beautific visual style of Mario Bava and the camera movements of Dario Argento but alas THIS is the ONLY scene where any true workmanship is to be found. The makers of this little flick no doubt stayed up all night perusing older Giallo murder tapes to get this scene right. Otherwise this is routine yet watchable fare with Telly Savalas as the menace and Lynda Day George as the prey.

A model, while riding in the front car of a subway train, witnesses a woman being pushed in front of the train. But when the police come to interview her, she recognizes one of them as the man who did the pushing.

Lynda Day George is really good as the witness of a woman getting murdered, the desparation is well-enacted as the rogue cop comes closer in some nifty chase scenes. Telly Savalas is his usual reliable self as the cop who kills his blackmailer and is on his way to kill Lynda Day George. It's a straightforward suspense thriller with neat police work and well-directed chase scenes. Train buffs in particular would love the last fifteen minutes. Like all thrillers, there are implausibility and logic issues, but the pace and thrills are high enough for one not to focus on them too much.

It was made before Kojak series that boosted Telly Savalas into stardom, in other hand the gorgeous actress Lynda Day George floating around in minor roles mostly in TV series, even she was so attractive, then the time finally came, she shares this small thriller with Savalas that already paved a solid career in previous movies, made for TV whereby starts pop up in early seventies due the movie industry was in bankrupt process.

Meanwhile back home thru metro at front car Sara Cornell (Lynda Day George) witnessed a woman been murder pushed on tracks, she saw the killer and is willing call the police aiming for to give her statement concerning the man that he saw there, well guess who appears there? Keep with up Detective Stepanik (Mike Farrell) the Inspector Joe Brody, the same guy that she supposed be the real killer, baffled she goes off on a tangent afraid such man makes her life going in hell, such feeling is granted!! Aftermaths the untiring Joe Brody tracks down her wherever she goes in an everlasting chase.

Of course it's a brainless movie, at first glance Sara Cornell surely a jinxed woman, no one comes to her aid, anywhere she stays, upon this odd premise the movie decreases itself, pure nonsense, shot in Toronto, I watched this one in far off 1985, now I've found a fine print on Youtube, it brings good memories despite the offering is so low profile.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1985 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 5.5.

TV-made woman-in-distress nonsense starring Lynda Day George (practically a staple of the 1970s movie-of-the-week) involves a model in New York City, the only witness to a murder in the subway station, who realizes the killer is actually a cop once two police inspectors show up to get her story. Despite the work of four writers, tepid melodrama is seldom engaging because it is so brainless, with nearly every character behaving stupidly just to keep the plot in motion. Telly Savalas plays the crooked cop, looking pained--must have been from chasing Lynda up and down stairs and fire escapes, through a theater and a subway station, and across railroad tracks. Lots of leg-work, but no suspense.