Sign It
Death
(ITC Movie title "Sign It Death")
Original UK transmission: 9th March 1974
Original US transmission: 9th April 1974
WRITTEN BY: Terence Feely based on a story by Brian
Clemens
DIRECTED BY: Shaun O'Riordan
PRODUCED BY: John Sichel
MAIN CAST: Francesca Annis (Tracy Conway), Patrick Allen
(Richard Main), Moira Redmond (Janice Main), Edward Judd (Bill
Lewis), Gerald James (Barnes), Barry Stanton (Quinn), James Bate
(Detective), Sheila Fearn (Prudence Claire), Jackie Tong (Sally),
John Arnatt (Mr Robinson), Leon Eagles (Mr Seddon), Jeremy Pearce
(Sergeant), Carmen Blanck (Mrs Vinkel), Alan Bennion (Mr Carter), Sonia Graham (Mrs Carter), Lisa Young (Miss
Carter), Jimmy Gardner (Caretaker)
Teaser
Sequence
In a field a farmer tends some
cows, as the camera pans across the landscape to a country house.
A husband and wife are seated at a table ready to have dinner, as
someone wrestles with a jammed door handle. The door opens and
their daughter enters with the meal, but unbeknown to them a
figure is concealed behind a curtain, wielding a pair of scissors
and listening as they converse. The wife suddenly stares in
bewilderment as the intruder appears, and watches in horror as
her husband is stabbed before her very eyes. A moment later, she
too is struck down and the daughter, terrified, scrambles for the
broken door but is unable to escape before the scissors strike
again. Slumped over the table in agony, the father falls to the
floor, dead. Calmly, the unseen killer replaces a candle on the
table and proceeds to tidy up with a vacuum cleaner...
Plot
Summary
Tracy Conway lives in a
romantic fantasy world where a dashing boss sweeps her away to a
life of married bliss. But Miss Conway also has a dark side, as
becomes evident when she sets her sights on Richard Main, head of
the multinational Main Enterprises. Believing that it is her
destiny to marry the great man, Tracy schemes her way into the
building and becomes his secretary, ruthlessly eliminating any
competition she encounters along the way. But at her heels is a
detective from the North who believes he recognises her
handiwork, and knows the true scale of what she is actually
capable of.
Comments
This is a great episode, with Francesca Annis in fine form as the
starry-eyed romantic Tracy Conway who performs her murderous
duties with the same clinical efficiency as her secretarial ones.
The whole thing may be a bit on the sexist side, but this was
the early 'seventies after all and the same complaint could
probably be levelled at every other contemporary program. The
direction by Shaun O'Riordan (who handled a whole bundle of
episodes) is excellent and full of poignant moments, such as when
Prue's screams blare out via the intercom into the busy street
but no one hears them, and when the dinner candles are
extinguished just after her death. Great stuff.
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