Dial A
Deadly Number
(ITC Movie title "Dial A Deadly Number")
Original UK transmission: 1st May 1976
Original US transmission: 18th November 1975
WRITTEN BY: Brian Clemens
DIRECTED BY: Ian Fordyce
PRODUCED BY: Ian Fordyce
MAIN CAST: Gary Collins (Dave Adams), Gemma Jones (Helen
Curry), Beth Morris (Sally Kirby), Linda Liles (Ann Curry), Cavan
Kendall (Tim Foster), Peter Schofield (O'Hara), Richard Warner
(Baxter), Charles Lamb (Caretaker), Dennis Blanch (Paul Kirby)
Teaser
Sequence
Late at night, a man strides
up to the front of a large manor house. He heads towards the back
entrance and emerges inside, looking carefully about. Seeing
no-one around, he heads cautiously up a stairwell, knocks timidly
on a door and opens it; suddenly a knife slashes through the
darkness and strikes him repeatedly in the chest. He falls to the
bottom of the stairs - dead. At the top stands a woman wielding
the knife, her nightdress steeped in blood...she screams, but
then wakes from her dream. Crying out, she sits upright in her
bed, and studies her hands in anguish.
(NOTE: In the movie version this sequence is intercut with extraneous US footage of a figure in a nightdress wandering about the house).
Plot
Summary
Failed actor Dave Adams
unexpectedly gets the opportunity to rebuild his bank balance
when a distraught young caller misdials and mistakes him for a
psychiatrist. Bluffing it out, Adams arrives at the house to find
that the girl Helen is wealthier than he could have imagined.
Suggesting that he treat her privately in her home,
"Doctor" Adams attends his new patient daily and learns
of the recurring nightmare where Helen finds herself steeped in
blood after having murdered a man. Despite the disgust shown by
his flatmate Tim, Dave insists that there is nothing wrong with
the girl and that he is doing no harm, and even becomes involved
with Helen's attractive sister Ann. The situation seems perfect,
but when several people go missing after having visited the
house, Adams begins to wonder if Helen might actually be
dangerous. Resolving to drop the facade, he is unable to resist
the temptation to play his hand one last time, with devastating
consequences.
Comments
Gary Collins makes his third and final appearance in Thriller
(see also Only A Scream Away and The Double Kill ), and once again it's a
corker. The central premise is irresistible, as one wonders just
how long the likeable Adams can get away with the deception.
Gemma Jones (of The Duchess Of Duke Street fame) as Helen
Curry is suitably neurotic-looking and creates a very convincing
character. Linda Liles returns in a low-key part following Season
Four's Nurse Will Make It Better. The only miscast member
of the cast in my opinion is Cavan Kendall as Tim, who does just
a bit too much huffing and puffing and looks as if he's on the
verge of starvation. This is a minor gripe however, as this is an
un-missable episode.
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