Cry Panic

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.