Jan 25, 2023
Man in a Suitcase: All That Glitters (1.10, ITC, 1967)
"But I understand that. Cos I help people too."
"Out of kindness."
"For money."
"How much money?"
"Well, how much help do you need?"
"My friend told me that you were difficult. And rude."
"Well, you have very well informed friends."
#man in a suitcase#all that glitters#classic tv#herbert wise#stanley r. greenberg#richard bradford#barbara shelley#michael goodliffe#eric thompson#dorothy edwards#derek newark#norman wynne#duncan lamont#alan baulch#kevin stoney#peter bennett#dickie owen#larry cross#kathleen st. john#the second episode to go into production‚ and after the exposition heavy pilot this was to act as a kind of blueprint episode to show#McGill's world and the kind of life he lived and the jobs he took. he's notably more morally grey here‚ with a mercenary attitude that's at#odds with many of the contemporary brit tv heroes of the time; his fee given here is £100 a week plus expenses (usually altered to#the comparable 300 dollars in subsequent episodes) but his additional offer (1000 pounds to find an abducted child‚ 2000 more to get him#back alive) is startlingly dark. being an early production ep‚ there are several references to McGill's troubles with US Intelligence and#his shady past. the end of the ep is again quite remarkably violent in comparison to ITC contemporaries but Bradford didn't take the idea#lightly: in interviews at the time he stated that he didn't want McGill to always rely on a gun‚ and that if he did use one then he wanted#there to be a sense of the seriousness and of the consequences of that decision. a starry guest cast includes horror icon Babara Shelley in#a role clearly written to be slightly critical of her characters money brains and guts in contrast to her weaker politician husband (it#doesn't work‚ she's just too sympathetic and the criticisms are dumb and misogynistic) and Goodliffe as her spineless husband. all of them#are acted offscreen by that icon of Road Sense (and ig maybe other stuff) Eric T in a powerhouse performance as a gangland creep