This week's Saturday Night Special is the first episode of the 1967 British TV show called "Man In A Suitcase," or is it?
Information about this show is just as confusing as the show itself. After writing this whole thing I found out that there was a pilot episode called "Man From The Dead," that explains the roots of this man's problems, but according to the IMDB, "Man From The Dead" is episode number six. This show streams in pretty nice quality for free on IMDB TV, and on that stream, it says "Man From The Dead" is episode number fourteen, so your guess is as good as mine. Just watch it, and figure it out for yourself!
Although "Man In A Suitcase" is a British show, the star Richard Bradford was from the United States.
This first episode was titled "Brainwash," and that's pretty much exactly what you can expect!
The co-star is this suitcase.
Richard Bradford is McGill. As far as I know, we never find out what the rest of his name is.
The basic premise of the series is very similar to a show I've been watching on Prime called "Burn Notice" that was made in 2007. It's the story of a spy/intelligence officer who is wrongly forced out of service, is trying to figure out why, and now works privately delving into all kinds of people's problems.
This first episode they really give you hardly any background information. McGill thought he was meeting somebody and gets snatched up by some thugs from some obscure African nation, and they want to make him into the fall guy, and are willing to torture him to get him to do what they want, but he's not the cooperating type.
McGill's a pretty bright cat, and he's able to easily figure out there's a two-way mirror in the room they've dumped him in!
It's time for the treatments to start!
This show is nothing like say "The Avengers." It is mean, tough, and harsh, and there's no comedy at all, or anything I would consider camp, at least not in this episode.
These guys are not messing around, they put McGill in a small room and start bombarding him with loud sounds, and video propaganda!
It just gets worse....................
...............................And worse.............................
..........................And worse!!!!!
And if that's not bad enough, they give him cigarettes, but no way to light them, now that's just mean!
This diabolical bastard is not the Boss, but he is the main guy in charge of all the mayhem!
His name is John, and he's played by Colin Blakely. The same year Colin was also in an episode of "The Avengers," and three years later, he'd be playing Dr. Watson.
The woman playing the innocent victim who knows nothing, and brings McGill his food, is really not that innocent at all, and is the daughter of The Boss. McGill doesn't even know that, and he still tries to choke some information out of her. He's had about enough by now! The woman was played by Suzan (Dracula: Prince of Darkness) Farmer.
This show is 52 minutes long, and I'd say about 20 minutes or possibly more of it is McGill alone or being tortured.
Great! Now the video is of the big Boss saying over and over that he's going to shoot McGill!
Howard Marion-Crawford was Dr. Petrie in three Fu Manchu movies, and he also played Dr. Watson for a while on TV. Howard also appeared on "The Avengers" three times.
In 1980, The Police recorded the song "Man In A Suitcase," which to me is totally about this series.
More bizarre treatments, how much can one man endure?
"Man In A Suitcase" is a fascinating show, but this first episode can be difficult to watch after a while!
McGill gets shot, but he finally is able to escape this madness!
Thanks again to my good friend Lord Litter in Berlin for making me more than keenly aware that I needed to watch "Man In A Suitcase." Now I've got to find the time to watch the other twenty-nine episodes, especially the pilot!
