Fire!
Chris
Coughlin’s high-rise apartment building is torched by an arsonist for hire.
Theater!
George
Gaynes, who speaks very good French, plays a stockbroker who helps out his clients
by running an arson ring enabling them to collect on insurance from the
buildings they own.
His
best client is Jason Carter, an architect and speculator who just happens to
own the building Chris Coughlin lives in. We see him in the stairwell, consulting
with an expert arsonist.
There
follows a pretty picture of the pro at work igniting a fast-moving fire that
looks to all the world and the NYFD arson squad like an electrical fire caused
by faulty wiring.
The
fire is intensely filmed, with hair-singeing gags.
Carter’s
ex-mistress, a fashion photographer, confronts him and is found “face-down in a
vat of developer solution.”
McCloud
assumes the role of an Albuquerque businessman, Jake Porter. The real Porter
feels “flattered.” He’s to be portrayed as a colorful character. “Colorful,” he
says, “wow.” Beautiful exteriors of Albuquerque belie the rather dismal city of
today, but of what city can that not be said?
The
establishing shot of a skyscraper is utilized by Antonio to exalt his theme, as
dazzling shots preface each scene.
Later,
McCloud again appears in mufti as Lonny Springer, a “top flame” from Texas and
New Mexico.
At
the end, the leading figures in what McCloud describes as “the top arson ring
in the country” are playing cards at the Arthurian Club when the last call
comes. McCloud pursues them across town in the only available transport, Fire
Engine No. 3.
The
script is a meticulous, tight construction allowed to breathe at points by
McCloud’s “wild surmise”.
|
Robert Reed Jason Carter |
Written by Lou Shaw, Robert Hamilton Directed by Lou Antonio |
43313, 11.16.75
(McCloud is upset at being kept in the file room.)
MAGGIE: No, McCloud. The Chief told me that when you came in bellowing
like a bull with his tail on fire, and those were his exact words, I was to
stop you.
McCLOUD: Maggie,
you got a sawed-off shotgun under that typewriter?
MAGGIE: No...
McCLOUD: Well, you
just tell the Chief you didn’t have enough ammunition to stop me.
(Still upset, he calls Chris Coughlin.)
McCLOUD: Chris, this is Sam!
CHRIS: Well, it sounds
like I’m in for a bit of police brutality tonight.
McCLOUD: Yeah,
well I’m anxious to see you too.
FLO: (Doing her crossword while tending the desk at
Chris’s apartment building.) Sneak, six
letters.
McCLOUD: Coyote.
FLO: Coyote,
that fits! Now I just need a nine-letter word for onomatopoeia starting with y.
(Carter’s mistress gets wise to the arson.)
CARTER: Everything all right with us?
CLAIRE: Not
precisely. I’ve been working out a puzzle.
CARTER: I don’t
like games.
SPENCER: You have a fatal flaw, Carter. Greed.
CARTER: No, not
greed. I have a high standard of living.
(Sgt. Broadhurst is to act the part of a bartender at
McCloud’s undercover cocktail party. What drinks does he know?)
SGT. BROADHURST: Daiquiri. Only I don’t know what goes into it.
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: In that case, bullshot!
SGT.
BROADHURST: (To McCloud.) I never heard him swear before.
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: I didn’t. That’s a drink.