Lady on the Run
A
woman pursues the hit man who killed her sister, and in Mexico City is pursued
herself.
In and Out of Mexico
Filmed
on location in Mexico City, with many fine day and night interiors and
exteriors centered around the Grand Hotel, and culminating
in a double Donen finale amongst the agaves and on the Teotihuacan pyramids
(with Mancinian music from Stu Phillips).
Mayberry’s
subtle and evocative direction unobtrusively picks up many details, for
example: as Ann leaves her apartment to kill her brother-in-law after he’s
acquitted for hiring a hit man to kill his wife, the camera just establishes
beside her on the table in the middle distance a small bronze copy of
Bourdelle’s Heracles stretching his bow. As she descends the stairs
after the hit man kills her brother-in-law in a dispute over money (and she is
seen beside the body), she passes another bit of statuary, an
eighteenth-century portrait bust of a lady (again in the middle distance).
In
fact, this is fertile ground for Mayberry, who spies a tourist at the pyramids
tripping over a stone, and another whose hat is winged by the gesticulating
guide, almost unnoticeably.
McCloud
is sent to pick up the fugitive ( a simple “in and out”, says Chief Clifford),
who meantime has eluded the Mexican authorities. Sgt. Broadhurst is sent after
him, and when he disappears, the Chief goes in himself. Inspector De
Palma wants to know if this is standard police procedure in New York.
“Certainly not,” says the Chief.
|
Mariette Hartley Ann Lassiter |
Written by Gilbert Edd Directed by Russ Mayberry |
40517, 1.26.75
CHIEF CLIFFORD: Well, I hope they understand him
better than I do, in Spanish or in English.
LOPEZ: Mexico City is the Paris of the Western world.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: (On the phone to McCloud in Mexico City.) Arrividerci! (Sic. Hangs up. To Sgt.
Broadhurst.) That’ll put a pimple on his nose. Thinks I don’t know any
Spanish at all.
LOPEZ: (Seeing Ann in her third hair color that day.) I have
never met a woman of so many moods.
MONAHAN: That’s right interesting. I already did it.
DRAKE: Did what?
MONAHAN: Made the
hit. On her. Or someone who looked just like her.
(Telephone conversation.)
McCLOUD: There’s no reason to get nervous. Everythin’s
under control.
SGT.
BROADHURST: What does that mean?
CHIEF CLIFFORD: No wonder we don’t hear from Mexico.
McCloud’s probably down there waiting with his thumb in his mouth. (Cut to
McCloud’s hat, behind which he and Ann are kissing.)
McCLOUD: Yeah, well. Today I live, tomorrow I... (Pours his
drink out unobserved.) tomorrow I go home.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: (A voiceover in the mind of Sgt.
Broadhurst.) Yea, though you walk through the valley of stupidity and
incompetence, do not be deceived by anything that man may say or do.
McCLOUD: You know what a pyramid is, doncha, Joe? That’s a square
that’s been shortchanged.
SGT. BROADHURST: Oh, he looks like you, uh? Nailing
him could be a pleasure.
McCLOUD: Oh Joe,
there’s one more thing. We’ve got to take him alive.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: Well that’s just dandy.
PYRAMID GUIDE: If you’ll all just step over this
way, you’ll see one of the most marvelous things you’ve ever been subject to.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: Well, Inspector—
INSPECTOR
DE PALMA: (McCloud is there, too.) Ah, I’m going with you to the plane.
CLIFFORD: Swell.