Encounter with Aries
The
wife of an astrologer and widely-syndicated newspaper columnist is kidnapped in
broad daylight.
Wong Again
Sidney
Cantrell (Sebastian Cabot) is a world-famous astrologer, a man of wealth, most
of it his wife’s (Louise Latham). He arranges to have a client (Peter Haskell)
kidnap her for ransom, then during negotiations he kills the man in an apparent
fit of rage, with McCloud and Sgt. Broadhurst as witnesses.
A
bomb is set to kill Mrs. Cantrell if the ransom isn’t paid. She is a nervous,
talky person, who is given tranquilizers by her kidnapper to help her sleep out
her ordeal.
The
subtle, dry action is full of parallelisms. Cantrell’s secretary (Jill Jaress)
is another frazzled wreck, what with her employer’s fussiness and stinginess
and the very odd people who form his clientele. The kidnapper’s girlfriend
(Susan Strasberg), who is innocent of the plot, is nevertheless abandoned
before their getaway to Malaga when he dies in the hospital after being struck
from behind.
Mrs.
Cantrell’s chauffeur is forced out of the car at gunpoint and threatened with
one in the back if she doesn’t get in the front seat. She’s kept in an
abandoned building in Queens. McCloud comforts the secretary, uses the
girlfriend to snare Cantrell, and defuses the bomb.
The
title is explained by a tattoo of a ram’s head on the kidnapper’s arm. McCloud
is a Virgo. He’s at a desk when it all begins with Mr. Rafer (Elisha Cook,
Jr.), who complains of “alien gamma rays.” The Marshal, who is having lunch,
reassuringly folds him a hat made of wax paper from a sandwich, so as to
provide an “anti-gamma ray magnetic field.” Elmer (Woodrow Parfrey), a
patrolman, brings in maps for the kidnapping investigation, including one he
drew himself. “You think any of those kids downstairs could do one like this?
You bet they couldn’t,” Elmer growls.
Sebastian
Cabot’s resemblance to Richard Todd gives the acuity that is required to set up
the droll punchline. The kidnap plot, which is not disclosed at first, is made
manifest in a wink, and all that remains is for McCloud to ferret out the
motive, principally from Cantrell’s business manager (Alan Oppenheimer).
McCloud
reveals himself as a great student of Mr. Wong’s skills, from the delicately
dissembled interrogation to the culminating coup de théâtre.
|
Sebastian Cabot Sidney Cantrell |
Written by Peter Allan Fields Directed by Russ Mayberry |
33409, 9.22.71
The character played by Elisha Cook, Jr., Mr. Rafer,
is listed in the credits as Mr. Diller.
(In the Cantrell mansion.)
McCLOUD: I’d hate
to pay taxes on this place.
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: I don’t think you’ll have that worry this week.
SGT. BROADHURST: (Reporting on his search of Rick
Stevens’s apartment.) All I can tell you is that the man lives neat, very
neat.
MERVIN SIMMONS: (To McCloud.) That’s
quite a clever getup you’ve got there. Very clever. Sort of a reverse mod,
right? Very clever.
DET. FINNEGAN: Uh, McCloud. Chief Clifford just
called. He expressed a rather definite desire to see you. At your convenience,
of course.
McCLOUD: He did.
DET.
FINNEGAN: He did.
McCLOUD: (To Cantrell, of the latter’s secretary,
Gloria.) Ya know, she was very cooperaytive.
You oughta pay her parkin’.
SIDNEY CANTRELL: (Reunited with his chatty wife.) I prefer
to go quietly.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: I would have liked to have been part
of your little scheme.
McCLOUD: Yeah,
well. All’s well that ends well. (Chief Clifford glares at him.)
Shakespeare.
McCLOUD: Will you hold my bomb just a minute? Just a minute. I got
a pebble in my boot.
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: Must have fallen out of your head.