Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (TV Series) A Case of Armed Robbery (1964) User Reviews

Bad concept, bad script

[lor_ · 9 November 2023]

You have to wait for the very end to see the point of this depressing, one-note slice of life drama, in which Tony Franciosa is saddled with an unplayable role. The point is to attempt to throw back in the viewer's face a case of a completely unsympathetic creep, as if to say "society is responsible" when his self-destructive behavior and belligerence towards everybody ends up with him being caught bungling a trivial armed robbery of a gas station safe.

The much ado about nothing nature of this story, combined with such a lousy character and meaningless crime is wearying, and a bleeding heart message (which I would often entertain but not here) is appended where it doesn't belong. It reminds me how Donald Trump's one-man attempt to destroy our entire society keeps continuing on and on with no end in sight (other than a prison cell when his ridiculous stalling gimmicks finally run their course) is so frustrating. Unless you join his mindless cult, you have to suffer.

Tony is a good actor, but not here. Every scene his hot-headed character will erupt at the slightest imagined provocation. A true villain in a melodrama is fun to watch but this smaller-than-life creep is unwatchable -I felt like Malcolm McDowell with those toothpicks holding his eyes open during "the cure" at the end of "A Clockwork Orange" forced to watch this stinker.

Robbery tale expose

[searchanddestroy-1 · 12 June 2015]

The handsome Tony Franciosa plays here a lonely safe cracker - and certainly not an armed robber as the title says - who seems enjoying life with a beautiful girl friend. He also works as a mechanic but gets fired by his boss and he has a son. His father - Paul Stewart - who owns a shoe shop; can't help him and the two men argue in a nearly violent talk. It seems laughable to see a safe cracker seeking for a job to get money. But it is. He tries to get rich in playing poker with friends, but doesn't eventually make it. So he gets back in pulling a job. He has an old timer safe cracker too played by Pat O'Brien, and both intend to work together. Franciosa is exquisite here as a man for whom you can only feel some empathy, despite he's an outlaw. Nearly an ordinary citizen. From the beginning, an off voice - a prosecutor's one - explains that the whole story is actually a sort of flash back...You already think of a court room. It reminds me ANDERSON TAPES.

I recommend this episode. Worth the ride.