General Electric Theater (TV Series) The Road to Edinburgh (1954) User Reviews

When you assume...

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 18 February 2024]

"The Road to Edinburgh" is a poor episode of "General Electric Theater". It could have easily been better...and should have been since it stars Joan Crawford.

Joan is driving to Edinburgh when she has a flat tire. A stranger arrives and he fixes it...and she is so grateful that she offers to give him a lift. Soon there is a bulletin on the radio about an escaped prisoner...and she automatically assume it's the guy sitting next to her in the car!

The show has a decent idea for the episode but fails on most levels. First, Crawford's car is American and the roads look just like American roads...which shows that no one on the program cared about these important details. Second, the voiceover they had Crawford do during the show was unnecessary and cheesy. Third, the writing was a bit obvious....with few real good red herrings or twists. Overall, a poor outing and one that really should have been better.

Joan Crawford on a road trip

[gordonl56 · 7/10 · 29 September 2012]

This is from the G.E. Theater Anthology series. It ran 200 episodes between 1953 and 62.

Crawford is an American news reporter working in the UK. She gets an assignment to cover an event in Edinburgh.

Crawford takes her car and sets off the next morning. Half way there she blows a tire. While looking at the flat, a man, John Sutton, walks up and offers to help.

Crawford of course says yes. Sutton sets his suitcase and jacket on Crawford's back seat. While Sutton is busy with the tire, Crawford notices an old newspaper dated 1937 sticking out of Sutton's jacket.

After Sutton finishes with the tire, Crawford offers him a ride. The two are driving along when Crawford asks Sutton about the old newspaper. "It is from the day i went to prison 17 years ago". Sutton answers. "I was released today." After Crawford takes in that shocker, she asks why he was in prison.

"Murder, i killed my wife's aunt for money. I was in love, and so was my wife, but her love was cash. I blindly did as she wanted." Sutton calmly tells her. "I got 17 years and the wife 10.She was then killed during the London Blitz by German bombs".

At this time a news flash comes over the radio. A murderer has just escaped from prison. The description matches Sutton. Is it Sutton that they are looking for Crawford thinks to herself.

Crawford sees a petrol station ahead and pulls in. The only person there is teen-aged boy, Christopher Cook. His father is out with the Police looking for the escaped murderer.

She tries to call the Police but is put on hold. She hangs up when Sutton joins her inside. Back in the car and on the road again they go.

Crawford is just too frightened of Sutton to ask him to get out. Suddenly a Police car comes out of a side road with siren wailing. Crawford slams on the brakes and pulls over. She leaps from the auto and runs over to the Police car.

She points at her car and screams, "It is the killer! There inside my car" The cop, Jack Raine, looks at Crawford like she is a raving loony. "We caught the escapee several hours ago." The pair are joined by Sutton who shows Raine his papers. Raine has a quick look and returns them. He then hands a speeding ticket to Crawford and leaves.

Sutton looks at Crawford for a moment, then returns to the car for his case and jacket. He starts off walking again. Crawford just stands there, looking and feeling the bloody fool.

With a small bit as an American soldier on leave, is Chuck Connors.

The director was Rod Amateau. Crawford regular, Oscar winner, Charles B Lang, was the D of P. He worked on DESERT FURY, ROPE OF SAND, ACE IN THE HOLE, SUDDEN FEAR, FEMALE ON THE BEACH and THE BIG HEAT. (b/w)

A lesson on assuming from Joan Crawford.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 30 October 2018]

When a helpful stranger stops to aide you with a flat tire, you should just be grateful and thank them in every way, even if you find out after offering them a ride that they have just been released from prison after 17 years on a murder charge.

Joan Crawford, an American reporter in England, is on her way to get an important story, and does just that, becoming more paranoid with each detail and going too far in her efforts to find help. In under half an hour, there's really no time to develop character here, although there are hints that John Sutton's character may either be a misunderstood gentle man who has paid for his mistake, or has intentions that could make Crawford rue the day she offered to help her fellow man.

This is interesting for early classic anthology TV, but the prints available are badly faded and will be considered unwatchable to most people, although the sound is just fine. Ronald Reagan provides a commanding narration, and future TV star Chuck Connors has an amusing cameo as a sailor on leave. For Crawford fans, however, this is a must, as she holds her own throughout, with a funny twist at the end that you may not see coming.

Shaggy-dog story plus red herrings

[lor_ · 14 January 2024]

This rather weak "damsel in distress" story for GE Theater starring Joan Crawford was a shock to my system: imagine my disgust when it turned out to combine my two least favorite gimmicks of storytelling: the shaggy-dog story and red herrings included. Ughh!

Even worse, this is not the work of some hack TV writer, but IMDb lists three unusual and distinguished scribes: Andrew Solt, Gavin Lambert and playwright John Whiting!

What we get is Joan portraying a syndicated columnist who specializes in "human interest stories", driving from London to Edinburgh to cover the famous theater festival there that had been founded seven years earlier. She has a flat tire (a gimmick I had coincidentally just watched in her 1963 guest appearance on "Route 66") and is helped by a passerby (John Sutton), who gets a ride from her after putting on the spare tire.

The rest of the show is lots of voice-over of her thoughts, as Joan becomes afraid that the guy is an escaped murderer from a neary prison, as per a radio news bulletin. Red herrings include a cute kid with a toy gun playing like a Cowboy when she stops at a gas station and a ridiculous subplot of an American soldier popping up who also needs a lift, and turns out to be Chuck Connors, of all people.

This show goes nowhere and was a complete waste of time (and talent). The only good thing about it was that on YouTube the Ronald Reagan intro was omitted - I hate that bum, who started the right-wing revolution that now is (with the accelerant applied by Trump) destroying our country.