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Title

The Devil's Leap

Plot

A famous film star tries to unite a father and son after the strange death of the woman of the family.

Episode

0285

Air Dates

  • First Run - June 4, 1975
  • Repeat - September 30, 1975

Actors

Writer

Listen

Rating

84
63     21


10 Responses to Episode 0285

A matinee idol works to reunite a father and son who are estranged after the mysterious death of their mother/wife.

James Jr.

A beautiful, talented American celebrity finds herself the subject of affection of an estranged father and son. A romantic love story with a happy ending. (What were the writers thinking?!?) The only thing macabre about this episode is Mercedes McCambridge again cast as a gorgeous younger woman. You'll never convince me that she sounds like anything but borderline insane approaching-elderly nut case with a tenuous grasp of her maturity. And the young son in the program sounded like a middle aged simpleton. Don't get me wrong. Both actors are wonderful when cast in roles that match their voices.

Lorrie Jane A.

A sweet story with a happy ending on CBSRMT?!? AND it stars Mercedes McCambridge? I didn't think it would ever happen. This story is a nice change of pace from the regular CBSRMT fare that I found to be engaging and pleasant.

Celena

This episode isn't bad, but the actress who Plays Liz has a very old voice which throws off the whole episode for me. This kind of low cigarette laden voice makes it impossible to imagine a young woman beautiful enough to make son and father fall in love. She sounds like. 50 year old seamstress. Whenever Mercedes is in a role like this it really throws off the listening experience.

Melanie

A fairly decent drama, but I agree that Mercedes McCambridge always sounded her age. I do admit that I've heard some people that do sound younger and older than they really are, but after hearing her voice so many times I always hear her as older.

Alec

I am with Melanie. 6/2/16. I have a hard time with the put on accents. We can use our imagination that the principal males are Spanish.

Celine

I agree about the voices, but I must say that Señor Dryden has a great voice.

Andrew

I agree, the storyline was intriguing enough...but poor sound quality, accents, and Mercedes McCambridge playing 27 just did not cut it for me (it helped to imagine a young Kathleen Turner or Demi Moore).

Cindy

Every time I hear Mercedes’ voice, I think of a person on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This part wld’ve best been played by Jada Rowland or Marion Seldes. Storyline was good, however, another actress wld’ve sold the story for sure.

Sharon

Some of the tech work here was really bad. Radio is so wonderful for firing up the imagination, but having a really loud annoying lawn mower over the dialog with actors who sound nothing like people in a car is just, well, that -- annoying. It sounds like someone recorded a conversation on a tape that already had a kid trying to make motor sounds that failed to be erased with the new recording being laid down. Then there's the times... Sigh. SUPER hetero-normative. No character here can fathom that a male human wouldn't get pu**y-whipped over a blonde bombshell female. Right. No man could resist her (despite her ruined voice) because every man is helpless before a "Liz Monroe" (subtle, Ian! we never would have pictured the pinup you had in mind without the heavy-handed invocation of Marilyn!). And the accents... I keep coming back for the nostalgia, but it just seems like this story could have been set in, I don't know, the Hamptons or Lake Tahoe. Or, if you want to set it in Spain to be exotic, maybe, gosh, here's an idea, maybe cast Spanish actors. (Did Spain have actors in the 1970s? I think they did. Didn't they? No? Odd. Okay. Have the regulars from the company ham it up. No one will be offended.) In short, fatally flawed for me from the start. Personally I found the story boring. Not much of a thriller, but I guess some people like a rom-com with a happy ending. I could overlook at lot of the typical flaws of glaringly tone-deaf elements (many, to be fair, were out of step when this was made since H. Brown lived in the 1930s his whole life) if the story were good. I did not find the story compelling at all (I think I. Martin was going for "Laura" or "Rebecca" or "Jane Eyre" kind of riveting story where the woman who's dead before the story begins haunts the woman who enters the setting that reverberates with the ghostly, sinister, absence, but he misses that by about the distance from Earth to the moon). Very easy call for me that it's a thumbs down.

Gilly


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