Teri Garr and Sam Elliot star in a telepic about a P.I. who enlists the help of a cop to aid her in a routine surveillance case that turns up a bigger mystery. The real mystery: Why was this telefilm made?
Teri Garr and Sam Elliot star in a telepic about a P.I. who enlists the help of a cop to aid her in a routine surveillance case that turns up a bigger mystery. The real mystery: Why was this telefilm made?
Breda Burrows (Garr) is a retired cop who has set up a private detective service in Palm Springs; she’s hired by Rhonda Devon (Barbara Babcock) to follow her husband Clive (Warren Frost), whom she fears plans to father a child without her involvement.
Burrows hires heavy-drinking cop Lynn Carter (Sam Elliot), who hires another retired-cop-with-a-problem, Jack Graves (Raymond J. Barry).
Meanwhile, a mysterious bald man who is referred to only as “the fugitive” (Geno Silva) attacks a sheriff and runs off into the desert, leaving eager young cop Nelson Hareem (Thomas Haden Church) to chase him.
Hareem happens upon Carter following Devon and soon they all become one: convinced that both cases are related.
If scripter Joseph Wambaugh, adapting his own novel, had found some way to link these two plots, an exciting telepic might have followed. “Fugitive Nights” is essentially a pic with two unrelated, uninteresting plots.
There is also the dialogue. Carter is prone to such lines as “my knee is so swollen, you couldn’t tell it from Marlon Brando.”
Church, who plays the “simple” mechanic from “Wings,” changed only his uniform for this role. (One of his hunches regarding the identity of the fugitive is that he is a Middle Eastern terrorist visiting Palm Springs to assassinate Gerald Ford.)
The usually charming Garr isn’t given much to work with. She plays the capable, independent, caring type who resists Carter’s advances.
The only actors who get off lightly are those with one scene and one line. Sonny Bono puts in a cameo as an irate golfer after Hareem steals his golf cart to pursue a pickpocket.
On the above-par team is d.p. Gayne Rescher, who films this without any glitches, even using some nice pan techniques and establishing shots. Composer Jay Asher’s choices work well, especially the country tunes.
Fugitive Nights: Danger in the Desert
(Fri. (19), 9-11 p.m., NBC)
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