File It Under Fear - Series 1, Episode 8, Saturday 2 June 1973

The story...

A number of women have been found strangled in a small town. A frightening situation but librarian Liz Morris feels especially on edge and the police are making little headway. When one of Liz's colleagues Gillie goes missing and only her shoe is found everyone fears the worst. Liz though feels she knows who is responsible and takes matters into her own hands...

American airman Gerry Masters is spying on someone through the bookcase - but who and why?

Review

For me this is one of the best episodes of Series 1 and certainly my favourite of its "straight" crime thrillers (i.e. non-supernatural) although it's fair to say that most viewers plump for either The Colour of Blood or The Eyes Have It; this episode though has always been well-regarded in the fan community, and would be close to my top ten overall. 

This is another serial killer tale but this time a "whodunit" - the first one broadcast, perhaps surprising given the popularity of the whodunit style. The suspects are well-set up. There is the socially inept library assistant George who often feels belittled by the women around him and who seems anxious to prove his masculinity. The pleasant but lugubrious divorcee Steve who lodges with Liz and her mother and who goes out in the evening for no clear reason. Finally we have American airman Gerry Masters who was having an affair with one of the murdered women and whose reading choices show an alarming interest in violence. This was one of numerous Series 1 episodes with no American guest star / lead character and the inclusion of the latter (played by British-based US actor Richard Pendrey) ensures that an American angle is retained which was considered important for transatlantic appeal. 

The episode also has much to say about anxiety, loneliness and insecurity. Liz and her colleague George are both very insecure individuals with George in particular a deeply unpopular young man who often feels (justifiably) rejected and derided; unfortunately he then tends to compound that by antagonising others which leads to him being further baited. With these two we see what can happen when individuals let their pride race ahead of the and a trivial dispute gets completely out of hand. The characters are well-drawn although Liz's comments about "young people" seem odd given the relative youth of her character and a point remarked upon by Sergeant Truscott.  Maybe an older figure was originally conceived for the role but it does help to paint the picture of someone feeling divorced from their generation and somewhat "old before their time".

Liz (Maureen Lipman) & George (Richard O'Callaghan) at odds again

The two featured detectives fit a common Thriller pattern with an irascible senior and a rather put-upon junior. The latter is often drawn more sympathetically but on this occasion neither plays the "good cop". While both are polite to Liz they mock her behind her back and clearly believe that she is "frustrated" and a fantasist. Senior detectives also often had a quirk about them and in Superintendent Cramer's case that is an obsession with golf. Even after he had learned about the first murder he changes the subject back seconds later to his annoyance about a golf game. Neither officer is particularly insightful or admirable but this wasn't unusual for Thriller where police officers and detectives were not necessarily painted as the brilliant minds and heroes as they were in many other productions. 

There are many great performances. Maureen Lipman, George O'Callaghan and John Le Mesurier are in particularly fine form as Liz, George and Mr Stubbs and there is an impressive early appearance by Jan Francis. A number of these actors (Le Mesurier most notably) had long associations with comedy but all prove their dramatic potential here.

Another interesting theme is the interest of Liz's mother in reading about the murders and her tongue-in-cheek remark that "everyone likes a good murder". While a seemingly macabre comment there is no doubt that many people are fascinated by the topic, reading about news stories of murder as well as crime novels and of course watching dramas like this one. 

The final fifteen minutes or so of the episode are exceptionally good. There are two confrontations (one with disastrous consequences) and the final scenes where the truth is unveiled are excellently done with one involving a phone call one of the most terrifying in the history of the show. The final lines are perhaps a little troubling and these combined with the very last shot offers some mystery about long-ago events involving Liz. Altogether a fine instalment and certainly one of the highlights of Series 1.

Notes 

Design was often a strength of Thriller and the library set is especially fine in this episode - so convincing that many viewers thought it was filmed in an actual library rather than a studio set, The exteriors of the library were shot on location but Thriller did little filming on location and almost all that was done were shots of exteriors and brief scenes around them rather than filming inside real locations as later became common.

A box of UFO sweet cigarettes (below, behind George) can be seen in the sweet shop - perhaps the only example of a TV-related product seen in Thriller. 

ITC movie title-watch

The opening titles have attracted some criticism for apparently "identifying" the killer. The eyes of a man can be seen spying on a young blonde woman in a library. This then leads into the murder in the original ATV teaser. It certainly seems very unlikely that the movie producers wanted to indicate the killer. They were probably trying a different angle to the usual silhouettes and headless figures used to symbolise killers in these titles. However it is a risky strategy as it may seem to give clues as to the killer. How many viewers though would pick this up on first viewing is uncertain. Leaving this aside, these are quite effective, suspenseful if maybe a little voyeuristic (as was often the case with the new titles) and the music is very well-chosen. This is one of the few movie versions that ends on a still frame, in this case of the eyes of the "killer" borrowed from the new titles rather than a painted montage. These still images always seem far better to me than the garish and commonly unrealistic artwork on most of the end titles.

Film-Rite's trailer for this movie curiously includes no action from the original ATV version and instead reproduces its own filmed titles, with no voiceover. This could have misled viewers into believing it was a preview for a film made in the USA rather than a British videotaped production.            .