Only a Scream Away - Series 2, Episode 1 (Saturday 26th January 1974)

The story...

Samantha and Robert Miller have just got married, the wedding only spoiled by an unpleasant prank in which someone splashed red paint on Samantha's dress, As they settle down to married life they are befriended by an American neighbour called Howard Heston, an amiable if slightly odd man who often talks fondly of childhood memories. Things take a dramatic turn for the worse when Robert is killed in a car crash and soon afterwards Sammie's aunt Liza dies in another accident of carbon monoxide poisoning. Sammie is unsurprisingly devastated and now it seems Howard is all she has....

Review

One of the most popular episodes and quite deservedly so. It is something of a mystery why a Times reviewer of the day argued with regard to it, "The series has already murdered itself"!

This was another Terence Feely script (based on a story by Brian Clemens as indeed was every Thriller script not written by him) and is one of his best - an excellent choice to premiere the second series in January 1974 in the UK. Maybe the story moves rather slowly, particularly in its first half, but that does serve to develop character and an atmosphere of unease. 

There are no great surprises in the story - the quality is in the execution. It is evident from his first appearance that Howard Heston is to be the villain, despite his great, deceptive charm. There is, as Aunt Liza says, something "odd" about him. However what intrigues the viewer is what exactly is his secret and what is he going to do? Lots of things come together to make Heston one of the best Thriller villains. Good writing is key, and the direction is splendid. However the performance of Gary Collins, making the first of his three appearances in the show, is decisive. Gary is in top form, especially in the final fifteen minutes. It would be easy for the character, with his obsession with childhood, to seem silly or incredible but the balance is just right. One ends up pitying such a man who has clearly lost touch with reality. All the same he is a dangerous and frightening figure. The scenes with him whistling "Mona Lisa" while playing cat's cradle are especially haunting. This echoed another sinister use of a popular tune in the case of "Greensleeves" in Possession.  The shot of him early on (viewed from the neck down) cutting up the photograph of Samantha is also very disturbing.

Hayley Mills was one of the best-known performers to figure in Thriller and is very good as the winsome Samantha. As a classic "English rose" Hayley was ideal for a British heroine. She has a demanding role, with difficult emotional scenes to play, but does not disappoint. Again she really comes into her own in the final part in the long scene at Heston's windmill. Joyce Carey, well-known at the time as the scatter-brained mother of Patrick Glover in the sitcom Father, Dear Father deserves commendation for her part as Aunt Liza. Unlike Samantha Liza does sense danger, something that Heston does not appreciate. 

The sight of David Warbeck as Robert is welcome after his two appearances in the second block of UFO as a Skydiver captain and he equips himself well in a more substantial role. The only character that doesn't wholly work is that of Tom (Jeremy Bulloch). Tom is rather annoying in the first part, particularly with his innuendoes, but as tragedy heaps on Samantha he adopts a more serious and effective guise.

Howard Heston (Gary Collins) unloads his anguish to Sammie (Hayley Mills)

The final minutes are extremely strong as more is understood of Sammie and Heston's childhood relationship, The use of the photographs of the pair as children is a superbly unnerving technique. Director Peter Jefferies cleverly flashes between shots of the photos and Samantha, as he also does with a card from Giles (Howard's real name) when she finally and realises his real identity. These rapid switches are very unsettling. The photos do though reveal an appreciable age gap between the two when they were children that makes their friendship surprising, although perhaps Giles / Howard's interest in a much younger child was already a signal that something was not quite right with him. This leads up to a dramatic climax which rounds off a great start to the second series.

Notes

Some synopses of the TV movie version repeats in the early 1980s referred to Howard Heston as a "former mental hospital inmate". This was never stated on screen but may have been referred to in script directions or information supplied to broadcasters. It is certainly a plausible background for him but probably wisely it wasn't mentioned on-screen as it could well have alerted other characters including Sammie and Robert that Heston was not all he seemed.

Gary Collins was along with Donna Mills the only American guest star to appear in three episodes of Thriller. While all her parts were as heroines (as was commonly the case with the US guests) he played transparent villains on all three occasions. These villainous parts though were all rather different: a mentally-disturbed fantasist in this episode; a hard-nosed, calculating man who wants his wife killed in The Double Kill; and a con-man in Dial a Deadly Number.

By coincidence this episode featured two actors born in New Zealand - David Warbeck and Jonathan Elsom - although both were playing British characters.

Ronald Mayer - playing a doctor on this occasion - was the first actor to reappear in Thriller.

ITC Movie version title-watch

The opening titles feature a ludicrous and tasteless sequence in which a doll is throttled and injected with a syringe. The end title artwork shows Howard Heston pointing a gun, although no gun was seen in the episode. A fine musical piece called "Mask of Fear" by Jack Trombey does offer some redemption.