Girl on the Run (1958) Online

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. stars in the pilot film for the popular TV series, "77 Sunset Strip." The story is about a lounge singer who witnesses the killing of a union boss (a ripe old plotline staple of 50's TV), and then is stalked by the killer, as he tries to get rid of the only witness to his crime. Zimbalist is hired to find her under a ruse by the murderer, and then falls in love with her and helps to bring the killer to justice. Eddy "Kookie" Byrnes plays a gunman hired to kill the singer, by the murderer, which is kind of odd since he's a good guy in the series. But, I'm guessing he is portrayed as a reformed man in the next episode. Slow moving by today's standards, it's a pleasure to be able to watch a story at a regular pace, and not have your eyes gouged out of your head by rapid, 3 second takes strung together to make a 2 hour film.

Zimbalist is good in the role of the hero PI, but for someone supposedly trained by the government during WWII to be a spy, he makes an enormous amount of mistakes. He leads the heroine around the town to at least 10 different hiding places before he gets the idea he might be followed. Shepperd Strudwick is reliably evil as the villain, and the Erin O'Brien plays her part as a 50's damsel in distress as well as anyone could.

If you can't remember the series, don't worry. Seeing this film will introduce the characters and get you ready to enjoy a true slice of classic 50's television, "77 Sunset Strip." Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb!

GIRL ON THE RUN – 1958

This television movie was used as the basis for the popular P.I. series, 77 SUNSET STRIP.

This one starts with a labour union boss tipping a few in a night club. He gets a call that his wife has been in a car accident. The man, Charles Cane, rushes out to the parking lot to grab his car. As he starts to drive away, a man steps out of the darkness and fires several rounds into him, killing the man.

Also in the parking lot is the singer, Erin O'Brien, from the night club. She had stepped out to have a quiet cigarette. Then the lights in the parking lot snap on. O'Brien finds herself looking straight into the face of the killer, Sheppard Strudwick. Strudwick beats the feet as more people come running to see what the shots were about.

O'Brien heads home, packs her bags and heads for L.A. to hide out. Some weeks later, P.I. Efrem Zimbalist Jr is hired to find a woman for an out of town client. The woman is of course Miss O'Brien. Zimbalist is given a cock and bull story about a runaway wife.

O'Brien has changed her name, cut and dyed her hair, but is still working as a singer. Zimbalist soon tracks the woman down and makes friends with her. They hit a few night spots of their own and O'Brien seems at ease with the man. Zimbalist lets his employer know that he has found the woman.

The next thing you know, a hit-man, played by Edd Byrnes, shows on the scene. After an attempt on O'Brien just misses, Zimbalist realizes that he has been played for a chump. He quickly hides Miss O'Brien, but not too well, as again, Byrnes makes another attempt to eliminate the woman.

Zimbalist decides to backtrack to the man who hired him. The problem here is that all the info trading was done over the phone. He head out of town to see what he can uncover. After much digging, Zimbalist finally tracks down Strudwick. When he contacts the Police, they all get a good laugh out of the accusations. Sturdwick happen to be the local D.A.

Zimbalist keeps at it and soon captures hit-man Byrnes. He leans on him with some rather forceful, third degree. Byrnes cracks and spills everything he knows. Everything starts to fall into place as Zimbalist gathers enough info to have a local cop, Ray Teal, look into the matter. Strudwick is soon identified by O'Brien and Byrnes. He is grabbed up and soon caves and admits everything.

It seems Strudwick had been taking kickbacks from the unions and such. He had killed Cane because Cane was going to testify at the upcoming crime commission hearings. Cane was going to name names.

The film moves along fairly well under the hands of big screen veteran, Richard L. Bare. Bare is best known for the film-noir, FLAXY MARTIN, SMART GIRLS DON'T TALK, THE HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET and THIS SIDE OF THE LAW.

The story was by Roy Huggins. As a writer, producer and director, Huggins, was involved in many series such as, CHEYENNE, MAVERICK, THE BOLD ONES, THE FUGITIVE, ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, TOMA, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, HUNTER and THE ROCKFORD FILES. On the big screen he wrote the story or screenplay for, I LOVE TROUBLE, THE LADY GAMBLES, WOMAN IN HIDING, TOO LATE FOR TEARS and PUSHOVER.

Edd Byrnes, who played a killer in this one, was brought back as a series regular for the run of 77 SUNSET STRIP. He played the popular parking valet with the great name of, "Kookie".

A much better bit of television than I am making it sound like.

As a child/teen I loved "77 Sunset Strip" and watched it every Friday night when I did not have a date. Stuart Bailey was my hero: intelligent, mature, ex-OSS, PhD in Sanskrit of all things (as established, if I remember correctly, in "Girl on the Run") and a private investigator. I missed "Girl on the Run" in 1958 but did catch it about 1980 and managed to make an audio cassette recording of it. Quite a fine piece of noir it is. Zimbalist is excellent (and if he were not I would still like him); O'Brien is convincing; and Byrnes does what may be his best work ever as a cold homicidal maniac for hire. One could not find anyone farther from Kookie than is Smiley. Contrary to what others have said, it is my impression that WB was so impressed by Byrnes work that they said in effect "This movie does not exist in the 77 Sunset Strip continuity so forget it and we will use Edd as our appeal to teen-aged girls in the series." They were so right that Byrnes never again was allowed to show his talent as an actor, so well displayed in this movie. By the time "77 Sunset Strip" appeared only Stu Bailey remained. Even the noir disappeared and though the TV series was great, something was lost. It seems a tragedy that WB has not released this film and the series on DVD. They had better hurry up as my generation is beginning to die off as we become senior citizens! Addendum, 5 Feb 2011: I have just watched "Girl on the Run" again on what might charitably be called a "grey market" DVD. It holds up even better than I had hoped. It truly is a fine bit of noir with a light touch.