Escape (1971)

A feel like a broken record saying this, but John Llewellyn Moxey made so many different styles of movies and I really love every single one.

Take this failed pilot, in which Cameron Steele (Christopher George!) is a former escape artist turned private investigator into the unknown. The unknown in this case being the secret formula that Doctor Henry Walding (William Windom) and his brother Charles (John Vernon!) had been working on. When thugs kidnap Henry and chain up our hero and toss him in the river, of course he can bring his escape skills out to save the day.

He’s also a rich playboy and the co-owner of a Vegas nightclub called The Crystal Ball with his friend Nicholas Slye (Avery Schreiber!). It’s filled with psychics and occult magic users who would have all made for plenty of great stories if this had actually become a series.

Man, with an adventure under an abandoned theme park and a scarred up Vernon as the heel and plenty of action, this whole movie makes me wistful for what may have been. Plus, it has appearances by William Schallert, Huntz Hall and Gloria Grahame!

You can watch this on YouTube.

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