En route to LA, Jessica is detoured at a seedy truck stop where a series of murders makes it clear she isn't there by accident.En route to LA, Jessica is detoured at a seedy truck stop where a series of murders makes it clear she isn't there by accident.En route to LA, Jessica is detoured at a seedy truck stop where a series of murders makes it clear she isn't there by accident.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaKristoffer Tabori's character is an homage to the point of imitation of the character played by Leslie Howard in "The Petrified Forest" (1936), from his manner of speaking and walking to his nearly identical clothing.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Walter Murray: [into tape recorder] Walter Murray here. I got this feeling I'm not gonna make it...
[chuckles]
Walter Murray: ... a feeling in my chest. Anyway, uh, I'm not sure who's... gonna last longer, me or this tape, so, uh... I'd better quit with the wise cracks and, uh, get to the point.
- SoundtracksMurder She Wrote Theme
Written by John Addison
Featured review
One of the strangest "Murder, She Wrote" episodes ever
The creatives behind "Murder, She Wrote" often tried to shake up the formula and present something different, and a lot of times it worked. For "Truck Stop," it doesn't. In fact, this episode represents one of the series' biggest belly-flops. Mike Connors guest stars as a screenwriter who is supposed to be adapting Jessica's book into a movie, but instead he practically kidnaps her and takes her into a small town somewhere in between Vegas and L.A. where connected to a seedy diner start turning up dead. The diner is run by Connors' old flame Vera (played by Elizabeth Ashley, and named after the femme fatale of "Detour," in case you didn't get it), who is married to a boorish drunken slob named Pete (played by Ron Karabatsos, and named after the doomed husband in "The Postman Always Rings Twice," in case you didn't get it). Pete turns up dead and there's a shootout between a would-be blackmailer and Connors, in which both end up dead. But before he dies, Connors tape records a confession to both killings, which are dramatized in neo-noir black-and-white as his voice narrates. This isn't a spoiler, because Jessica instinctively senses that things just aren't adding up, tape or no tape, though even she can't figure out who the mysterious, hobo-ish Desmond is (Kristoffer Tabori, doing an excellent Roddy McDowall impression, for whatever reason), what his purpose is in the story, what he knows about the sheriff (Ken Swofford), or why the sheriff doesn't recognize him. It's a mostly great cast, with Ashley making silk out of her sow's ear role as a put-upon waitress, and the usually blustery Swofford standing out in a low-key, rather menacing performance. On the down side is Karabatsos, channeling Lon Chaney, Jr., who demonstrates that the specialty of the house at this particular diner is ham, and Connors attempt at being Bogart, which is a disservice to them both. The real problem, though, is the script. The noir dialogue is downright laughable, with Connors' hard-boiled narration sounding like it was written for Leslie Nielsen for a "Naked Gun" movie. Just when it almost seems like things are coming together Peter Haskell shows up, quite late in the show, as an insurance agent, and plays his role as though he doesn't know whether he'll turn out to be the killer or not. In fact the solution to the mystery and how it fits with everything that has come before is so wobbly that it seems like NO ONE knew who the killer was until they drew straws on the set. Maybe "Truck Stop" was supposed to be a two-parter that got cut down to one hour, and that's why nothing makes sense. But as it is, nothing makes sense.
helpful•128
- m2mallory
- Jun 29, 2015
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- 3475 Main Ave. Durango, USA(cafe, and cactus motel)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
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