Thriller (TV Series) Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are (1974) User Reviews

Very clever

[analoguebubblebath · 8/10 · 30 August 2005]

'Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are' continues Thriller's winning third series with an extremely clever whodunit which keeps the viewer guessing for the entire duration.

John Carson makes his second Thriller appearance. He previously featured in 'Possession' and is probably best known for his superb turn as Mr Lenoir in Southern TV's The Famous Five: Five Go To Smuggler's Top from 1978. Now he is cast as dour hotelier Arthur Lewis complete with a drink problem and whose version of what occurred the previous night is at considerable odds with the tale recounted by Lynda Day George's beautiful American tourist, Cathy More.

So what did happen? Cathy is adamant she checked in to the hotel with her friend Jane Howard. Lewis is adamant she didn't and Peter Jeffrey gives a tour-de-force performance as the misogynistic detective Dexter whose job is to solve the mystery.

There are a number of clever twists in the story and you will be kept guessing right until the very end.

An excellent and accomplished piece.

Thriller's big weakness....

[joegarbled-79482 · 6/10 · 24 June 2023]

Brian Clemens certainly knew television and he knew what sold, but the anthology series "Thriller" had a major weakness that every story had a leading character played by an American actor or actress who has all too obviously been shoe-horned into the episode in an attempt to make it more saleable to the US tv market. This is all too often compounded by using US guest stars who had seemingly come here for a payday rather than to give of their best. In this episode it's Lynda Day George, an actress that I've always considered wooden, ever since I first came across her in the original broadcast of the mini-series "Roots".

The overly contrived story here cannot be completely rescued, even with an excellent performance by John Carson as a drunken hotelier with a shady past, and the lovely Colette O'Neil as his wife. Peter Jeffrey's detective was far too over the top, and if he wanted to come across more convincing as a flatfoot, he would've been taking notes when questioning suspects (or had his junior officer doing it) and he would've warned the suspects that they didn't have to answer his questions.

Whilst Lynda Day George was positively timbered in her performance, Jeffrey was simply over the top. The story did none of the cast any great favours yet John Carson seemed to be enjoying the opportunity to get away from his usual uppercrust/army officer type role.

"Thriller" had far better episodes than this one, I recently watched the episode "Someone At The Top Of The Stairs", Donna Mills was the US guest star here, but the story was well carried by the UK cast, most of them coming across as truly creepy, even with a young boy who was a Peeping Tom when Donna Mills was getting ready for a bath. Mills seemed to be a popular choice for Clemens.

I rate this episode as 6/10 as for all of its faults in storyline and the presence of Lynda Day George, it was fun to watch John Carson get the chance to do a seedier character and also to find out if Lynda Day George's character would escape justice (a possibility given her being there to sell the show abroad) or whether Jeffrey's dreadful detective would be smart enough to crack the case.

Masterpiece of tv theatre

[simon-118 · 9/10 · 8 December 1999]

This is a television play. Not a movie. So it should be watched as it was intended, as a creepy late night time-passer and not a work of art. One of the finest episodes of THRILLER it features a tremendous performance by Peter Jeffrey as surely the most sadistic policeman ever to have appeared on screen! He hates women with a vengeance and whoever looks like the prime suspect at any given point he is prepared to persecute to the brink, be it verbally or physically. The plot is excellent and impossible to see through. Within 5 minutes you're hooked and baffled. The creaky country house hotel setting is great, and John Carson is wonderful as the shady landlord who may have something to hide. It's so theatrical and the plot is so simple that the real skill is in the way you NEVER guess it until the end! Pity that, like all the episodes of Thriller, the video release and the US broadcast have lost the terrifying title sequence and been replaced with appallingly silly inserted sequences that give away most of the plot.

Wow!!! - I Never Guessed the Ending!!!

[kidboots · 10/10 · 14 April 2011]

What an extraordinary twist!!! This is one of Brian Clemen's "Thriller"'s best episodes. The basic storyline has been used in a couple of movies, most notably "So Long At the Fair" (1950) but in Brian Clemen's hands he gives it a twist to stand it on it's head!!!

Lynda Day George plays Cathy, a young American tourist, who along with her friend Jane, checks into a country hotel in order to do some sight seeing. You guessed it - next morning Cathy comes down to inquire about her friend, to be met with blank looks!!! No-one has seen her friend, she came alone, the only witness is a doddering old woman who is short sighted. The manager (John Carson, from Thriller's season 1 "Possession") acts suspicious - he is a heavy drinker and can't remember what day it was let alone who he saw last night. Plus someone has discreetly cut out the visitor's sign in page with Jane's signature.

Enter an odd policing pair - Dexter (Peter Jeffrey) and Michael. You presume they are policemen, although they don't say who they are. But of course they are because in "Thriller" there seems to be a pattern of frightened women being patronized by rude policemen ("Murder in Mind", "File it Under Fear", "If It's a Man - Hang Up") and Dexter starts out in an almost psychotic way, almost terrorizing Cathy - treating her like a serial killer while his equally weird partner is upstairs, going through her luggage. But just like "So Long at the Fair" when Dirk Bogarde casually remarks that he did talk to her brother the night before - enter Paul, who mentions he spoke to Jane and met her. Instantly, now Cathy is believed and treated respectfully but.... of course in "Thriller" there is a big but... things are not at all what they seem!!! There is also a scene at the very start (involving an old castle) that completely throws your detecting powers in another direction.

Highly, Highly Recommended.

Great Lynda George's Line at the end is Word!

[GmalkinSr · 10/10 · 25 February 2006]

Of all the episodes of this series that weren't supernatural, this is one of the best with great acting and a really great, I didn't see that coming ending.

Lynda George's acting was well as her beauty is superb. The lead policeman acting is great too, this guy is totally off his rocker.

The best thing about this episode, and I won't spoil its ending, is Lynda George's perfect incredible one word catchphrase at the end and how she says it. It ranks better then "I've Gots to Know" from Dirty Harry & an Terminator one. This episode is a keeper which I recommend making a copy of for posterity. A classic!

Another classic

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 16 May 2018]

This third series of Thriller is astonishing, the writing is simply brilliant, each story has been intriguing, captivating and highly entertaining. There's a cleverness to this story that I'd associate with the writing of Francis Durbridge, the circumstances ordinary to the point of mundane, but underneath the every day lay something very dark. Loaded with intrigue, as a viewer your sympathies will definitely lay one way. Brian Clemens very much at his best. Lynda Day George is terrific in the lead role, some nifty camera work, that old trick of rubbing petroleum jelly on the lense works well. If all that doesn't float your boat theres a small role for McWitch, as the short sighted hotel guest.

A figmant of your imagination...

[sherondalewis-20531 · 9/10 · 6 March 2023]

This was another great episode of Thriller. Here is a mystery about an American tourist name Cathy (Lynda Day George) who wants to know where her cousin, Jane (Kathleen Mallory) is located. Cathy has had some type of nightmare of Jane about to fall to her death but, doesn't. So, in the morning, Cathy gets up for breakfast and knocks on Jane's door to awaken her. No answer. So, she inquires Mrs. Lewis (Colette O'Neil) if Jane have left for the morning. She swears that her and her cousin came in at night to the inn where the Lewises are innkeepers. Mr. Lewis( John Carson) an alcoholic, swears to his wife and to Cathy that only 1 person checked in and that was her, the pretty blonde. But, Cathy is 100 percent sure they both registered. Looking at the book only her name is there...but, we realize in this episode someone tore a page from said book.

Cathy then gets worried when the Lewises questions her about Jane. Mr. Lewis is adamant that she was NOT there. Only her. Cathy insists. So, she calls the police, to the dismay of Mr. And Mrs. Lewis.

Detective Inspector Dexter (Peter Jefferey)comes in a suspects that maybe the beautiful American blonde is not quite all there and this is nothing more than a figment of her imagination. With his partner, Reeves (Richard Cobert), they try to deal with this "non matter" matter. So, they investigate. And so far, no one believes Jane even exists...until the other tenant, Paul, explains to the cops that yes, there WAS another woman. He should know: he helped them with their bags that night. And with a call to the airlines, there was, in fact, an American named Jane Howard, that arrived in England. So now, where is Jane? Did Mr. Lewis go into a drunken blackout and hurt her? Did Cathy have something to do with this? What did happen to Jane?

This episode was soo good because you start questioning what happened to Jane and why is she missing and what does Mr. Lewis have to hide.

Only the ending, you will see what did happen to Jane and how cold and calculating it was.

Lynda Day George did a wonderful job of portraying a confused, worried relative who wants to get to the bottom of her cousin's disappearance and John Carson plays the alcoholic, unhinged proprietor of the inn who, even though he knows he drinks too much and forgets at times, is confident about what really happened.

This one you have to see to the end!

Let Down By The Ending

[Theo Robertson · 5/10 · 12 September 2013]

American tourist Cathy More is staying at an English hotel . One morning at breakfast she asks if anyone has seen her travelling companion Jane but the staff tell her that she arrived alone without anyone and they have no knowledge of Jane . Cathy is adamant she did arrive with Jane and the police are called to investigate

Once you ignore the obsession this show has trying to appeal to an American audience - a slight problem it shares with JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN where the entire population of America seems to be visiting the UK - this is a relatively intriguing story for the most part with a clever idea of a lone woman finding herself surrounded by potentially hostile locals and cynical sceptical police detectives and like so many episodes we're treated to some well known British character actors

I say " for the most part " because what lets the episode down is the last ten minutes where the story feels the need to talk down to the audience explaining the plot in great detail . It's becoming very clear that THRILLER isn't going to be known as a show of sophisticated subtly and any intricate plotting has to be explained to the audience while in some episodes some things remain unexplained . The plot has to rely on implausible contrivance and while being blackly comical lets the entire episode down a fair bit