Robert Montgomery Presents Season 5, Episode 36: The Wages of Fear

1

First Vice-President

A hard-driving, domineering business executive is determined to become the company's next president. He invites the retiring chairman and his wife to his Long Island home to wine and dine his way into the position. The man's family members, who are fed up with his tyrannical control over them, finally stage a mutiny at the dinner party.

60 min

2

Private Purkey's Private Place

A soldier and his buddies find themselves in Europe at the end of the war. Believing their opinions are as important as those of Army brass and politicians, they formulate their own peace plan and are determined to share it. They work their way into the Paris peace talks and Private Purkey makes sure the world hears his ideas.

60 min

3

Lost and Found

Dr. Robert Collis works to rehabilitate children, both physically and spiritually, who were held at Belsen, the notorious Nazi prison camp. He invests special efforts to win over Eva, who guards her younger brother so tightly that they can't treat his tuberculosis. This is based on actual events.

60 min

4

September Time

Marion Shaw, a premiere concert vocalist, takes a forced summer rest in Cape Cod to give her strained voice a chance to recover. The truth slowly becomes obvious to both Marion and her voice coach that her singing days are over. The burden of losing her career is lightened by a handsome man she meets in the resort town.

60 min

5

The Big Money

A World War I hero operates on the belief that money, and lots of it, buys happiness. He jumps into the airplane business, believing it will offer big bucks, but soon fails. He plunges into the stock market and meets a woman, but she soon leaves him because of his iffy finances. His single minded goal of money continues to negatively influence his career choices and his relationships.

60 min

6

Breakdown

Scientist Philip Armstrong returns to England to conduct tests on a top secret government weapon. Dr. Allen, whom he doesn't know, is assigned to work with him. The doctor confides that he's in love with a woman he's just recently met. It turns out that the woman is Armstrong's wife. With the stress of his work and his marriage in shambles, the scientist is on the verge of a crack-up.

60 min

7

A Criminal Assignment

Wanting to catch other criminals, the British secret service gains the release of a counterfeiter who's dropped into France. He is to produce bills that contain a tiny flaw to be used to pay off the suspected double-dealers. With the plan a success, the ex-con is free to go. Following the war, the counterfeiter disappears and authorities find two perfect plates. Clearly, he couldn't resist the temptation to print a little for himself.

60 min

8

The Sunday Punch

A one-time big name fighter, Tony Marino, is on his way down the boxing ladder, but he still can throw his powerful "Sunday punch." Tony's manager tries to bribe him to take a dive in a fight with up-and-comer Kid Walker. Tony is infuriated and almost wins the fight, though he suffers a dangerous head injury that could have lasting repercussions.

60 min

9

Cakes and Ale

Upon the death of a famed writer, two colleagues competing to write his biography visit his country estate. While there, they meet a charming local barmaid, Rosie, with quite a story to tell: she had married an unsuccessful middle-aged writer and was a major influence that guided him to being a better man and noted author.

60 min

10

No Picnic at Mount Kenya

Based on a true story from World War II, Felice Benuzzi was one of 10,000 prisoners of war held at the Kenya camp. Benuzzi and two others manage to escape by successfully scaling down the 17,000-foot high Mt. Kenya.

60 min

11

Weekend Pass

A soldier on a three-day weekend pass is determined to paint the town. With $200 and his fiancé, he hits the nightspots in New York City. His girlfriend, though, soon tires of the party life and becomes irritated by his refusal to name a wedding date. After she storms off, he decides to connect with another girl, unaware of what adventures she has in store for him.

60 min

12

The Deep Six

After far too many months at sea, tensions build among the men and officers of the cruiser U.S.S. Atlantis during World War II. Lt. Alec Austen is already irritated by the constant meddling of his executive and gunnery officers. After months of tedium and threatened danger, the ship encounters a Japanese force in the Aleutians and is thrust into a furious battle for survival.

60 min

13

Harvest

A young man in love with a sophisticated woman from the city is torn between his desires and those of his family. His parents wish him and his brother to stay and work on their small Minnesota wheat farm while both want to escape the tough life and move to the city. It's up to the mother to keep the family together in spirit during their Thanksgiving holiday reunion.

60 min

14

The Soprano and the Piccolo Player

An overweight piccolo player's accompaniment to a soprano's aria is so well-received that the two are suddenly in demand as a duo. As their fame and popularity grow, so does the piccolo player's love for his beautiful partner. As he's trying to muster up the courage to ask her to marry him, he learns that she has become engaged to another. Heartbroken, he disappears, never to be seen or heard from again.

60 min

15

Really the Blues

Jackie Cooper stars in this biography of jazz great Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow. An unruly youth, his parents put him in a reform school where he first encountered jazz. He eventually became a talented clarinetist and fronted his own combo during the 1920s, but when music trends moved towards big bands, he suffered a rapid decline in fortunes. Mezz endured much mental suffering during this period before being reintroduced to the public by friends like musician Gene Krupa.

60 min

16

No Visible Means

Tom, a smooth talking gigolo, makes the rounds through the speakeasies of 1920s New York. He's loved by Veronia, a woman with a lot of money, but he loses interest when he meets Iris. She presents herself as a person of society on the verge of big film career. Wedding plans quickly follow, until their lies catch up with both of them.

60 min

17

What About Christmas?

Individuals throughout an American city end up touching one another in unexpected ways during the holiday season. Among the unrelated people are a lonely old man and his cat, a movie actor hoping to make it home for Christmas, a businessman, and a scientist who chooses to work in his lab on Christmas Eve.

60 min

18

The Greatest Man in the World

A publicity-loving mechanic causes a sensation when he flies solo around the world. A newspaper reporter is assigned the job of uncovering this unknown person's secretive past.

60 min

19

The Steady Man

A couple whose child died at birth face a problem adopting a child. The husband, proud of the fact that he can account for every penny they spend, is horrified by the expense and the long wait involved. It's up to the patient wife to talk her husband into dealing with the adoption process.

60 min

20

A Case of Identity

While taking the subway home from the Stork Club, a musician is detained by police for a robbing a loan office. One of the clerks identifies him as the criminal and he's eventually sentenced to jail. It is only through the determination of his lawyer that he is finally freed.

60 min

21

Machinal

Giving in to the advice of her calculating mother, Helen marries her highly successful and thoroughly revolting boss. Since his very touch repulses her, she ends up in an affair with a young man who eventually betrays her. The climax to her sad life is being sentenced to the electric chair.

60 min

22

Richard Said No

A ad-man for a perfume company meets his female counterpart at a party when his jealous wife is away.

60 min

23

The 17th of June

Based on a true story, a man performs heroic acts against Communists in East Berlin during an uprising on June 17th of the previous summer.

60 min

24

Mr. Whittle and the Morning Star

After much study, a history professor has decided that the end of the world is upon us.

60 min

25

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

The adventures of the young Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough are dramatized from the bestseller of the same title. The girls board a luxury ship bound for Europe and are flirted with by a couple of Yankees, but much prefer the company of two sophisticated society men.

60 min

26

Land of Happiness

In 1895, a sophisticated woman of Copenhagen accompanies her husband, a pastor to his new parish. It's located on the rustic and isolated Faero Islands of the North Atlantic.

60 min

27

Such a Busy Day Tomorrow

A senior citizen who's successfully raised a family feels he has nothing remaining to contribute to their lives. He meets a group of people at an senior center and fears he'll never be as happy again as they seem to be.

60 min

28

The Paradise Cafe

A honky-tonk piano player with big plans is surrounded by a diverse group of dreamers in this character study set in a bistro.

60 min

29

The Quality of Mercy

A couple innocently leave their baby home alone for a night out in the Big Apple. Authorities learn of this, take the child and place it in a children's home. Confused and frightened, the parents become violent, however the nun who heads the facility bestows mercy upon the couple.

60 min

30

Pink Hippopotamus

A blockade runner, himself an escapee from behind the Iron Curtain, deals in the transport of human cargo in and out of that region. His current mission is to reunite a young boy and his parents.

60 min

31

My Little Girl

A reporter father thinks he's done a good job of raising his child. Unfortunately, he starts to have doubts about her integrity.

60 min

32

For These Services

Father and son physicians are at odds over how to practice medicine.

60 min

33

The Pale Blonde of Sand Street

A young sailor meets a blonde and give her his lucky coin. With it, she makes a wish for him to disappear from her life. When the wish comes true, she begins to haunt ships looking for the man she really loves.

60 min

34

Big Boy

The conflict between generations is played out between an old railroad man and his son over steam powered trains versus the new diesel engine.

60 min

35

No Need of Favor

A young artist who has lost his vision falls for and marries his secretary, a woman of great inner beauty but "plain Jane" looks. When an operation restores the artists' sight, his wife becomes insecure because she can never match the vision of beauty he had of her in his mind.

60 min

36

The Wages of Fear

Four men face danger at every turn driving truckloads of nitroglycerin through jungle country to Guatemala's to oil fields.

60 min

37

Pilgrim's Pride

A businessman takes his number one client to the country for meetings, but finds his daughter already there with a house full of party guests.

60 min

38

Sky Block

Farmland across the Midwest is turned into desert by someone wielding a destructive "drought machine".

60 min

39

The Power and the Prize

When in Europe, an American businessman falls for a refugee from behind the Iron Curtain. He brings the girl back with him and must deal with the prejudices of the people he works with.

60 min

40

Once Upon a Time

A bride and groom greeting guests at their wedding encounter loves from their pasts. Each remembers their dating days and thinks about the one they might have married.

60 min

41

The Patriot from Antibes

A baron and baroness are swindled out of a small fortune by group of impressive con men in a true story from the Paris police files.

60 min

42

Great Expectations: the Promise (Part 1)

In the first of this two-part adaptation, Pip, a young man with an inheritance, suffers through problems that arise due to his friendship with an escaped criminal.

60 min

43

Great Expectations: the Reality (Part 2)

In part two, Pip gets his own apartment, falls in love, and has another encounter with the criminal Magwitch.

60 min

44

In His Hands

A young doctor's true love suffers an incurable, deadly disease.

60 min

45

The Expert

A noted author and lecturer on the subject of marital bliss can not speak from personal experience. He has a hard time explaining why a strange woman in her pajamas is feeding him breakfast.

60 min

46

Story on 11th Street

A lonely widower with a seven-year-old son wants to rebuild a happy home for the child.

60 min

47

It Happened in Paris

An American couple broadcast a weekly radio show from Paris, enthralling their listeners back home with stories of their extended honeymoon in France. In reality, the man and woman are not married, can't stand each other, and bicker constantly. That's why they're unhappy when the sponsor wants to renew their contracts.

60 min

48

Patricia

A young society woman follows her own path and enrolls in a bohemian art school. She immediately falls for an older instructor, but he does not return her affections.

60 min

49

Home Town

A gullible man leaves his home town for the big city. He falls prey to a flashy public relations man who plots a big build-up for his debut.

60 min

50

About Sara Caine

An overbearing young female reporter is determined to better her father, competing against him in the coverage of a news story.

60 min

51

Invitation to Murder

A publisher gets a manuscript full of damning statements about a number of important people. He invites its author and those mentioned in the book to the same party, suggesting to his guests that murdering the author might be a suitable option.

60 min

52

Personal Story

At the peak of his career, an architect suffers an heart attack. He takes the doctor's advice to slow down to such an extreme, he's barely living his life.

60 min

53

A Matter of Luck

A singer is given a lucky charm by a girl in his neighborhood and his career suddenly takes off. When he accidentally breaks the trinket, his good luck ends just as abruptly.

60 min