User Reviews

While babysitting a young boy for a single businessman in "The Big Score," a duplicitous teenager named Dora (Evans Evans) invites her hoodlum friends over the house so they can rob the place blind. Unfortunately, while these thugs are grabbing everything in sight, the man of the house returns unexpectedly. That's when we find out that these teenage punks are also homicidal. The leader named Gino (a young Rafael Campos) stabs the guy to death and they quickly exit the house with plenty of loot. Dora stays behind to call the cops and give them a sob story about the tragedy; her tale of woe includes hearing a commotion but not seeing the perpetrators. The police investigators apparently fall for it, but strangely, nothing is reported in the local newspapers the next day about the murder. Meanwhile Dora and her accomplices discover that a small case that was stolen contains the whopping total of over $30,000! Gino decides that it might be best for him to grab Dora (she's not a bad looking blond) and take off with the loot. He's convinced the other punks won't report him since they're accessories to murder now. What Gino hasn't figured out, however, is why so much money just happened to be laying around someone's house and why nothing about the murder/robbery has yet to make any headlines. The answer is simple: IT WAS MOB MONEY. Being the good detectives they are (and getting inside information from the police), the REAL hoodlums are hot on the trail of whoever stole their money and killed their associate. Gino, who's been flashing big money around, is their number one suspect. The good news is that when they catch up to him, Gino (and whoever happens to be with him) can have their trial, sentence and execution all accomplished in the space of ten minutes. "The Big Score" was directed by Hitchcock veteran Boris Sagal and he handles the action and suspense with his usual flair for the dramatic. Rafael Campos made a career out of playing Latino juvenile delinquents; this is one of his better portrayals. Evans Evans is best known for playing Thelma in "Bonnie and Clyde." She's the girlfriend of Gene Wilder in one of that movie's more memorable comic scenes. "Step on it, Thelma!"

Annoying punks, no idea what they see in each other.

Rafael Campos, 'Gino ', over-acts like he wanted to be cast in West Side Story, or any of the many street punk movies. Which is odd, when you look at his considerable resume.

The other two, Tom Gilleran, 'Mike' and Nick Sills, 'Arne', fare no better. In fact, this is the only credited performance for Nick Sills.

There is an interesting glitch in the apartment when Gino returns from the fence. When Dora cries out "watch out Gino", there is an muffled sound that may have been a gunshot, and Arnie falls on the couch clutching his left side, but there is no sign of a wound, particularly since the actor cannot keep his hand on his side as he falls.

Evans Evans, 'Dora', is the only one who shows any acting skill, I liked her character, mostly.

The ending, although predictable, could have been handled better. It seemed a little awkward, almost an afterthought rather than the ending twist.

A teen named Dora is babysitting for a widower, who tells her that his son says she's his favorite babysitter. Almost as soon as he leaves, she pours herself a large drink from his bar, then she takes the kid to his bedroom-where he has a TV and turns it on instead of reading him a story as he asked.

That was because she had some friends coming over: Three hoodlum punks who at first seem to be intent on having a party-with loud music and dancing and drinking. But it turns out Dora has cased the joint and is about to show them where the man's valuables are. As the leader of the punks, Gino, steals a revolver from a large gun collection, Dora shows them where a small strong box is hidden. They snatch it and are on their way out the door when the homeowner returns unexpectedly.

He does nothing more than tell the punks to get out, after seeing the strongbox, but Gino decides to stab him to death. This is all in the first minutes of the show. Most of the rest is spent in some fleabag room where the foursome are trying to figure out 1) why this guy had a box with $32,000 in it, and 2) how come there hasn't been a radio news story about the man's murder. Dora did stay and tell the cops a fish story about two men she never saw being heard while she was with the little boy.

I'll skip the details, but things don't end up well for the gang, especially for the two leaders who leave their "friends" behind after they get drunk.

The ending wasn't much of a twist at all other than in exactly how it happened. What really keeps me from giving a positive review is that from the first minute or so when Dora downs a healthy drink of booze from the man, we have reason not to like her. Other than the little boy and a very brief role of the police detective, we have absolutely no reason to like any of the characters in the show. I didn't care to see if they got away or how anyone was going to be caught or whatever. Four hoodlums, stealing from a man who had the misfortune of hiring a crooked babysitter, then killing him just because he saw they were thieves. Alone in their flat, they argued and almost got into a fight every 90 seconds or so. No redeeming qualities were shown in any of them.

When you aren't figuring out a complicated plot and don't like any of the characters, it's downright impossible to enjoy the episode. Normally, we see some nice people, along with a bad guy or girl, and we care about the good folks. Sometimes, we are following a bad guy but wonder if he's going to find a way to get away with the crime he's committed. Here we get the feeling that Dora would have been happy splitting the loot with any one of the others, and wouldn't mind offing the other two herself. A score of three from me.

**SPOILERS** If you get to see this little show, just look at Evans Evans; I though she was a young Elizabeth Montgomery. Babes. both of them. The hot rod that Gino had in the chase scene was just too doggy to get away from the bad guys.

Well, not really. See Old Alfred had a real problem with anyone getting away with murder. we all know what was gonna happen to Gino and Dora when the killers caught them, didn't we? Problem is; I don't think they could've caught them. I'm not sayin that they got away free, I'm just pointing out that a flaming, blazing, fireball car crash would have been much more satisfying, don't you think? As usual, Al lets everyone know that the ever vigilant cops (the same ones that bought Dora's story earlier) busted the leftovers for transportation to the local penitentiary. Right, Al.

You have to wonder just what kind of vibe the Hitchcock folks were going for here. The three hoods who joined babysitter Dora (Evans Evans) at the rich guy's apartment couldn't decide what era they were in. They dressed like a street gang but spoke in some weird variation of beatnik talk. When Mike (Tom Gilleran) threatened Gino (Rafael Campos) with the line, "Do you want a ventilated head?", I just about cracked up. Who talks like that? The scriptwriters must have been undergoing an identity crisis.

The story makes it hard to sympathize with any of the characters, and after the goons kill Mr. Fellowes (Phillip Reed) and rob his stash of thirty two thousand dollars, it becomes a waiting game to see how it all plays out. You knew that monogrammed cigarette lighter had to factor in the resolution, and at least for Gino and Dora, it wound up catching them on the bad end of a car chase gone wrong. We never do find out what happened to Mike and the goofy third guy Arne (Nick Sills), but that's just as well. In Hitchcock's usual manner, he completes this fiasco with how all the bad guys got their just desserts. For once, I didn't mind his unsolicited opinion.