Positioned between the excellent "A Candle in the Window" and the dramatic, (but not very credible), "The Elusive Dik-Dik:, the three parts of this soggy saga are quite a let-down. it seems to be a product of the tendency of studios in that time to hitch together episodes of TV series so they could be released abroad as theatrical movies.
It has Drs. Gillespie and Kildare flying to Italy to observe an Itlaian doctor's experiments with a possible cancer cure. But that is just an excuse: their real purpose is to fall in love, Gillepsie with an old flame from when he was a military doctor in the war, (Alida Valli, long after "The Third Man"), Kildare with Daniela Bianchi, (recently in "From Russia With Love"). They both have to contemplate remaining single or getting married and staying or going home. There are lost of scenes of romping at the beach, walking through the park, etc. Richard Chamberlain even gets to sing the title song by Bert Bacharach and Hal David.
It's all pretty sappy, any potential drama undercut by the obvious fact that the two doctors won't be getting married and will be going back to their jobs in time for the next episodes, (which takes forever to get here, due to this being a three-parter that goes on eternally). And it's not filmed in Italy or in color. It's all studio sets and stock footage, all in wonderful black and white. The actors have to strain themselves to describe who beautiful everything is.
The ratings for this show were beginning to slip at this time, resulting in the next season's format change and the show's eventual cancellation. You wonder if the slide began because of this dire three-parter.
It has Drs. Gillespie and Kildare flying to Italy to observe an Itlaian doctor's experiments with a possible cancer cure. But that is just an excuse: their real purpose is to fall in love, Gillepsie with an old flame from when he was a military doctor in the war, (Alida Valli, long after "The Third Man"), Kildare with Daniela Bianchi, (recently in "From Russia With Love"). They both have to contemplate remaining single or getting married and staying or going home. There are lost of scenes of romping at the beach, walking through the park, etc. Richard Chamberlain even gets to sing the title song by Bert Bacharach and Hal David.
It's all pretty sappy, any potential drama undercut by the obvious fact that the two doctors won't be getting married and will be going back to their jobs in time for the next episodes, (which takes forever to get here, due to this being a three-parter that goes on eternally). And it's not filmed in Italy or in color. It's all studio sets and stock footage, all in wonderful black and white. The actors have to strain themselves to describe who beautiful everything is.
The ratings for this show were beginning to slip at this time, resulting in the next season's format change and the show's eventual cancellation. You wonder if the slide began because of this dire three-parter.
