Escape - Border Town

Escape's "Border Town" is the story of a man who finds a wad of money that gets him into all sorts of trouble.

The story begins with Evan, a struggling actor on a cross-country bus trip to Hollywood. At a bus depot in Texas, the man who had been seated next to him, is taken into custody as a counterfeiter.  Afterwards, Evan decides to make an overnight stop in El Paso and pick up the next bus in the morning.

At the hotel, when he reaches into his overcoat pocket, Evan finds a package of bills that the counterfeiter stashed there before he was taken away. His first thought is to call the FBI, but then he decides that getting involved isn't worth the trouble. Instead, Evan crosses over the American/Mexican border into the town of Juarez. He realizes that there is an opporunity to sell the counterfeit money there, but is the money really counterfeit?

"Border Town" was written by John and Gwen Bagni and produced/directed by William N. Robson. Jack Webb starred as Evan. (It is worth noting that the main character is never actually called by the name of Evan in this episode; however, that is the name given in the credits.) Also appearing were William Conrad as Jake, Ben Wright as O'Toole, Tony Barrett as Rice, and Jeanette Nolan as Nieves.  This episode aired on December 13, 1949.

. Download Escape_1949.12.13_ Border_Town.mp3

(Image of Ciudad Juarez from Wikimedia Commons)

Comments

[Atoz]

I thought this was a very good episode. It had a great film noir feel to it.

SPOILERS

I was surprised that they didn't emphasize what caused the narrator's downfall at the end. For anyone who isn't clear on what happened, as I was at first, you need to note the denominations of the bills involved in the story. The "counterfeit" bills that Jack Webb stumbles on in the beginning were all 50s and 100s. The bills that O'Toole pays him back with are in tens and twenties. Ultimately, he sells real money that he thought was fake for fake money that he thought was real! A really great twist.