sol ***SPOILERS*** Heart thumping thriller with innocent man wanting to be convicted for a kidnap murder that he didn't commit Paul Camron, George Kennedy, getting himself convicted. That so he can have his wife Jean, Ann Jackson, and daughter, Elizabeth Colla, collect the reward money-$250,000.00- that's to be deposited in a dummy bank account in him, by putting Jean's maiden name on the account, having her,or the name on the account, turn him into the police. This hair brained plot is concocted by Camron when he found out that he had no more then six month to live in him suffering from a malignant brain tumor. An on top of all that his life insurance policy doesn't cover brain tumors! Camron planned the whole thing out so meticulously that no one for a moment not even his attorney Mario Gambritti, Eli Wallach, realized that he was framing himself for the murder kidnapping even though he steadfastly proclaimed his innocence in the entire matter! What really screwed Camron up was after being convicted for murder-one he fell into a coma and miracle of miracle's his brain tumor was successfully operated on! Now with a new lease on life and facing either life behind bars or the San Quentin gas chamber Camron has to break out of prison and prove his innocence! Something that he did everything to disprove when he thought he didn't have that long to live!On the run from the law and trying to prove that he in fact wasn't responsible for the kidnap murder of Pam Pacific Inc. CEO John Raymond, Robert Patten, that he in fact framed himself for Camron gets some good news from his good friend and night club owner Morris Bronson, William Marshall. Benson tells Camron that at the time the Raymond was supposedly kidnapped was at least three hours later then at first reported. That was in a kidnap ransom note sent to Pam Pacific Inc.by the person or persons who actually murdered Raymond to cover up their tracks. It was in getting a hold of the bogus ransom note that Camron fabricated his well planned out scenario in his murder of John Raymond! As things turned out one of Bronson's employees singer Muriel, Abigail Shelton, was actually shacked up in Raymond's hotel room up until 9:00 PM! That's almost three hours after he was reported, in the ransom note, to have been kidnapped!***SPOILERS*** With Camron now being able to prove his innocence if he can get Muriel to talk he goes all out to find the person who really murdered Raymond! that takes him straight to hot and sexy Elanine Mercer, Pamala Murphy, in who's car a dark Mercedes Raymond was last seen alive! The big surprised in all this is that what lead to Raymond's murder was his womanizing not any sleazy deals that was thought to have him rubbed out! It was his fooling around and then dumping Elaine that spelled Raymond's doom! And it was Cameron who was so certain that he finally tracked down Raymond's murderer who ends up getting the surprise of his life when he found out, in him thinking it was Elaine, whom Raymond's killer really was!

rayarpt I caught this movie in the theater when it came out. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire movie. At the end I jumped up yelling "No, No, it can't end like this". I was not alone at being dumbstruck at the ending. With all the junk on video/DVD this movie deserves to be available on VHS/DVD. The character played by George Kennedy was almost crazed in his desire to provide money for his family after he died. No matter what he had to do, up to capital punishment, was not outside his moves. When it became apparent that he wasn't dying from a brain tumor, and all he could hope for was the reward money and his execution, his actions to prove his innocence appeared to suggest failure and success. The ending will knock the viewer silly.

Erewhon The premise is familiar -- guy learns he's going to die, tries to find a way to leave his family provided for -- but it's presented in an interesting manner here, with Kennedy an appealing if unlikely lead. All goes well until the ending, which is so outrageously wrong for the movie that it completely sinks the film. A surprise ending is generally something many thrillers try for, but it has to be a surprise ending that satisfies the audience on some level, not one that throws the whole story back in their faces.

kennethwright2612 From the perspective of 2003, the saddest thing about this very downbeat picture is that it could never get made as a commercial production these days - certainly not with a middle-aged and far from beautiful character player in the lead. Although its structure relies on two large implausibilities, the story, characters and motivations are unashamedly adult and human: Zigzag takes life seriously, and when was the last mainstream picture you saw that did that?The versatile and sympathetic heavy George Kennedy (if I'm ever on a passenger plane that's in trouble, I'd want him at the controls) gives an honest, understated performance as a flawed family man who takes a desperate road to a strange kind of redemption. The way he does that would have made a terrific lower-depths 1940s noir for a second-division star like Dana Andrews or Edmond O'Brien, but Zigzag loses nothing from its setting in the less obviously cinematic milieu of respectable lower-middle-class life in an up-and-up America that was just beginning to turn Dayglo.I don't say it's a neglected classic - there's not the slightest touch of humour, the supporting cast aren't trying very hard, and the look of the film is reminiscent of an old episode of Kojak (so are most of the actors). Zigzag is just a solid piece of grown-up dramatic entertainment whose modest ambitions are positively Shakesperean compared to almost anything you could get insulted by at your local multiplex this weekend.