Thriller The Colour of Blood (1973–1976) watch online HD

An exceptionally good outing of the splendid "Thriller" anthology.

In this story, Arthur Page, a psychopath, escapes en route to custody after being convicted of the killings of a number of women. At the same time Julie, a secretary, is about to meet a client she has never seen at Waterloo station to give him the proceeds of a will and take him to a large country house he has inherited. By chance she and Page meet up at the station. As they head off there is no way of contacting her to warn her of the great danger she faces, while she cannot contact others for help. However Page is not the only dangerous person on the loose ...

This brilliant story is quite captivating. Norman Eshley is quite superb as the superficially charming but utterly deadly and disturbing Page. The character evokes some sympathy as he is clearly tortured by his problems but cannot control his behaviour. The powerful last scene makes clear that he has no responsibility for his actions.

Throughout Julie never quite understands the true risks, although she is unsettled by him. Katharine Schofield is in impressive form as Julie, a far more complex character than first thought, while Garrick Hagon appears in a notable cameo as her boyfriend. In true "Thriller" style there is a marvellous twist that shows all the main figures in a new light.

For historical reasons this is also very intriguing. In this age of the mobile phone the story could not happen - Julie would not be incommunicado and she and her employers could alert each other of danger. Of course it is this lack of contact that makes her predicament much more unsettling.

The police scenes are a little cliched and some of the remarks about women - not just from the obviously misogynistic Page - are clearly from a less politically-correct age. However this remains gripping and quite indispensable entertainment if you are lucky enough to come across it.

'The Colour Of Blood' is one of two truly excellent episodes of Thriller's first series. The other is 'The Eyes Have It' which I will review later this week.

In the current technological age, the story may seem somewhat quaint, for want for better expression, but that really does the tale a disservice seeing as it is a full-throttle and driven piece of storytelling.

Katharine Schofield plays the alluring Julie Marsh, a legal secretary, who is despatched by her boss to a railway station in order to meet a client in order to hand over a case full of money plus the keys to an house. The identifying mark is agreed as a red carnation. Coincidentally an unstable murderer Arthur Page (brought to life by a superb performance from Norman Eshley) appears in the vicinity also wearing a red carnation. The erroneous recognition is made by Marsh and Page seizes full advantage.....

But what seems to be a straightforward case of an innocent female being lured to a ghastly fate is in fact turned upside down by the role of Garrick Hogan's Peter (a work colleague of Marsh's) and the story rapidly unfolds with a satisfying and downbeat twist.

Highly recommended.

This is a belter of a story, I continue to be so impressed by Thriller, this is a wonderful episode. The story is so wonderfully dark and gripping. You watch as Julie travels with Arthur, unaware of his past, and the fact that he is a deadly killer with no morals. She feeds his appetite for torture and killing, it's an unnerving watch. I am fast realising what a superb actor Norman Eshley is, in this he is smart, charming, totally captivating, his eyes tell everything about his character's instincts, it is a quite superb performance. A great twist in this episode, it's a truly great watch from start to finish. 9/10

This features a top notch performance by Norman Eshley, who was more at home in comedy - he was the long suffering neighbour in "Man About the House" and it's spin off "George and Mildred". Occasionally in "Thriller" there was a mixture of both British and American stars but this one about a charming serial killer had an all English cast.

The episode opened with a confronting scene that had Arthur Page (Norman Eshley) walking a pram along the edge of a hill - suddenly he sends it hurtling over the rise and a dead girl falls out. (Unlike the other reviewer, the scenes of her murder were not included in my copy). He is captured, tried and found criminally insane but a freak accident sees him escape the police van and sauntering to the station to seek his next victim. Girl Friday Julie Marsh (Katharine Schofield) is given the job of meeting an eccentric client, who has insisted on receiving an inheritance of 40,000 pounds in cash instead of the usual cheque. Julie doesn't see him at the station but she does meet Arthur, who is also sporting a red carnation - his signature, but also what the eccentric client was going to wear as well. It is clear, after a bit, that Julie is plotting something that the viewer doesn't know about, but has she met her match in Arthur.

Again, like all the Thrillers I have seen so far - you think you know what's going on but you don't!!!

This is an episode of the British anthology series "Thriller" (1973) TV-Series 1973-1976, and was, I've read, the first episode shot. While the first season of that series is out on R2 PAL DVD, I watched it on a long out of print US video under the title "Carnation Killer." It lacks the Thriller opening.

It starts with a man walking up a set of stairs. We first see one of his arms thrust out in front of him, holding a bouquet of red carnations. We then see his other arm behind him, his hand gripping a woman's wrist, and we hear her struggling. She is seated at a dining table with a fancy setting, where she is killed. This is partly intercut with shots of a man pushing a baby carriage somewhere offroad. He pushes it down an incline towards a dumping ground, and a woman's body spills out (it doesn't look like she would actually have fit in the carriage).

Abruptly, the man is then exiting the trial where he'd been convicted of a series of murders by strangulation, in which he'd been nicknamed "The Carnation Killer." He escapes after the van he's in is in a collision.

Meanwhile, a man arranges with a solicitor to meet in a subway station. They've never seen him before, so he says he will wear a red carnation. You can guess where this is going....

A woman from the solicitor's office meets a man with a red carnation in the subway. It is, of course, the killer. She gives him a suitcase of money, and takes him on a train to see a house the man had inherited, where he is supposed to inventory its contents. The woman's boyfriend tries to meet her at the station also, but he arrives too late, and takes the next train.

When the man who'd really received the inheritance fails to meet the woman, he goes to their office, and they enlist the help of the police to find out what happened to the young woman. There are some echoes here of Psycho, I thought.

It's not bad, and it has a fairly dark ending. Pretty short too, only about sixty-five minutes.

I never thought another series as good as the Twilight Zone existed, until I came across the 1970's show Thriller. I've seen about 6 now, and this one along with Lady Killer and Someone at the top of the stairs are my favorites. I'm in love with this series.

I like to say that if they ever remade Lady Killer and now The colour of blood, James Scott would be perfect for the leading man roles. He's a fantastic British actor. He plays EJ DiMera on Days of our lives, of course, that piece of rubbish doesn't deserve his talents.

In this one, I was thinking that Page might get away, but it seemed as if he really didn't want to. I was surprised by the twist with Julie.

I recently started watching some of these episodes and although they are pretty good, they lack any real logic.

This one seems good on the onset, but is so full of mistakes that it's hard to overlook them.

For example, who would send a woman out to meet a person she's never met in order to give him $40,000 in cash and then allow her to give it to him without checking his ID? Anyone could put a red carnation on their lapel, and as it turns out she picked the wrong person.

I know the story wouldn't work without this mistake, but it's still a glaring overlook.

I admit it's similar to Psycho in some ways, but almost in reverse. We don't know the lady is **SPOILER** planning to steal the money at the beginning, unlike Psycho where you know she's stealing but don't know what she's going to encounter.

The police detectives were complete morons. Why not go straight to the house where they were going and go inside. Instead, the officer shows up and then says it looks abandoned and leaves. Is he that stupid? Or is it laziness?

And not to nitpick too much, but how could a newspaper that a lady picks up to read have the headlines on the back page instead of the front. It's folded with the front page going the wrong way. Was I the only one who noticed that error? Anyway, it was a pretty good episode, though I wouldn't want to watch any of these again. They're long and not very original. I'll try a few more, but I'm not optimistic.