Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
"Thunder in the Night"
Episode 2.12 (Feb. 19, 1960)
Rod Taylor was a "special guest star" in this installment of
"Desilu Playhouse," an hour-long anthology series produced by
Desi Arnaz and broadcast on CBS (1958-1960).
"Thunder in the
Night" was one of only two plays that Arnaz himself appeared in during
the season.
Taylor played Bob Carter, an investigator in a place where passports
are a commodity -- bought, sold, stolen and counterfeited. But the crime
has escalated, and a man has been killed for his passport.
Carter turns
to his friend, Chris Hunter (Desi Arnaz) for help and to tap his knowledge
of the shadier characters around.
The episode is stylish and ambitious -- with a "Casablanca" feel to it.
But Rod's role is rather ordinary and all too brief.
There was one major perk for Rod, as author Stephen Vagg noted in "Rod
Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood": It was filmed in Italy.
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During the Italian stopover, Rod met Anita
Ekberg, the buxom Swedish film star ... who had recently
relocated to Rome, where she was to make "La Dolce Vita." Anita
and Rod hit it off and began a highly publicized romance which
lasted on and off for the next few years.
For more about the Taylor-Ekberg romance, visit the page for "Seven
Seas to Calais."
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