Switch "The James Caan Con" #1.1 (1975)

Conning a blackmailer, 3 July 2017

The first "real" episode of Switch is better than the pilot, but only just. In this one, Ryan and McBride are hired by an actress, Lane Cameron (Julie Sommars), who is being blackmailed over some scandalous photos. It seems that she was drugged and someone took the pics with the intent of blackmail. Our heroes soon learn that the blackmailer, Anthony Kirk (Keir Dullea), is a frustrated actor. The con they pull involves Kirk thinking he has a shot at a large film role in a movie opposite Ms Cameron.

I'm still not sold on Switch, but The James Caan Con was more enjoyable than the pilot. I think the shorter runtime worked in the shows favor. The con was pretty straight forward and didn't need any more time to fully realize. The acting was great. Eddie Albert's movie producer role was a real scenery chewer. And guest starts Sommars and Dullea more than held their own. My biggest complaint is with how easy it was to pull the con on Kirk. Like I said, he's a frustrated, out of work actor. He apparently hasn't had a steady acting gig in a long while. Yet he's dumb enough to believe that he has been selected for movie role ahead of James Caan. Either this guy is a complete idiot (which I don't think he is) or he's got the biggest ego in the world. Regardless, I did enjoy watching his face when everything unraveled. Nice.

6/10