User Reviews

The setting is old Paris of 1954, with flashbacks taking us back ten years earlier as World War II was winding down. A former American soldier (James Aubrey) returns as an author to the French home where he used to room and board, intending to write about the French Resistance. His former landlady, Nathalie Vareille (Leslie Caron), relates that her domineering husband died two years earlier, having sequestered himself for the entire period after the war without ever leaving home. A flashback relates how at one point he was dragged from his home by a trio of ruffians, but allowed to return home the next day. Madame Vareille then fills in the details of his abduction, revealing that Jacques (Constantine Gregory), who was a Resistance fighter for two years, suddenly turned traitor and allied with the Germans figuring the war was lost to the Nazis. Branded with a swastika on his head that always remained visible, Jacques became a recluse while making constant demands of his wife to tend to his every desire. Nathalie makes the startling confession that she killed her husband because of the abuse, though it turns out it was an inadvertent result of her mocking and laughing at him to the point of distressing him into a heart attack. Where once Nathalie had to constantly rush from one order to the next, she now values time by watching her husband's cremated ashes slowly mark the minutes in an hourglass. As these Tales of the Unexpected go, this one delivers it's conclusion in the most matter of fact way possible, without the kind of twist that one often sees coming. It's also one of the more memorable ones for it's sober but shocking revelations.

Young American Bobby Simpson pays a call on Madame Vareille, he returns ten years after he was billeted during World War Two, he's there to right a book about the Resistance. She explains her husband Hector had died two years ago, a bully of a man, overbearing and domineering, he had given his wife a dog's life, timing her on every chore and activity. Hector refuses to leave the house after a group of men had taken him away one night.

Admittedly it's a hard episode to love, it has the feel of an amateur dramatics production about it, the production values are rather poor, it looks massively like a set, Old Paris looks like a low budget production.

It is horribly filmed, it has such a cheap looking appearance, it's far from slick. The fades from black and white to colour look very amateur. I'd have to agree with the other review and say that the acting is pretty poor, it feels quite disjointed and clunky.

It feels like the series is becoming a little stale, not a lot of care had gone into this. Hard work watching this, 4/10

Tales of the Unexpected: Run, Rabbit, Run is set in France during 1954 some ten years after American teen Bobby Simpson (James Aubrey) lived there during the war lodging in a house owned by Nathalie Vareille (Leslie Caron) & her husband Jacques (Constantine Gregory). Robert is now a writer & currently researching a book about the French resistance & he knows that Jacques was a member, although now dead his wife Nathalie is still alive & more than happy to talk about her husband & his association with the resistance. However since ten years have passed Nathalie is finally able to tell Robert a strange & perverse story...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 4 from season 5 & originally aired here in the UK during May 1982, the third of six Tales of the Unexpected episodes to be directed by John Jacobs this is pretty poor stuff. The story by John Bakkenhoven was dramatised by Robin Chapman & one has to say that I'm not sure what the Tales of the Unexpected production team were aiming for with Run, Rabbit, Run. The story is largely told in flashbacks as Nathalie recounts the bizarre (not to mention throughly dull) story of her husband Jacques, the resistance & twisted revenge but since you know she's still alive & that Jacques is dead at the very start there's not much the writer can do, I mean it's pretty straight forward stuff & far from shocking. Millions of people died during World War II be it soldiers or innocent Jews at the hands of the Nazi's so the odd death of one guy is hardly shocking during that time period is it? Then there's the fact the ending which isn't really a twist is narrated during the present day & not shown while anything else Nathalie says has been shown in flashback which also lessens the impact of what would have been a poor ending anyway. A waste of twenty five minutes.

Shot entirely on videotape in a studio, the Paris street seen at various points in Run, Rabbit, Run is one of the poorest looking sets I've ever seen, it really is that bad. It just scream 'really bad studio' every time you see it. Despite being set in France everyone speaks in English although the French speak in unconvincing thick accents just so we know who are meant to be who. Usually you can count on Tales of the Unexpected to throw up a decent cast & a few familiar faces but Run, Rabbit, Run is populated by no-one I've ever heard of & full of terrible performances, I mean just check out those awful French accents & then try to disagree with me.

Run, Rabbit, Run is a poor Tales of the Unexpected episode which has a rubbish story without any sort of twist, terrible production values & awful acting. One to avoid unless your a die hard fan of the series & I doubt there are many of those about.