"Man with a Camera" Profile of a Killer (TV Episode 1958) Poster

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6/10
Make no mistake about it! Kovak is talking to us with his camera!
sol-kay31 March 2010
(Some Spoilers) Going to do a boring photo shoot of the local Weverville Bank freelance photographer Mike Kovac, Charles Bronson, ends up getting a whole lot more then he ever expected to. While shooting pictures in the bank it's robbed by this mentally deranged killer Killeen, Tom Pittman, who's wearing a crash helmet together with his reluctant accomplice big city mobster Dan Penro, James Chandler. It's when bank president Elmer Danton, Nolan Leary, protests Killeen's actions that he's shot dead by the psycho right in front of some dozen witnesses including Kovac who photographs the entire scene!

Not satisfied in just taking off with the bank's money Killeen decides to take Kovac along with him in order for him, in photographing his bank robbing exploits, to make him world famous as the country's next John Dillinger! Knowing what a dangerous nut Killeen is Kovac has no choice but to go along with him but comes up with an ace he has up his sleeve. It's then that Kovac decides to let his camera do the work in helping the police and state troopers catch Killeen by taking pictures of clues to where his next bank job is going to take place.

You could see right away that Killeen aka "The Crash Helmet Killer" is not all there upstairs probably from having his brains scrambled in a motorcycle crash where he forgot to ware is crash helmet. What puzzled me at first is why a smart hood like Penro would go along with Killeen in his crazy and documented, with Kovac taking photos, crime spree where he as well as Killeen have their photos on the front pages of both the local and national newspapers! That's until it later comes out that Killeen caught Penro at a very vulnerable moment at a New York City bar were smashed with no money to buy himself a drink Killeen treated him! This made Penro feel that he owed him and despite his better judgment tagged along with Killeen on his brainless robbery spree.

**SPOILERS*** It's at Killeen's last stickup job at the out of the way "Lone Pine Lodge" that he got a bit careless in trying to get back with his former girlfriend and collage student Sarah, Mayo Loiseaux, who's Pop runs the place. It was Pop whom Killeen really had it in for in having him break up his relationship with Sarah and humiliating him, the "Great Man" that he is, by making Killeen take out the morning garbage as part of his job while working there. Kovac seeing that all the publicity crazed Killeen wants is to get his photo on the cover of a major national magazine, like Time or Newsweek, then talks him into having his very sick and ridicules wish come true! By dropping his guard and losing it, if he didn't lose it already, and walking or running straight into a police night ambush! With Kovac's flash camera lighting up the scene for the cops to finally gun the crazed killer down!
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6/10
Profile of a Killer
Prismark1013 April 2021
Mike Kovac is taking some photos in a small town called Weaverville.

It is the kind of stuff Kovac likes, taking of photos as they go about their lives.

Only at the bank as he tries to take a wide shot of the bank tellers. A robbery takes place and the bank manager is shot.

One of the two robbers is happy to pose for photos by Kovak. In fact he takes Kovak hostage so he can photograph his crime spree.

Terry Killeen is unstable and wants to be famous to impress his girlfriend. Kovak takes the photos but also includes clues in the photos so he could be tracked.

It is a silly episode but Killeen is the type of psychopath that the older Charles Bronson would go looking to gun down in Cannon Film era.
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The killer drives an Edsel!
lor_27 September 2023
Chuck is in a small town photographing ordinary folks for the local newspaper when he's in the wrong place at the wrong time, taken hostage by a homicidal bank robber (Tom Pittman, a young TV actor whose brief career was ended in a fatal traffic accident).

The nutty robber wants publicity and allows Bronson to tag along on his crime spree photographing him in action, and our hero humors him in order to stay alive. Fun touch in the script is Chuck's inventive ploy of featuring clues as to future robbery locations in his photos for the newspaper, with the local editor/constable using these to track the killer and solve the case.

Of special note is a snazzy Edsel Bermuda woody station wagon the killer trades in Chuck's wheels for -pure nostalgia.
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Insanity Almost Rules
ccthemovieman-120 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Wow, talk about insane killers. The guy in here - "Killen" (nicely played by Tom Pittman) - is about as whacked out as you'll find a villain on a TV show. He's not only a cold-blooded killer but an egotist supreme with a hair-trigger temper and a maniacal laugh.

Series star "Mike Kovac" (Charles Bronson) is up in the country in a town called Weaverville, just doing what he likes best: taking photos of everyday people doing everyday things, like playing checkers in front of store.

That gets interrupted quickly when he's at the bank and a robbery and killing go down. The fanatical killer and his partner kidnap Kovac with the aim of his pictures making this goofball a famous person.

Most of the show involves "Killeen" on his crime spree with Kovac taking pictures at each stop. Kileen's partner is a laid-back old-time gangster who really doesn't belong with the kid. Kovac tries to win him over to his side, but no dice. He knows how unstable the young guy is, and doesn't want to rattle his cage.

Meanwhile, the city editor/constable of Weaverville, who knows Kovac well, sees that the photographer is "talking to him through his photos" (clues, where the killer is going next) that are being sent to the newspaper and that leads to the dramatic conclusion.

This was a very tense episode all the way. You never knew what this nutjob - "Killeen" - was going to do and Kovac was clever in talking his way out of being shot by this character more than once.
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