I had never heard of Zig Zag before I noticed that it popped up on TCM. Although it was a theatrical film release, it has all the trappings of an early 70s TV movie production. It almost feels like a docudrama in parts and is replete with a jazz-like score which adds little to the suspense.
The protagonist is Paul Cameron, an Insurance Investigator played straightforwardly and with little emotion by George Kennedy. When he discovers he has a brain tumor, he opts not to get surgery fearing that he might end up paralyzed. Instead he learns through researching his company's records, of the murder of businessmen John Raymond, the victim of a botched kidnapping in which the ransom money of $250,000 was never paid out. Instead the full ransom account is still being offered as a reward for the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for killing Raymond.
Cameron concocts a scheme in which he frames himself for the murder so that his wife can be the beneficiary of the reward money by creating a surreptitious savings account using her maiden name. The lugubrious first half of the film merely chronicles, in a series of flashbacks, how he went about planting the phony evidence as well as his imprisonment (before the credits roll, we're forced to sit through agonizing minutes in which the intricacies of the prison system are on full display).
The husband/wife team of Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson figure prominently in the narrative, with Wallach cast as Cameron's feisty attorney, Mario Gambretti and Jackson as Cameron's wife Jean, who suffers throughout her husband's self-inflicted ordeal. There's more long-winded information imparted in the trial scene which basically regurgitates Cameron's scheme.
The outcome of the trial is that Cameron is convicted. It's at this point where there's a welcome twist: Cameron passes out and undergoes successful brain surgery. Now facing a possible death sentence, Cameron makes an unlikely escape from the hospital while in police custody.
Cameron's only hope is solving Raymond's murder on his own. The offer of the reward money apparently was rescinded and Cameron's wife could not collect on his life insurance policy either since he's now probably headed for the gas chamber. Aided by a bar owner Morris Bronson (William Marshall), he learns of a woman who went out with Raymond the night he was murdered. Cameron learns from this woman, that Raymond went out with another woman afterward, Elaine Mercer (Pamela Murphy), the daughter of one of Raymond's business associates.
In a rather downbeat climax, Cameron meets Elaine after pretending to blackmail her, knowing full well that her father Adam (Walter Brooke) will be following her. Cameron intentionally gets physically rough with Elaine in a public place, which causes her father to shoot and kill him. Adam then in turn is gunned down by the police.
The big reveal at the end is that the kidnapping plot was just a cover for a regular murder. Adam Mercer killed Raymond as he was enraged that Raymond would have an affair with his young daughter. By coaxing Adam to kill him, Cameron solves the murder of Raymond for the police, who are witnesses to his own murder by Adam Mercer. By doing so, his wife will now collect on his regular life insurance policy as well as the reward for solving Raymond's murder.
Despite the clever twist, it takes so long to get there, that it's hardly worth the wait. Everything in this film is drawn out to the point that the overall pacing suffers immensely. Also it's difficult following the plot, especially understanding the relationships between the antagonists and their associates. With some more judicious editing and a stronger score, Zig Zag might have earned a few extra points in its overall rating.
