If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

U.K. release title: False Witness.SYNOPSIS: When he discovers he is dying from an incurable brain tumor, an insurance investigator decides to frame himself for an unsolved murder.COMMENT: Probably the most successful example of a TV style transferred to the cinema, Richard A. Colla's "Zigzag" is unrelentingly shot throughout in extreme close-ups, yet, because of its strong story- line and forceful performances (particularly by George Kennedy and Eli Wallach), it manages to come across with an impact that the use of wider long shots often dissipates. Admittedly, the plot is full of holes, but the method adopted by the screenwriter to expose the mystery is clever and ingenious enough to keep interest at a high pitch.Despite her billing, Anne Jackson has a small, unrewarding, unmemorable role — catalytic but peripheral. It's a wonder (and a cause for joy) that the writer wasn't asked to expand her part by adding a few tedious domestic scenes for her! As it is, the script rightly focuses on the Kennedy character.As might be expected, the budget is tight, but production values benefit from some on-location lensing.

Would Hitchcock have made something of this strained premise?..One hopes he would have avoided some of the silly staging (Kennedy escaping from his hospital room in a black suit but no shirt (( would the suit have been left in the room of a recovering prisoner under guard????))Via a freight elevator that is FULL of hospital staff...including a morgue attendant...who ignore this huge half dressed blond band-aided (after brain surgery)giant AS IF HE IS NOT THERE?!?! I was prepared by this scene for a later "twist" which had the central murder victim (in a flashback)willingly getting into "a car he knew"...with the film then contradicting this by having the person who the victim was supposedly expecting to be in the car scream that the car was not even hers at the time of the killing...I wont reveal who was in the car ...(just suffice to say that it was someone who the victim would not have been expecting a lift from...and that their presence makes the whole crime as illogical and unlikely as much of the rest of this film.

"Zigzag" is a 1970 film that stars George Kennedy as Paul Kennedy, a dying man who frames himself for an unsolved murder/kidnapping so his family can benefit from the reward money. His doctor has suggested a risky operation, but Paul has refused. He comes up with an elaborate scheme to be accused of the murder and collect the reward money under another name.Just one problem - after he's arrested, he collapses and gets the surgery and is cured. Now in order to save himself from the chair, he actually has to solve the case.Anne Jackson plays Paul's loving wife, and Eli Wallach his lawyer. So it's a top cast that provides good acting performances all around. Kennedy is good as the quietly desperate Paul, and one really feels the love he has for his family.This is an okay film destroyed by the ending, which makes you feel like you've been sitting there watching it for NOTHING. The audience feels betrayed at the end.Watch it for an exercise in frustration.

George Kennedy plays what may well be his best performance as a man who frames himself for a crime he didn't commit so his wife can benefit from the reward money, and then becomes enmeshed in a complex and gripping spiral of events after he discovers he is not going to die after all. Anyone who enjoys thrillers will enjoy this film, and it is a mystery to me why it is not available in video.