Showing posts with label private eyes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label private eyes. Show all posts
 |
| John Cassavetes as Johnny Staccato |
JOHNNY STACCATO 1959 television series.
Johnny Staccato (John Cassavetes) is a "jazz detective" because he's not only a private eye, but plays piano in a jazz combo at Waldo's. There were 27 black and white half hour episodes. Waldo was played by Eduardo Ciannelli. Cassavetes was excellent as a different type of slightly brooding detective. Halfway through the series, the piano playing opening was replaced with a more action-oriented sequence. Among some of the more memorable episodes: "Night of Jeopardy" -- a mob counterfeiter thinks Johnny has possession of a certain package; "Double Feature" -- Johnny's exact double is a deadly hit man; "Swinging Long Hair" -- an Iron Curtain pianist and his wife run from murderous agents; "Nice Little Town" -- a powerful episode in which a soldier who broke under torture is called a communist and murdered; "The Mask of Jason" -- a disfigured man (Bert Remsen) tries to reconnect with his horrible beauty queen ex-wife (Mary Tyler Moore); "Piece of Paradise" -- a jockey (a superb Walter Burke) is accused of strangling a dance hall girl; "Solomon" -- a defense attorney (an overacting Elisha Cook Jr.) wants Johnny to perjure himself for his client (an excellent Cloris Leachman); "The Wild Reed" -- a troubled saxophonist (Harry Guardino) with a drug problem; "List of Death" -- Johnny is hired by a dying mobster with a new face (Paul Stewart); "Murder for Credit" -- who killed a singer making a comeback, with memorable performances by Martin Landau, Charles McGraw and Marilyn Clark. Generally well-scripted and always well-acted, Johnny Staccato was a fine addition to the private eye television genre.
Verdict: Cool, man, cool. ***.
 |
| Dan Adams (Rod Cameron ) questions a suspect |
Rod Cameron starred in this well-made and entertaining detective series that lasted one season. Cameron plays Dan Adams, a private dick who used to work for Naval Intelligence and works out of San Diego with a Coronado address. Many of the episodes were directed by movie serial master William Witney, who helmed G-Men vs the Black Dragon, in which Cameron played agent Rex Bennett [reprising the role in Secret Service in Darkest Africa]. Cameron may have been stone-faced as Bennett, but he's much, much better as the tough but human and compassionate Adams, who gets involved in some very intriguing cases, and has a solid core of law and order values. Some of the best episodes include: "Doomtown," in which the village geek is accused of a murder he didn't commit; "Remember the Alamo," in which it isn't certain if a man's (David White from Bewitched) younger wife has been kidnapped or not, but his secretary (Beverly Garland) may hold the answer; "Gone With Thy Loot," which has a lot of skulduggery over some stolen jewels; "Blonde Herring," a shipboard adventure with a sizzling Carol Ohmart, and an effective Sue Ann Langdon and Harry Lauter in supporting parts; and "They Met in Honolulu" in which Hayden Rourke's much younger bride simply disappears right after the ceremony. The best episodes are: "Run, Shep, Run" with Jay Novello giving another amazing character turn as a Southern doctor in a swampland chase and mystery; "Sincerely Yours, Napoleon," in which a married, middle-aged man tells his wife (Virginia Christine) that he spent their life savings on certain letters but there's a honey (Sue Ann Langdon, again) in the pot; and "Flight to La Paz," in which Adams is aboard a plane that crash lands in an isolated area and a suitcase of money ignites all kinds of passion in the passengers; Harry Bartell and Laurie Mitchell [Queen of Outer Space] are both excellent in this. [Bartell was the process server who pretended to be a big fan of Ricky's on the I Love Lucy courtoom episode.] Out of 39 episodes there isn't a real stinker in the bunch.Other notable guest-stars include Mary LaRoche, Patricia Medina, Norma Varden, and Coleen Gray [The Leech Woman], who is excellent as a conflicted woman who tries to help the sick mobster father that she's been estranged from for many years in "The Anxious Mariner."
Verdict: Very entertaining and well-done mystery series. ***.
 |
| Benay Venuta and Billy Pearson |
This pilot for a series based on the books about Bertha Cool (Benay Venuta) and Donald Lam (Billy Pearson), private investigators, aired on CBS in 1958 but never became a series. The books were written by Erle Stanley Gardner (as "A. A. Fair") and he introduces the show as well. Gardner more famously created Perry Mason; this show has the same producer, but lightning didn't strike twice. In this one and only episode, based on "Turn On the Heat," the Cool and Lam team are hired by a man calling himself "Smith" to find out if a certain woman ever remarried. Turns out Smith is a mayoral candidate and may be an accidental bigamist. Then a cocktail hostess named Evaline Dell (Allison Hayes of The Disembodied) who has some knowledge of the situation is found murdered. Lam, the brains behind the outfit while penny-pinching Cool takes care of the finances, eventually unmasks the true murderer. This could have developed into an interesting show, but perhaps the unusual Venuta and Pearson -- not exactly subtle actors -- were seen more as supporting players than stars. Diminutive Pearson had been a thoroughbred jockey who appeared on game shows in the fifties and then became an actor with a short-lived career [no pun intended]. The hefty Venuta appeared sporadically in films and on television and had a small role in Repeat Performance. Tristram Coffin appears briefly in a funny prologue. Margaret Field, Don Megowan, Sheila Bromley, and Maurice Manson also have roles.
Verdict: Not bad, but you can't win 'em all.
 |
| David Farrar as Sexton Blake |
THE ECHO MURDERS (1945). Director: John Harlow.
Stella Duncan (Pamela Stirling) is unaware that her "father," James (Julien Mitchell), actually killed her real father years ago and raised her as his own. His secretary, Rainsford (Dennis Arundell), has discovered the truth and is blackmailing him. Into this unfriendly situation comes the other private eye from Baker Street, Sexton Blake [The Hooded Terror], this time played by David Farrar in a somewhat gruffer, more "American" style. When the expected murders occur, suspects include the geeky Beales (Kynaston Reeves of Fiend without a Face), who lives in a house on a cliff; crook Dacier (Ferdy Mayne); and Dr. Grey (Patric Curwen); among others. There's a mine occupied by plotting Nazis as well. This is modestly entertaining but distinctly minor. Farrar had a supporting role in a previous Sexton Blake film, The Hooded Terror and starred in Meet Sexton Blake just before making Echo Murders.
Verdict: Reasonably fast-moving but never fully engaging. **.
 |
| Greta Gynt and George Curzon |
SEXTON BLAKE AND THE HOODED TERROR (aka The Hooded Terror/1938). Director: George King.
"Bombs going off. Men falling dead. What kind of place is this? A gentleman's house or a chamber of horrors?' -- Mrs. Bardell
While almost completely unknown in the United States, private eye Sexton Blake, who began life as a Sherlock Holmes clone (who even had an office on Baker Street and a Mrs. Hudson-type housekeeper) before metamorphosing into different types of action heroes over the decades, was once very big stuff in England. In this film our hero (George Curzon) is up against a secret group known as the Black Quorum, which is led by a man known as the Snake. The members of the Quorum wear masks at their meetings, but take them off to look at closed-circuit television, making one wonder why they bother with the masks in the first place. Greta Gynt plays a special agent named Julie, whom Blake is always condescending to because she's a woman, but who saves his bacon on at least one occasion. [Brave Julie is the most "modern" thing about the movie.] Blake has an assistant named Tinker (Tony Sympson) and a housekeeper named Mrs. Bardell (Marie Wright). Tod Slaughter plays a deceptively jovial figure named Michael Larron. The most interesting scene features a death chamber full of slithering snakes. This isn't terrible, just not very memorable. Curzon, Gynt and the others are fine, with Gynt especially vivacious, adept and notable.
Verdict: Stick with Sherlock Holmes. **.
 |
| Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn |
The third and final season of the popular private eye program was unexceptional but entertaining. "Mother" is gone, and Peter's girlfriend, Edie (Lola Albright) opens her own restaurant-club, and hires a maitre'd, Leslie (James Lanphier), after the man's own restaurant is bombed. Although well-played by Lanphier, the character did little more than interrupt Edie and Peter (Craig Stevens) to tell the latter that he had a phone call. Edie herself only appeared sporadically [giving Gunn a girlfriend never made much sense, as it would have been more fun to have him involved with a different "dame" each week, which only happened on occasion]. Hershel Bernardi as Lt. Jacoby appeared in virtually every episode, again functioning practically as Gunn's partner. Late in the season four episodes in a row took place in Acapulco, to which Peter flew for one case and remained for several more. It seems clear that Gunn must have been a wealthy man slumming as a private dick because he rarely makes a lot of money and is always giving away very large bills to his informants. The most memorable episodes this season include: "A Kill and a Half," in which a midget hit man pretends to be a trick or treater; "A Matter of Policy" involving an insurance scheme and a bomb on an airliner; and "Than a Serpent's Tooth," in which Pamela Britton [DOA] is notable as a woman who is carrying a secret in regards to her husband's death. The final episode -- although it has a standard plot of a millionaire wanting Peter to deal with a blackmailing female -- is very entertaining and features Peter Gunn director (and actor) Robert Gist and the show's executive producer Gordon Oliver in main roles, and both are excellent. Guest-stars for the third season include John Fieldler, Tommy Rettig, Jack Lalanne (who proves to be a terrible actor although he looks fit), Regis Toomey (in a very good turn as a desperate, aging P.I.), Ann Robinson, Kent Taylor [The Day Mars Invaded Earth], Hayden Rourke, Virginia Grey, and Patric Knowles. Robert Altman [That Cold Day in the Park] directed a couple of energetic episodes.
Verdict: Not a true classic, perhaps, but it has its moments. **1/2.