Bruce Townley (btownley@sirius.com)
Sat, 4 Dec 1999 14:07:10 -0800 (PST)
Went to one of San Francisco's beloved and indispensable
art/repertory cinema, the Roxie (www.roxie.com) over in the
Inner Mission, last night to catch the second night of their
TV Noir showings this week. The first program was made up of
four episodes from the John Cassavetes' late 50s/early 60s
private eye show, JOHNNY STACCATO. The front cover blurb from
the Gold Medal tie-in 1960 paperback assures us that the
title character is: "A smooth man on the ivories, hot on the
trigger, and cool in a jam" On the back cover a blurb says:
"... this novel of love in Greenwich Village, murder in
midtown, beats in the Bowery, sex on Sutton Place and
blackmail, racketeering and violence in the world's most
savage city". Jazzy jivey stuff indeed.
Two of the episodes showcased talents of the always
screen-filling Elisha Cook Jr. Most memorable was the one
where he played a hard-hitting criminal defense attorney
who'd undertaken the difficult case of pacifist Cloris
Leachman who was accused of her husband's violent murder. In
a stark, very nearly abstract rendition of a NYC jail
interview cell the shocking truth is finally dragged out by
Staccato (this show was also directed by Cassavetes, by the
way). Lighting and set design were very noir in visual
texture. I've seen a few other STACCATOs, at an earlier show
at the Roxie. This small sampling only makes me hungry for
more.
Also showing that night were two episodes of Blake Edwards'
super-suave PETER GUNN. Mancini's theme for this program
remains one of the toughest sounding tunes that I've ever
heard (right up there with "Green Onions" by Booker T and the
MGs). Something that struck my friends and myself was that
each of these programs from some three decades ago were very
much a
"story", down to the fact that each one began with a shot of
a title card
(e.g.: "The List of Death" for one of the STACCATOs).
The evening was rounded out by an episode of 77 SUNSET STRIP.
I watched this program a <lot> when I was a kid. It
hasn't really aged that well
(well, neither have I, come to think of it). Most
disappointing, of course, was the nonappearance of Ed
"Kookie" Byrnes. The story was something about a murder in
kind of dormitory for proto starlets, featuring awkward and
stilted performances from actresses who could well have been
the amateurs they were playing. There was also an absurd and
stagey fight scene at that concluded the program abruptly by
having the bad guy plummet to his death from an upper floor
balcony of a fancy Hollywood apartment house.
I dunno, I just wish Nick at Night would drop the comedy
shows and re-run JOHNNY STACCATO and PETER GUNN.
Bruce T. = btownley@sirius.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Toad-skin: A one-dollar bill.
-DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN UNDERWORLD LINGO, 1950 edition
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sat 04 Dec 1999 - 17:07:41 EST