On Jun 21, 2008, at 5:24 AM,
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> Fans of the TV series Staccato, the soundtrack is
now available on
> CD thanks
> to DRG records. The composer is Elmer Bernstein who
as most of you
> know did
> a lot of Film Noir scores and Staccato was
definitely TV noir.
>
> Now if we could just get Staccato on DVD . .
.
Well, it would certainly be good for yucks, anyway. Noir
yucks, of course. My experience with the show is that it
definitely works better on paper than in reality. There are
some good moody episodes, a few great location shots, and
some of the almost hyper-noir fever dream fantasies work
quite well (the one set in a jail cell is like a nightmarish
version of Thornton Wilder aping Billy Wilder), and of course
the music's pretty cool, but the direction is frequently so
overwrought -- and Casavetes' scenery-chewing so carnivorous
-- that it works much better in small doses.
Anyone's who's watched a four-year old on a sugar buzz enact
a story will find the style of some of the shows quite
familiar.
The episode where Staccato tries to talk down a jumper,
broadcast a few years ago on TRIO, is particularly (and
unintentionally) hilarious. Staccato is completely
over-the-top ("Go ahead and jump, punk, see what
happens!!!!") that you have to wonder why the guy just
doesn't take a swan dive to shut Staccato up. Although after
a while, though, you wish he'd take Staccato with him.
After years of hearing what a classic show it was, I can only
say it was disappointing to finally see several episodes. By
contrast, PETER GUNN, an arguably much less "heavy" show (and
the obvious inspiration for STACCATO) has held up far better
over the years, although there are some clunker episodes in
that one as well. Where STACCATO seems heavy-handed,
self-conscious and dated, GUNN's lighter touch and chemistry
between its leads is still often surprisingly
effective.
And of course, for the jaspers on this list, being dated
isn't the worst crime. Taken for what it was, STACCATO did
have its moments. But I fear its reputation depends mostly on
what people think it must have been like; not what it
actually was. Cassavetes himself went on to far better work,
and in retrospect often sneered at the show -- his fans might
do well to remember that.
Not that PETER GUNN, by the way, was light -- its occasional
violence is some of the most shocking I've seen on television
drama. Not so much for its being explicit, but because it's
so sudden and often simply cruel. I remember one scene where
Mother, already down and out, is kicked in the stomach by a
thug without any cues (musical or otherwise) or warning or
apparent reason. Nasty stuff, indeed.
And speaking of dated, I've been wandering through MANNIX,
season one. It's dated, of course, and the stories are pretty
much standard P.I. fare, but there's something about how
everything ties together, making it better than just the mere
sum of its parts, that makes for enjoyable (if not always
essential) viewing. This is probably ground zero for the TV
eye genre -- the pure hard essence of it. Other show may rise
far above it or sink far below, but you can deny MANNIX its
absolute pureness. And has there ever been a male on TV so
alpha as Joe Mannix?
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site
Celebrating 10 Years of P.I. Thrills
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