Sat 8 Aug 2015
TV Review: FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE “Galahad” (1951?)
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[8] Comments
“Galahad.” An episode of Front Page Detective, Dumont, 1951-53. Actual date of this episode unknown, perhaps the pilot for the series. Edmund Lowe, with (possibly) Emory Parnell, Frank Jenks, Helen Brown, John Phillips.
The only member of the cast that I recognized, other than Edmund Lowe, was Frank Jenks. The credits were clipped on the DVD I watched this from, so I’m relying on IMDb until proven otherwise.
I have no idea what persuaded Lowe to come out of a long hiatus from movie-making to star in this bare-bones budget of a TV series. Between 1945 and this series, he was in one movie in 1948 and nothing more. It is possible that the show I watched was trimmed here and there. Quite often the transitions between scenes seemed to skip over parts of the story.
Which may have been a good one. It is hard to tell from what I saw of it. Lowe plays a newspaper reporter named David Chase in this series, and in this episode he gets mixed up with an heiress who wishes to marry the brother of her deceased husband, against the wishes of the rest of his family, and a former photographer for Chase’s paper who has blackmail on his mind.
The rest is a muddle, and a mystery to me, though not the one they intended, I’m sure.
Note: Mike Nevins had more to say about the series itself in his column for this blog back in September 2012.
August 9th, 2015 at 1:19 pm
Thinking that the three episodes on the DVD of this series might be more watchable than this one (see the image above), I decided to look for it on Amazon.
Turns out that I bought that set back on July 4, 2014, or so Amazon informed me. That’s one small favor they do for book and DVD buyers who don’t always remember everything they purchase!
August 9th, 2015 at 5:27 pm
Steve, spend your time preparing to outbid Walker. Here are links for four episodes of FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE.
THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Sfj8Kq-Rs
ALIBI FOR SUICIDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUsKdvndssQ
MURDER RIDES THE NIGHT TRAIN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvg1w76rIIM
SEVEN SEAS TO DANGER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W72CjGEgpPQ
August 9th, 2015 at 6:12 pm
Thanks, Michael. It won’t hurt me to give the series another try. I’ll report back as soon as I do.
August 9th, 2015 at 6:22 pm
This was a long running hit radio serial that featured, among others, Richard Widmark as David Chase. Somehow Chase became much older and less romantic on the small screen with the soap elements removed, he misplaced a wife too as I recall.
Lowe was second only to William Powell as the screens favorite detective, and while he was not working as much he was still active as an actor at this point, and as for why, we can assume money was the big motivator as it was for many actors who moved to television when movie roles dried up.
In movies like Ford’s LAST HURRAH he was a character actor. In FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE he was a star — even on a small screen.
August 9th, 2015 at 7:07 pm
Most readers here might remember Edmund Lowe from the premiere episode of Maverick, “The War Of The Silver Kings”, in which he played the main villain.
That was in 1957.
In 1960, Lowe was making a movie called Heller In Pink Tights, directed by George Cukor, with Anthony Quinn, Sophia Loren, and Margaret O'Brien.
Edmund Lowe played an elderly ham actor, traveling through the West with a troupe consisting of the above-named actors.
Midway through the filming, Lowe, 70 at the time, suffered a major stroke which ended his career. Because he hadn't finished all his scenes, director Cukor hired another actor, Bernard Nedell, to do Lowe's remaining scenes in heavy makeup, to get the film done.
Edmund Lowe died a number of years later (have to look that up – unless someone beats me to it), but the substitution was kept secret until Leonard Maltin interviewed Bernard Nedell for his magazine (I think it's in a book somewhere).
August 9th, 2015 at 7:46 pm
Check out episode Alibi for Suicide and see his young girl friend.
August 9th, 2015 at 8:21 pm
Two small points:
If you’re my age and are wondering where you’ve heard that announcer’s voice –
– it’s Ed Reimers, the longtime voice of AllState Insurance and Crest Toothpaste.
And I’m sure that more than a few of you did a double-take when you saw Curt Siodmak’s credits as co-writer of the episode – and as head writer of the series.
Yours for full employment …
August 10th, 2015 at 3:07 pm
Steve, You mean you don’t remember what you bought from Amazon? I’m shocked! shocked! What shocks me even more is what I paid for some merchandise that I ordered a few years ago … I could go on, but I won’t. Try to remember what you buy next week at PulpFest.