Sat 9 Apr 2016
A TV Series Review by Michael Shonk: NOT FOR HIRE (1959-60).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[14] Comments
by Michael Shonk
NOT FOR HIRE. Syndicated, California National Presentation (CNP); 1959-60. 39 30min episodes. Cast: Ralph Meeker as Army Sergeant Steve Dekker and Ken Drake as Army Colonel Bragan. Produced by Johnny Florea.
The fall of 1959 brought a flood of crime dramas to networks and syndicated television. Most such as Not for Hire are long forgotten. Information about the series is hard to find and reportedly only six episodes of the thirty-nine survive. All six are currently available on YouTube and the collectors market.
Ralph Meeker (Kiss Me Deadly) starred as Army Sergeant Steve Dekker, considered by the Army their top Investigator in its Criminal Investigation Division (MP). Dekker is a wisecracking womanizer typical of the era. Weekly he risks his life to help save soldiers in trouble. While Meeker does well as the character, his occasional happy grin can be a bit creepy. One of the gimmicks of the series has the person who Dekker saved being ungrateful for Dekker’s efforts – something that Dekker accepts, sometimes even with humor.
Not for Hire has much of the charm and all the flaws of early thirty minute syndicated dramas. The series lacked consistency in the tone of its stories and the character of Dekker. The small budget and thirty minute format limited the series. The lack of shooting time did not allow the actors to always give their best performance in every scene. The series did know its audience as every episode was sure to include beautiful bad girls and as many fights that could fit in thirty minutes minus commercials. The first episode “Soldier’s Story” set up the premise well:
SOLDIER’S STORY. Written by Johnny Florea and Tony Barrett. Directed by Johnny Florea. Guest Cast: Mari Blanchard, John Vivyan and Stanley Adams ***A soldier is framed for a robbery turned murder. Dekker goes undercover to find the villains, a gang of three – beauty (Blanchard), brawn (Vivyan) and brains (Adams).
The episode is well done with stylish dialog and use of camera, lively action, interesting if stereotyped characters, and clever use of the episode’s soundtrack (music supervision by Raoul Kraushaar). It is fun watching likable Meeker’s Dekker obsessively track down the bad guys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL5IyUNjipk
THE SET UP. Written by Laurence Marks. Directed by Johnny Florea. Guest Cast:: Stanley Adams, Michael Miller, Henry Corden and Patrick Waltz *** A soldier with heavy gambling debts is asked to kill a fellow soldier. Dekker convinces the soldier to go undercover to find out who the intended victim is and who wants him dead.
This episode is fun from the heavy slang dialog of the blackmailed soldier to the target’s priorities. The mystery is drawn out at the right pace with the identity of the target at first unknown and the killer’s identity a nice twist at the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXT1G631BMc
As “Soldier’s Story” and “The Set-Up” show, despite lasting only one season the series used several actors in more than one roll. Norman Alden went from guard in “Soldier’s Story” to recurring character MP Cpl. Lucius Grundy. Stanley Adams went from bad guy in “Soldier’s Story” to recurring character good guy Honolulu Police Lt. Morris. Others would play multiple parts such as Fortune Gordien who played the dealer in “The Set-Up” and according to IMDb two other roles during the series run.
SHARK BAIT. Teleplay by Richard Collins – Story by P.K. Palmer – Directed by Dennis Patrick. Guest Cast:: Jan Brooks, William Keene and Rory Harrity. *** Part of a stolen Army payroll is found with a murdered Navy diver. Much to the disgust of the Navy who has been unable to solve the seaman’s murder, the Army sends Dekker undercover to find the Army payroll.
For its time the mystery had some nice twists that today we would see coming from nearly the beginning. The now hilarious but then exciting fight between Dekker and a shark remains the episode’s highlight.
THE DESERTER. Written by Richard M. Powell. Directed by Johnny Florea. Guest Cast:: Dennis Patrick, Ziva Rodann and Peggy Stewart. *** While in Manila on the trail of a smuggling racket Dekker tries to help out a woman who is convinced she just saw her husband. Problem is her husband was declared dead by the Army fifteen years ago. No body was ever found but Dekker knows the man is dead because he was the one who killed him.
Thirty minutes rarely is enough time to create a decent mystery. There is not enough time to develop characters and have truly surprising twists. This episode is a perfect example of that as it reveals the bad guy too soon and has a backstory that needed more attention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waDbBGZGi9Y
THE FALL GUY. Teleplay by Jack Jacobs and Marty Goldsmith. Story by Jack Jacobs. Directed by Johnny Florea. Guest Cast:: Lisabeth Hush, James Seay and Barbara Stuart *** A beautiful 21-year old woman is found dead and Dekker arrests a soldier for the murder. Dekker is convinced the soldier is guilty but a female secretary in his office is even more convinced the soldier is innocent. She nags Dekker to keep investigating until they find the real killer.
This is the worse episode of the six surviving as it comes off more as a pilot for the CID secretary Cpl Madge Turner (Lisabeth Hush) than an episode about hero Sgt Dekker who the episode turned into a smug jerk. Gone is Dekker’s dedication to helping his fellow soldier out of trouble, replaced by a dedication to helping a female soldier out of her uniform.
According to IMDb, Hush as Cpl. Turner returned in episode “Lover’s Leap.” In an odd note of reality, Lisabeth Hush acting career suffered due to her hard work fighting sexual harassment of women in Hollywood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3xzf9XTu4A
SMUGGLED WIFE. Written by Don Brinkley. Directed by William Bennington. Guest Cast:: James Parnell, Nora Hayden and John Marshall. *** An angry and out of control Private Ober has taken on the governments of America, England and Hong Kong. His pregnant British born wife is due to give birth soon. Ober wants the baby born on American soil. But a bureaucratic mix-up has his wife stuck in Hong Kong. Dekker tries to keep Ober out of trouble as the red tape unwinds at its own speed versus the fast approaching birth of the baby.
They don’t write them like this one anymore as everyone takes the screwy plot and run with it. There is no shortage of fights and comedy, and even a femme fatale and a crime are tacked on to the story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_goa3BJwcYc
Reading the credits always adds to the entertainment value of watching TV series from the past. From the credits we can guess the “showrunner†for the series was Johnny Florea. Florea was a war correspondent during WWII and had a successful career as a TV director (Honey West, Ironside) and producer (Sea Hunt, CHiPs).
Bonus gossip! According to a newspaper article from Los Angeles Times (June 17,1975) his ex-wife Shirley Florea stabbed him in the back at the County Courthouse. UPI added they were there for an alimony hearing. Both sources mentioned she had once sued him for $1 million for mailing her 20 year-old prostitution arrest record to friends. While his other two wives are mentioned in Florea’s IMDb biography Shirley is not.
The writers featured a variety of talent. Richard M. Powell wrote the Mike Hammer film My Gun Is Quick as well as several TV series including Hogan’s Heroes. Tony Barrett would become a successful writer/ producer in the 60s with Peter Gunn, Mod Squad and Burke’s Law. Don Brinkley wrote for many TV series including The Fugitive and Felony Squad and created Trapper John M.D. Laurence Marks had started as a comedy writer in radio (Jack Paar) and continued with TV for such series as Hogan’s Heroes and M*A*S*H. Marty Goldsmith credits include the film Detour and the TV series Twilight Zone.
Johnny Florea directed most of the Not for Hire episodes but there were others. Dennis Patrick would turn to acting full time (including an episode for Not for Hire). William Bennington would become known for live TV and won an Emmy with seven others for directing the 19th Summer Olympic Games in 1968.
Of course the actors are the easiest to spot. Popular character actors such as Norman Alden, Stanley Adams and Barbara Stuart are remembered for the amount of roles they would play instead of any single one. Henry Corden might have joined that group if not for his role as the voice of Fred Flintstone. Those of us who remember John Vivyan as stylish and sophisticated Mr. Lucky were surprised by his portrayal of a dumb goon.
Not for Hire remains a better than expected syndicated light drama cop show that still can be a pleasant entertaining way to kill a half hour.
April 9th, 2016 at 7:48 pm
You did your usual bang-up job on this, Michael. Thanks for letting me post it here.
I certainly knew nothing about this series when it was on. I wonder how many markets it was sold to. It can’t have been all that many.
April 9th, 2016 at 10:09 pm
Timeline time:
Henry Corden didn’t take over the Fred Flintstone voice until after the death of Alan Reed in 1977 – 28 years after Not For Hire.
Given that the standard output for syndicated series during this period would have been between 26 – 36 episodes, and you only have six listed here, I’d guess that Henry Corden likely might turn up in more than a few of them …
I can add here that WGN-ch9 here in Chicago ran NFH in primetime during its first run in ’59; I do recall that opening title with the swinging billyclub, which my dad got a kick out of (which worried us kids at the time – just a bit).
April 9th, 2016 at 10:33 pm
Richard Powell also wrote the popular Arab and Andy Blake mysteries and bestselling novels like THE PHILADELPHIAN and WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY, the former filmed as THE YOUNG PHILIDELPHIANS with Paul Newman and Robert Vaughn. He also wrote the novel that became the Elvis film FOLLOW THAT DREAM which was also the basis for a short lived television series I think.
Don Brinkley wrote a bit of everything, including THE FUGITIVE, TARZAN, MANNIX, THE MAN FROM UNCLE, and producing MEDICAL CENTER and TRAPPER JOHN MD.
Pretty heady staff for a forgotten half hour series.
April 9th, 2016 at 10:44 pm
Steve, NFH was also in Baltimore. I have found three ads for it in Broadcasting magazine, none mentioned a number of sales instead warning station managers not to miss out. So I expect it did not sell well. PONY EXPRESS seemed to get most of CNP attention that year. NBC owned CNP and used it for first run syndication. CNP turned out dozens of series from cartoons to dramas. It was easy for a series to get neglected and lost.
April 9th, 2016 at 11:00 pm
Mike, as far as Corden, thanks for clearing up there was another voice for Fred besides Corden. But today most of us remember his face but his voice more (even if Alan Reed is better known).
I ignored a timeline for the nostalgic section of the review.
IMDb, TV Tango and Wikipedia all have 39 episodes for the series, but I suspect the series started in Sept 1959 rather than October as the database sites claim. My guess is the start date is from when it ran in the New York area.
April 9th, 2016 at 11:11 pm
David, I rarely pay any attention to the credit trivia of those in old TV series, but as a fan of writers I was impressed by the names of the writing staff and thought it explained why there was so much comedy in the crime series.
April 10th, 2016 at 2:13 am
Maybe I wasn’t clear enough: when Henry Corden got the Flintstone gig, it was with the understanding that his job was to imitate Alan Reed’s Fred voice as closely as possible.
Any time that Hanna-Barbera had to replace a main voice, the standing order was to come as close as possible to the originator, as they had to when Mel Blanc and Daws Butler became unavailable in later years.
I think that Don Brinkley’s most notable production might have been his daughter, Christie …
… but that’s just my opinion …
April 10th, 2016 at 1:13 pm
Michael,
Powell in particular specialized in the screwball school of hardboiled mystery with his hero Andy Blake a gun hating ex Navy type married to Arab, who made her own gunpowder. And of course one of his best known books was the basis for one of Elvis better efforts about a family of squatters who claim a section of public beach in Florida for their own and the havoc caused trying to evict them.
He wrote one semi serious ultra violent hard boiled novel, but I always suspected it was meant to be a sendup of the Spillane school making it ironic he ended up writing MY GUN IS QUICK.
All of the Arab and Andy Blake books are available in ebook form and a few of his other novels as well, including WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY, a wonderfully written historical novel about the Trojan War.
April 10th, 2016 at 3:30 pm
7. Mike, I am just going to shut up and quit while I am behind.
April 10th, 2016 at 3:57 pm
8. David I am a fan of Powell’s Andy and Arab. They are one of the better married detective couples in fiction. I am surprise the characters have never been adapted to another form (that I know of). Today Arab would fit in better than Pamela North or most of the other female side of the married detectives.
I was disappointed by Powell’s episode THE DESERTER. Maybe if it had been longer Powell could have added some humor and created more believable characters.
My favorite of the six was comedy writer Laurence Mark’s THE SET-UP.
I also did not mention Richard Collins had work at various studios from RKO to MGM during the 30s. He was involved in the Red Scare. In 1951 he was called before HUAC and admitted to formerly being a member of the Communist Party but had not paid dues since 1939. He divorced his wife actress Dorothy Comingore because she refused to cooperate with HUAC. Their relationship was the bases for the 1991 film GUILTY BY SUSPICION.
This was a group of interesting people.
August 12th, 2016 at 10:12 am
“Not For Hire” was shown on British TV but only in one ITV region alone, that was on Anglia TV in the East of England. It’s a pity the show was not networked.
May 11th, 2017 at 4:14 pm
There are echos of the show’s concept in “NCIS,” which is the Navy’s version of CID. It’s also echoed is Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series in which a former M.P. conducts investigations. (He belonged to a fictional group called the 110th Special Investigations Unit.)
September 16th, 2017 at 2:22 pm
I have a lost episode to Not For Hire entitled “Adults Only” on a film reel direct from MGM studios. Please get back to me if you are interested.
August 20th, 2022 at 6:28 pm
If you like these then check out Coronado 9. Lots similar and it might have been inspired by Not For Hire. This show starred Rod Cameron as a former Navy operative who works as a PI in Coronado CA. It was on for 1 season in 1960 in syndication. More great short stories. It is neat to see Coronado as it looked 60 years ago.
I was able to get a boxed DVD set of Coronado 9 from Amazon.