Tue 22 Jan 2019
A TV Review: DAN AUGUST “The Murder of a Small Town” (1970).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[5] Comments
DAN AUGUST “The Murder of a Small Town.” 30 September 1970. Season 1, Episode 2. Burt Reynolds, Norman Fell, Richard Anderson, Ned Romero, Ena Hartman. Guest cast: Ricardo Montalban, John Marley, Anna Navarro. Writer: Robert Dozier. Director: Harvey Hart.
As a follow up to my review of The House on Greenapple Road, the made-for-TV movie that became the pilot film for the Dan August television series, I have now watched the first two episodes of the series itself.
The first episode, “Murder by Proxy,” had its moments, but overall was no better than the average cop or PI series of the time. Burt Reynolds acquitted himself well, and perhaps if I hadn’t been looking for them, I might have missed the occasional screen shots in which they asked him to look pensive about the case while at the same time looking a bit like Marlon Brando. (I believe someone pointed this possibility out in the comments to the earlier review.)
The overall gimmick to the episode and hence (I assume) to the series being that Dan August was now a cop in his own medium-sized home town, a fact which causes him some difficulty, dealing as he must with people he’s known all his life. Now of course it is under totally different circumstances. He, in fact, happens to have had a personal altercation with the murder victim the week before, suggesting to some that he might even be a suspect.
The story in episode two is very different, and I thought even a bit daring. A strike by the Hispanic orange grove workers in town has gotten ugly, and when an accident to a school bus injures several children, with one small girl killed, all Mexician-Americans, tempers threaten to burst out of control. Anglos vs. Spics, the signs say.
At opposite poles are John Marley, the owner of the town’s orange groves, and labor organizer Ricardo Montalban, with Dan August right in the middle, especially when it looks as though someone deliberately tampered with the bus’s brake lines. A small plot thread involving a romance between Marley’s daughter and Montalban seems forced and unnecessary, and is thankfully dropped.
A lot of anger that’s been simmering in the town pf Santa Luisa is shown. This is definitely not your usual TV cop show. While the incident with the bus is resolved, the writers and producers of the show could not solve the larger problem, not even in the hour’s time they were given.
January 22nd, 2019 at 2:56 pm
This is the only episode I’ve ever seen. Saw it sometime during the 1970’s and liked it very much. Am looking forward to seeing it again. And the rest of DAN AUGUST for the first time.
Robert Dozier is an often interesting writer.
A feature film THE LAWLESS (Joseph Losey, 1950) might be a good comparison.
January 22nd, 2019 at 2:59 pm
A list of my favorite films about Industry and Labor:
http://mikegrost.com/boucher.htm#Industry
January 22nd, 2019 at 4:41 pm
Fun Facts:
– Robert Dozier was the son of William Dozier, but made his reputation as a screenwriter mainly independent of him.
The only direct connection between father and son that I can find (correction welcomed if needed) is the first Joker episode of Batman, which is still considered one of the best ones.
– John Marley’s character in the Dan August episode is named ‘Sam Mirakian’ –
a name that turns up in several Dozier screenplays, on big and small screens, over the course of years (a friend getting a shout-out – what’s known as a ‘Tuckerism? Most likely).
– Incredible Coincidence Dept.:
One of the guest stars in “Murder By Proxy” is Diana Muldaur.
In 1981, eleven years after these shows were made, Diana Muldaur married Robert Dozier (they remained so through to Dozier’s passing in 2013).
Stranger Than Truth!
January 22nd, 2019 at 6:59 pm
DAN AUGUST had ambitions. It didn’t meet them exactly, but it did make some efforts toward them. I recall a well done two parter, and several that dealt with August’s role as a favorite son uncomfortably aware of where the bodies were most likely buried when his job and his life conflicted. But as with many such series the trope of Dan uncovering secrets buried by the people he grew up knowing grew a bit heavy-handed with repetition.
January 22nd, 2019 at 10:56 pm
Sometimes, though, things the producers think are going to be important topics throughout a series just don’t seem to go anywhere and are quietly allowed to fade away.
I think that was the case in the SILK STALKINGS series. At the beginning the female lead was plagued with headaches and an incipient brain aneurysm. I didn’t watch long enough to be sure, but I believe that somewhere along the way she got over it.
Or it could go the other way, as you say was the case with DAN AUGUST. I got the boxed set for my birthday, and while I’m no fan of binging, the show is good enough so far to keep on watching it.