Sat 23 Oct 2010
A TV and Movie Review by David L. Vineyard: PETER GUNN.
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews , TV mysteries[20] Comments
PETER GUNN. Pilot: “The Kill.” NBC-TV, 22 September 1958. Craig Stevens, Lola Albright, Hershel Bernardi, Hope Emerson. Guests: Gavin McLeod, Jack Weston. Written & directed by Blake Edwards. [The series: 1958-1960, NBC; 1960-1961, ABC.]
GUNN. Paramount Pictures, 1967. Craig Stevens, Laura Devon, Ed Asner, Sherry Jackson, Albert Paulson, M.T. Marshall, Helen Traubel, J. Pat O’Malley, Regis Toomey. Screenplay by Blake Edwards & William Peter Blatty. Directed by Blake Edwards.
PETER GUNN. TV-movie/pilot, ABC, 22 September 1958. Peter Strauss, Barbara Williams, Peter Jurasik, Pearl Bailey, Charles Cioffi, Jennifer Edwards. Written & directed by Blake Edwards.
Peter Gunn: Then I have nothing to worry about. (Gunn walks away.)
Lt. Jacobi to Edie: Can’t you do something?
Edie: Sure. What would you like me to sing?
Some ideas are just too good for one telling. Roy Huggins novella “Appointment with Fear,” a Stuart Bailey private eye tale, was the basis for the films The Good Humor Man and “State Secret,” the pilot for 77 Sunset Strip (and at least two episodes), and the pilot for City of Angels. So Blake Edwards, with variations, used “The Kill,” the pilot for Peter Gunn, as the basis for the 1967 feature film and the 1989 refit with Peter Strauss.
The basic story, as outlined in “The Kill,” is that an aging gangster is killed by two assassins dressed as cops in a phony cop car. Peter Gunn owed the old time mobster his life and won’t leave his death alone.
An ambitious gangster (Gavin McLeod — called Fallon here, Fusco in the movie) wants to take over and blows up Mother’s, the jazz bar run by Hope Emerson where Peter Gunn’s chanteuse girlfriend Edie sings, as an example of how his extortion racket will work. Gunn figures it out, puts pressure on Fallon’s top man (Jack Weston) and sets him up as a target for the two phony cops.
It wasn’t as if borrowing was new to Blake Edwards. He began his career creating singing detective Richard Diamond for Dick Powell on radio, then moved into screenplays and television. He updated Richard Diamond as a smooth non-singing private eye played by David Janssen for television, then he also wrote and directed a pilot with Brian Keith for a Mike Hammer series.
Peter Gunn was very much a cross between the cool hip buttoned down and laid back Richard Diamond and the tough violent jazz themed world of Mike Hammer.
Peter Gunn, for the uninitiated, is a private eye in a riverfront town that is never named but always seems a bit wet and foggy. He operates out of Mother’s, a smoky bar where his girl friend Edie is the singer, and he stands at the bar and exchanges hip humor with the owner, Mother. His chief ally on the police force is Lt. Jacobi, a human, dogged, world weary policeman.
Peter is aided by a small army of informers and snitches, all colorful, eccentric, and prone to theatrics. The closest literary equivalent to Peter Gunn was likely Henry Kane’s Peter Chambers who has a similar jazzy offbeat quality — and ironically (or not), Kane wrote the only novelization of the television series.
To add to the cool dialogue, complex plots, and moody noirish look the series was blessed with perhaps the most recognizable theme in television history, Henry Mancini’s Peter Gunn theme.
What the Monty Norman/James Bond theme is to spy fiction, the Gunn theme is to crime. It is simply unforgettable (little wonder, in addition to Mancini, at the time his orchestra included legendary John Williams.) Even people who never heard of Peter Gunn know that iconic theme.
One more element came into play: perfect casting. If there was a better choice than Craig Stevens to play Peter Gunn I can’t imagine him. Stevens was a minor B-actor whose biggest role was probably that of a shell shocked soldier in Since You Went Away and by the time of Peter Gunn had fallen to appearing in films like The Preying Mantis and Abbot and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Just before Peter Gunn he had an outstanding role as a cool gun man in Budd Boetticher’s Buchanan Rides Alone, which may well have led to his being cast as Gunn. For whatever reason, he took the part and ran with it. The result was like seeing Mike Hammer played by Cary Grant. It is simply one of the most iconic roles in television history, on a level with Lucy and Raymond Burr’s Perry Mason.
Craig Stevens is Peter Gunn. Much of the character and mood established with nothing more than a raised eyebrow or a his cat like walk. Craig Stevens is Peter Gunn the way Sean Connery was James Bond or Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes.
For American audiences, Peter Gunn and Stevens were the transition from Mike Hammer to James Bond.
The rest of the cast included Lola Albright as the sexy somewhat melancholy Edie who knows her man is only her man in a limited way:
Peter: True.
Edie: I’ve saved up. What say I buy you — a steak.
Hershel Bernardi was cast as Lt. Jacobi the world weary cop and veteran Hope Emerson was Mother, an imposing presence even on the small screen. Veteran character actors like J. Pat O’Malley and Regis Toomey were semi regulars as colorful informers.
The series ran only three seasons on NBC and then ABC. When it went off the air it found new life in syndication, and in 1967 Edwards decided to try again as a feature film. Stevens was back, but Lola Albright was replaced by Laura Devon as a rather wan Edie. Ed Asner was good as a tougher version of Jacobi and Helen Traubel played Mother. O’Malley and Toomey again appeared as informers.
The plot was expanded from “The Kill” with some fine variations — at least one borrowed from Mickey Spillane’s Vengeance is Mine. Albert Paulson was “Fusco,” the Fallon character from the pilot, M. T. Marshall had a standout role as Daisy Jane, a madam who ran a floating whorehouse, and Sherry Jackson appeared as a beautiful and mysterious kook who shows up naked in Gunn’s bed.
Sherry Jackson: No.
Gunn: Girl Scouts?
Jackson: No.
Gunn: Community …?
Jackson: That’s the one.
Gunn: I gave at the office.
The world had changed in six years though Gunn hadn’t, and the whole thing is faintly anachronistic, but it is done with such style that hardly matters. It’s a superior effort all around, with at least three outstanding set pieces, including a shoot out in a mirrored bedroom, a confrontation on a racket ball court (taken in part from “The Kill”), and the finale, a bloody brawl that may well be one of the most violent scenes filmed to that time.
Craig Stevens commands the big screen as he did the small one, but the time for Gunn was gone and though it did well, the critics weren’t kind and Gunn disappeared again. Stevens had several other series that ran varying lengths of time — Man of the World, Mr. Broadway, The Invisible Man, did a pilot for a “Thin Man” series, Nick and Nora (notoriously bad), and probably had his last big role in Edward’s S.O.B.
By 1989 Blake Edwards had moved onto bigger things, but he trotted out Peter Gunn yet again with a new actor in the role, Peter Strauss, then still fresh off his star-making role in Rich Man, Poor Man.
Again a gangster has been killed and a gang war threatens. Peter Gunn caught in the middle has to find the killers and stop the bloodshed.
As a private eye film this is not bad, but as Peter Gunn it just isn’t right.
Strauss makes his first appearance in a dinner jacket with a white silk scarf and looks like Michael J. Fox wearing his father’s suit. Edie has almost nothing to do and is largely replaced by a scatterbrained secretary (in the original series Mother’s was Pete’s office) who has far too much screen time. Peter Jurasik plays Jacobi as a petulant and cynical typical cop. Pearl Bailey has little to do as Mother.
Frankly it’s all tired and hackneyed. Not bad, but not Peter Gunn, not by a long sight. Peter Gunn in a turtle neck just didn’t fit somehow. That said, the film has it’s moments, with a nice variation on the shootout from The Big Sleep at the end. One nice touch, Lt. Jacobi acquires a first name — Hershel.
Strauss might have been good as a private eye. Just not Peter Gunn. As made for television private eye films go, this isn’t bad. If you had never seen Craig Stevens and the original you might even have been impressed.
But it’s Diet Coke, not the Real Thing.
The plot varies even more from “The Kill” than Gunn did, but there are enough similarities you won’t have any trouble recognizing where the idea came from. Charles Cioffi is the gangster this time.
In the years since Peter Gunn projects have come and gone. John Woo had one at one point. It would be nice if by some miracle everything came together and we got one more great Peter Gunn, but it seems unlikely. Gunn is very much of its time, an attitude, an actor, and a handful of people he interacted with, and very much one of the best themes ever written, bar none.
Not that we will be, but perhaps, just this once, we should be grateful for what we have.
October 24th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
For such a groundbreaking PI television show, I find it remarkable (and very disappointing) that so few episodes have been officially released. There are two sets of 16 episodes each from A&E, but that doesn’t even cover the first season of around 39 shows.
The Peter Strauss version is available, and I’ve just ordered a copy, but at an asking price of $1.49, I wonder exactly what it is that I’m getting.
There does not appear to be an authorized DVD of GUNN, but I have a collector-to-collector copy that I have yet to watch.
In fact I have not watched any of the A&E sets either. I remember the series so fondly from when I watched it when it was on, that I am somewhat fearful — and you can leave out the somewhat — that the shows if I were to watch them now, will not live up to my memories.
Please don’t laugh!
October 24th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
The GUNN series holds up fairly well largely because it takes place in a confined world of its own. The Strauss version seems much more dated in its attempt to recreate something, but without the elements that made the original work in the first place. The pilot, GUNN, and the Strauss version all use the same basic elements of the original but each of them ends differently and each varies in who the culprit proves to be.
I think the Strauss would have fared better as a generic private eye than trying to be PETER GUNN, and exactly why the dumb blonde secretary was added to the mix I can’t imagine unless Edwards was trying to make some of the offbeat girls Gunn was always meeting fit into a single regular character (remember Isadore from the first series — referenced several times in GUNN?).
Nothing wrong with her performance, but that and Gunn operating out of his office instead of Mother’s seemed more like a revival of 77 SUNSET STRIP than PETER GUNN.
There is always a little trepidation when going back to something you recall from much younger days. I recently bought the set of episodes from THE CHAMPIONS, and while the pilot was good, the first couple of episodes left me with a bit of buyer’s remorse, luckily by the fourth episode better plots and guest stars had kicked in, though the series is still awfully set bound.
On the other hand THE PROTECTORS (Robert Vaughan) was actually better than I recalled, with tightly written and imaginatively filmed half hour episodes and that great theme song (“In the avenue and alleyways …”).
And some you never had to worry about. I’ve seen the complete run of the Saint fairly recently and they hold up well as does SECRET AGENT/DANGER MAN.
For all that fear that something won’t hold up, the great thing is when it not only does, but is as good, or better than you recall. Sometimes nostalgia is the only real appeal, and others prove to be as good or better than you remember. All you can do is roll the dice and hope. I would warn with most television series the first few episodes may be a little rough.
For instance if you were a BONZANZA fan and fondly recall it’s strong family values you may not be ready for the first episode with a sullen resentful Adam, a near psychotic Little Joe, a violent mean tempered simple minded Hoss, and Ben as an unyeilding dictator — or for the four of them riding off at the end of the episode singing the theme song!
Watch a few episodes into any series before deciding it isn’t what you remember. Nostalgia is usually based on the last or best season, not the first few shows.
October 24th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Though I was pre-teenage, I was a huge Peter Gunn fan at the time it originally aired. It was one of my parents’ favorites and they let me watch it with them. About 2-3 years ago I bought a collecter-to-collector set. One day I sat down to watch it with an old friend who had fond memories of it also.
We found the first few episodes–all we have had yet had time to watch together (long story why)–held up quite well except for one thing. In each of the first few episodes some different character pulled a gun and got the drop on Pete! It was very predictable.
In the last one we watched it was literally a little old lady who made Pete give up his gun and my friend and we were laughing so hard we had trouble catching our breath.
Every single other element was as good as we remembered and the characters, music, and over-all atmosphere of the show were golden.
I bought GUNN several months after that but haven’t watched it yet; I have it in my head that I want to watch the TV episodes first.
(About the same time I also bought the collector-to-collector set of Blake Edwards’ “Mr. Lucky” TV series with John Vivian and Ross Martin. Sadly the reproduction quality is about the worst of any c-to-c material I have ever purchased, far worse than Jack Mahoney’s “Yancy Derringer” which had been my previous nadir of quality…at least for the “Yancy Derringer” pilot. I’d rate the “Mr. Lucky” as about 2.5 on a scale of 10 and YD as about a 5.5…)
October 25th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Outstanding piece, David.
October 25th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
The ditzy secretary in the 1989 pilot was Blake Edwards’s daughter Jennifer, who at this point was finding her way into all of dear old Dad’s movie and TV projects, usually in weird roles (particularly in the feature SUNSET).
Just thought you’d like to know …
October 25th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Now we know. Thanks, Mike!
October 26th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
After I submitted yesterday’s comment, I suddenly remembered the role that Jennifer Edwards was most famous for:
As a little girl, she played the title role in the TV-movie HEIDI – the one that bobtailed the end of that football game.
For years afterward, Jennifer Edwards liked to call herself “the most hated child in America”.
Time marches on …
October 26th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
David: I know what you mean about coming back to something from your childhood. I recently had the opportunity to see an SF/Fantasy show from the ’70s called THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, that I loved as a kid. Not a good idea. Lousy acting, no direction, microscopic budget. It rather spoilt my memories of the show. I had a similar experience with the Gene Barry vehicle THE ADVENTURER, which I now love for all the wrong reasons.
THE CHAMPIONS does suffer a little from being bound to the studio, rather like a lot of ITC shows of that era. There does seem to have been a feeling at the time that if you told the audience that you were in Jamaica, then they would be prepared to accept the main characters standing next to a fake Palm Tree in Studio B as ‘real’. I also enormously enjoyed the complete box set of the Roger Moore SAINT series, but after finishing the last episode and going on to the Ian Ogilvy RETURN OF THE SAINT (which had extensive location filming in Europe), it was a real shock to have the character moving about locations that didn’t all resemble Surrey!
I have to say that I’ve never seen a single episode of PETER GUNN. I assume that it was broadcast in the UK, but as far as I know it was never repeated after the 60s, and there are no DVDs available.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
I am a huge fan of the Peter Gunn series. I watch it nearly every day on the Retro TV channel. I’ve always thought it was a good show. I’ve never seen Gunn, but would like to see it one day. I remember in the early ’70’s ABC had it on as a Movie Of The Week, and my dad told me about the show, and that Craig Stevens originally played Peter Gunn on the show. Several years later I heard the theme song for the first time, and have always liked it. If I’d been around when the show was on originally (it came on 2 years before I was born) I probably would’ve watched it. I watched the movie with Peter Strauss in 1989, but I don’t remember a lot about it, except that Gunn drove a yellow and white 1956 DeSoto convertible, and that the car looked even better with Jennifer Edwards driving it it one scene. I’d like to see this version again. I especially like the episodes with Lola Albright as Edie in them. She was one good-looking gal in that period!
January 19th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
I watched the Peter Strauss movie a short while ago, and while I didn’t write up a review, as I should have, I enjoyed more than I thought I was going to. Even though she may have gotten the job as Peter’s scatter-minded new secretary because she was the boss’s daughter, I liked her performance just fine. Barbara Williams wasn’t Lola Albright — who could be? — but her take on playing Edie must have stuck solidly somewhere in my mind, because when I was watching an episode of TROPICAL HEAT earlier this week, I recognized her right away. She also played Susan on a couple of the Spenser movies, which for no good reason I can think of, I’ve never seen.
August 11th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
I’m jumping in rather late to this discussion, but just wanted to say that I hope all Peter Gunn fans are aware that the show’s available for streaming on Netflix …
May 31st, 2012 at 6:18 am
ME TV runs this classy, classic show and provides a filmmaking class par excellance if you have a dvr.
July 23rd, 2012 at 8:12 pm
GREAT ARTICLE!! You’re right: no one is Peter Gunn but Craig Stevens! And, no one else could be Edie either! Just watched the 1st two seasons on YouTube and enjoyed them thoroughly! Can’t wait for Timeless Media Group to release the complete series in October of ’12!
January 7th, 2013 at 11:48 pm
Good news for PETER GUNN fans. Timeless Media just recently released the complete series and the picture quality looks great. The episodes are supposed to be uncut. If you are a lover of film noir and jazz, then this is a must.
May 18th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
To update a previous comment, I don’t think Peter Gunn is available for streaming on Netflix any longer, but Netflix does offer it on DVD. Peter Gunn, IS (as of this writing, anyway) available streaming free (with modern commercials!!!) on Hulu.
I also agree with a previous comment that the series worked because it did not really take place in the ordinary world. Instead it existed in a created Night World of noir imagery, and often bizarre events. if you look carefully, you’ll find Peter Gunn is full of dream imagery. Edie spreading a picnic lunch in Gunn’s living room, Gunn pursued by an unseen killer dog, and running endlessly through a featureless rural nightscape devoid even of buidlings; Gunn chasing after a pet seal; Blank staring buildings and empty streets that belong in an Edward Hopper painting. Also, in a Hitchcockesque turn, safe, familiar places can suddenly become sinister, or even deadly.
Gunn is unique, and also like Hitchcock, it is to a considerable degree a triumph of style over substance, but it also appears much less dated than other detective shows of the period such as 77 Sunset Strip or Richard Diamond.
If for no other reason it’s worth watching for the noir lighting and effects, which many low budget film makers could use to advantage instead of reflexively using chromakey and compter FX.
All in all, a neglected show which deserves more recognition today than it gets.
May 21st, 2013 at 1:45 pm
And it may get some as TNT announced a possible series pilot of PETER GUNN is in development. Hope its better than the 1989 remake TV movie pilot.
July 23rd, 2016 at 11:54 am
I saw the Peter Strauss version when it aired and I was kind of excited because I had never seen the original and I was curious to see what all the excitement was about. Aside from Mancini’s theme, it left me pretty flat. Since then I have seen scattered episodes of the original Peter Gunn on MeTV in late night, but only started to watch the series from the beginning on the Hoopla app from the public library. Now I know what the excitement was about. The first 5 episodes especially evoke the West Coast Jazz feeling most manifest in the theme music: cool and violent at the same time. I was particularly impressed by “The Frog,” which displays an unusual understanding of television as a visual medium: a full 4 1/2 mins of action with zero dialogue. Perhaps Blake Edwards was demonstrating lessons learned from his silent film director grandfather. But in episode 6, “The Chinese Hangman,” the writers (not Edwards) fall back on the radio technique of narration far too much. The story too, feels more like an episode of Johnny Dollar than the real Peter Gunn. I’m looking forward to watching the entire series to see how well it held up over the long run.
July 12th, 2018 at 12:51 am
Love this show! Does anyone one know if Sean Connery
Was ever on Peter Gunn?? I watch a couple episodes
Every night.
January 17th, 2020 at 3:25 pm
Is there a “best of list” for the Peter Gunn series?
July 19th, 2022 at 2:33 pm
Tell me why CRAIG STEVENS was not cast as PETER GUNN in the 1989 movie-PETER STRAUSS was smaller than Stevens and much less intimidating-I know Stevens would have played PETER GUNN right if he was cast as him-why was he not playing him? He was still alive and active at the time and why was LOLA ALBRIGHT not in either of the 1967 and 1998 movies?