ROCKY KING, DETECTIVE. (Original title: Inside Detective.) DuMont Television Network, January 14, 1950 – December 26, 1954. Cast: Inspector Rocky King: Roscoe Karns; Mabel King: voice of Grace Carney; Announcer: Ken Roberts; Sergeant Lane: Earl Hammer, 1950-1953; Sergeant Hart: Todd Karns (Roscoe’s son), 1953-1954.

   There once was a TV series about a befuddled homicide detective who wore an old raincoat he refused to replace and had a wife the audience never saw; that detective was Rocky King.

   Rocky King, Detective was a live half hour police mystery series on the DuMont network. Few remember DuMont, one of the original four TV networks (1946 to 1955 (or 1956)). Its lack of stations to reach enough viewers and a radio network to draw talent and dollars doomed the network to producing low budget, little seen programs.

   Perhaps the network’s most popular series, only a few episodes still exist on kinescope copies. The four episodes reviewed here are available to view for free at various websites such as Classic TV Archives. (See below.)

   Roscoe Karns, a veteran movie co-star, finally got his chance to play the lead. Rocky’s never seen wife Mabel was the scatterbrained female type. Each episode would feature a scene with Rocky at home talking to Mabel, often about their never seen or heard son, Junior. The show always ended with Rocky in his office calling Mabel. He hang up the phone and say, “Wonderful girl, that Mabel.”

   The domestic scenes were played for laughs and reportedly written by Karns who received a screen credit for “additional dialog”.

   The music by Jack Ward is a major distraction with over the top organ music more fitting for a bad melodrama.

   Considering its network limitations, Rocky King is a far better show than it should have been. The live broadcasts had the expected number of mistakes, but it didn’t stop the talent from taking risks and having fun.

   Live in the camera tricks such as split screen and creative dissolves between scenes were common. While the mystery and suspense was played straight, the writers and cast occasionally let less serious moments slip in, even breaking the fourth wall.

   In “One Minute For Murder,” Karns was sick and Earl Hammer as Sergeant Lane took over the mystery and scenes with Mabel. At the end Sergeant Lane reassured the viewers Rocky would be OK and would be back next week.

   The episodes reviewed:

● “Murder Scores a Knockout.” Aired July 13, 1952. Written: Carl Abrams. Directed: Lee Polk. Guest cast: Pete: Kem Dibbs; Edward: William Sharon; Viola: Henrietta Moore/ A magician is murdered as the three suspects search for a missing object.

● “The Hermit’s Cat.” Aired August 31, 1952. Written: Ed Morris. Directed: Wesley Kenney. Guest cast: Mark: Ed Peck; Norton: Frank Campanella; Mildred: Virginia Low. Millionaire who had refused to leave his home is found dead on a nearby highway.

● “Murder, Ph.D.” Aired December 14, 1953. Written: Frank Phares. Directed: Wesley Kenney. Guest Cast: Gerhart: Somer Alberg; Bartender: John Anderson; Alice: Anne Roberts. Mysterious phone caller repeatedly taunts Rocky that he is the real killer not the man about to be executed at midnight.

● “One Minute for Murder.” Air date unknown. Written: Carl Abrams. Directed: Wesley Kenney. Guest cast: Nora: Barbara Joyce; Mike: Steven Gethers; Helen: Mary Jackson. Blackmailing columnist is murdered in the leading lady’s dressing room during a performance.

   All four are included on one DVD easily available from Amazon, Oldies.com and other well-known online outlets.

   For those interested to learn more about Rocky King, Detective or the DuMont Television Network, I recommend two websites:

Classic TV Archives: http://ctva.biz.

Charles Ingram’s DuMont Television Network Historical website: http://www.dumonthistory.tv/index.html

The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon. Premiere episode (of 12) for the CBS TV series Tucker’s Witch, 6 October 1982. Cast: Rick Tucker: Tim Matheson; Amanda Tucker: Catherine Hicks; Ellen Hobbes: Barbara Barrie; Marcia: Alfre Woodard; Lt. Fisk: Bill Morey. Guest cast: Danny: Ted Danson; Babs: Alexa Hamilton. Created and written by William Bast and Paul Huston. Director: Peter H. Hunt.

   Husband and wife PI’s Rick and Amanda Tucker hunt for the person who is strangling married women in high-rise elevators. Want to guess how it ends?

   The gimmick for this series is an odd one. Amanda is a witch. However this is no PI Bewitched. Amanda is trying to learn to control her special powers, special powers that is public knowledge.

   The acting, especially Catherine Hicks, is the only thing going for this series, and some would claim the occasional cheesecake views of Hicks is the only reason to watch.

   Before the opening credits we watch the killer in action. What follows is not some Columbo-like mystery, but instead a cliche-filled, lazily written romantic comedy mystery that fails in nearly every way possible.

   Need to find a clue? Let the witch have a hunch about something and you have your clue or if she is wrong you have your comedy.

   Feature a Los Angeles police department that accepts hunches from an unreliable witch, as well as does not notice all the victims were members of the same video dating service. A video dating service that gives all its members a pointless charm for no reason other than the writers need a clue for their witch to find.

   Nearly every TV mystery cliche is in this one episode. Rick does not want to talk about the case because he wants to go on vacation (no signs they are packed to go anywhere). Seconds later they get a call that a client wants to hire them for this mystery. Rick tries to convince the paying client to drop case. Flighty sweet Amanda’s Mother who lives with them.

   Wacky neighbors. Understanding stupid cop friend. Woman overhears them discuss the murders in first person and misunderstands. PIs break the law stealing personal property to find out who did it. They are so obvious about it the killer finds out. Killer tries to kill Rick in a car by cutting the brake line. Spend screen time watching the “out of control” car run over things.

   Killer decides to make Amanda the next victim. Rick rushes to her rescue (though Amanda does hold her own vs the killer). Episode ends with cute bit where the loose ends are summed up during adorable characterization action.

   You know you are watching bad 80’s network TV when the smartest character is Dickens, Amanda’s cat who uses the phone answering machine to let Rick know Amanda is with the killer. Top that, Lassie!

   Reviewed from YouTube videos: Part One.

REMINGTON STEELE. Season One: NBC, 1982-83. Created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. Cast: Laura Holt: Stephanie Zimbalist, Remington Steele: Pierce Brosnan, Murphy Michaels: James Read, Bernice Foxe: Janet DeMay.

   This endearing but lightweight series was at its best in Season One in every way but ratings.

   The premise of a female PI creating a fictional male boss so people would accept her as a PI was a timely one. While female PI’s had existed for a long time, even mystery readers were then adjusting to the new independent female PI such as Kinsey Milhone (Sue Grafton) and V.I. Warshawski (Sara Paretsky).

   Remington Steele, named for a typewriter (yes, it was that long ago) and a football team, was originally meant to remain fictional. NBC insisted the part be cast, and a romantic comedy mystery with the roles reversed developed.

   Writing for the series was at its best during the first season. Experienced showrunner Michael Gleason lead a staff destined to create their own series. Joel Steiger (Jake & the Fatman) won the Edgar award for Best Episode in a TV series for “In the Steele of the Night”. Other writers included Glen Gordon Caron (Moonlighting) and Lee David Zlotoff (MacGyver).

   The characters were never more believable. Why wouldn’t a con man and a thief (think Cary Grant in It Takes A Thief) give up that life to have fun chasing Laura and accidentally catching bad guys?

   Laura’s reaction to the mystery man was what many young women were going through in 1982 as they chose between a career and marriage. Bernice the secretary meant there was someone in the office to deal with clients while everyone else was off solving mysteries. (This would not be true in coming seasons.)

   The acting from stars Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan to the guest stars was of the high quality one expected from an MTM Production (Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, etc).

   The relationship between Laura and Remington usually featured them battling each other to see who solved the mystery first. Whatever chemistry between the two worked best during this season.

   This was the season I developed a crush on Laura Holt, identified with Remington Steele, enjoyed the comedy mysteries, and saw the potential for another special TV series from MTM Productions. While next season’s move from Friday to Tuesday and NBC wanting more slapstick action made the series a hit, it was at the cost of much of what made Remington Steele special during season one.

   Oh, if you decide to view an episode of Remington Steele, watch for the MTM kitty salute to a famous detective at the end.

FATHER & SON. ITV1 (UK), June 7 through 10, July 2010. Dougray Scott, Sophie Okonedo, Ian Hart, Stephen Rea, Reece Noi, Wunmi Mosaku, Simon Delaney. Written by Frank Deasy. Director: Brian Kirk. (Previously shown on RTÉ (Ireland), 29 June through 20 July 2009.)

   This was another of those stories spread over successive evenings that seem to be the vogue over here nowadays. This was in four parts — Monday to Thursday, one hour each, less adverts.

   Set in Manchester, a city that has acquired a small reputation for gang violence, this concerns Michael Connor, a former criminal who has retired to a new life (and a new wife) after the murder of his first wife. He returns to Manchester when his estranged teenage son — who lives with his mother’s sister, a policewoman — is arrested and accused of shooting another teenager in a gang related killing.

   The story involves several strands with a prisoner and former colleague of the father keeping an eye on the son while attempting his own escape, and the involvement, possibly criminal, of the police both in Manchester and in Ireland.

   There are some discrepancies and anomalies — would a fifteen year old, accused but not convicted of a shooting, be placed in a cell with a hardened adult criminal, and would a Manchester criminal, now living in Ireland, have an accent that ranges over most of the British Isles? — but the story twisted and turned and managed to hold my attention throughout

“Sleight of Hand.” An episode of The Rockford Files (Season 1, Episode 15). First air date: 17 January 1975. James Garner, Noah Beery, Joe Santos, Tom Atkins, Lara Parker, Pat Delany, Allan Miller. Teleplay by Stephen J. Cannell & Jo Swerling Jr., based on the novel Thin Air by Howard Browne.

   Stop me if you’ve heard (or seen) this one before.

   Private eye Jim Rockford is coming back to LA after a vacation trip with Karen Mills, his current girl friend, a vivacious young divorcee with a three year old daughter. He stops at her house, she leaves to open the front door, he carries the girl up to her bedroom and tucks her in, and goes downstairs to find Karen’s open purse on a counter — and no Karen. He was only a few feet behind her when he went in — and she has disappeared.

   When the police are called (Joe Santos as Sgt. Becker), they find the body of Karen’s next door neighbor lying on the ground next to her house. Do the police (Tom Atkins as Lt. Diel) believe Rockford’s story? Well, what do you think? (Would you believe such a story?)

   Or in other words, Rockford’s on his own in solving this one, except for his dad, Rocky, who catches the one clue Rockford misses.

   The novel has been reviewed earlier on this blog, and from Gloria Maxwell’s description, the story line of the TV show is almost exactly the same, at least the beginning. While I’ve read the book, I couldn’t tell you now if the ending is the same, nor how closely they followed the plot when the story was used again as the basis for an episode of Simon & Simon in 1982.

   I have to tell you, though, as entertaining as the story is on this mid-season episode of The Rockford Files, if you allow yourself the time to think it about carefully, and maybe only casually and not even that carefully, the whole thing is adroitly administered hogwash, a heap of impossibilities disguised as a stack of highly unlikelies.

   It may be that 50 minutes or so just isn’t enough running time to make the parts fit together so they make sense, but in all honesty, they don’t.

   But did I say that this was one of the most entertaining episodes so far this first season? I did and I didn’t, but it was. It also comes the closest to true noir, albeit in a slightly ham-fisted way. As private eye Jim Rockford, James Garner lets his feelings show more than usual on this one.

“Night of the Gun.” An episode of Tightrope! (Season 1, Episode 17). First air date: 29 December 1959. Mike Connors as Nick Stone. Guests: Mike Kellin, Whit Bissell, Barbara English, Paul Langdon. Teleplay by Frederic Brady. Directed by Paul Wendkos.

   Policeman Paul Langdon explaining why a detective roughed up undercover cop Nick Stone (Michael Connors):

   Tightrope! ran for a single season in the 1959-1960 television season for 37 episodes and featured the adventures of undercover cop Nick Stone, as played by Michael Connors. Stone was a cross between Peter Gunn and James Bond, plying the mean streets in first person-narrated tales of crime, murder, betrayal, about a man on the tightrope as a undercover policeman.

   Created by Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse, Tightrope was a fast paced half hour show that moved like the bullets that frequently flew from Connors’ gun. A typical episode featured beautiful sexy women, bizarre villains, twisty plots, and enough violence for three other series.

   Opening each week with Connor’s patented fast draw, the series had only one continuing character, Stone, and found him each week in a new city with a new assignment.

    “Night of the Gun” is perhaps the best of the series, a tough and dark little tale that finds Nick helping the local police to find a witness on the run (Whit Bissell). Also hunting for Bissell is Larry Maddox (Mike Kellin), a club owner who sidelines as a killer for hire.

   It’s Kellin and his performance as Maddox that raises this above the rest. Maddox is an effeminate sadist, one part hipster, one part Liberace, who lives for trouble and pain: “Beautiful, beautiful.”

   Nick knows the best way to find Bissell is to follow Maddox to him, so he attracts his attention, then befriends the bizarre hood who sees a kindred spirit in Connors. For a show from 1959 the homo-erotic content of these scenes is pretty obvious, and though a couple of pretty girls are thrown into the mix, it’s clear that Kellin’s bizarre hit man isn’t interested in them all that much.

   I was reminded a bit of Lee Marvin and Earl Holliman’s homo-erotic hoods from Joseph L. Lewis The Big Combo and George Sanders as the strange forger and thief from John Larkin’s Quiet Please, Murder!, but Kellin’s character is even more outlandish.

   The opening scene where he kills a frightened and desperate witness is as sadistic a display as you ever saw on the small screen.

   This kind of show lived or died on the shoulders of the hero, and here Connors, in his first series, shines. Nick Stone is tough and smart, but he is also haunted by his job. He’s not always sure that there is a purpose to what he does, and longs for the comradeship of his fellow officers, a good woman, and a nine-to-five life, even as he wears expensive clothes and hangs out in the fanciest nightclubs. Each show features at least one scene of Nick alone in a crowd on a busy neon-lit street in a large city, alone even among the throng.

   As Connors gets closer to Kellin we begin to see just how crazy his Larry Maddox is, and it is a great bizarre performance, a mix of beatnik and hood, flamboyant and equal parts sadist and masochist.

   Finally when they go to meet Whit Bissell — who thinks Maddox is helping him to get out of town — Maddox figures out Connors as Nick is a cop and gets the drop on him, but didn’t figure on that patented fast draw.

   Connors went on to fame and fortune as Mannix, and Kellin had a long career as a character actor, including right after this a turn as the Chief Mate on The Wackiest Ship in the Army.

   Whit Bissell was in a little bit of everything from his role as the General in The Time Tunnel to his essay as the mad doctor in I Was a Teenage Frankenstein ( “I know you have a civil tongue in your head, I put it there!”).

   An attempt to revive the character of Nick Stone and series with Christopher George was a failure, but Stephen Cannell’s legendary Wiseguy with Ken Wahl owed a lot to this.

   Tightrope! isn’t available on DVD, but a few episodes are around, and well worth catching even if they are in less than pristine condition. It was a smart well written and directed series mindful of Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond’s early Secret Agent X-9 with its lone hero living a lonely and dangerous life without friends or allies.

   Tightrope! was a solid entertaining cop series with a bit more meat on the bone than usual. If you have never seen any of these you are in for a treat, and if you recall them but haven’t seen them for a long time you will be surprised just how good they were.

FIVE DAYS. BBC-TV (UK), March 1 through 5, 2010. Shaun Dooley, Steve Evets, Shivani Ghai, Bernard Hill, Suranne Jones, Matthew McNulty, Aaron Neil, Anne Reid, David Morrissey. Teleplay: Gwyneth Hughes. Director: Toby Haynes.

   It’s become quite fashionable over here to run a drama over five successive nights. We have had several in recent years and this is the second to be called Five Days (though this one doesn’t use the characters from the first, first seen in 2007).

   In these we see five key days (but not successive days) of the investigation. The story starts with a train hitting a body falling from a bridge. On the train is PC Laurie Franklin (played by Suranne Jones), taking her mother to a hospital consultation about her dementia.

   Meanwhile a young baby is found abandoned in the hospital toilet and it is suspected for a while that the baby is connected to the body.

   I found the first episode rather underwhelming and, though it picked up over the remaining episodes, it was overall rather unsatisfactory. Firstly there were just too many issues covered. I’ve already mentioned dementia, terrorism and multi-cultural relationships but there were many more.

   Another problem was that everyone had to have a deeper part in the story even though this lead to some unbelievable coincidences. A lot a work had gone into this production and it was a good cast; it’s a pity that script wasn’t much tighter.

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.

   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:

   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.

   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.

“The Photographer and the Undertaker.” An episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (Season 3, Episode 21). First air date: 15 March 1965. Jack Cassidy, Harry Townes, Alfred Ryder, Jocelyn Lane. Teleplay: Alfred Hayes, based on a story by James Holding (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, November 1962). Director: Alex March.

   Rudolph (Alfred Ryder) works for The Corporation, otherwise known as the Mob. His job is to give his contract employees their various assignments, all of which inevitably result in somebody getting murdered.

   Arthur Mannix (Jack Cassidy) is a photographer whose much more lucrative sideline is being a hitman for Rudolph. Hiram Price (Harry Townes) is a professional undertaker who also works under contract to Rudolph. Since they’ve never met, neither man knows the whole truth about the other.

   But then the day arrives when The Corporation, in its infinite wisdom, decides to have Rudolph send Arthur after Hiram — and Hiram after Arthur ….

   With three on-screen murders and a finale in which evil triumphs, this episode undoubtedly had the network censors in a lather, I’m sure.

   A cheerful but evil cherub is how I would describe Jack Cassidy’s normal screen persona. His criminous credits include: FBI Code 98 (1963), The Eiger Sanction (1975), and 3 unforgettable appearances on Columbo: “Murder by the Book” (1971), “Publish or Perish” (1974), and “Now You See Him” (1976).

   Harry Townes was another of those all-purpose bit-part actors who seemed to be everywhere in the ’50 and ’60s: Operation Manhunt (1954), 14 appearances on Kraft Television Theatre, eight on Climax!, 10 on Studio One, Cry Tough (1959), five episodes of General Electric Theater, four Kraft Suspense Theatre’s, five Perry Mason’s, five segments of The Fugitive (1963-66), three episodes of Felony Squad (1967), They Call It Murder (1971, TVM), and 4 appearances on Simon & Simon.

   See “The Photographer and the Undertaker” on Hulu here.

A TOUCH OF FROST: “If Dogs Run Free.”   ITV1 [UK], 04-05 April 2010. David Jason (Insp. Jack Frost), Bruce Alexander (Supt Mullett), John Lyons (D.S. Toolan), Arthur White, Niamh Cusack, Phyllis Logan (Christine Moorhead). Screenplay: Michael Russell, based on characters created by R.D. Wingfield. Director: Paul Harrison.

   After 17 years this venerable programme has come to an end, ostensibly because David Jason took the perhaps rather belated decision that he was too old credibly to play a serving police officer.

   This final two-parter (two two-hour episodes, less adverts), “If Dogs Run Free”, starts with an illegal dog-fight that the police are staking out thanks to a tip-off. Frost is involved because there is a major criminal involved in the drug trade who is living in Denton and is known to like dog-fights.

   By chance he is late and when the police move in he has not arrived. However his consequential desire to punish the informant leads to major consequences. Meanwhile someone seem to be repeating some criminal acts of 20 years before, including violent death, that Frost was involved in.

   This was a highly enjoyable episode in this long-running season and I enjoyed watching it, although Frost’s burgeoning romance with the RSPCA lady, Christine Moorhead, was not as riveting for me as the investigations.

   Amid much publicity, the production company filmed two endings and, after the showing, screened the alternative (and similar, except in personnel) ending on the internet.

   Sad to say both endings were rather low key and it seems a little odd that the producers should choose to go out that way, though I suspect that, rather crassly, they thought that by airing the two possible endings approach they may get more viewers.