Fri 1 Nov 2013
A Made-for-TV Movie Review by David L. Vineyard: STRYKER: FANFARE FOR A DEATH SCENE (1964).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[8] Comments
STRYKER: FANFARE FOR A DEATH SCENE. Made-for-TV movie (busted pilot), 1964. Richard Egan, Viveca Lindfors, Burgess Meredith, Telly Savalas, J.D. Cannon, Tina Louise, Al Hirt, Edward Asner, King Deigh. Screenplay Marion Hargrove. Directed by Leslie Stevens.
John Styker (Richard Egan) is a wealthy industrialist, but once upon a time he was an operative of the OSS, G2, and later the CIA, and when the white phone in his modern office rings he answers, sent off on another mission for the ultra secret Provisional Bureau of Intelligence.
Professor George Bannerman (Burgess Meredith) holds all the knowledge of America’s most secret intelligence data in his head, and his head isn’t working right. When the staff at the sanitarium he is held in is poisoned using spotted hemlock, Bannerman escapes taking his beloved trumpet with him, and the hunt is on.
J. D. Cannon and Edward Asner are agents of the PBI, but they don’t believe Stryker’s pet theory about the Golden Horde, a shadow government of descendants of the Mongol Khans led by the descendant of Genghis Khan himself, Ilchedai Khan (Telly Savalas) a jovial sadist, with his henchman Kingh Deigh and beautiful Circassian helper Tina Louise.
This jazzy spy pilot in the mode of Peter Gunn has a terrific score by Dominic Frontiere and is directed by Leslie Stevens, using many of the camera tricks of Stevens’ Outer Limits including a well shot karate battle between Egan and Deigh in a darkened room lighted only by slatted blinds.
The plot gallops along as Ilchedai Khan uses Stryker to find Bannerman, and Stryker keeps tabs on a famous classical trumpeter Reynaldo Mendel (Al Hirt) whom Bannerman idolizes, but Styker knows he’s being set up and even allows himself to be captured so he can learn more of Ichedai Khan’s plot.
The story is fairly silly but fun, and the outre elements from Telly Savalas’s latter day Fu Manchu to Viveca Lindfors as sadistic imperial princess of the Mongol and Russian blood are pure Sax Rohmer with a dash of James Bond thrown in the mix. The sets, like those of The Outer Limits, make ample use of shadows and open spaces to give the thing a unique look for television.
A fairly imaginative effort with some bright tongue-n-cheek elements.
“You will do no such thing. Until we absolutely have to …”
It all builds to a fairly surprising ending as Styker tracks down Bannerman using a concert to lure his quarry and outwitting Ilchedai Khan — this time.
Like many unsold pilots this one is a study in what might have been, but stands alone as a fairly ambitious example of high concept nonsense. Meredith does well with no dialogue, in portraying a psychotic breakdown and comes to a spectacular end.
November 5th, 2013 at 8:49 am
One of the most insane projects ever. I wrote it up rather early on in my Tuesday’s Overlooked series…
November 5th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
And here’s the link:
http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2011/01/25-jan-2011-tuesdays-overlooked-films.html
What I found interesting, besides what you had to say about the show itself, is that the movie first aired as an episode of KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATER, I hadn’t come across that information before.
November 5th, 2013 at 12:45 pm
Yes, and I should dig out where I saw that. It must’ve been the trimmed version…which would probably be all to the good.
November 5th, 2013 at 12:49 pm
Now that I knew where to look, I found the following at
http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/125429/Fanfare-for-a-Death-Scene/overview
“Fanfare for a Death Scene was one of a handful of TV dramas originally presented on NBC’s Kraft Suspense Theatre, then reedited for European theatrical release. […]
“Fanfare for a Death Scene was first shown in feature-film form in the US on local television, as part of Universal’s syndicated movie package.”
November 6th, 2013 at 10:07 am
And my fuller take is here:
http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2012/12/overlooked-film-andor-other-av-late-for.html
November 7th, 2013 at 5:01 pm
Sorry to be a latecomer …
That’s Khigh Dhiegh (pronounced Ky Dee).
That name threw me too, until TV Guide set me straight on the phonics.
(Of course, this was years before I found out that he was actually Kenneth Dickerson of New Jersey …)
January 22nd, 2015 at 5:30 pm
This movie/TV Pilot can be seen on NETFLIX 01/22/15
November 11th, 2020 at 1:14 pm
Last night I discovered this movie on Amazon prime. I thought it was a unsold pilot and thanks for your excellent article my suspicions were confirmed. I really enjoyed the film and I’m sorry you didn’t get taken up as a series. Thank you for your research and sharing it.