Sat 14 Feb 2015
A TV Series Review by Michael Shonk: MATT HELM (1975-76).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[22] Comments
MATT HELM. ABC-TV. Made-for-TV Movie: 7 May 1975. TV series: 20 September 1975 to 3 January 1976. Meadway Production in association with Columbia Pictures Television. Cast: Tony Franciosa as Matt Helm, Laraine Stephens as Claire Kronski, and Gene Evans as Sergeant Hanrahan. Based on characters created by Donald Hamilton. Developed for television by Sam Rolfe. Produced by Charles B. Fitzsimons and Ken Pettus. Executive Story Consultant: James Schmerer. Executive Consultant: Irving Allen.
As with many fictional characters, Matt Helm has an identity crisis when it comes to his life in books, films and television. Matt Helm has always adapted to what was popular at the time. The character created by Donald Hamilton for a series of books, starting with Death of a Citizen in 1960, was a government assassin fighting the Cold War during a time when such a paperback series character was popular.
The movie Helm was one of the endless numbers of James Bond parodies popular in films during the 60s and 70s. And the TV version joined the large group of ex-something (be it ex-con, ex-cop, or in Helm’s case ex-spy) turned 70’s PI with a fast car. Matt Helm liked to join the crowd.
The TV movie version of Helm developed by Sam Rolfe was an ex-spy turned PI with a beautiful lover, a liberated lawyer who didn’t mind supplying the cheesecake. This Helm had a dark side, while he still was able to contact The Director and his old agency The Machine, Helm had quit the spy business after tiring of all the lies and bad things he had to do. While reformed and sanitized for 70s TV, this Helm was closer to Hamilton’s version than the movie version ever got.
Sadly the TV version had something in common with the film version: both were made by Columbia Pictures and producer Irving Allen. What saved the TV Movie was the talent of writer Sam Rolfe who had created or developed such TV series as Have Gun, Will Travel, Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Delphi Bureau. His screenplay (with Harold Jack Bloom) for The Naked Spur (1953) received an Oscar nomination.
Yes, it is a 1970s TV Movie, so there were cheesy moments and it was not quality drama, but it was and still remains a mindlessly fun entertaining TV mystery thriller. Rolfe’s script featured a strong plot and enough twists to keep the viewer involved. Rolfe, one of the best TV Movie pilot writers of the time, was also able to make Helm interesting, and the film had enough possible story directions to inspire several seasons of story lines. It would be something the weekly series would not take advantage of.
The rest of the production was above average for the standard 70s TV Movie, thanks in large part to the work of Producer-Director Buzz Kulik. Tony Franciosa played his usual character, the same guy he played in Name of the Game, Search, and every other character he played on television. Laraine Stephens (Mrs. David Gerber. Gerber was an award winning producer (Police Story) and at the time head of Columbia Pictures Television) was fine as liberated and sexually active Claire Kronski. The only other character from the pilot to make it to the series was Helm’s police contact and friend Sergeant Hanrahan played by the capable Gene Evans.
MATT HELM. 7 May 1975. Written by Sam Rolfe. Executive Producer: Irving Allen. Produced and Directed by Buzz Kulik. Guest Cast: John Vernon, Ann Turkel, Patrick Macnee, Michael C. Gwynne. *** When a PI she hired is killed Maggie turns to Matt for help to find her father’s killer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN91OAvpuXY
Maggie’s father had been killed when she was very young. Now a successful actress Maggie can afford to hire someone to find her father’s killer. She and Matt meet through Kronski who is the actress’ lawyer. When Matt learns a casual friend and fellow PI had been killed he takes the case.
Maggie’s father had been a Captain in the Army who was murdered by his Sergeant when he uncovered the Sergeant’s smuggling ring. The killer vanished. The murdered PI thought he had found the killer, now known as Harry Paine. Matt remembers Harry from his days with The Machine. It is not a happy memory. As Matt searches for Maggie’s father killer, everyone including an old friend from The Machine warn Matt to drop the case.
As with most TV shows there were changes made from the TV Movie pilot to the weekly series. Jerry Fielding’s theme from the TV Movie was replaced by a theme written by Morton Stevens. The series added a new character to the supporting cast, Ethel (Jeff Donnell), an annoying woman who took Matt’s messages. On the plus side the one bad subplot from the TV Movie featuring the angry PI hating Police Sergeant (Val Bisoglio) was dropped.
Irving Allen remained, now credited as executive consultant (there was no on air credit for executive producer). Buzz Kulik and Sam Rolfe were gone. Charles B. Fitzsimons and Ken Pettus became the producers. James Schmerer, who had been the associate producer for the film The Silencers (1966), was the series executive story consultant.
The dark ex-spy side of Helm was basically gone. The character now was just another TV PI, closer to being Tony Franciosa than any version of Helm. The stories were inferior PI procedurals with enough plot holes to turn the cheese to Swiss, bad acting doomed by cardboard characters, directors missing shots, and enough padding to fill a mattress warehouse.
“Now I Lay Me Down To Die.” 27 September 1975. Written by Gerry Day and Bethel Leslie. Directed by Earl Bellamy. Guest Cast: Shelley Fabares, Burr DeBenning, Ian McShane. *** Rich woman known for her charity work hires Matt to find a serial killer whose last victim was her surrogate father.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za_6l26H-N8
This is a cheese fest even Wisconsin would wince at. So lets play 70’s TV PI Cliché Bingo!
It featured a serial killer. The Killer was female. She was nuts. She had duel personalities. Chris the good girl was rich and spent her time working for charities. Tina the bad girl was a hooker. She killed her johns after sex. She loved her work.
The audience knows who the killer is before any of the characters including Chris. There is a gratuitous subplot about Chris’s evil husband. He is in debt. He is going to steal her fortune. She won’t get the money from dead Daddy’s will until next week. This subplot will be ignored at the end.
There is more? Yep, Matt had barely started when someone (we never are really sure who or why) tries to kill him. Car Chase!! Matt tracks down Tina and gets knocked out from behind. Talking head scene where an expert refuses to answer questions while answering questions to explain killer’s actions.
Female expert flirts with Matt. Police know where possible clue is but can’t get search warrant. Licensed PI ignoring rule of law plans illegal search believing a court of law would not toss out such evidence. Chris confesses before talking to her lawyer a few feet away. Ending ties things up in neat little bow as if victims were mere plot devices. BINGO! Extra point – famous ex-teen queen plays World’s most overdressed psycho killer hooker!
The series faced even more challenges than bad writing and acting. ABC put it in a suicidal time slot, Saturday at 10pm-11pm, opposite of two popular series, CBS’s Carol Burnett Show and NBC’s Saturday Night at the Movies. And there may have been behind the scenes problems with Tony Franciosa’s temper.
According to gossip columnist Maggie Daly (Chicago Tribune, 30 October 1975), while on location at the Burbank Water and Power plant Franciosa and director Richard Benedict (an ex-fighter) got into a physical fight that didn’t stop until the two fighters and the entire cast and crew were tossed off the location.
Not surprisingly, Matt Helm lasted only thirteen episodes. The final episode to air “Die Once, Die Twice†(January 3, 1976) began with Matt happily leaving on a spy adventure for The Machine. Sadly, the mission was kept secret from us, and instead we got a 70s cheesy lawyer show featuring Kronski.
I certainly recommend the TV Movie. But while I am curious what TV series Matt Helm might have inflicted on the spy genre, after watching four episodes of this series and its attempts at the PI and lawyer genre I rejoice ABC put TV series Matt Helm out of my misery.
SOURCE:
And thanks to the always informative Thrilling Detective website for filling in my gaps of knowledge about the book series by Donald Hamilton.
February 15th, 2015 at 8:27 am
His temper got him kicked off Name of the Game, and I think Search. Tho the latter wasn’t on long enough to notice. Matt Helm novels are brutally good, and didn’t try to tie into Dino, cover wise.
February 15th, 2015 at 9:04 am
I doubt that the producers of the TV series had ever read the books. They probably hired Franciosa because they knew about the movies and therefore knew that Matt Helm must be Italian.
February 15th, 2015 at 9:27 am
Unless you’re joking, Tony’s Italian roots had nothing to do with his casting. Despite everything, he still had a high TVQ, recognizability factor among viewers. If he was’nt available, Helm would’ve been Darrin McGavin or William Shatner.
February 15th, 2015 at 10:07 am
Bill Crider may have been joking, but I think there’s a good chance he’s right. The Dean Martin movies were very successful, as bad as they were in my opinion, and the people producing the TV series went withe what they thought the viewers would expect or be familiar with. Add that to Franciosa’s high TVQ, which I’m sure I’ve seen mentioned before, and there you are.
Questions: I really don’t think either McGavin or Shatner would have been considered, but who knows? Let me address this to everyone. Who at the time would be been your first choice to play the TV version of Matt Helm?
Both Wikipedia and IMDb say that a current Matt Helm project is or has been under consideration, but I don’t know if it has ever gone far enough along for any actor to have his name involved. Of the current group of actors, who might be your first choice?
For the record, here’s what Wikipedia reports:
“As of 2006, a more serious adaptation of the Matt Helm novels was reported to be in the early planning stages, with DreamWorks holding the film rights to all of Donald Hamilton’s books.[6] In 2009, rumors of the Helm project continue, with Steven Spielberg reportedly signed to produce a film and possibly direct.[7] Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are also producing.[8] The project never came to fruition.”
February 15th, 2015 at 10:20 am
Ethnicity not a factor here. Maybe my examples were too out there, but Robert Conrad, Hugh O’Brien, Doug McClure would’ve been likely candidates, all series vets.
February 15th, 2015 at 12:07 pm
I feel bad for Donald Hamilton (RIP). I certainly hope he was well paid for whoring out his character’s name to the travesties being considered here. But the film version of Helm isn’t the only one who chased the changing whims of popular taste. Hamilton himself chose to make the last half-dozen or so Helms “big books” in the style of Ludlum, etc, considerably diminishing the power and appeal the series had generated early on. Perhaps with all the re-booting going on (The Man From Uncle?!?), someone someday soon will make a great, gritty movie about The REAL Matt Helm.
February 15th, 2015 at 12:11 pm
Think the belatedly last Helm novel didn’t even get published here. Showed up on ebook only.
February 15th, 2015 at 2:08 pm
You have to wonder what the point is of buying the rights to a character, and then changing things so much that they bear no relation to the original. The Dean Martin films had done well, but the last one had been made six years before, so it’s not as if they were trying to cash in on a hot property.
The only interesting thing about that TV episode is that it required two writers. The 70s was the time of off-beat detectives (bald/blind/scruffy/cowboy) but this version of Matt Helm is so generic that it feels like some emergency back-up episode kept in reserve by the studio, with the name of the detective kept blank.
February 15th, 2015 at 2:18 pm
Not sure if they bought tv rights to Helm or whether they still had an option on the character. Any character name recognition is a plus.I mean, they made a TV pilot out of Nick Carter. Hadn’t been in circulation in twenty years.
February 15th, 2015 at 2:31 pm
This is a bit oblique, but the discussion of buying the rights reminds me of a remark made by Christopher Lee about Harry Alan Towers buying the rights to Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu stories and then never using any of them. Instead, the producers made up their own stories.
February 15th, 2015 at 2:36 pm
Which is SOP. Prevents anyone else from taking an option on the novels. Something like that sorta happened that allowed rogue James Bond movies CASINO ROYALE ’67, and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN.
February 15th, 2015 at 4:31 pm
The TV series was done by the same producer as the films – Irving Allen and Columbia Pictures. So I suspect Franciosa was hired with Dean Martin in mind
Irving Allen is most famous for telling Ian Fleming that James Bond was not good enough for TV. What made that statement famous was he and Cubby Broccoli co-owned and worked together in a film production company. The two producers went their separate ways over Broccoli insisting on buying the movie rights to Fleming’s Bond.
When he had a chance to prove himself he grabbed the rights to Helm and turned the character into what was popular at the time – Bond parody.
Once the interest in the films and the Bond parody/Eurospy were dead, Columbia and Irving Allen turned Helm into a TV series and the character into what was popular at the time, TV PIs.
The recent attempts to revive Helm reportedly was to churn out another Bourne copy (even Bond has turned into a Bourne copy).
Helm has never been an original character and I suspect Hamilton (like Dashiell Hammett) would only have cared that they signed the check.
Who should play Helm is like asking who should play Bond, it depends on which Bond do you like – the 60s cool of Connery, the self-mocking Moore, the serious Dalton, the Cary Grant like Brosnan, or the Bourne like Craig.
Which Helm do you prefer? The killer in the books, the comedian in the films, or the generic PI from TV? Me, I liked the TV Movie ex-spy PI whose (like Rockford being an ex-con) former occupation meant something to the plots and character.
February 15th, 2015 at 4:49 pm
“Buying the rights” usually means to the character’s name, plus whatever attendant goodwill attaches thereto.
That’s what happened back in the day with Charlie Chan: Earl Derr Biggers only ever wrote six novels about the character, and when they were used up, Fox Film had to start rolling their own.
Same story with any popular fictional character – the whole idea is to come up with as many new stories as possible after the original stockpile is played out … and this includes movies, radio, TV, comics, the whole megillah.
Some time back, I believe I mentioned the deal Sax Rohmer made in the last years of his life with Republic Pictures for the Fu Manchu “rights”; I’ve since read several different versions of just how much money he got (and how fast he blew through it).
Post-Rohmer’s life was when Towers Of London got into the act, which I’d guess is (as Mr. Kipling would say) another story. I understand that Harry Alan Towers came out with a memoir a while back; maybe he explains it all – possibly along with how he wound up with … And Then There Were None from the Agatha Christie Estate. (Guess I gotta order the book and find out …)
These days, the current trend is for the author to swing a deal wherein he gets at least a say in the production (as Kathy Reichs has with Bones, and Max Allan Collins will have with Quarry).
Reading back over this, I suppose I’m just restating the obvious, but it’s been a while since I commented around here, and I may a bit rusty …
February 15th, 2015 at 5:12 pm
In Harry Towers case, he bought up the rights to prevent anyone else from adapting any of the books, not because he intended adapting them himself. And “buying the rights” didn’t prevent “Sean Connery IS Bond” in a rival movie to the Bond franchise.There were, in the thirties, dueling Tarzans.
February 15th, 2015 at 5:52 pm
14. Bill, the James Bond rights have been discussed in more than one book just on the subject. It dates back before the films when Fleming was involved in a possible TV series with Kevin McClory. THUNDERBALL came out of that process. There remains evidence that Fleming’s book THUNDERBALL was based on the TV script. This gave McClory the rights to produce films based off THUNDERBALL, which he did when he remade it as NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Recently, McClory’s estate sold all rights to Broccoli’s heirs.
CASINO ROYALE had a similar problem due to its CBS TV pilot that was an episode of CLIMAX.
Both Sony and McClory fought in the courts for the rights to produce original stories using the Bond character but never succeed in being allowed to do anything with the character beyond the stories each owned (CASINO ROYALE and THUNDERBALL).
I wonder if Columbia Studios (now a part of Sony) still owns the rights to the character (most film and TV rights of book characters need renewed after some time – for example the Marvel characters Fox still owns (Spider-man for example) rather than Disney.
Since Sony co-finances with MGM the modern Bonds I doubt they have an interest in Helm as a movie series, but a TV series is possible. But I really doubt there is much of a demand for the Matt Helm name.
February 15th, 2015 at 6:08 pm
It is all quite confusing and makes one’s head spin.
February 15th, 2015 at 6:46 pm
I don’t see Helm coming back save among those of us who read them in the first place and anyone who likes this series or the movies won’t like the books most likely.
Of course you cast two Italian guys as an agent code named Eric.
My film Helm was an odd choice, Randolph Scott. Not that he would have done it, but Scott is still my choice he or Joel McCrea was who I pictured.
Television is much harder, but I think you could get away with quite a few actors. From that era it would have been difficult to find the right person, but strange as it sounds I think Rock Hudson, who was starting in television then, would have been a good Helm and certainly James Garner. A bit earlier I would have said Richard Egan just because he looked like the original Helm picture on the GM paperbacks a little.
All could play the good man who kills people well.
I thought of what a Helm movie could be watching Brosnan in THE NOVEMBER MAN as Bill Granger’s Peter Devereaux — who is a nice man who kills people. Accent or not Brosnan now would make a decent Helm.
February 15th, 2015 at 7:06 pm
People have underestimated Brosnan’s talent. I remember another assassin he played in MATADOR (05). His Bond might have been better appreciated if it didn’t have to follow Connery’s Bond or his Remington Steele.
His timing was off as well as Bond was suffering through growing pains and facing the new style of spy made popular by Bourne.
If Sean Connery can play a Russian in HUNT FOR OCTOBER, Brosnan could handle Matt Helm (just leave the singing to Dean Martin).
February 16th, 2015 at 12:24 am
Mike, I know the story behind NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Just showing that there are loopholes to “owning all the rights”. McClory took out trade ads announcing yet another version, WARHEAD, with Timothy Dalton, before he sold everything.
February 16th, 2015 at 2:14 am
Bill, I figured you did but it does remain one of the best examples of how confusing who owns what no matter how famous the character is can be.
You probably remember one of the reasons Connery signed up with NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN was he was allowed to help write the screenplay. That was when McClory was going to make an original story. Then the courts changed those plans. I have a copy of the script Connery got credit for helping write.
It is a rewrite of THUNDERBALL.
McClory fought until he died. His heirs resisted but recently gave in and sold the rights to THUNDERBALL to Eon.
February 17th, 2015 at 6:50 pm
I had copies of the screenplays for THUNDERBALL (original, not the filmed screnplay), WARHEAD, and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. They should have stayed with the first one.
December 1st, 2015 at 12:33 pm
Nor should each be cofunsed with Hamilton’s novels. There’s supposedly an unpublished Helm, but last I heard, his son “wasn’t ready to publish it.”And I can’t remember the last time I heard anything about the Helm film. Possibly a good thing considering Hollywood’s track record.