Sun 22 Feb 2015
A TV Series / Edward D. Hoch Mini-Review by Mike Tooney: McMILLAN & WIFE (1971-77).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[18] Comments
McMILLAN & WIFE. NBC, 40 episodes, 1971-77. Regular cast: Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, John Schuck, Nancy Walker.
This TV series, a star vehicle for Rock Hudson, came close to being a fantasy, what with Police Commissioner Hudson personally solving murder cases best left to the homicide detectives. (Quincy had a similar premise.) McMillan & Wife was also too long, an hour and a half to two hours, inevitably leading to a lot of “padding” and “business” that had little or nothing to do with the main plot.
Sometimes the padding was more interesting than the story — which is hardly a recommendation — with Nancy Walker as the McMillan’s housekeeper stealing most scenes. Still, the cast was amiable even if the stories dragged.
So it is something of a pleasant surprise to note that several stories by Edward D. Hoch, master of the impossible crime tale, were adapted for this series. The results, of course, were predictably mixed.
“Cop of the Year.” Season 2, Episode 3. First broadcast: November 19, 1972. Guest cast: Martin E. Brooks, Edmond O’Brien, Lorraine Gary, Kenneth Mars, Charles Nelson Reilly, Michael Ansara, Paul Winchell, John Astin. Teleplay: Paul Mason and Oliver Hailey. Director: Robert Michael Lewis. Based on “The Leopold Locked Room” by Edward D. Hoch, EQMM, October 1971.
In Hoch’s story, it’s Captain Leopold who gets framed for murdering his ex-wife; in the show it’s slightly off kilter Sgt. Enright (Schuck) who’s in a jam. In both cases, the central problem is the same: How could a bullet from the accused’s gun kill the victim without him firing it — and from twenty feet away instead of inches as the forensics data show? While there is some padding, this episode doesn’t waste too much time.
“Freefall to Terror.” Season 3, Episode 3. First broadcast: November 11, 1973. Guest cast: Barbara Feldon, James Olson, Tom Bosley, Dick Haymes, Edward Andrews, Tom Troupe, John Fiedler, Barbara Rhoades. Teleplay: Oliver Hailey. Director: Alf Kjellin. Based on “The Long Way Down” by Edward D. Hoch, AHMM, February 1965.
A business executive crashes through a window in a high rise and hits the ground — over three hours later. If memory serves, both the story and the show have the same solution. Once again we have padding, such as the attempt on the victim’s life just after the opening credits, but it could have been worse.
“The Man Without a Face.” Season 3, Episode 4. First broadcast: January 6, 1974. Guest cast: Dana Wynter, Nehemiah Persoff, Stephen McNally, Donna Douglas, Steve Forrest, Vito Scotti, William Bryant, Ross Hagen, Catlin Adams. Teleplay: Don Mankiewicz and Gordon Cotler. TV story: Paul Mason. Director: Lee H. Katzin. Based on “???????” by Edward D. Hoch.
It’s spy vs. spy, with a “dead” espionage agent bumping off former colleagues. This one gets a few points for a plot twist but then loses them for being rather predictable, overlong, and just plain boring.
And there you have it. On Mystery*File a few years ago it was noted: “As prolific as Edward D. Hoch was — with over 900 short stories to his credit — the movie and TV media have made virtually no use of his output. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) lists just 9 films derived from his works (9/900 = 1 percent). No more eloquent testimony against the obtuseness of Hollywood can be adduced.”
PostScript: I must confess that I have no idea what story the third episode is based on. Could it be “The Spy Who Didn’t Exist,” EQMM, December 1967? Any ideas?
February 22nd, 2015 at 3:45 pm
With any series, especially television, characters are more important than plot in bringing back viewers every week. MCMILLAN & WIFE was not a favorite of mine but I watched the series for Sally McMillan (Susan Saint James) and Sgt Enright (John Schuck) and their “padding†scenes with the Commissioner (Rock Hudson). Sadly, as Susan Saint James role decreased (for off screen reasons) the show increased Schuck and overused the character of Enright.
All MCMILLAN & WIFE episodes can be found on YouTube at the moment.
“Cop of the Yearâ€
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMeCYk7Rod0
“Freefall To Terrorâ€
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR2XTxoKBkU
“Man Without a Faceâ€
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZOZWxL5ezk
February 22nd, 2015 at 4:14 pm
I mostly watched for St. James, Walker got tiresome after a while, Schuck was overused, and Hudson was mostly charming, which he did well. I do remember these episodes though so they must have stood out from the pack. Nick and Nora or Mr. and Mrs. North they weren’t though St. James tried with her Sally for the Nora/Pam vibe.
These 90 minute to 2 hours series were mostly padding. While COLUMBO made good use of the format and sometimes NAME OF THE GAME most episodes of Dennis Weaver’s COOGAN’S BLUFF rip-off were too often a half hour worth of story padded with 90 minutes of Weaver’s home spun shtick annoying me almost as much as his boss J.D. Cannon.
One of the few series that actually used the format well was the short lived MADIGAN which thanks to input from star Richard Widmark tried to do more complex storytelling whether it succeeded or not. Widmark even tried to lure Ross Macdonald, Ross Thomas, and a few others to write for the series.
I will give them they spent more money on these 90 minute series and it showed. They did more location shooting, and if it called for out of the country they actually filmed some if it out of the country, but beyond that COLUMBO was the only series that consistently used the format successfully.
Hoch’s work would have been ideal for some really taut half hour episodes. maybe a revolving series of nothing but his characters. I’m still waiting for SIMON ARK THE MOVIE — which, sad to say, is likely to be a lonnnngggg wait.
February 22nd, 2015 at 4:30 pm
David, while I found the Mystery Movie series watchable, BANACEK remains the only one on my list of favorites. I found COLUMBO watchable only if I did not watch the first act (usually the first half hour) where the focus was on the characters of this week’s murder. Just like Perry Mason, I needed Columbo on the screen for me to be interested.
Since I was a young male at the time, my memories of MACMILLAN AND WIFE center on Susan St. James and her wardrobe.
February 22nd, 2015 at 10:26 pm
I knew I was leaving one out, BANACEK. Agree, that was another one more likely to actually use the extra time for more than padding. Some of the explanations needed that extra 20 minutes or so get it all in.
I was in my late twenties, but watching St. James for pretty much the same thing.
February 23rd, 2015 at 11:30 am
In my area Canton, Ohio MeTv is currently running Macmillan and Wife, McCloud, the Perry Mason movies and Banacek on a rotating weekly bases. This week McCloud is on. I am waiting for more Banacak episodes which are my favorites.
February 23rd, 2015 at 1:57 pm
I can’t remember ever watching McMillan and Wife, but it was on in this area back in the day.
February 23rd, 2015 at 2:46 pm
I just purchased the complete series on DVD about a month ago. I haven’t even opened the set yet, but I’m looking forward to it. I didn’t watch every episode when it was on, but I remember enjoying it when I did, and back then, when you missed one, you had very little hope of ever seeing it again. I don’t know if the series will hold up to what I remember of it. I expect as Mike Tooney says, there will be a lot of filler that I won’t much care for.
February 23rd, 2015 at 6:02 pm
I have always wanted to see the sixty-minute MCCLOUD episodes (it began as part of FOUR IN ONE, a rotating series of hour series including ROD SERLING’S NIGHT GALLERY) and compare it to the NBC MYSTERY MOVIES episodes of 90 minutes to two hours.
February 23rd, 2015 at 8:39 pm
Are all of the McCLOUD shows available on DVD? I seem to remember that they were supposed to be, but that the early episodes (perhaps the ones you’re talking about) have been trimmed back down after being combined into two-episode movies. If that doesn’t make sense, I’ll try to explain better, or maybe I’m remembering wrong altogether.
February 23rd, 2015 at 11:37 pm
Steve, some of the hour long episodes were combined to make movies that have been shown. The Mystery Movie McClouds are on DVD at least I think some of them are. The Four in One original episodes are available overseas but not in America.
February 24th, 2015 at 12:25 am
Thanks, Michael. That’s what I’d read before. I haven’t had a lot of free time today, or I’d have tried to look it up on my own. You’ve saved me the time and trouble. I’ve found that a little McCLOUD goes a long way with me. I was watching an episode on cable late last year, maybe the local ME-TV channel. I enjoyed it, but as long ago as it was, the urge to watch another hasn’t happened yet.
February 24th, 2015 at 7:25 am
The third one, “The Man Without a Face,” was based on Ed’s Leopold story, “the People of the Peacock” (Saint Mystery Magazine December 1965). The story could be found in THE AWARD ESPIONAGE READER (Award, 1965) or THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF SHORT SPY NOVELS (Carroll & Graf 2004).
February 24th, 2015 at 10:01 am
Thank you, Jiro!
February 24th, 2015 at 12:11 pm
Jiro – I also thank you for the information. I have read a lot – but by no means all – of Edward D. Hoch’s stories; “The People of the Peacock” is definitely one I missed. – Mike
February 24th, 2015 at 1:05 pm
Check out the beginning of the story at
https://books.google.com/books?id=blbBBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT200&lpg=PT200&dq=hoch+people+of+the+peacock&source=bl&ots=MugZx6-AX-&sig=f4de5QqqKX8BrQNQO_OrXSp5eSc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6LvsVICfFYKWgwT73YCACQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=hoch%20people%20of%20the%20peacock&f=false
It’s not complete. because of copyright restrictions, I assume, but I was able to skim through a surprising number of pages.
February 24th, 2015 at 3:29 pm
Since this has turned into a discussion of Ed Hoch work, there was always something about his work that struck me aside from the cleverness. While each of his many series was distinct, no one was going to mistake a Ben Snow story for a Rand or a Capt. Leopold for a Dr. Sam Hawthorne and certainly not Simon Ark, all of them were written in Hoch’s distinct style that you could recognize anywhere.
I can recall fairly early on, having read relatively few Hoch stories, running across a stand alone written as Stephen Dentiger (may have that wrong) about an American bomber pilot returned to Dresden having taken part in the fire bombing, and thinking to myself that was Hoch (which I discovered it was later when it was reprinted in a anthology of spy stories taken from THE SAINT MM — THE AWARD ESPIONAGE READER) despite the fact almost nothing in the story pointed to Hoch.
It’s a very simple style, not unlike Michael Gilbert who I find equally recognizable, but as distinct as Chandler or Hammett or any other stylist in the genre.
If I still had my EQMM and SAINT back issues and the Hoch collections I might be tempted to try and break down exactly what made his work so distinct. I recall EQMM did a three part serial once by a mystery author readers were supposed to guess, and I was two paragraphs into it before I said to myself Ed Hoch.
No one considered Hoch as a stylist, and in one sense he wasn’t, but his style never-the-less is hard to miss.
February 24th, 2015 at 3:59 pm
According to Wkipedia, besides those under his own name, Hoch also wrote as Stephen Dentinger, R. L. Stevens, Pat McMahon, Anthony Circus, Irwin Booth, R. E. Porter, Mr. X. For some reason I also was suspicious of Dentinger as well as Stevens, but the others are new to me. Well, not Mr. X. of the puzzle contest. I wasn’t really reading EQMM at the time, but I do remember when the results of the contest were announced.
A list of all of Hoch’s short fiction for the mystery magazines, including the pseudonyms, can be found here:
http://www.philsp.com/homeville/CFI/s393.htm#A9269
You’re right, David, about David’s style, or apparent lack of it. Your last sentence sums it up nicely.
August 18th, 2023 at 1:35 pm
This was just one of the “Wheel” mystery movies of the 70’s that were shown once a month on ABC and NBC. When ABC produced the series, it was an hour and a half long. NBC picked up the option on the series and produced them at two hours long. At the time the movies were filmed there was no cable TV. These shows were paid for solely by advertisers. We had 4 or 5 television stations available on broadcast TV and we were watching big name actors who appeared in these movies for free. once a month, an episode would air, you waited a month for the next episode and you appreciated it. Prior to 1968 all tv was filmed and broadcasted in Black and White, A few years later, most homes still watched tv shows in Black and White….color TV sets were too expensive.
When I read negative reviews, I can’t help but think we are showing McMillan and Wife, Columbo, Banacek, McCloud every week. Perhaps if TV was broadcast in black and white only again, and TV movies were shown now as they were originally (one episode per month) there may be more positive reviews here and less complaints.