Tue 9 Jun 2015
A TV Series Review by Michael Shonk: THE INVESTIGATORS (1961).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[14] Comments
THE INVESTIGATORS. CBS/Revue Production/MCA Studios, 1961. Cast: James Franciscus as Russ Andrews, James Philbrook as Steve Banks, Mary Murphy as Maggie Peters, Al Austin as Bill Davis, Asher Dann as Danny Clayton, and June Kenny as Polly. Guest Cast “The Oracle” (12 October 1961): Lee Marvin, John Williams, Audrey Dalton.
Today the CBS TV series The Investigators has been forgotten except for fans seeking the lost work of director Joseph H. Lewis (Gun Crazy). I have been able to find only one surviving episode of the series and tragically most of the credits for the episode “The Oracle†are missing (including the writer and director credits). Like many of the forgotten TV series of the past, information about The Investigators is incomplete and misinformed.
The Investigators told the story of a major investigation firm that worked for various insurance companies around the country (or maybe the world). Investigators, Inc. was run by Russ Andrews and Steve Banks and located in New York. Among the staff of investigators were Maggie Peters, Bill Davis and Danny Clayton. The firm also employed a receptionist named Polly Walters.
Current information about the series is wrong (oh so so very wrong) when it comes to the character of Maggie Peters. She was not a secretary or some Girl Friday occasionally helping the men with the cases. She was a full time licensed PI and equal to Bill and Danny. She was referred to as “one of our investigators†and treated as an equal to Bill and Danny.
Fiction female detectives have existed for nearly as long as their male counterparts, but there has been a notable shortage of woman as licensed PI on TV. I have looked at television’s female PIs before. Until an earlier example is uncovered — The Investigators (October 1961) — Maggie Peters is TV’s first license PI predating Honey West (1965).
Considering Mary Murphy’s resume (The Wild One, The Desperate Hours), especially compared to male stars James Franciscus (Naked City) and James Philbrook (The Islanders) at the time, it should not surprise that Murphy received equal billing. While the episode I have of the series is missing most of its credits, it does have its opening theme and credits for the series stars. First is James Franciscus name and side profile of the actor’s face, then James Philbrook, then Mary Murphy and finally the title The Investigators.
The fall of 1961 was not the time to be a crime drama. The FCC, after radio’s payola and TV game show scandals, was getting more and more involved in local stations renewals and networks programming. Network executives and TV studio producers were spending more and more time in front of Congressional hearings defending its programs such as ABC’s The Untouchables and NBC’s Whispering Smith.
In the summer of 1961 the possibility of government getting involved in the programming of the public airways had become a real threat to the networks. As the studios worried about the bottom line and the networks covered its butt, it would be the action and crime dramas of the 1961-62 Season that paid the price.
“The Oracle†was The Investigators’ second episode and aired October 12, 1961. In the episode the staff was divided up for two cases. Steve and Bill remained behind to deal with another case while the episode focused on the case worked by Russ, Maggie and Danny. Russ leads the team to Los Angeles to check out Nostradamus, a West Coast prophet who is very successful convincing rich women to donate to his cause. An insurance company hires Investigator, Inc. to check out Nostradamus before one of their clients gives him a quarter of a million dollars.
Miscast Lee Marvin (M Squad) played Walter Mimms, a small time drifter who all women fall in love with at first sight. In a nice twist, older conman Joseph Lombard (John Williams, Dial M for Murder) cons and manipulates Walter turning him into a front for a big time con. But Walter’s power over women was also his weakness as he fell for the women as they fell for him. Walter was convinced he was in love with the latest mark, Constance Moreno (Audrey Dalton), the woman our detectives were hired to protect.
Constance loves Nostradamus but after a visit from Russ and Maggie, she tests his love and because of Lombard’s orders to Walter he fails her test and she leaves him taking her first check with her. Lombard then kills Constance for the check (and the trouble she is causing with Walter) telling Nostradamus she committed suicide over him. As Nostradamus grows more and more unstable, Maggie, backed up by Russ and Danny, goes undercover.
While James Franciscus and James Philbrook turned in their usual professional but nothing special performances, Mary Murphy was excellent as female PI Maggie Peters. The character of Peters reminded me of Della Street (Barbara Hale in Perry Mason) or Casey Jones (Beverly Garland in Decoy), women who are respected professionally by men while remaining feminine.
The script showed signs of great potential with the nice twist of the con man being conned, the depth of the character Walter Mimms, and the interactions between Walter and Lombard. But the script had problems most likely caused by the anti-violence times and the limitations of 1961 television.
In “The Oracle†when Constance is murdered we hear her scream off camera but don’t learn what happened until the next scene when we are told she died in a “fall†out of her apartment window. Not seeing her death diluted the dramatic shock the scene needed.
While much of the action took place off stage, too much of the exposition did as well. Instead of showing people following Nostradamus next mark, the undercover Maggie, and how Nostradamus got his information to impress the mark at the séance, Maggie told Danny (and us) about it.
Virtually all the information about The Investigators claims Joseph H. Lewis directed the series, so lets credit him for “The Oracle.†This episode benefited from Lewis creative use of the camera especially with forced perspective, a technique used by such director as Sidney Furie in The Ipcress File and Jerry Thorpe in Harry O.
Most directors use a standard master shot to establish a foundation for the scene then cut to other angles to enhance the dialogue or action. The master shot is like looking at a theatrical stage from the audience. Now picture the left and right side move closer to each other and the characters and setting uses the space up and down (closer and farther from you) instead of left and right. The look can reduce the stagey look of the typical master shot by giving a feeling of more depth to the 2-D picture. Lewis liked to stay in the shot and let the characters interact and move around the set before isolating the characters with camera angles such as a close-up.
In the scene where Lombard and his thugs kill Constance, there was a wide shot with Constance and Lombard near each other, behind Constance silently stood the two thugs. It was that framing of the four characters in forced perspective that gave the scene depth and its needed tension as the audience began to sense Constance was in danger despite what Lombard was telling her.
Lewis’s creative camera work never distracted from the story instead he made the episode something CBS refused to let the writer do, he made the story visually interesting. Fans of his work are justified mourning the loss of this otherwise average TV series.
The series aired from October 5, 1961 through December 28, 1961. The thirteen episodes were 60 minutes long and filmed in black and white. It aired Thursday at 9pm opposite My Three Sons and Margie on ABC and the last half hour of Dr. Kildare and Hazel on NBC. Once cancelled The Investigators would be replaced with Tell It to Groucho at 9:00 – 9:30pm and Mrs. G Goes to College (aka The Gertrude Berg Show) at 9:30-10PM.
The Investigators is worth remembering for the work of director Joseph H. Lewis and giving TV its first female licensed PI Maggie Peters. However it, as many other action and crime dramas during the 1961-62 Season, was doomed by the changing times.
Episode List:
“Murder on Order” (October 5, 1961)
“The Oracle” (October 12, 1961)
“New Sound for the Blues” (October 19, 1961)
“I Thee Kill” (October 26, 1961)
“Quite a Woman” (November 2, 1961)
“Style of Living” (November 9, 1961)
“In a Mirror, Darkly” (November 16, 1961)
“De Luca” (November 23, 1961)
“Death Leaves a Tip” (November 30, 1961)
“Panic Wagon” (December 7, 1961)
“The Mind’s Own Fire” (December 14, 1961)
“Something for Charity” (December 21, 1961)
“Dead End Man, The” (December 28, 1961)
June 9th, 2015 at 8:25 pm
According to an article in “Broadcasting†(August 28, 1961) one of the episodes of WHISPERING SMITH upsetting Congress was this episode, “The Grudgeâ€
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CQ1EwO9NxE
There were several scenes in this episode the Congressmen at a Congressional hearing objected to, but especially the scene where Ma whips her son (Robert Redford).
This had NBC really on the run. Disney was told to watch the gory details in its real life adventure stories.
NBC didn’t air an episode of THE LAWLESS YEARS because they found the episode unsuitable for broadcast. The series was produced by CNP (California National Production), a company owned by NBC. The decision cost the network $50,000 (1961).
June 9th, 2015 at 8:56 pm
Thank you very much for finding this and writing about it.
I think that Francis M. Nevins believes it is likely that Lewis only directed the pilot of this series. Who knows which episode is the pilot?
By contrast, the IMDB credits Lewis as directing ALL the episodes.
Since Lewis had a serious heart condition and had to pace himself in the 1960’s, this sounds dubious!
If Lewis did direct The Oracle, it would be a “culturally significant work”.
In any case, I’d love to see it, and add an analysis to my long web-book on Lewis:
http://mikegrost.com/lewis.htm
June 9th, 2015 at 9:39 pm
Franciscus must have felt like deja vu all over again when he was blind insurance investigator Longstreet.
June 9th, 2015 at 10:11 pm
2. Either I or Steve will be helping you soon.
3. Yep, David, this came before LONGSTREET (1971) and MR NOVAK (1963). At the time he was best known from his role in NAKED CITY as Det. Jimmy Halloran (1958-59).
Here he was one of the bosses on this series while in LONGSTREET he had a boss Duke Paige (Peter Mark Richman). He played both parts similarly with an emotional side.
June 9th, 2015 at 10:34 pm
Back to Mike at 2.
I was focused on the last part of your comment and missed the first part.
Other places had Lewis doing all but then everyone got the character of Maggie wrong and no mention of cast member Asher Dann who played Danny. But I decided to credit Lewis since the camera work was so effective.
Yet I have seen the forced perspective used before by such TV directors as Ziv regular Eddie Davis in TV series BROTHERS BRANNIGAN. But not to the advantage it and other angles were used here.
I watched this thing three times which is very unusual for me. Usually, I watch it once then review and go back to check occasional scenes. But the first two times I hated the direction, it seemed lazy as if the camera never left the master shot. In modern day TV it is rare to see characters feet. I saw enough feet in this episode I wondered if a shoe salesman directed it. The third time I focused just on the camera work and noticed a subtle touch that was helping tell the story despite the limits the show faced. It lead me to give Lewis the credit despite serious doubts.
June 9th, 2015 at 11:15 pm
Mike Grost and anyone else who want to own this episode of THE INVESTIGATORS you can find it for sale at:
http://www.robertsvideos.com
You can search for Investigators, The or click on the I and try page 28 (though page # may varied with your computer).
This is also the place I found the TV episode of PETE KELLY’S BLUES. So look around you might find something you have been looking for.
June 10th, 2015 at 4:35 am
Michael,
Thank you very much!
I’ll be ordering this right away.
June 11th, 2015 at 8:03 pm
Fascinating. I’ve bookmarked Robert’s Hard to Find Videos.
First of all, I know Lee Marvin is considered a movie star, but I’ve always thought of him as a really great character actor. Him as a ladies’ man stretches credulity. Still very interesting.
Also, I’ve never heard of Whispering Smith, but I remember seeing The Untouchables when it was originally broadcast. Of course, I was a small child and couldn’t understand it. Later, in the 70s, a local affiliate ran episodes of The Untouchables and I was astonished at the acting, writing and camerawork. In spite of the kinda corny VOs by Walter Winchell, It seem to boast pretty damn good production values-like TV Noir, really.
My question is, why did the network execs go to bat for The Untouchables, which dealt with seedy subject matter (for the time) and featured pretty graphic violence and leave The investigators in the lurch?
Sexism maybe?
June 11th, 2015 at 10:20 pm
8. Hey, Cole, nice you dropped by. The real difference was networks and that THE UNTOUCHABLES was a returning series and one of the most popular on the air.
CBS had not had as much trouble with Congress and the FCC that ABC and NBC were having. THE INVESTIGATORS never got a chance to find a loyal audience like THE UNTOUCHABLES had, it was easier for CBS to dump a new show few even knew was on and put in comedies.
The article in “Broadcasting” magazine (8/28/61) the networks had picked up their 1961-62 schedule earlier than usual and were caught off guard when FCC chairman Newton N. Minow made the famous TV is a “vast wasteland” speech on May 9, 1961.
Suddenly the anti-sex and violence on TV grew in popularity. Congress went committee happy. Audie Murphy who starred in WHISPERING SMITH found himself defending his show to Congress in various committees. With little support from the networks or Hollywood, Murphy got bored and the show vanished.
CBS had bought the series when crime dramas were acceptable but now it was a problem. It and NBC were all ready planning the next season, one they promised would be non-violent. No surprise that at first chance the doomed crime show was dumped for two comedies.
June 11th, 2015 at 10:37 pm
Oh, and Cole (#8) there was no sexist treatment of Maggie on the air. TV generally showed respect to the working woman such as Maggie and Della Street. It wasn’t until the 70s when CHARLIE’S ANGELS would lead to 90s PRIME SUSPECT.
The real sexism is with today’s databases such as IMdb that puts supporting actor Bill Davis over her and calls her a “Gal Friday in the office.” I don’t blame the IMdbs of the world. Without actually seeing the show you rely on old media coverage, but it is sad Mary Murphy’s performance and character has been forgotten.
July 7th, 2015 at 12:54 pm
I think it’s most unlikely Joe Lewis directed any more of The Investigators after the pilot.. Having suffered a near-fatal heart attack, he was careful to limit his workload to one week a month, mainly on The Rifleman, occasionally on other Four Star series like The Detectives. The rest of his time he spent on his boat. But wouldn’t it be nice if we had The Investigators handy so we could know for sure exactly what Joe contributed?
July 7th, 2015 at 5:38 pm
11. Mike Nevins, I know I wish the copy available (see comment 6 about where you can buy an episode) had its credits.
October 16th, 2021 at 11:54 pm
Michael, in comment #4 you say of James Franciscus:
“Here he was one of the bosses on this series while in LONGSTREET he had a boss Duke Paige (Peter Mark Richman).”
While it’s true that Duke had been Mike Longstreet’s boss, by the end of the pilot, Mike had his own agency — though he and Duke often worked together on tough cases.
Thanks for this review of The Investigators, and especially for the information that “The Oracle” may, alas, be all that’s left of the show. So I may as well be content to get a copy of that!
January 2nd, 2022 at 11:58 pm
Lee Marvin was certainly a movie star, and that means bankable, and he was a leading man, attractive to the ladies if not classically handsome.