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[profh0011]

Just got up to "A Bullet For Benny", one of the more twisted MH episodes (and that's really saying something).  I just barely figured out the twist at the end before-the-fact.  Loved the tribute to "I, The Jury" they did.

"Just one thing.  What's your name?"
"Monica."
"BLAM!!!!!"
"Monica.  That's a nice name."

😆

[The Australian Panther]

Prof, which series are we talking about here? 

[profh0011]

Stacy Keach.  I'm doing one episode a week.  These are all videotapes I recorded off CBS in the 80s.  As I've done with a few things already, the plan is to watch the entire set "one more time" before I spring for DVD upgrades.

As it is, I've actually gotten into the pretty-much regular habit of late of buying ONE DVD or box set EACH week.  This way I do my best to space out the money and the time involved.

Also, most TV series I'm watching or re-watching is ONE episode per week, so I really get to appreciate each one without them all just running into another.




This particular episode had an unusual twist in the middle, where 3 thugs assault Mike and he beats the crap out of them... BEFORE one of them pulls out an FBI badge.  Back at police HQ, one of them is threatening Mike with a long list of charges, and his intention to revoke his PI license, when help comes from a VERY unexpected source.  Barrington walks in, tells Mike to "SHUT UP!" and then spends the next 2 minutes HANDING the Fed his head for not identifying himself in advance, the fact that Hammer gave up the instant he learned who they were, and the way they seemed to just barge their way around the city as if THE LAW meant nothing to them.  After, Pat asks Mike...

"How'd you know he'd stick up for you?"
"Because he loves THE LAW almost as much as he loves ME."

By the end, all 3 Feds are DEAD, Mike's solved the case, saved the life of a government witness, and Barrington tell him they could not have solved the case without him. 

"What I'm trying to say is..........................................................................NEVER mind!"



He just COULDN'T say it!

[profh0011]

Just got up to this today...  (9-24-2022)

THE RETURN OF MICKEY SPILLANE'S MIKE HAMMER  (1986)

You'd think they could have actually given the film a real title, wouldn't you?  (Like, "The California Kidnapping Caper" or something.)

Favorite line:  "You can forget about due process. I'll be happy to play judge and jury RIGHT HERE!"

This was at least the 4th (5th?) time I watched this one, and yet, by the last 15 minutes, I STILL couldn't quite make complete sense of the plot.  It's unfortunate, but the entire Stacy Keach series had this as a recurring problem. Fun to watch, but trying to piece together the logic at times was next to impossible.

[profh0011]

Today I got up to "Dierdre".

When Stacy Keach came back after spending a year in an English jail for drug possession (sheesh), it's amazing CBS brought the show back immediately. Following another stand-alone 2-hour movie, the 3rd season began, and I believe this time, they actually did an entire season worth of episodes (which they hadn't quite done the 2 seasons before).

It was almost like watching a completely-different show! Keach was back, same office, same Velda, same Pat, and even Barrington was back. But all the goofy characters, all the goofiness in general, and all the excessive large-breasted bimbos were suddenly gone. In "BATMAN" terms, it was like they switched from season 2 to season 1-- only more so. I think it was an improvement.

The only "off" bits for me, at least from this opening episode... changing the name to "THE NEW MIKE HAMMER" was just idiotic. And, what on Earth possessed them to have a new arrangement of the theme song? For 2 seasons, it was perfect. Here, they sped up the tempo, making it sound more "fun", just at the point where the show was trying to be more "serious"! Weird.

Unfortunately, my VHS copy isn't the greatest. I'd had CABLE for about 4 or 5 years by this point-- but the signal on this looked worse than an ANTENNA in a thunderstorm. Some A-HOLES in town were cutting into the cable illegally, causing all kinds of problems with the signal. The cable company actually took out a full-page ad in the local papers, offering "amnesty" to anyone who came forward within 30 days. After that, they said, they would PROSECUTE to the furthest limits of the law. I actually got rid of HBO during this period. Why pay even more for a signal that bad?

Ah well. The next time I watch this series (whenever that'll be), I'll be getting the DVDs.

[profh0011]

Today's ep was "Dead Pidgeon". Randi Brooks was featured in what had to be the single HOTTEST scene in the entire Stacy Keach series. And, sure enough, the ending was a flat-out tribute to the finale of "I, THE JURY".

Meanwhile, Fred Freiberger proves once again he didn't deserve his bad rep for what happened on either "STAR TREK" or "SPACE: 1999". He turned in one of the best scripts in the show. It was clear to me that he'd looked at what went on with Mike, Pat & Larry (Barrington) for the previous 2 seasons, and decided to tackle it head-on. Pat finally had it with Barrington's obsessed crap, and called him out on it, while at the same time picking up on Larry's idea that a murdered cop had been working with a crooked "partner".

This reminds me of what I learned many years later, about when Freiberger was brought onto "THE WILD WILD WEST" after only 4 episodes had been shot, and looking at the 3 that came after the pilot, KNEW the show was heading for an early cancellation if he didn't find a way to "fix" it-- AND HE DID.

As much fun as seasons 1 & 2 were, season 3 showed just how good a series could get when the people in charge stop SCREWING around.

I still couldn't make sense of the ending, though! Why are the plots on this thing so hard to follow?

[profh0011]

Some things should not be so difficult to look up.  I was just watching the 3rd season MIKE HAMMER episode "Mistress For The Presecution".  There's a couple of scenes in the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building, where I saw a familiar face. He wasn't listed on the IMDB page for that episode, but I knew he was a REGULAR on NIGHT COURT.  I checked the "full cast & crew" page for NIGHT COURT, and his name did not come up. So then I checked a SPECIFIC episode of NIGHT COURT where I knew he had ONE line of dialogue.  BINGO!

The actor was John Bear Staible.  He played a bailiff in 74 episodes of NIGHT COURT.  And, at least, 1 episode of MIKE HAMMER.  So, in theory, since it's the same actor playing an identical role in the SAME building in 2 different shows, "MISTRESS..." could count as a MIKE HAMMER-NIGHT COURT crossover.   

He was also in at least one of the STAR TREK movies.

[profh0011]

Today: "Harlem Nocturne".

I'm pretty sure it's been 11 years since I watched my MIKE HAMMER collection, but, during that time I must have watched both THE FALCON TAKES OVER and MURDER MY SWEET multiple times (maybe once a year!). Such a blatent SWIPE of the Chandler story, while stream-lining it and turning it into a story involving the music industry.

I sometimes have trouble understanding MH episodes, especially near the ends, BUT, this one the ending was crystal-clear! In fact, as the end credits ran, I thought to myself... "This was BETTER than MURDER MY SWEET!!!" Because I could actually understand how everything tied in, the outburst by the devious former girlfriend was so BLATENT, and she, her ex and her current husband ALL survived past the end of the story. And "Bubba" did turn out to be less brain-dead and more likable than "Moose Malloy".

[The Australian Panther]

Speaking of Night Court - I've been looking for an excuse to post this. Classic!

Night Court - Old Vs. New Star Trek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkJAbzZg8PY

And this character was the first claim to fame of Brent Spiner [Data]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAwQ7RyVJCw
Never get tired of watching these clips.

[profh0011]

Fun stuff.

Vaguely related:  I've been a fan of Markie Post ever since early 1981, when she played a character who was, frankly NOT VERY NICE on the short-lived series THE GANGSTER CHRONICLES.  I've liked her in virtually everything I've seen her in...... except..... ironically...... NIGHT COURT.  Go figure.  To me, Christine was just too "uptight" all the time.  I really enjoyed many of the episodes she was in, but not usually because of her.

On the other hand... only recently (a few years ago), I got my hands on the complete series of BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY.  And she's in a season 1 story..... which became my favorite thing of hers she's ever done.  GO FIGURE!!!   

[profh0011]

MIKE HAMMER:  COME DIE WITH ME
FUN!!! -- but NOT "Mike Hammer"     (7 of 10)

Miami P. I. "Mike Hammer" (oh really?) who based his career on the Frank Sinatra movie TONY ROME, takes on a missing person case which leads to car-chases, assault & battery, romance, lies, deceit, a murder frame-up job, and trouble with the FBI.

This is actually a really fun film. It's just NOT "Mike Hammer". (Though, I have to admit, it's MORE "Mike Hammer" than, say, that Val Kilmer movie was ever "The Saint". Read my new IMBD review of that to see what I mean.)

I used to watch SILK STALKINGS, so I already liked Rob Estes, and this was before Pamela Anderson had too much plastic surgery. I COULD NOT believe where they slipped Kent Williams in, playing an entirely-different character!!! And I realized after it was over that the Spanish car mechanic was inspired by the guy in KISS ME DEADLY.

Darlanne Fluegel was interesting, and I got such a huge laugh when she punched Mike out in mid-story. I keep forgetting she was in BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS. What I remember was that disastrous 7th season of HUNTER. She-- WASN'T-- the problem. That show started to go to HELL a year before she got there. Put another way, her having "creative differences" with Fred Dryer and deciding to QUIT had a precedent. The previous season, Stepfanie Kramer was the ONLY thing just barely holding that show together, as Dryer seemed hell-bent on running it into the ground with his ideas of "creative control". When she left-- the show went RIGHT OFF A CLIFF. I stopped watching ONE WEEK before the network pulled the plug!!! When it happened, I said, "Ahh-- so it WASN'T JUST ME."

My favorite part had to be when the Feds are after Mike for something he didn't do, and his 3 best friends are all giving him hell for not being as clever as he seems to think he is.

Considering that 3 of the baddies in this turn out to be a Catholic Priest and 2 crooked cops... the script for this seems ahead of its time. I almost wonder how this ever got broadcast on a major network? I also wonder why writer John Lau has such a short IMDB resume? And yeah-- how come this didn't become a series? (Did Mickey Spillane object?) Maybe this would have gone over better as a reboot of TONY ROME!

[profh0011]

Just arrived in the mail today:

I, THE JURY  (1953)

Classic Flix, as it turns out, it the same outfit that this past summer also put out 21 BEACON STREET, a summer-replacement show from 1959 that has NOT been seen at all since it was rerun in 1960! The creators of that show sued MISSION: iMPOSSIBLE for plagiarism.  As I'm planning to go after MI's 1st season soon, I thought I'd watch this first.  What amazing timing to find out it had just come out a few months back.

As for I, THE JURY, I owe it to Max Allan Collins for cluing me in that it was FINALLY getting an official release on disc for the first time ever.  I just hadn't noticed it came out a year back.  (Too many other things on my buying agenda, I guess.)  But in my "chronological" movie mega-marathon, I've reached the early 50s, so getting this now was pretty close to perfect timing.

Do I get this right?  The 2D and 3D are both Blu-Ray... but the "4K" version is a DVD?  Or did they forget to mark it right?

This isn't really wide widescreen, but even so, it's nice to see the full opening credits without having one side of them cut off as they were on the earlier DVD-R I got.  This is one of the very few movies I've "upgraded" TWICE now! My original copy was taped off a commercial station at 2 in the morning... and the idiots started it EARLY, so my tape was missing the first 5 minutes!  ?

Victor Saville did a great job on this.  But I still feel he should have been B****-slapped for not getting the same people to do ALL 3 films.  (I know a lot of people love it, but my feeling is, exactly who in the living hell did Robert Aldrich think he was, anyway?  ? )  What can I say? My TOP 2 favorite Hammers are the Biff Elliot version-- and the Darren McGavin version.

Stacy Keach comes in 3rd.  ?  Yeah, that blows MY mind, too.

[profh0011]

You probably picked up this decades before I did... but, did anyone ever notice... the "psychiatrist" angle is a reference to "Farewell My Lovely" (they even mention "Swami", which appeared in 1 of the film versions). Also, the climax, where the girl, who turns out to be the murderer, CAN'T BELIEVE the hero isn't going to just let her go? "The Maltese Falcon". "You're taking the fall." "Good bye, baby."

That creep kicking Hammer while he's in the chair, however, seems like it might have influenced Ian Fleming when he wrote "Casino Royale" a few years later! I love noticing stuff like this.

I must have seen this film more than a dozen times now-- and I STILL find it almost impossible to follow. "The Big Sleep" is CRYSTAL-CLEAR by comparison! So it's a good thing I know the plot by now, otherwise, I'd still be lost. The "queen bee doesn't need a king" bit and the "secret entrance to the speakeasy" where people can come and go without being seen are clever foreshadowing.

Margaret Sheridan is my FAVORITE Velda. (Tanya Roberts is my 2nd.)

[profh0011]

Tonight's movie:
KISS ME DEADLY (1955)

I still have a copy I made of the MGM Home Video rental. I was reminded of how, the first time I saw Ralph Meeker in this, I thought, he could have made a GREAT Mike Hammer.  But with this sick script, he didn't have a chance.  Truthfully, there's almost no likable characters in this at all (except maybe Nick). And the only way you can tell the baddies from everyone else, is they're TEN TIMES worse.

Great movie. Wish they'd changed the character names.  As it gets closer to the end, it genuinely looks and feels like an episode of THE OUTER LIMITS.  Meeker was in one of those... but he was far-more likable there!

The videotape came with both the alternate ending (where it looks like Mike & Velda got killed) and the trailer.  Funny thing-- the trailer actually shows Mike & Velda ALIVE at the end! If I heard this right, that clip was not in the film when it hit theatres.

Another funny thing I never noticed:  Albert Dekker mentioned "Lot's wife".  Lot's wife was IN my favorite Robert Aldrich film:  SODAM AND GOMORRAH!  I read he hated that film.  Me, I loved it.  Go figure.

I'm still freaking out that they went through 8 different actors playing Mike Hammer just from 1953-60.