We Love Detectives Blogathon: Starsky & Hutch - Favorite Episodes

Starsky and Hutch ran for four seasons from 1975-1979.  I was introduced to the show and fell instantly in love sometime in the mid-90s. I had almost all the episodes taped on VHS and re-watched them a lot.  Paul Michael Glaser as David Starsky and David Soul as Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson just have that perfect chemistry that makes their partnership as police detectives sparkle. Watching them banter, look out for each other, argue, insult each other's cars, care for each other, pull pranks on Captain Dobey, work with the always cool and smooth Huggy Bear, and outsmart the bad guys just never gets old.  

Hutch is still my favorite of the two, but it's impossible not to adore Starsky too.  They're true partners, and if you remove one, it would wreck what makes the show so great.

Some episodes are definitely showing their age (beyond the 70's clothes, scenery, and music) with how some subject matter is handled, but the majority of them hold up quite well.  And for me, the location filming of late 70's Los Angeles and surrounds is pure comfort food for me.  That's when I was a kid growing up there, so seeing places I used to drive by, seeing the particular look of the buildings, cars, homes, etc. as I remember them from growing up, supplies all the nostalgia and warms my heart.  Those were good times.

I recently re-watched the entire series, and as I did, I confirmed my favorite episodes.  Interestingly, all of these are my favorites from when I originally watched the show.  The order of ranking may have changed, but the episodes that first made an impression are me are still the ones to which I gravitate.

So, without further ado:

10. "Satan's Witches"

Starsky and Hutch head up to the mountains for a vacation, only to find the locals in a downright unfriendly mood.  This turns out to be because there's a nasty cult who has taken up residence in the woods and they're holding the local sheriff's daughter hostage.

So, this episode makes the list because of the first half.  The second half is... okay, and obviously necessary to deal with the actual plot stuff, but the first half is pure gold.  It's focus is the vacationing detectives.  You see, Hutch is comfortable in the outdoors and can't wait for this vacation; Starsky's a city boy out of his element and freaking out over literally everything... their dialogue and antics are an absolute riot.  If the entire episode had been nothing but this, it'd be my number one favorite.

9. "Fatal Charm"

AKA Starsky and Hutch meets Fatal Attraction.  Hutch has a one-night stand with a nurse, but things go south in a big hurry when she becomes ultra-obsessed with him... to the point of her trying to murder him when he rejects her. 

As if Psycho wasn't enough to discourage anyone from taking a shower... this episode adds to that.  Still, if you're going to have a dangerous stalker episode, this one is well-done, and the ending is tense. 

8. "The Fix"

Hutch's current girlfriend "belongs" to a mobster, and when he wants her back, he kidnaps Hutch.  When beating Hutch up fails to get him to talk, the bad guy (Robert Loggia) strings him out on heroin to get him to spill where she is hiding.  Starsky has to find and then get his partner off the drugs, while also catching the bad guys.  

Rough stuff, really, but watching Starsky and Huggy Bear help Hutch is always satisfying, 

7. "A Body Worth Guarding"

Starsky and Hutch are assigned bodyguard duty for a Russian ballerina targeted for assassination.  Hutch falls for her.

Okay, I admit.  I mostly love this episode for Hutch's singing, though the rest isn't bad.  When Hutch and Anna start to discover they have more in common than they think, and they arm wrestle is quite amusing too.  As is her calling Starsky "Starevsky."  Hutch's song used to be on youtube, but alas, that's long gone.  Now, I can only find the whole episode, though if this let me share it correctly, this video should cue up to his song.

6. "Shootout"

Starsky and Hutch head to a restaurant to grab dinner, only to find themselves in the middle of a hit on a mob boss.

Starsky gets shot!  Hutch has to out think the bad guys while in the middle of being held hostage.   Well done, tense, but with time to get to know a little bit about the other hostages.  Love it! Albert Paulsen is one of the hitmen, and I always enjoy seeing actors from Combat! pop up in this show.

5. "Survival"

To prevent Hutch from testifying, the bad guy has him run off the road in the hills, leaving Starsky to find his partner before the car crash or the bad guys do him in. 

I have a thing for people trapped with time running out.  Throw in a WWII veteran who thinks the war is still going on and a smart kid who's a ham radio operator, the bad guy realizing he failed to kill Hutch in the crash and heading out to finish the job, and there's an awful lot going on in the episode.  I'm always amused when Michael Jackson (the talk show host, not the pop singer) is playing on Hutch's car radio.  His voice is so familiar from the past when my dad used to listen to him.

4. "The Psychic"

When a girl is kidnapped and held for ransom, and the traditional police methods end up failing, Starsky and Hutch convince a psychic to help them.

I love this one most for the "mad dash" scene, where Hutch has to sprint from payphone to payphone downtown at the whim of a psychotic kidnapper, but it's a solid episode.  The bad guys play for keeps, and the last half with time running out for the kidnapped girl is very tense.

3. "Gillian"

Hutch falls for Gillian, not knowing she's really working as a prostitute.  When she attempts to leave that life to start a new one with Hutch, the gangsters she works for refuse to let that happen.

Mike Kellin (another Combat! alum) and Sylvia Sidney (!) as his mother (!) are the bad guys in this, and I love that.  Doodles Weaver also has a small part, and it's a delight to see someone whose voice I grew up with (from all those Spike Jones records).  This is no spoiler, because everyone knows love stories on old episodic televisions series never end with a happily ever after.  It's just a given.  You couldn't tie your main character down back then.  This show is no exception, but it handles it really really well, and the fact that it's a relationship I really want to work out just makes the episode even better.  Starsky trying to protect Hutch is always a bonus.

2. "Vendetta"

Starsky and Hutch investigate some brutal beatings and murders, which leads to the bad guy responsible targeting Hutch and everything he loves.

Oh, how I love this episode.  A quite dark one, with twisted characters and unexpected violent moments.  The main bad guy, Arty Solkin (played by Stefan Gierasch), is an unlikely adversary on the surface, so full of weird quirks.  He's half-pathetic, half-threatening.  The actor does an absolutely fabulous job of bringing him to life and making Solkin feel real and original, more so than many characters throughout the show.  The unexpected moments shocked the heck out of me when I first saw this episode, one in particular.  

1. "Tap Dancing Her Way Right Back into Your Hearts"

Starsky and Hutch go undercover at a dance studio to stop a blackmail ring.

Perhaps an unlikely choice for number one, but it's the one I've watched more than any other.   I adore this episode.  I even used to have it on audio tape (taped off the video, LOL) and I used to listen to it in my car while driving.  I never did that with any other episodes from this show.  

It's got a lot of humor, which always appeals to me.  Starsky and Hutch undercover as a Latin dance instructor (Starsky) and a wealthy rancher taking dance lessons (Hutch) never ceases to amuse me.  The dialogue, the part when they foil a robbery at a grocery store while dressed in their undercover outfits, "no one can dip like Ramone," Hutch is ridiculously attractive in his Texas cattle rancher outfit, particularly the morning after, ahem.  Where "Vendetta" is super tense, this one is lighter and full of delightful silliness.  This episode simply makes me happy all the way around.

Other eps super close to making the top ten... "A Coffin for Starsky," "Murder at Sea," "Bloodbath," "The Game.," "Murder Ward," and "Deckwatch," 

This has been my entry to Hamlette's We Love Detectives Week blogathon! 

And now, we'll end on a video with funny clips from the show involving food.  Lots of the show's humor on display here... :-D

 

We Love Detectives Blogathon: Tag Answers

It's time for  Hamlette's "We Love Detective Week" over at Hamlette's Soliloquy.  We're kicking off the posts with some answers to her tag questions.

 

What's your favorite mystery with...

 1. ...a historical setting?
Enola Holmes (2020).  Enola Holmes surprised me by being super fun but also having heart.  I didn't expect to like Enola herself so much, but she is awesome, and I'd watch a sequel in a heartbeat.  Her story involves running away from home and her famous brothers to locate her missing mother in London.  Along the way, she solves the mystery of who is trying to kill a young nobleman.  If they ever decide to release this one on blu-ray instead of just leaving it on Netflix, I'd snap it up.  The costumes and scenery are lovely.

2. ...a modern setting?
Black Rain (1989) - Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia play NY detectives tasked with escorting a prisoner they caught back to Japan, only to lose him before they even exit the plane.  They team up with Japanese detective Ken Takakura to track down the prisoner and figure out what's going really going on.  Ridley Scott directs and it is a well-done, action-packed movie that mixes the mystery with the culture clash of America/Japan police procedures.

3. ...a lone detective?
Murder, My Sweet (1944) - this was kind of a hard one, as almost all the movies I could think of have more than one detective, or partners, or a detective backed up by the police or his department, etc.  Finding one with just one was harder than I expected.  So, going with this one, which I love.  Dick Powell is the lone detective in over his head. 

4. ...a pair of sleuths?
The Nice Guys (2016) - Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling investigate a murder which leads into a conspiracy/cover up.  This film is written and directed by Shane Black, so that means it's full of witty dialogue, moments of unexpected violence, plot twists, and that it definitely earns its R rating.  Like Black's Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (which would be my second choice for this question), it is also highly amusing and makes me laugh a lot, but then, I'm also a fan of Shane Black's writing.

5. ...a professional/police detective?
L.A. Confidential (1997) - There are so many films that could have fit this category, but I'm going with one of my favorites.  This movie is so well done.  Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey knock it out of the park.  I have a thing for stories where characters come at the same problem from different directions, which is what happens here.  And when enemies ultimately join forces to take down the bad guys... I find that super satisfying.  Throw in a Jerry Goldsmith score and I'm in.

6. ...an amateur detective?
Five Card Stud (1968) - A Western mystery, with Dean Martin turning detective to uncover who is murdering the participants of a poker game that turned fatal.  I quite enjoy this movie.  The cast is great - Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Yaphet Kotto, Roddy McDowell - and it is neat to have a murder mystery unfold in a Western setting.

7. ...a young sleuth?
The Adventures of TinTin (2011) - Tin-Tin is technically a journalist, but, as the entire movie is about solving a mystery and he does a better job at detective work than most, it's my answer for this question.  After Tin-Tin purchases a model of a ship called the Unicorn, he gets more than he bargained for, and he rapidly finds his life threatened as he begins digging into the mystery of the the ship's history and everything that goes with it.  Fast-paced, witty, and super-fun.  It may be computer-animated, but the visuals are first-rate, as are the cast of Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, and Daniel Craig. 

8. ...an aging detective?
Falling Down (1993) - Robert Duvall is the aging police sergeant about to retire who investigates a series of crimes, tying them all together and tracking down Michael Douglas's rampaging character.  Robert Duvall never turns in a bad performance, and he's perfect here.  I love his scenes with his wife, and how he perseveres and figures out what's going on.  Michal Douglas is fun as the unlikely antagonist who takes the frustration of a Los Angeles traffic jam and turns it into a full-on rampage against the system, thinking he's the the good guy for righting the clear wrongs he sees around him.

9. ...a cozy feel?
I'm not sure what this one means, so I'm going with a movie that makes me feel cozy.  And that is Topper Returns (1941).  Rolland Young reprises his role as Topper, but this time Joan Blondell is the ghost trying to solve the mystery of her own murder and save her friend in a rather creepy mansion.  Topper with Cary Grant and Constance Bennett may be more famous, but Topper Returns was my family's favorite.  We used to watch this movie over and over when I was young.  I haven't seen it in years now, but we still quote it.  "May I suggest, sir, that you break the glass?"

10. ...a shocking reveal?
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) - A favorite very dark noir film of mine, and I absolutely love the reveal of what Ralph Meeker's detective character has been pursuing without knowing it the entire time.  And that ending!!  *cackles in glee* - so much unexpected stuff, so freaky, so cool, so unexpected the first time you see the movie.  Love it, in fact I'm way overdue for a re-watch of this one.

So, there you have it.  Pop over to Hamlette's page to find links to the other entries in this blogathon.  I'll be posting an entry about my favorite police detectives later this week.

We Love Pirates Week Party -- Blog Tag!

 Hamlette is hosting the We Love Pirates Week.  Check out the link for lots of fun stuff, including a giveaway, some quizzes, and lots of other reviews, etc.

 

Here are my answers to her tag questions:

 

1.  What are your favorite pirate movies or books?

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

The Adventures of Tin-Tin (2011)

Cutthroat Island (1995)

The Black Swan (1942)

Captain Blood (1935) 

 

2.  Who are your favorite fictional pirates?

 

1. Red Rackham (Daniel Craig, The Adventures of Tin-Tin, 2011)

2. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, 2003)

3. Morgan Adams (Geena Davis, Cutthroat Island, 1995)

4. Jamie Boy (Tyrone Power, The Black Swan, 1942)

 

3.  What do you like best about pirate stories? (Themes, costumes, aesthetic, etc.)

 

Sword fights!  The Ships! The costumes!  Sword fights!  Floggings!  Walking the plank!  Treasure and maps to said treasure.  Did I mention sword fights?

 

 4.  If you were going to play a pirate on the stage or screen, what would your costume look like?

 

Any of Morgan Adam's outfits.  I love her costumes and I covet those boots.

 

5.  What pirate ship would you like to serve on?

 

The Morning Star, Morgan Adam's ship in Cutthroat Island.

 

6.  Any favorite sea shanties or pirate songs?

 

Many!   I particularly love "A Rovin'" and "Early in the Morning," which is the Drunken Sailor song.  Also, of course, Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirate's Life for me!

 

7.  Have you ever participated in International Talk Like a Pirate Day?

 

Passingly, with a quick arrrr if somebody reminds me of what day it is.

 

8.  Would you like to go sailing on a real tall ship?

 

Only if I was shanghaied.  And I would jump ship in Tahiti or somewhere in the South Pacific first chance I got.  Submarines are my thing.  Not overly fond of being on top of the waves.

 

9.  Have you ever learned anything about real pirates, or do you tend to stick to the fictional kind?

 

Yes.  I'll stick with the fictional ones, thank you.

 

10.  Why is the rum gone?

Silver drank it all.

 

My Favorite Star Wars ships (space ships, that is)

I love ships.  Physical ships, that is.  I don't "ship" characters.  Either a relationship happens in a movie/show/book or it doesn't.  I don't EVER wish two characters who don't get together would get together.  But a physical seagoing or aircraft or space-traveling craft can be a thing of sheer beauty, and I love them immensely.  The Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was probably the first ship I fell in love with.  Followed by Seaview (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea).  Followed by the Romulan Bird of Prey and the original Klingon ship design from Star Trek.

Then Star Wars came out, and the ships that movie introduced me to are still my favorite space-traveling ships to this day.  The Falcon, TIE Fighters, and original Star Destroyers all rocked my world and have never been surpassed.  

So, favorite ships?  These:

#1.  The Falcon

 

#2.   TIE Fighters from the original trilogy

#3.   Star Destroyers from the original trilogy

 

#4.  Poe's X-Wing in The Force Awakens

#5.  Obi-Wan's Jedi Star Fighter in Revenge of the Sith

#6.  Krennic's shuttle in Rogue One.

How do you know I love all of these?  Besides the fact that I said so?  I have them all as models or toys (and only these).  I still have the large Millennium Falcon and TIE Fighter toys (large enough to hold action figures) my parents got me in 1979, I have a Star Destroyer model still in the original box (never put together, though, cuz I have zero patience for building models) from 1980.  Those are stored in boxes in the garage.  

However, my Obi-Wan's Jedi Star Fighter is displayed on my shelf in the library, and Poe's X-Wing sits under my monitor at my work computer desk where I can look at them daily.  I also have a little TIE fighter from Force Awakens that matches Poe's X-Wing in size, and it is displayed on one of my DVD shelves.  Krennic's shuttle is the only one I love and don't own, and that's only because I never found a version of it for sale that I liked.  I will hopefully remedy that some day.

This is another, quite spontaneously written, post for the Everything Star Wars blogathon hosted by Coffee, Classics, and Craziness and I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read).

Star Wars: Rebels - Favorite episodes

Star Wars: Rebels came out in 2014, back when my family was still getting cable tv, so I was able to go to their house and we watched each season as it aired.  We had not really been interested in the Clone Wars animated series at the time, but the Rebels trailers were intriguing, and we got sucked into the show.  The half hour episodes made it a nice, show easy to watch, and we liked that it was set before A New Hope.  

 

I ended up rewatching the entire series after the first season of The Mandalorian ended, because there was so much from Rebels that appeared in The Mandalorian.  Seeing a live-action Loth cat was awesome.  Seeing the dark saber made me literally cheer out loud.  Seeing live troop carriers in the Rebels design was thrilling.  Seeing live blurrg!  The Mandalorian just increased my Rebels love ten fold.

So, what appealed to me about Rebels?  The characters, of course, always come first.  I love these characters, though I still have a hard time with Ezra in the early seasons.  The kid just doesn't listen!  I want to slap him.  I didn't start actually liking him until he eventually matures in the fourth season.  Finally, he came into his own, and then I was able to appreciate him.  My favorite characters of the Ghost crew were always Kanan and Sabine, but when I rewatched the show earlier this year, Hera jumped up higher on the list.  And Zeb is amusing.

But as much as I like our heroes, my favorite character has been, and always will be, Agent Kallus.  I adore Kallus.  He ranks high on my top favorite Star Wars characters of all time list.  I'm a sucker for a redemption arc, and he has a good one.  He's a smart adversary and I just dig him.

Which brings me to my favorite episodes.  None of the first season episodes make my favorite list.  As with most shows, it was still finding its footing in the first season, the characters were still settling in.  All the meaty stuff was still to come.  That said, the season one finale is probably my favorite episode of season one.  Which is part of a trend, as you'll see, because each season's finale show is pretty darned spectacular.

Fave episodes: 

#1.  “A Fool’s Hope” and “Family Reunion and Farewell” (season 4 series finale)

These two eps roll right into each other, so it’s hard to separate them.  Not only are they the best eps of season four, but they are the best eps of the entire series.  They’re also the very last eps, not just the season finale, but the series finale.  Everything that was set up over the four seasons comes to a head here.  Characters reappear, characters we’ve been waiting to face off against each other finally face off.  The Loth-Wolves are awesome as always, and instrumental in events.  Everything resolves Just So.  After getting next to no Kallus in season four, he finally gets to do a lot.  These last eps are just plain great.  (This series finale is not something you can cheat and just watch without having seen everything that came before, though. What makes it so fantastic is the payoff after the build-up to get there.)

#2.  “The Honorable Ones” (season 2) – A Kallus episode, is anyone surprised?  Kallus and Zeb are stranded and forced to work together to survive.  It's one of my favorite themes – enemies who have to put aside their differences to make it out of some life-threatening situation.  This ep is really well done and marks a turning point in Kallus’s arc. 

#3.  "Twilight of the Apprentice" (season 2 finale) – Without plot spoilers, this episode features Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Ashoka, Kanan, Ezra, Inquisitors... all facing off on an ancient Sith world.  This season two finale has it all.  Love it. 

#4.  "Zero Hour" (season 3 finale) – Surprise, surprise... another season finale makes my favorite list.  Admiral Thrawn arrives to wipe everyone out, the Bendu gets to shine, and I’ve never adored Kallus more.  

#5.  "Twin Suns" (season 3)  – I love this ep solely because of Obi-Wan and Darth Maul.  Ezra's disobeying orders as usual.

 Runners up:

"Heroes of Mandalore"

"Through Imperial Eyes"

"Warhead"

"Fire Across the Galaxy"

"Blood Sisters"

There are plenty of guest appearances by familiar Star Wars faces.  Princess Leia, C3PO and R2, Mon Mothma, Tarkin, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and Obi-Wan all appear.  Some characters from the Clone Wars also get some good parts, like Saw Gerrera, Bo-Katan, and, of course, Ahsoka.  

This has been an entry in the Everything Star Wars Blogathon, hosted by Eva and Katie.

2020 Tolkien Party Tag

It's time for the 8th annual Tolkien blog party, hosted by Hamlette.  Here are my answers to the tag questions:

1. What Tolkien character do you think you're the most like?

In the books, one of the unnamed Dunedain rangers.

In the movies, Fili. 

 2. What Tolkien character do you wish you were more like?

Galadriel.

3. What would your dream home in Middle-earth be like?

Beorn's home from the movies.  Love the isolated location, love the terrain, love the house itself. 

 

4. You get to make a movie of the story of Beren and Luthien!  Who do you cast as the leads?

This is an ancient tale, so I believe it would be the coolest if it had been made back in the day as a silent movie.  When you read the version in the Silmarillion, it reads rather like a silent movie with occasional dialogue that would be perfect as dialogue cards.  And so, I would cast Ramon Navarro as Beren and Maude Fealey as Luthien, (with Rudolph Valentino playing Thingol, cuz Valentino just needs to play an elf).

(If I did have to make the movie today, I'd cast Dominic West as Beren and Rebecca Ferguson as Luthien...but I prefer the silent movie version.)

5. Have you ever marathoned the LOTR or Hobbit movies?

Yes, both.

6. Do you have a favorite song or track from the movie soundtracks by Howard Shore?

Multiple, but I'll go with "The Lighting of the Beacons" from the complete recording of Return of the King.

7. Which of Tolkien's characters would you like to be best friends with?

Elrond, specifically from the Hobbit movies.

8. Who of the people in your real life would you want in your company if you had to take the ring to Mordor?

Hamlette and Cowboy, my sister, her husband, and my nephew, Doc B, and three of my co-workers:  HR, AB, and JT.

 9. Have you read any of Tolkien's non-Middle-earth works?

No.

10. Is there a book by Tolkien you haven't read yet, but want to?

No.
 

Legends of Western Cinema Week 2020 Tag

It's Legends of Western Cinema Week, hosted by Hamlette's Soliloquy and Along the Brandywine.

Here are their questions for this year's event.  I found some of these quite hard to answer, so it took me all week to figure out responses.

1. What's the last western you watched?
Custer of the West, (1967).  Still in the middle of it actually.  It's an interesting movie, but it's taking me awhile to work through cuz it's not that interesting.  Last completed western would be The Lone Ranger (2013).

2. A western of any stripe (happy or tragic) where you were highly satisfied by the ending?
I'm not quite sure what this question is looking for, cuz every single one of my favorite Westerns obviously meet this criteria.  A highly satisfactory ending is critical to me loving a Western (or any movie).  Let's go with For a Few Dollars More, because it's one I haven't really talked about, and the ending, both the finale and the wrap up are awesome.

3. The funniest western you've seen?
Cat Ballou or Rango, I guess?  Depends on my humor mood.  Both make me laugh throughout.

4. What similar elements/themes show up in your favorite westerns?
Ack, this question is too much like school work.  Okay, fine.  I like a lot of end-of-the-West movies, where the old-fashioned cowboy heroes/lawmen are outdated/no longer needed/wanted. Or just Westerns set in the early 1900s, like Big Jake, Ride the High Country, The Wild Bunch, The Professionals...  Lonely Are the Brave fits that theme too, even if it's set in more modern times. 

5. Favorite actress who made 1 or more westerns?
Barbara Stanwyck

6. Favorite western hero/sidekick pairing?
Sam Boone and Whit (Robert Pernell and James Coburn) in Ride Lonesome.(1959).  Their relationship is my favorite part of this movie and I adore how Whit follows Boone around, always deferring to him. Their partnership conversation at the end is one of my favorite moments and never fails to make me grin in sheer delight.

7. Scariest villain/antagonist in a Western?
Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance or Grimes (Richard Boone) in Hombre.

8. Favorite romance in a western?
None?  Romance isn't my thing.  None stand out to me.  Okay, one does:  Matthew Quigley and Cora in Quigley Down Under. 

9. Three of your favorite westerns?
Big Jake, Hour of the Gun, The Lone Ranger (2013)

10. Share one (or several!) of your favorite quotes from a western.
Since this was asked last year, I'm going to try to avoid repeating all my favorites already listed and try to find new ones, which is rather hard.  So, I'm going to cheat and go with my nephew's two favorite quotes from Westerns that the two of us say to each other constantly.

"What's that? NOTHING!" - John Reid, The Lone Ranger (2013)
"You son of a---*timely hawk screech interrupts* - Toad in Rango.

King Creole (1958)

This was the first Elvis Presley movie I saw, and it remains my favorite of his films that I’ve seen.  Part of that is because it is not a colorful cheesy musical.  It is black and white, and serious, and shows that Elvis can do more than just sing.  He really can act when given a good script and a good director (Michael Curtiz, in this instance).  Elvis’s character is a singer, so the songs performed in this movie are performed as part of the plot, which works really well.

Danny Fisher (Elvis) lives in New Orleans with his sister and widowed father (Dean Jagger).  His dad can’t hold down a job, so Danny and his sister both work to pay the rent, etc.  Danny’s hoping to graduate high school after already being held back a year, but his school teacher flunks him for attitude, and he decides school is not for him.  Danny’s jobs include bussing tables at a joint owned by Maxie Fields, the local crime boss who runs just about everything around.  Maxie’s played by Walter Matthau, and he is delightfully slimy and vicious and powerful.  If he can’t get what he wants by intimidation, he uses blackmail, or any other tool at his disposal to bring everyone and everything to heel.

Playing against type, Paul Stewart is Charlie, the owner of a rival nightclub, the King Creole.  I’m used to Paul Stewart playing gangsters and hoods, and I love that here, he’s a good guy.  Honest and fair.  He hires Danny to sing in his club, and the act is a sensation as, of course, Elvis does his magic whenever he performs.  Maxie can’t handle this, and tries to steal Danny away.  When Danny won’t play ball, Maxie uses vile and violent tactics to implicate Danny in a crime, and then blackmails him with it.

Things boil to an inevitable showdown between Danny and Maxie.

Along the way, there are two women who play big roles in Danny’s life throughout the movie: Ronnie (a fantastic Carolyn Jones), and Nellie (Dolores Hart).  The women could not be more opposite.

Ronnie is Maxie’s “girlfriend,” held to him by some unknown blackmail from the past that keeps her obedient to him.  She spends most of her time drunk to numb her life.  Danny brings a spark of freedom and rebellion to her life, and when he stands up to Maxie, she’s finally able to find the strength to do the same thing and break free of his control over her.  She is a sort of femme fatale, except that she’s too much a victim herself.

Nellie is a young woman working at a Five and Dime store who falls for Danny the first moment she sees him and she actively pursues him with dreams of a happily ever after with him.

One of the things I like about this movie is that the relationships in this movie are slightly unusual.
Danny and Ronnie are attracted to each other, but a lot of that is because they’re both victims of Maxie’s schemes, they both have hard lives behind them, and both dream of futures that aren’t sordid and full of crime.  Both are singers.  Ronnie’s singing is in her past, Danny’s is in the future.  Danny rescues Ronnie, and Ronnie rescues Danny.  They share a bond.  They are kindred spirits.  One of my favorite moments of the movie is seeing Ronnie at the end of the movie wearing casual comfortable clothes instead of the tight gowns Maxie has her wear, relaxed and natural and happy for the first time since we've met her. 

Nellie is the good girl, yet she pursues Danny almost desperately, pushing for a relationship that will lead to marriage.  She’s young and Danny’s young, and one of the things I like is that Danny realizes at the end that he’s not ready for any kind of commitment, that he needs to find himself first.  Nellie tells him she’ll wait, so hopefully she’s learned something along the way too.

There’s a third romantic relationship in the film, between Paul Stewart’s Charlie, and Danny’s sister, Mimi.  This one is also interesting because Charlie is twenty years older than Mimi, and says so outright.  They have the most normal and supportive relationship in the film.

So, what about Vic Morrow?  He has a small but pivotal role as Shark, a local hoodlum with aspirations of being a big hoodlum someday.  He’s got his own little gang, and he continually pushes Maxie to let him work for him.  He gets his wish and becomes Maxie’s errand boy and muscle, which delights him no end.  He takes great pride in obtaining this position.  He’s also a smart cookie.  He’s the one who figures out the best way to blackmail Danny, and Maxie lets him run with the plan, pleased with his initiative.

He’s never less than polite, soft-spoken, his words phrased almost gently even when he’s threatening someone.  He’s deferential to Maxie, almost to a fault.  He thinks he’s a sharp dresser.  He’s clearly trying to stay a classy hoodlum.  And I find it interesting how he quickly he reacts to people's actions.  Early on, Danny gets the drop on him and wins his respect by being faster and stronger than he is.  Shark invites him to join his gang on the spot.  When Danny doesn’t allow Shark to cheat one of the other members of the gang out of their earnings, Shark promptly drops him from the group.  There’s a hundred ways this character could have been played.  Vic’s played some very nasty characters in his career, and while Shark is a bad guy, he’s got such a pleasant, smiling façade, it amuses me no end. 

He and Danny finally come to a physical confrontation, a tense knife fight. It's quite something to watch Vic squaring off with Elvis.

The black and white cinematography lends itself well to this movie, giving it that edge of noir feeling, and really, this is a noir movie.  There is some great shots filmed on-location in New Orleans.  It's moody and atmospheric, which suits the story.  Elvis nails the character of Danny, and he's supported by a fabulous cast.

My favorite musical numbers are "Trouble" and the last song of the movie "As Long as I Have You."  Both work great within the plot.  "Trouble" is the song Danny performs when ordered to sing by Maxie, who is trying to prove Ronnie and Danny are liars, that Danny can't sing.  Danny's hopping mad and not only accepts the challenge, but directs the song straight at Maxie without backing down at all.  Ronnie's little smile of triumph is one of her first steps to breaking free of Maxie's control.  It's one of my favorite scenes.  And the latter song closes the movie.  It ties everything up so nicely.  It's the song Ronnie says was her theme song, so Danny singing it as a tribute to her is lovely, but it also represents his return to honest life, with his whole family there to reconcile and move on with their lives, out of Maxie's sleazy shadow.

This has been my contribution to the A Tribute to Vic Morrow Blogathon.

A Tribute to Vic Morrow: A Blogathon

Hi there - it's time for the Tribute to Vic Morrow blogathon.  This will be running through Sunday.

Leave a comment either on this post or over at my co-host's site, Hamlette's Soliloquy, with the link to your contribution when you've got it posted.  Thanks for joining us!

Entries:

Quiggy, from the Midnite Drive-In:  1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982)

Hamlette, from Hamlette's Soliloquy:  Why Sgt. Saunders is My Favorite Fictional Character of All Time (And Why You Should, Like, Care)

Eva, from Coffee, from Classics, & Craziness: My Top Five Favorite Saunders-centric Episodes of Combat!
Anna and Irene, from Horseback to Byzantium:  Bonanza: The Avenger
DKoren, from Sidewalk Crossings: King Creole (1958)
Hamlette, from Hamlette's Soliloquy:  The Keys to the Killer (1960) 

Announcing A Tribute to Vic Morrow blogathon

Set the date!  April 5-7, I will be co-hosting a blogathon with Hamlette dedicated to Vic Morrow.  We invite you to join us.  You can sign up here or over on Hamlette's blog, Hamlette's Soliloquy.

Vic Morrow is one of my favorite actors.  Discovering him in the television series Combat! was one of those moments of an entertainment title changing my life.  I'd watched some Combat! back in college, but it wasn't until I was into my thirties before I had the opportunity to rewatch -- and I was completely hooked.  The show holds up so well, the stories are so well written, well-acted by everyone involved -- but Vic Morrow... he was something else again.  He did things above and beyond merely acting. He embodied the character of Sergeant Saunders in such a way that the character transcended mere television.  I'm a mere spectator, watching these episodes on a television screen, and yet I feel his characters in a way I can't say I've felt with any other actor, even my other favorites.  I know I've talked about this before on this blog somewhere, but watching Vic act taught me more about how to write a story than all my college classes combined.

Vic Morrow and Combat! also brought me together with my best friend, Hamlette, and a bunch of other like-minded individuals I'm proud to call my squadmates.  And I would never have the opportunity to visit Australia if not for Vic and this show.

And Combat! is only one piece of his career.  He made a lot of movies, guest-starred in a lot of television shows, and was a fine director.  Some of the finest Combat! episodes are ones he directed.

You are welcome to write a review of a single TV show episode for this blogathon, or review a movie, or write up anything else related to Vic Morrow that comes to mind.  If you're not sure if your idea will work, just discuss it with either myself or Hamlette.

Hamlette created a whole slew of buttons for this event.  Find one you like and share it on your blog or website -- there are plenty to choose from!

Entries so far:

• Sidewalk Crossings -- King Creole (1958)
• Hamlette's Soliloquy -- Why Vic's Character Sgt. Saunders on Combat! (1962-27) is My Favorite Fictional Character of All Time, and Why You Should, Like, Care.  Also, a review of whatever movie of his I have that someone else doesn't claim. 
• The Midnite Drive-in -- 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982) 
• Coffee, Classics, and Craziness -- Favorite episodes of Combat! (1962-67)
• You!