The Laughing Policeman and Warning Shot

The Laughing Policeman (1973). Walter Matthau starred in two of the finest crime dramas of the 1970s: Charley Varrick (1973) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). Sandwiched between those classics, he made The Laughing Policeman, a solid crime picture steeped in urban grittiness. Matthau plays Jake Martin, a San Francisco police detective investigating the brutal murders of a bus driver and his passengers. The case becomes personal quickly when one of the victims turns out to be Jake's partner, who was looking into one of Jake’s old unsolved cases on his own. While the police department mounts a large scale effort to find the killer, Jake follows his own leads--while also dealing with his meddling new partner Larsen (Bruce Dern). The Laughing Policeman differs from most Matthau movies in that its protagonist is something of an enigma. He ignores his wife and teenage son, sleeps in a separate room in his home, and has no close friends at work. He wasn't even close to his dead partner. He definitely doesn't want a bigoted, violent, loud-mouthed new partner--but his evolving relationship with Larsen is the best part of The Laughing Policeman. Bruce Dern injects life into every frame and counterbalances Matthau's low-key performance. Director Stuart Rosenberg, perhaps best known for Cool Hand Luke, effectively contrasts the colorful neon lights of the city with its dour underside. The Laughing Policeman was based on a 1968 Swedish novel written by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. It was one of ten books featuring detective police detective Martin Beck, who was renamed for the film adaptation. 

Warning Shot (1967). Released during the final season of The Fugitive, Warning Shot features David Jansen as L.A. police detective Tom Valens, who kills a burglar in self-defense outside an apartment complex. The problem is that the “thief” was actually a prominent physician and no one can find the gun that Valens claims he saw. When a politically ambitious D.A. charges Valens with manslaughter, the veteran detective sets out to clear his name. Although released theatrically, Warning Shot looks and feels like an above-average made-for-TV movie. Many of the supporting players were working mostly in television at the time. Some of their appearances amount to little more than cameos, such as Walter Pidgeon as a lawyer, Eleanor Parker as the victim’s non-grieving widow, and Joan Collins as Valens’ estranged wife. Janssen is fine as the world-weary detective, but it's the kind of the role he played often in his career. George Grizzard nearly steals the film as a self-proclaimed ladies man who may be involved in shady dealings and Stefanie Powers has some good scenes with Janssen. At its best, Warning Shot has a late 1960s L.A. vibe reminiscent of Harper. It's reasonably engrossing, but the cast is the best reason to see it. 

David Janssen in Birds of Prey

The KBEX traffc helicopter.

One of the first "water cooler" movies I can remember is the 1973 CBS telepic Birds of Prey. I'm not sure if the term "water cooler" had even been invented in regard to a movie everyone was talking about the next day. But regardless, many of the students in my high school--particularly the guys--were discussing this unusual made-for-TV action film on the morning following its broadcast.

David Janssen stars as Harry Walker, a former combat pilot who flies the traffic helicopter for radio station KBEX in Salt Lake City. During his daily flyover routine, he spots a bank robbery and reports it to police. When the culprits duck into a parking garage, Harry assumes that they will be captured, their hostage freed. and the $203,500 recovered. So, he is understandably surprised when a helicopter lands on the garage's roof and whisks away the bad guys. Without hesitation, Harry takes off in pursuit in his chopper.

David Janssen as pilot Harry Walker.

Except for a talkative interlude at its midpoint, Birds of Prey is a non-stop chase film featuring impressive aerial footage of its two helicopters. Like other well-done chase pictures, such as Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey, dialogue is kept to a minimum.

However, it's that dialogue-filled interlude that gives Birds of Prey its heft. When Harry picks up the robbers' hostage, a bank employee named T.J. (for Teresa Janice), their situation forces two very different people to share close quarters. T.J. is a naive 22-year-old who plans to get married in a few days. Harry is a middle-aged man with multiple ex-wives and a lonely future. For him, the chase is a reminder of times gone by--when he was a pilot during the war. For T.J., the entire situation, to include Harry, is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to her. These two people talk, flirt, kiss briefly (three times), and part from one another on Harry's insistence.

Elayne Heilveil as T.J.

David Janssen doesn't have to stretch much to play Harry; he specialized in playing world-weary figures with a quiet charm and an inner strength. Still, it's one of his best post-Fugitive performances, especially coming on the heels of his dull O'Hara, U.S. Treasury TV series (1971-72). As T.J., Elayne Heilveil gives an incredibly natural performance, which had me wondering why I'd never heard of her. Her filmography includes just thirty acting credits, though she appeared multiple times on the TV series Family and Beauty and the Beast.

Much of the background music consists of big band standards like "Moonlight Serenade" and "I'll Get By." Due to copyright issues, most prints of Birds of Prey include different music. You can tell if you watching a print with the original score by noting whether you can hear Janssen singing to the opening song or not.

Birds of Prey is not a made-for-television classic, but it's still an absorbing action film that also works as a character study. Be forewarned that the closing scene is a shocker!

Seven Things to Know About "The Fugitive"

1. According to Mel Proctor's The Official Fan's Guide to The Fugitive, David Janssen's "salary" was 20% of the show's earnings plus $10,000 per week. He also owned 20% of the show. Needless to say, The Fugitive made Janssen a multimillionaire.

2. Stanford Whitman, who wrote the pilot episode "Fear in a Desert City," came up with the name of Kimble's "relentless pursuer" Philip Gerard. The police lieutenant's name was an homage to Inspector Javert from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Roy Huggins, who created The Fugitive, intended the series to be a modern day version of Hugo's novel.

Stafford resident Phil Gerard.

3. Kimble returned to Stafford, Indiana--the site of Helen Kimble's murder and Lieutenant Gerard's home--on at least three occasions. In "Home Is the Hunted," Richard visits his ailing father, Dr. John Kimble (Robert Keith), brother Ray (Andrew Prine), and sister Donna (Jacqueline Scott). Donna (always played by Scott) appeared in a total of five episodes. Other episodes set in Stafford include "The Survivors" (Kimble confronts Helen's family) and "The Judgment" (the two-part series conclusion). Originally, Stafford was a town in Wisconsin and there are references to that in some of the early episodes. When the writers learned that Wisconsin did not have a death penalty, Stafford's location was changed to Indiana, which has capital punishment.

4. The Fugitive cracked the Top Ten in the Nielsen ratings only once during its four seasons. It finished its second season at No. 5. In all, 120 episodes were broadcast, with only the final season in color.

5. Richard Kimble held many short-term jobs during his four years of running, with the most common ones being truck/bus driver, bartender, and cook. Still, he found work where he could get it in places such as: a department store, dog kennel, health resort, orphanage, lemon orchard, carnival, horse farm, hotel, and liquor store. He also worked in the medical field in a handful of episodes--but not as a physician, of course.

6. The train crash, featured in the opening of each episode during the first season, was lifted from a French film. If you look carefully in the still below, you can make out the letters "MIN DE FER" on the side of one boxcar. "Chemin de Fer" is French for "railroad." In Proctor's book, Barry Morse reveals that his seven-year-old daughter noticed it wasn't an American train. No one else took note, though, and the producers never changed the footage (though only stills were shown from the crash after season one).

7. Richard Kimble used over 100 aliases on The Fugitive, from Pete Allen to Steve Younger. The ones used the most frequently were Frank, Pete, Tom (or Thomas), Paul, Steve, and Ben. Questionably, he used his real first name on a couple of occasions.

The Fugitive: A Classic Kimble-Gerard Episode

Lt. Philip Gerard and Dr. Richard Kimble.

The similarities between The Fugitive's detective Lieutenant Philip Gerard and Inspector Javert from Les Misérables were there from the beginning. Mel Proctor, author of The Official Fan's Guide to The Fugitive wrote that series creator Roy Huggins intentionally borrowed from Victor Hugo's novel: "Huggins described Kimble's pursuer as a man from the state attorney's office and said the chase would embody the characteristics of Javert's pursuit of Jean Valjean."

Barbara Rush as Marie Gerard.

Some of the series' best episodes are those that pair Richard Kimble (David Janssen) with his dogged pursuer (Barry Morse). Sometimes, their interaction is centered around another member of the Gerard family. In the excellent season 3 two-part episode "Landscape with Running Figures," Kimble comes to the aid of Mrs. Gerard (Barbara Rush), who has become temporarily blind following a bus accident. And in "Nemesis," Kimble steals a sheriff's car in which Philip Gerard, Jr. (a young Kurt Russell) is hiding in the backseat. These episodes and others cause Gerard to reflect--if only for a moment--that Kimble may indeed be innocent of murdering his wife. But in the end, that's a moot point, for Gerard is only concerned with capturing the man that escaped while in his custody.

The best episode that focuses solely on the Kimble-Gerard relationship is "Corner of Hell" from season 2, which William Conrad describes in his opening narrative as a "grim encounter with truth and irony." The episode starts with Gerard in hot pursuit of Kimble (who's driving a truck, perhaps his most frequent occupation during the series' run). When Kimble comes upon a police barricade, he smashes through it, drives down the road, and runs off into the woods. He doesn't see a rickety wooden sign stating: "Keep out! This means you."

The sheriff refuses to pursue Kimble any further, explaining to Gerard that the woods are full of moonshiners, whom the local law officials choose to ignore. When Gerard insists on a manhunt, even if he goes on it alone, the sheriff replies: "Them people hate a stranger. They hate a lawman. They hate a man in a store-bought suit. You're all three."

Guest star R.G. Armstrong.

Meanwhile, Kimble encounters a family of moonshiners led by the tobacco-chewing Tully (R.G. Armstrong). When Cody (Bruce Dern), the clan's resident trouble-maker, gets injured in a fight with Kimble, the former physician tends to Cody's wound. That earns him a little respect, which only grows when Tully learns that Kimble is running from the law (it helps too that Tully's daughter has taken a shine to the good doctor).When Gerard appears at the moonshiners' camp, Tully assures Kimble: "You'll be safe. You can watch how we get shed of somebody we don't really want around here."

The moonshiners scuff up Gerard and vandalize his car, but the real trouble starts when the detective is falsely accused of assaulting Tully's daughter (the real culprit is Cody, of course). The moonshiners are prepared to lynch Gerard, when--in a touch of brilliant irony--Kimble has to intervene to save his pursuer.

Barry Morse and Bruce Dern.

GERARD (who's tied to a chair and sounding desperate):  Our system of justice may not be perfect, but it does give every man a fair chance to defend himself.

TULLY:  How 'bout that, Doc? You get a fair chance in court?

KIMBLE:  Yes.

TULLY:  You mean he's speakin' the truth. You're a killer?"

KIMBLE:  No, I couldn't prove my innocence--but they let me try.

The outcome of "Corner of Hell" is obvious, not only from a practical series standpoint, but also because the viewer knows Kimble to be a noble man. Still, the episode turns the tables for once and lets Gerard experience the horror of telling the truth when no one will listen.

In the episode's closing scene, Gerard proves that--despite this experience--nothing has changed. His final words to Kimble are: "The truth is you're still guilty before the law."

And Kimble understands what that means, that Gerard will continue his relentless pursuit--just like Javert. "He'll keep trying," Kimble confides to Tully. "As long as there's a chance, he'll keep trying."

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This post is part of Me-TV's Summer of Classic TV Blogathon, hosted by the Classic TV Blog Association. Go to http://classic-tv-blog-assoc.blogspot.com to view more posts in this blogathon. You can also go to www.metvnetwork.com to learn more about Me-TV and its summer line-up of classic TV shows.

DVD Spotlight: David Janssen as "Harry O"

One of the most distinctive private eyes of the 1970s has finally made his DVD debut with Warner Archive's release of season 1 of Harry O. The series, which originally aired on ABC in 1974-76, starred David Janssen as Harry Orwell, a medically-retired police detective who moonlights as a private investigator. Filmed in San Diego and later Santa Monica, Harry O set itself apart from rivals with its world-weary protagonist, voice-over narration, and on-location photography. For Janssen, it marked a TV comeback after appearing in Jack Webb's glum flop O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971-72).

Harry spends each morning on the beach.

The DVD set includes the first of two pilot films, Such Dust as Dreams Are Made Of, which was broadcast in 1973. Martin Sheen co-stars as a former criminal who wants to hire Harry to find his ex-girlfriend and a former accomplice (Sal Mineo). Orwell has a personal interest in the case because, four years earlier, Sheen and Mineo were the culprits in a drugstore robbery that left Harry's partner dead and a bullet in Harry's spine. Forced to retire from the police department, Harry lives on his disability pension aboard his boat The Answer. Will Geer appears in a supporting role as a medical examiner who provides an in-depth explanation on how to make heroin. It's unlikely Geer would have been a regular had a TV series resulted--he was still playing Grandpa on The Waltons.

A second pilot movie (not included in the DVD set), Smile Jenny, You're Dead (with Jodie Foster) appeared the following year. Its ratings success convinced ABC to pick up the series. Harry O premiered in September 1974 on Thursday nights at 10 p.m. The show's only other regular was Henry Darrow (The High Chapparal), who played Detective Lieutenant Manny Quinlan. Harry now lived in a beachfront cottage, working occasionally on his boat (still called The Answer). As he explained in one of his trademark voiceovers: "A lot of cases I won't take. I don't have to."

Harry with San Diego in the background.

With his car frequently being repaired, Harry takes a lot of buses--which has its advantages when being followed ("It's hard to tail someone on a bus"). The first half of season 1 makes excellent use of its San Diego locale, highlighting both the flavor of the inner city and the stunning beaches. Even Harry emphasizes the importance of his surroundings: "You see, baseball teams win more games in their own ballpark. Now, San Diego is my ballpark. And if you name a street, I can close my eyes and tell you where the traffic lights are...that also applies to bus stops."

Linda Evans pre-Dynasty.

The guest stars included a bevy of newcomers and familiar faces to classic TV fans: Kurt Russell; Linda Evans (between The Big Valley and Dynasty); Leif Erickson (also from The High Chapparal); Stefanie Powers; Broderick Crawford; Anne Archer; Craig Stevens (Peter Gunn); Carol Rossen (a frequent guest star with Janssen on The Fugitive); and even Cab Calloway.

Farrah a year before
Charlie's Angels.

Despite modest success in its time slot, Harry O underwent signficant midseason changes. The location sadly switched from San Diego to Santa Monica and Farrah Fawcett had a recurring role as Harry's neighbor and sometime girlfriend Sue (whose Great Dane Grover wasn't a fan of Harry's). Anthony Zerbe replaced Henry Darrow as another police detective, although Darrow returned to give his character closure in "Elegy for a Cop," the next-to-last episode of the first season. The opening credits were tweaked, too, and even the theme music transitioned from a bluesy arrangement to a more uptempo one.

Anthony Zerbe.

Although Zerbe won a supporting actor Emmy for his performance in 1976, the changes had little impact on the series' popularity. Viewers watched Harry O to see Janssen, who remained a fan favorite from his days as man-on-the-run Richard Kimble in the TV classic The Fugitive (1963-67). As Harry, Janssen replaces Kimble's subtle intensity with a laid-back, cynical persona (though he still occasionally flashes his trademark quick smile, with one side of the mouth turned up). One senses that Harry's casual style and humorous quips hide a darker past.

Still, some of the best episodes were the more lighthearted ones, such as "Gertrude" with guest-star Julie Sommars as a young woman whose only clue to her brother's disappearance is a single shoe. The first season also introduced the character of Lester Hodges (Les Lannom), a young man who aspires to be a criminologist after meeting Harry. Lester appears in four episodes over the two seasons, with the last one--"Lester Hodges and Dr. Fong"--serving as a pilot for a spin-off series co-starring Keye Luke that never materialized.

Harry O faced an uphill challenge finding a regular audience amid a landscape cluttered with popular TV detectives  (e.g., The Rockford Files, Cannon, Starsky and Hutch, Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, and Baretta). ABC cancelled Harry O after just two seasons. Though its demise came far too early, at least it didn't suffer the fate of overstaying its welcome. We're left with a quirky, entertaining detective series with a character perfectly matched to its star. We can only hope that Warner Archive releases season 2 of Harry O. It'd also be nice if someone would release the only season of television's other seldom-seen, quirky private eye series: The Outsider (1968-69) starring Darrin McGavin.

A review copy of this DVD was provided to the Cafe.