"Coronet Blue" (1967) TV series

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Creator:

Larry Cohen

Seasons:

1 | unknown

Release Date:

28 May 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Mike is running from some men when he falls into the harbour. He climbs out remembering only that he was running and the phrase 'coronet blue'...

Plot Keywords:

Amnesia

Cast

Frank Converse	...	Michael Alden (11 episodes, 1967)
Joe Silver	...	Max Spier (8 episodes, 1967)

Runtime:

60 min (13 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Plautus Productions

Trivia:

"Coronet Blue" creator Larry Cohen, in his autobiography "The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker," explained the mystery behind the series' title/catch-phrase. "When the Brodkin Organization took over the series, they wanted to turn it into an anthology... so they played down the amnesia aspect until there was nothing about it at all in the show. It was just Frank Converse wandering from one story to the next with no connective format at all. Anyway, the show ended after seventeen weeks and nobody found out what 'coronet blue' meant. The actual secret is that Converse was not really an American at all. He was a Russian who had been trained to appear like an American and was sent to the U.S. as a spy. He belonged to a spy unit called 'Coronet Blue.' He decided to defect, so the Russians tried to kill him before he can give away the identities of the other Soviet agents. And nobody can really identify him because he doesn't exist as an American. Coronet Blue was actually an outgrowth of 'The Traitor' episode of "The Defenders" (1961)." However, anyone who has seen the show knows that the amnesia aspect was in fact NOT played down (one episode had Alden declining a golden opportunity to learn the truth about himself--or at least a good part of it--on moral grounds concerning the way the information became available to him). Other facts are that thirteen episodes were all that were filmed, and that from first air date to last is only fourteen weeks--fifteen potential weekly air dates if you include those at both ends, but only eleven of the episodes were aired; in any case, Cohen's "seventeen weeks," made in a BOOK wherein he presumably had plenty of time to check and be certain that he got such fundamental facts correct, is indefensible. All this calls the validity of the entirety of his statement into question.

Thirty five years later - it still has impact.

This show made the summer of 1967. Frank Converse was out of this world. I followed everything he ever did after that, but he didn't do much. Brian Bedford went on to Broadway. We tuned in just to see how much, if anything, he would learn that week. If only they would re-run it. Today it would be a cult classic (even if it was in black and white) I am sure. Or maybe they could remake it. I would certainly watch.