Naked City (TV Series) Golden Lads and Girls (1963) User Reviews

Character Libby has gained weight!

[FloridaFred · 8/10 · 5 April 2023]

Before I review this story, let's talk about "Libby", the girlfriend of leading character Detective Adam Flint. Many reviewers, here on IMDB and other websites, agree that Libby is the most annoying person in the entire run of "Naked City". A struggling actress, an aspiring ballet dancer. In a very early episode she is practicing ballet steps, and a savvy reviewer pointed out that "she doesn't have the figure, or the ankles, for a ballerina."

In this episode (second to the last in the 4-year run of Naked City), Libby is dining with Flint and Lt. Parker in a restaurant. The camera angle only shows her from the shoulders up. She is wearing a large, ill-fitting sweater that is out of season, and positioned behind the table so that you can't see all of her. It is obvious that this woman has put on a lot of weight; they are trying to hide it!

Now, to the review. A very moving drama with a great cast. Two couples from completely different societal and financial backgrounds. One husband is a wealthy, affluent TV producer, the other man is a common laborer.

What the two men have in common, is that they are both drunks who beat up their wives. These guys are not very endearing!

They cross paths when they wind up in group therapy together (a tried and failed psychology industry experiment). The TV producer cannot believe that he has to sit in company with truck drivers and commoners, but the alternative is to be tried for Assault.

Of course, Feel-Good Flint is caught in the middle with both couples. He arrives on the scene of a four-alarm fire, the pyromaniac appears to be the daughter of one of the fighting couples.

Very well scripted, good acting, and a predictable ending scene.

I rate "Golden Lads and Girls" (a Shakespeare quote) 8 stars.

Golden lads & girls all must as chimney sweeps come to dust

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 12 August 2013]

****SPOILERS**** With TV producer Gordon Lanning, Robert Webber, getting himself good and drunk after the news of the latest ratings for his shows going off the cliff he soon goes into a drunken rage. Gordon beats the living hell out of his fashion model old lady or wife Laura, Elizabeth Allen, using her for a punching bag. Things got so bad that the house maid, Jessica Walters, had to call the cops before he put Laura in the hospital on life support with a serious brain concussion. With the police lead by the sweet sensitive and caring for all humanity Det. Adam Flint, Paul Burke, showing up at the scene to stop the bloodshed Laura refuses to press charges against her husband in fear the negative publicity of him being a wife beater would hurt his meteoric career in show business. We also see what happens on the other and poorer side of town away from the rich & famous which the Lannings are part of with laborer Louis Wystemski, Mike Kellin, and his long suffering wife Pearl, Norma Connally. Drunk after losing his latest job Louis took batting practice with Norma's skull and needed a half dozen of policemen to restrain him from finally killing her.

The "Naked City" episode shows us that wife beating and drunkenness are common in all types of societies. From the rich & famous high society types like the Lannings to the uneducated and low or no skilled types like Louis Wystewski and his wife Pearl. And even more the two need the same type of help or treatment to get their act or lives together. Therer's also the need for both Gordon & Louis to realize that they have a serious problem with booze and only they can with the help of a slew of social workers and psychiatrists in the end cure themselves. In the case of the Lannings it's their eight year old daughter Sally, Patty Keefer, who becomes a victim of their constant fighting in suffering from severe mental and emotional depression that lead her to almost burn down the Upper East Side apartment building that she and her parents live in.

***SPOILERS*** With Louis again getting drunk and fired from his job he goes completely bananas where, after working over his wife Pearl, he ends up in the can-prison-at the local police precinct in order to cool himself off. It's then after seeing what happened with Louis that his both fellow drunk and wife beater Gordon Lanning comes to his senses and not only accepts to get psychiatric emergency treatment for his actions but help Louis get it as well. Louis for his part knew what his problem was but needed help from someone like himself, a drunken wife beater, to straighten him out. Gordon who besides suffering from alcoholism and having an uncontrollable anger management problem was in total denial. It was in fact with both the tough love kind of help of Det. Flint as well as the violent actions of Louis Wystemski that finally got Gordon to see the light. Where he not only ended up getting help for himself but for Louis as well.

We Enter this World with Nothing and Leave the Same! So why can't we All this Big (Bleepin') To Do about our wealth and worldly junk?

[redryan64 · 2/10 · 20 March 2008]

If you ever think that your neighbor hasn't any problems like yours you don't know them very well. The title of Willard Motley's Novel and later Feature Film Starring Humphrey Bogart and a young John Derek, KNOCK ON ANY DOOR (Santana Pictures/Columbia, 1949), suggests the remedy to such isolated living. Literally, do just that; knock on his door, introduce yourself and get to know him.

The subject received on screen treatment in the top Police Drama of its day on "NAKED CITY: Golden Lads and Girls", the last episode for the program in the 1962-63 season. The whole story is tied together by the involvement of the NYPD; more specifically by the involvement, intervention and decisive action taken by Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke).

OUR STORY……………Responding to a Police Radio All-Call of a "Battery in Progress", Detectives Arcaro and Flint find they are the first Police on the scene. Gaining entry to the Luxury Apartment, they observe the Husband, Television Producer Gordon Lanning (Robert Webber) punching, shoving, grabbing and otherwise doing such acts, utterances and gestures as to create an unwholesome environment.

Because the Wife, Laura Lanning (Elizabeth Allen) was hesitant in signing a criminal complaint against the mean, battering bastard and that the Battery was committed in the presence of a Police Officer; the Arresting Officers can sign the complaint, making them the complainants.

The incident then led to New York's Court of Domestic Relations and to the Courtroom of Preliminary Hearings. It is in this sort of Pre-Trial trial that any plea-bargaining and/or medical or psychological evaluations can be implemented. In a conversation with Detective Adam Flint, who is appearing in Court as the Arresting/Complainant to the Criminal Charges, the Judge (Tom Bosley) explained how he is able to use the leverage of having serious consequences of a full criminal trial as a tool in rehabilitation and reconciliation.

Judge Tom further states how the misuse of alcohol is at the roots of the majority of his charges in this judicial branch.

The Judge orders psychological profiling on both Laura and Gordon Lanning and another couple, Pearl and Louis Wystemski (Laura Connolly & Mike Kellin). The Wystemskis represent some of those New Yorkers of the Blue Collar (okay, Proletariat for you "Libs") with far less means.

The two couples eventually come to be somewhat close, mainly do to the interaction of the two women; as Gordon is resistant to remaining in a weekly group session, particularly because it has Truck Drivers, Taxi Drivers, Laborers and the like. He requests and receives permission to pay for the services of a private Shrink and private Alcoholic treatment.

The situation had become complicated for the Lannings because their daughter, Sally, had been displaying symptoms of mental disturbance; all due to the on-going violent, alcoholic relationship of Mom & Dad.

Meanwhile, Louis Wystemski loses his Laborer Assistant job with the Paving Contractor and goes on an alcoholic-fueled, violence-strewn rampage. He had to be arrested and taken to the Local Police Precinct where the Lannings both respond to Pearl Wystemski's frantic telephone call for help. It is then and there that the TV Big Shot realizes that he should not be feeling so superior to the now out-of-work Lou Wystemski. Cheerfully and of his own volition, Gordon Lanning embraces the less fortunate neighbor and attempts to help him explain; as he realizes that Mr. Wystemski is both less articulate as he is less able monetarily. And yet, their situation makes them far more alike than they would have thought before.

AS for there being any moral to the story; we think it might go something like this. "There are many reasons for things happening; but there are absolutely no Excuses!"

And let's not close yet without making a few observations about this episode, this "Golden Lads and Girls." As much of a straight forward Police Drama that this is, the creative team used some mighty neat little cinematic twists that usually get reserved for those Movie House productions. Read on, PLEASE!

Take the business of the two different abodes. We know that the flat inhabited by Lou and Pearl would tend to be more like that of Ralph & Alice Kramden than like that of Leonard Bernstein. But the creative team did not opt just for the obvious. In showing us the Luxurious Apartment with their Maid, they went down the road of good symbolism in Film. The Manhattan Home of Gordon, Laura and little Sally Lanning is not only huge and expensive looking; but is also a multi-level with the bedrooms and some other living space areas (Like drawing room, maybe.). The point is, when some visitor comes a calling, the Lannings would be literally "looking down" on them!

And "Looking Down" on Folks is one practice that this Lanning Family was forever cured of!