dgabbard Reviews

The Closer: Heroic Measures (2006) Season 2, Episode 9

Harrowing up close study of ambiguities of medical ethics

[10/10 · 9 October 2020]

This is prauseworthy as a rare story giving Daniels a spotlight to distinguish her from the rest of the squad. Her tenacity in the face of the uncooperative hospital management and the doubts of her peers brings shading to a character who mostly exists to serve the mechanics of the plot.

The medical establishment's closing of ranks and resistance to scrutiny is highlighted in a way rare for episodic television versus the usual stereotype of heroic doctors. The mother collides into a wall of hubris and the legal system in the end offers no justice for doctors playing god and engaging in deliberate concealment. The resolution is deeply unsettling. not a flattering portrait of the American health care system.

This episode contains the single most disturbing scene of the series with a mother doing an autopsy on her own son. I know when I first saw it I squirmed at something so unsettling, even done under desperate duress. One finishes viewing without a final simplistic impression of right and wrong but real-world shades of gray.

The Snoop Sisters: A Black Day for Bluebeard (1974) Season 1, Episode 4

Pedestrian uneven entry is series' finale

[3/10 · 26 September 2020]

I have now seen the pilot and two of the four episodes, including this final one.

The trajectory was toward blandness. The excitable ex-cop Barney of the pilot portrayed by Art Carney (memorable for bellowing "Wrong" in response to the sisters' shenanigans) morphed in the series into ex-con on parole Barney portrayed by Lou Antonio who barely raises an objection however outrageous their escapades. Ernesta's bad driving in the pilot vanishes in the series. Also their occupation as mystery writers which we witness a session of in the pilot dissolves into a background gimmick while they basically devolve into mystery solving busybodies.

Part of the problem is 75 minutes (plus 15 of commercials to fill the 90 minute timeslot) isn't enough to do justice to the two leads and the premise. The writing also became less sharp. This entry especially feels like it could have used a major re-write. Could they have rushed it into production once they learned of the cancellation to squeak out one last episode? Maybe Leonard Stern was stretched thin as he had two other series (McMillan and Wife and Diana) vying for his attention? Jackson Gillis was an accomplished writer of mysteries whose resume included Perry Mason and Columbo, could his first draft been better than what reached the screen after Barrett and Foster tweaked it?

The storyline of this entry lurches and has highs and lows. While the film festival opening is promising for laying out the suspects and various motives the unnecessary and awkward "steal the will" sequence (the palm reading scene is downright embarrassing to watch) followed by the interminable gourmet dinner stalling scene take up so much time there is little left for the hasty solution. Only the golf course scene shows the series in its best light. Other than that all one has is the guilty pleasure of beholding Price's scenery chewing in all its glory.

Cissy and David vanish after the mid-point (with no payoff when David pointedly tells his sister to not worry about where he is going when leaving). Lawrence never returns after the opening (possibly because Mort Sahl is terrible in the few scenes he has) and Lionel after a perfunctory introduction near the start is gone until near the end when hastily the resolution is abruptly pulled together. The lawyer's convenient cardiac arrest death just clutters an already disconnected poorly developed plot. A great cast is shamefully wasted. What an ignominious end to a once promising series. Maybe cancellation was a mercy killing.

Maverick: Betrayal (1959) Season 2, Episode 25

Solid Jack Kelly entry is a character study

[8/10 · 21 September 2020]

From the first scene the thread that runs through to the conclusion is the mystery of Ann Saunders. The initial scene she is an innocent going west to be with family and find her place in the world. As things unfold she proves deceitful and mercenary as the truth is slowly revealed about her past.

Besides J. Pat O'Mally the character actors who appear include Red Barry as the testy Sheriff and Stanley Adams (Star Trek's Cyrano Jones) as the barber who gives Bart his first solid lead to the robbers.

Kelly was more adept at comedy than many give him credit. While Garner was the master of the one liner Kelly's sly expressions and body language could equally evoke a guffaw.

The gimmick of bandits being traced by the identification of damaged money they took was reused in the pilot of Hec Ramsey 10 years later (in that case he deliberately tears the bills before handing them over).

Despite the assertion in one of the other reviews the mention of Pitcairn Island at the end might well have gone right over the audience's head as to its historical significance. The Clark Gable Mutiny on the Bounty was 25 years in the past and the Marlon Brando remake two years in the future. The plausible explanation is Pitcairn was selected chiefly as a word that is funny sounding, much like rutabaga.

American Experience: Influenza 1918 (1998) Season 10, Episode 5

Despite shortcomings well worth watching

[8/10 · 28 March 2020]

I agree with the reviews that the balance is overly on personal recollection with minimal science (the manure burning anecdote is downright embarrassing, damaging credibility), lacks global sweep by being mostly U.S. bound and gives short shrift to the mistakes that made the impact far worse. But the interviews of survivors are riveting and often heartbreaking.

This has relevance in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic as a sobering reminder of why social distancing, self quarantine etc. however inconvenient is absolutely essential.

The "40 minute" YouTube video referred to in one of the other reviews is actually 51 minutes, is from the Smithsonian Channel and is titled "America's Hidden Stories: Pandemic 1918". I agree it helps fill some of the gaps of this program and is also well worth watching.

Two O'Clock Courage (1945)

Contrived but fun b picture noir

[7/10 · 20 May 2009]

A rather rushed whodunit, with the plot weaving all over the place littering the screen with suspects, motives and distractions. At the end we have an anti-climax solution followed by the real killer being revealed. Bewildering? Thankfully Mann's direction is solid and the main leads Tom Conway and Ann Rutherford do a good job putting over the somewhat unlikely plot.

The Noir Festival programmer at the American Cinematheque in his comments before the screening (where I saw this gem) quipped like many RKO b pictures this one has story contrivances that cut costs like most of the characters staying in the same hotel. But it gets a bit much when Conway's character gives the police the slip to search a room elsewhere in the hotel which results in a fight that the cops can hear through the ceiling. Talk about plot contrivance!

Nora Prentiss (1947)

overlong portrait of the downfall of an upright citizen

[14 May 2009]

I saw this as part of the Noir Festival held annually by the American Cinematheque. Somebody when it was over quipped "Now I know why I never heard of it before--it sure won't make me forget Mildred Pierce". The downfall of Dr. Talbot drags on and on in excessive detail until the film almost seems a parody. Nora Prentiss is presented as a victim of circumstance, even though she is the one who drives Talbot to leave his family, abandon his career and eventually basically fall to pieces. So you don't even have the guilty pleasure of her being a fallen woman or a scheming temptress. Great location shooting, excellent art direction and some adequate acting but not very memorable.

Desperate (1947)

great Noir, early Anthony Mann and Raymond Burr

[10 April 2009]

Saw this at the Noir Festival at the American Cinematheque. Very fast paced. This was Mann's breakthrough--the festival's programmer said Mann extensively rewrote the script, quipping he felt desperate himself to break out of the Bs. It wasn't long before Mann was launched on a long career doing westerns and spectacles.

Burr is the standout, playing a gang boss whose desperation to save his brother from the gallows drives the plot. Burr plays menace like no one else can! If you like his gruff cop on the Pat Novak radio show of the same period you'll love him in this film.

The ending sequence of a gunfight on a dark staircase is noir bravura, with residents of the apartment building hiding from the mayhem after peeking out. Also a standout is an earlier scene in a dark room with one light swinging back and forth as the hero is dealt a brutal beating and all you see is Burr and a grim confederate looking on as the light swings back and forth with dark puddles of shadow on their faces while you hear the violence. YEOW!

The Paula Poundstone Show (1992– )

an example of beancounter logic

[1/10 · 18 June 2008]

My memory is this show was among the first aired with a network producing it after the FCC lifted the ban on doing such (prior to 1970 many shows were produced by TV networks -- Gilligan and Wild Wild West being two examples from that era; Viacom was formed by taking the rights of the many shows CBS owned and had to divest). The buzz was ABC put it on their schedule because they owned it only to have it turn out there really was nothing beyond a title and a star attached to it. The show ended up being an uneasy hybrid that suffered from its creative uncertainty. To this day there is a suspicion that networks are biased toward shows they also produce; George Lopez complained that his show's cancellation was partly because ABC didn't have a stake in it and therefore wanted to make room for its own shows.

The Wild Wild West: The Night of the Man-Eating House (1966) Season 2, Episode 12

Great Gothic atmosphere, truly surreal

[10/10 · 17 December 2007]

A friend who is a fan of the show once described this episode and I finally had a chance to see it. Very odd, but engrossing. Great atmosphere, and sensational acting basically by a ensemble of 4. I didn't even realize Perry Mason stalwart William Talman played the Sheriff, and then in a bit of reverse casting Dorian Gray star Hurd Hatfield does a de-aging as Liston Lawrence Day. Conrad and Martin show their acting chops in the early part when the chief antagonist is a living house. Mid-way the plot does a 180 from family tragedy to a classic Wild Wild West evil plot to wreck vengeance. No one would dare do this on primetime today. Hatfield's harangue on his crusade to rid Texas of the Gringos is a masterful bit of speechmaking--you believe this guy in unhinged and out for revenge. Fabulous set and production!