***SPOILER ALERT*** Obviously based on the 1949 shooting of Philadelphia Phillie all star infielders Eddie Watkus the "Naked City" episode "Idylls of a Running Back" has star football half-back and All American hero Elvin Rhodes, Aldo Rey, get blown away by a crazed and love sick fan who just can't get enough of him. It's the unstable and infatuated with love for her idol New York City waitress Elenore Ann Hubber, Sandy Dennis, who did a number on the guy, with three slugs in his gut, when Rhodes answered the bell in his hotel room only to find himself looking down the barrel of a .38 revolver. Elenore for her part made no attempt to hide her crime telling the cop in charge of the Rhodes shooting the deeply in touch with his inner emotions Det. Adam Flint, Paul Burke, that she in fact blew the guy away for very personal reasons. He was leaving poor Elenore for his old lady back in California Norma played by Nancy Wickwire. It's Rhodes whom Elenore claimed promised her that he would divorce Norma in the off season just so he can end up, I'm not quite certain that claimed that Rhodes planned to marry Elenore, in the shack with her!
As for poor and hospitalized Elvin Rhodes his both professional career as a football player as well as marriage is now on the rocks. That with Rhodes not certain if can ever play football again and with now everyone lead by the now, in another feel good cause he got himself into, womens rights advocate Det.Flint who took Elenore's side! That without him as much as looking at the evidence that in fact convicted her and exposed Elenore as a fraud in her so-called love affair with Elvin Rhodes! Rhodes despite his injuries soon takes the law into his own hands and track down Elenore at the dinner she works at and in his attempting to get her to tell the truth and why she blasted him ends up re-injuring himself as it took some half dozen consumer in the dinner to subdue him. The final shoe to drop on poor Elvin Rhodes' already battered head was his once loving wife Norma walking out on him in believing that he's the heel that's depicted in all the newspapers and TV & radio news shows. With all the fake evidence in numerous football game tickets hotel reservations and even a fur coat that Rhodes supposedly gave her, that Elenore gathered on Rhodes to frame him, that his emotionally hurt wife Norma now believes that he was not just playing the field on but off the gridiron as well!
***SPOILERS*** Happily for Rhodes as well as Norma it's Elenore's nerdy and powder puff, if you just sneeze you can knock him out, boyfriend Harry Culverin played by William Daniels who's a total opposite of the hard as nails and battling ram like Rhodes who blew the whistle on her. That by Harry revealing to Det Flint the obsessive fascination she had for Rhodes ever since he took her out on a date to see him play in Yankee Stadium over a year ago! It was Elenore's crazed obsession with her hero Elvin Rhodes that lead her to gun the poor guy down when her boyfriend Harry was going to expose her hot and heavy love affair with Rhodes for what it really was: A high school girl's fantasy for the star football player that she fell madly in love with but knows that she could never have!
P.S For once in his life the over sensitive for all of humanity Det. Adam Flint had to face the stark reality in that he's no different, in him having the most bleeding of liberal bleeding hearts, then the rest of us. Instead of looking at the hard facts in the case which were right in front of him he jumped to conclusions and made a complete jerk of himself. That in Det. Flint instead coming to the aid of a gun down and total innocent man, Elvin Rhodes, he instead ended up at the head of a lynch mob with him providing it the rope to hang the guy! And Det.Flint's apology to Rhodes at the end of the "Naked City" episode did, like he himself admitted, nothing to heal the emotional wounds that he, like the psychical ones by Elenore, caused him!
As for poor and hospitalized Elvin Rhodes his both professional career as a football player as well as marriage is now on the rocks. That with Rhodes not certain if can ever play football again and with now everyone lead by the now, in another feel good cause he got himself into, womens rights advocate Det.Flint who took Elenore's side! That without him as much as looking at the evidence that in fact convicted her and exposed Elenore as a fraud in her so-called love affair with Elvin Rhodes! Rhodes despite his injuries soon takes the law into his own hands and track down Elenore at the dinner she works at and in his attempting to get her to tell the truth and why she blasted him ends up re-injuring himself as it took some half dozen consumer in the dinner to subdue him. The final shoe to drop on poor Elvin Rhodes' already battered head was his once loving wife Norma walking out on him in believing that he's the heel that's depicted in all the newspapers and TV & radio news shows. With all the fake evidence in numerous football game tickets hotel reservations and even a fur coat that Rhodes supposedly gave her, that Elenore gathered on Rhodes to frame him, that his emotionally hurt wife Norma now believes that he was not just playing the field on but off the gridiron as well!
***SPOILERS*** Happily for Rhodes as well as Norma it's Elenore's nerdy and powder puff, if you just sneeze you can knock him out, boyfriend Harry Culverin played by William Daniels who's a total opposite of the hard as nails and battling ram like Rhodes who blew the whistle on her. That by Harry revealing to Det Flint the obsessive fascination she had for Rhodes ever since he took her out on a date to see him play in Yankee Stadium over a year ago! It was Elenore's crazed obsession with her hero Elvin Rhodes that lead her to gun the poor guy down when her boyfriend Harry was going to expose her hot and heavy love affair with Rhodes for what it really was: A high school girl's fantasy for the star football player that she fell madly in love with but knows that she could never have!
P.S For once in his life the over sensitive for all of humanity Det. Adam Flint had to face the stark reality in that he's no different, in him having the most bleeding of liberal bleeding hearts, then the rest of us. Instead of looking at the hard facts in the case which were right in front of him he jumped to conclusions and made a complete jerk of himself. That in Det. Flint instead coming to the aid of a gun down and total innocent man, Elvin Rhodes, he instead ended up at the head of a lynch mob with him providing it the rope to hang the guy! And Det.Flint's apology to Rhodes at the end of the "Naked City" episode did, like he himself admitted, nothing to heal the emotional wounds that he, like the psychical ones by Elenore, caused him!