(TV Series)

(1974)

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9/10
MAYBE... WE CAN WORK SOMETHING OUT???
tcchelsey1 December 2023
Anything with Julie Sommars is worth watching.

The series was lucky to get her, as Julie was a very popular actress. Not surprisingly, she has a neat role here, playing a famous singer called Ruby Deems who makes the big mistake of returning home.

Cutting to the chase, she's tricked into thinking she killed someone by an old boyfriend... and you know there's going to be blackmail. What follows is a very clever setup, in which the supposedly dead woman is actually killed. Dead men or women tell no tales, right?

Well written by Ben Masselink, who wrote four episodes for the series, and a ton of other cop shows in his long career. Ben cranked out some interesting tales.

Julie, who retired many years ago, is best remembered co-starring on MATLOCK. The last reviewer questioned, whether or not Julie was actually singing in this episode. She did sing, but was known more as an actress, so the singing could be dubbed. Either way, she's fun to watch.

None other than Andrew Prine also co-stars, used quite a bit by producer Quinn Martin, best as slicksters. Young Linda Kelsey appears as Cathy, a few years before her co-starring role on LOU GRANT.

Watch Barnaby solve this one. SEASON 3 EPISODE 9 remastered CBS dvd box set.
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2/10
Nothing about this crime makes any sense....and the episode lost me early on because of it.
planktonrules13 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
The first 10 minutes or so of this episode of "Barnaby Jones" just doesn't make much sense....and it made watching the rest of the show difficult.

In the opening scene. A country music singer (Julie Sommars) goes to her dressing room. Out of the blue, a woman attacks her with scissors but stumbles and knocks herself out. Soon, the singer's manager comes in and announces that the lady is dead....and she should let him handle it. Well, after Ruby goes on stage, you see that this woman is NOT dead....just knocked out. She leaves with the manager. In the car, he tells her that he's going to use this fake death to manipulate Ruby into going on the road with her act...which really doesn't make sense. But what makes NO sense is that he then kills the woman. Why?? Why would he kill her? Why would she try to stab this country music singer? Why would Ruby not just call the police as she's done nothing wrong?! None of this made any sense...and left me feeling like the writer really fell down on this one.

As for the rest of the show, it's pretty standard faire for "Barnaby Jone"....which isn't nearly enough to save a bad story idea. One worth skipping unless you insist on watching them all.

By the way, I have no idea if Ms. Sommars was singing these numbers or not. If she was, that's mighty impressive. This really is the only thing impressive about this misfire of a show.
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