THE DETECTIVES – The Long Jump – 1960
This one is episode 30 from the 97 episode run of, THE DETECTIVES. This series starred Robert Taylor and ran between 1959 and 1962. The first two seasons ran at a half hour and the last season had a runtime of an hour. The series followed the detective squad in a big city precinct. Cast regulars included, Mark Goddard, Russell Thorson, Tige Andrews, Lee Farr and Adam West. Robert Taylor headlines as Police Captain, Matt Holbrook.
The detectives are called out to deal with a man on a hotel window ledge. The man, Adam Williams is clinging to the outside wall of the 8th floor of a downtown hotel. Needles to saw a large crowd gathers and disrupts the pedestrian and automobile traffic.
First on the scene is Detective Russell Thorson. He tries to talk William's back into his room. Williams creeps further out every time Thorson make a move. Thorson decide to play it safe and stays put. The hotel manager, Raymond Bailey, is being a pain to the Police. He is worried about business for the hotel.
Down the street from the crowds watching Williams, two men, John Milford and Frank Evans stand outside a high end, jewelry shop. The two loiter around as the stores on the block empty of customers heading to watch the possible suicide jumper.
Finally, Captain of Detectives, Robert Taylor is called in to see if he can talk Williams down. William's accepts a smoke from Taylor and the two talk. It strikes Taylor as odd that William's keeps looking at his watch for the time. He has Detective Thorson and Goddard, do an id check on Williams pronto like.
The id check comes back that our supposed jumper is a carnival stunt person. Williams is really quite comfortable with heights. Taylor wonders, why all the drama? Williams takes one last look at his watch and calmly agrees to come back inside. Taylor smells a rat and thinks the whole event is a decoy for something else. He has his boys grab as many uniform types as are handy and check all the local retail stores.
And right he is as the two men outside the jewelry store now enter the nearly vacant business. Milford and Evans yard out their pistols and proceed to empty the jewel cases. "A big haul!" they laugh as they head for the exit. Not quite, it now turns out. A half dozen police are standing in the way with weapons pointed. The crooks know the jig is up.
It turns out that Williams was indeed the decoy for the bandit types. Williams was broke and needed a supply of ready cash.
A smooth moving episode with a nice look to it, one look behind the camera explains this. Handling the direction duty is Paul Wendkos. The long working (1957-98) helmsman is best known for the film noir, THE BURGLAR. Wendkos would end up doing several hundred TV episodes from series as varied as, THE UNTOUCHABLES, BIG VALLEY, THE FBI, THE INVADERS, I SPY and DR. KILDARE.
On duty for the cinematography end, is three time, Oscar nominated, William Snyder. Snyder's big screen films include, THE PRINCESS AND THE PIRATE, RENEGADES, BANDIT OF SHERWOOD FOREST, THE MAN FROM Colorado, FLYING LEATHERNECKS, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and THE CONQUERER.
This one is episode 30 from the 97 episode run of, THE DETECTIVES. This series starred Robert Taylor and ran between 1959 and 1962. The first two seasons ran at a half hour and the last season had a runtime of an hour. The series followed the detective squad in a big city precinct. Cast regulars included, Mark Goddard, Russell Thorson, Tige Andrews, Lee Farr and Adam West. Robert Taylor headlines as Police Captain, Matt Holbrook.
The detectives are called out to deal with a man on a hotel window ledge. The man, Adam Williams is clinging to the outside wall of the 8th floor of a downtown hotel. Needles to saw a large crowd gathers and disrupts the pedestrian and automobile traffic.
First on the scene is Detective Russell Thorson. He tries to talk William's back into his room. Williams creeps further out every time Thorson make a move. Thorson decide to play it safe and stays put. The hotel manager, Raymond Bailey, is being a pain to the Police. He is worried about business for the hotel.
Down the street from the crowds watching Williams, two men, John Milford and Frank Evans stand outside a high end, jewelry shop. The two loiter around as the stores on the block empty of customers heading to watch the possible suicide jumper.
Finally, Captain of Detectives, Robert Taylor is called in to see if he can talk Williams down. William's accepts a smoke from Taylor and the two talk. It strikes Taylor as odd that William's keeps looking at his watch for the time. He has Detective Thorson and Goddard, do an id check on Williams pronto like.
The id check comes back that our supposed jumper is a carnival stunt person. Williams is really quite comfortable with heights. Taylor wonders, why all the drama? Williams takes one last look at his watch and calmly agrees to come back inside. Taylor smells a rat and thinks the whole event is a decoy for something else. He has his boys grab as many uniform types as are handy and check all the local retail stores.
And right he is as the two men outside the jewelry store now enter the nearly vacant business. Milford and Evans yard out their pistols and proceed to empty the jewel cases. "A big haul!" they laugh as they head for the exit. Not quite, it now turns out. A half dozen police are standing in the way with weapons pointed. The crooks know the jig is up.
It turns out that Williams was indeed the decoy for the bandit types. Williams was broke and needed a supply of ready cash.
A smooth moving episode with a nice look to it, one look behind the camera explains this. Handling the direction duty is Paul Wendkos. The long working (1957-98) helmsman is best known for the film noir, THE BURGLAR. Wendkos would end up doing several hundred TV episodes from series as varied as, THE UNTOUCHABLES, BIG VALLEY, THE FBI, THE INVADERS, I SPY and DR. KILDARE.
On duty for the cinematography end, is three time, Oscar nominated, William Snyder. Snyder's big screen films include, THE PRINCESS AND THE PIRATE, RENEGADES, BANDIT OF SHERWOOD FOREST, THE MAN FROM Colorado, FLYING LEATHERNECKS, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and THE CONQUERER.