Naked City (TV Series) Fallen Star (1959) User Reviews

Forget you ever saw me and i'll forget I saw you.

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 7 March 2014]

***SPOILERS*** It was heart breaking for hotel bell hop Larry Peters, Arnold Morris, to find out that his hero former all star football running back Jess Burdon, Alan Alda, was involved in covering up a death at his place of employment the Ledo Hotel. It was there that Jess set up out of towner attending a convention Harry Weeks, Guy Sorel, in a fixed card game where in finding out that he's been fleeced ended up getting killed for it!

With the cops finding out that Larry was delivering ice at room 403, the room where the homicide took place, about the time that Weeks was killed he was declared the prime suspect in the crime. Trying to get Burton, who in fact didn't kill Weeks, to turn himself in of just skip town until the heat's off has his partners who were responsible for cheating and thus killing him Al McBride, Morgan Storne, and Lou Curtis, played by former middleweight champion of the world Rocky Grazino,turn on Burdon in getting him to set up Larry for the kill.

Refusing to have his friend Larry murdered to keep his mouth shut has Burdon now on the hot seat in him now being targeted for murder by McBride & Curtis making matters for him even worse then they already are to say the least. The ending has Larry turn the tables on both Curtis & McBride but only at his hero's Burdon's expense! By keeping his mouth shut and trying to get Burdon to distance himself from the two thugs, Curtis & McBride, in the end ended up with him in fact getting murdered by them. That while trying to save Larry's life from being dropped off a 15 floor construction site that Burdon was to have him, with Curtiss & McBride's help, killed at.

A Card Game Murder

[gordonl56 · 8/10 · 7 May 2016]

NAKED CITY "Fallen Star" 1959

This is the 27th episode of the 1958 to 1963 Police series, THE NAKED CITY. The series covered stories of New York's 65th Precinct. The leads were played by John McIntire, James Franciscus, Harry Bellevar, Paul Burke and Horace McMahon. The first 39 episodes of the 138 episode run were half hour productions. The remaining episodes were expanded to an hour running time.

Robert Alda plays a former big-time football star who is now a drunk and a not to talented card sharp. Along with Al Morgenstern and Rocky Graziano, they hit the convention crowds looking for suckers. They then fleece the marks in a not so honest poker game.

This time they are pulling the con in a hotel where, bell boy Arnold Merritt is working. Merritt knows Alda and looked up to the man as a hero back when Alda was a star. Merritt is trying to convince the man to quit the racket and go straight. Alda is too much of a drunk to quit.

Shortly after Merritt leaves the room, the mark, Guy Sorel, figures out he is being played and threatens to call the Police. The muscle, Rocky Graziano, clocks the guy with a solid punch. Sorel goes down like a sack of potatoes smashing his head on a handy bit of furniture. The man is dead. The three card sharps grab up their take and split.

The next day, the cops are called when the body is discovered. Detectives, James Franciscus and Harry Bellevar are called to look into the death. The Detectives are soon having a word with bell boy, Merritt, who had been on shift the night before. Merritt tells the cops he does not know anything about the matter. The Police have also pulled some prints from the hotel room, those of Alda.

Matters quickly come to a head when Morgenstern decides to make sure that Merritt remains quiet. He intends to bump the kid off. He has Alda call up the kid for a meeting. A gun is jabbed in Merritt's ribs and he is forced to walk outside. Morgenstern intends to drop the lad off a high building.

Detective Franciscus has however been following Merritt and puts a stop to the plan, but not before Alda goes for a wingless bit of flight. Alda had tried to stop any harm coming to Merritt. The Detective has to put four rounds into Morgenstern to stop him. Graziano surrenders without a fight.

This is an interesting episode that has former big screen director, John Brahm at the helm. Brahm was well known for a string of film noir he directed, such as, LET US LIVE, THE LODGER, GUEST IN THE HOUSE, HANGOVER SQUARE, THE LOCKET and THE BRASHER DOUBLOON.

Ex pug, Graziano became a bit player after his days as a boxer ended. His story was turned into the 1956 film, SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME with Paul Newman playing Graziano.

Another clunker

[lor_ · 25 December 2023]

"Naked City" continues a losing streak with "Fallen Star", a corny story about hero worship that like the just-previous segment makes poor use of Manhattan locations and is corny, where an opportunity to trail-blaze is completely avoided.

Robert Alda coasts through the show as a former football hero reduced to shilling in poker games, taking money off out-of-towners in New York attending conventions. Guest star Rocky Graziano is part of the gang of penny ante bad guys, who kills a mark with his fists when the rube complains about the card game, setting Captain McMahon and the cops (namely Franciscus, now a one-man police force in "Naked City") on the trail of the murderers.

Police work is minimal with coincidence leading Jim to track them down at Manhattan Bowling Center (it no longer exists 60 years later), the only location used outside of studio interiors. Final shootout is lousy and sentimental.

Key plot item is that a young bellboy, well-played by Arnold Merritt (a teenage TV actor who never made it, his only film being "13 West Street") is taking care of Alda, and becomes the key witness in the crime. There are no women in the cast this week, and the obvious homoerotic nature of the two leads, old retread and young fan turned acolyte is completely avoided, understandable for 1959 TV. However, had Bert Leonard the producer boldly exploited this Gay subplot, albeit tastefully, history might have been made. All the accoutrements of the alternate Gay story fit the script but are carefully not followed up.