Naked City (TV Series) The Apple Falls Not Far from the Tree (1963) User Reviews

Solid Drama with Several Notable Guest Performances

[lrrap · 8/10 · 9 May 2020]

Again, Naked City offers us the opportunity to see a number of distinguished New York performers whose screen appearances were all too limited.

Alexander Scourby--probably the greatest, most iconic voiceover-narrator in entertainment history, appears as the coddling, over-protective dad whose "buddy-buddy" relationship with his son bears some pretty unfortunate fruit; he ends up slapping (and punching) the gradually unhinged Keir Dullea silly, while his sullen, alkie wife-- excellently portrayed by well-known stage actress Louise Platt-- watches in horror. It's Ms. Platt's very convincing inebriated condition throughout the episode that indicates the family's gnawing dysfunction--which can only be masked for so long as the plot unfolds. Rather unpleasant stuff, but very well acted and directed.

But, for me, it's the rare chance to see actor Roy Poole-- one of the most distinctive of the wonderful stage actors of the era--in the pivotal (but, unfortunately minimal) role of Wells, the blackmailing janitor--- that adds that extra "zing" which makes this episode special. Six years later, Mr. Poole would don an unkempt, white wig and Quaker-style hat to portray crusty old Steven Hopkins in Broadway's (and later the film version of) "1776", in which he was practically unrecognizable. A truly distinctive performer.

Paul Burke performs here with eye-patch; I forget if there was an actual plot-related reason for this in the previous episode, or if he and the director just decided to go for a "new look". LR

Take him out the back so his wife won't see him

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 29 April 2013]

***SPOILERS*** This "Naked City" episode is As much about a generation gap as well as murder story. It involves spoiled rotten to the core Les Gerrick, Keir Dullea, who together with his equally spoiled rotten friends Buddy & Ron, Ralph Williams & Mart Hulswit, get their kicks in robbing their neighbors apartments when there away mostly attending Mozart & Beethoven concerts in Lincoln Center. It's when robbing one of their neighbors of her earrings that the trio is spotted by the building janitor Wells, Roy Poole, who uses that information to try to blackmail the three for $1,000.00 in keep quite money.

The trio later outdo themselves by breaking into the Renigar's apartment and having Les bashing Sol Reniga, no name in the shows credits, skull in with a heavy camera thus killing him. The three nice "collage boys" take off trying to establish an alibi but their car with Les dead drunk behind the wheel crashes into a fire hydrant where they all end up getting arrested by the police lead by an eye patched, he must have thought he was playing Israeli General Moshe Dayan, NYPD Detective Adam Flint, Paul Burke. It's later when Les's dad Mr. Walter Gerrick, Alex Scourby, showed up to bail his boy out that he realized that his troubles together with his son Les had just began. It's the janitor Roy Pool who put two and two together would soon realized that Les was responsible for Mr. Reniger's murder, as well as robbing other apartments in the building, and upped the price to keep quite from one to five thousands smackers.

***SPOILERS*** With Mr. Garrick going against his better judgment in both covering up and paying blackmail to keep his ungrateful son Les out of the slammer or even worse the Sing Sing electric chair he goes to see Poole with the 5 G's in payoff money at a local prearranged bus depot. What Mr. Gerrick didn't know is that the cops got to Poole first and set up a sting. That all ended up with him and his son Les getting the cuffs slapped on them instead.

P.S One of the most amazing scenes in this "Naked City" episode or in all of TV broadcast history is when Les Gerrick for what seemed like no reason at all flipped out and went completely crazy in front of his startled father. For that scene alone, even though it was on TV not in the movies, actor Keir Dullea should have gotten the Academy Award for best actor hands down!