I won't repeat again the topic of this tale. But if you are a movie buff and aware of the Hollywood story of the late fifties, you can't forget the Lana Turner vs her late husband the mobster Johnny Stompanato murder case. She stabbed him one night, probably denfending her daughter against him, or let her being accused instead of the teenage child at this time. The Lana Turner's daughter was eventually put on trial but released after self defense was proved. So, when I watch this episode, I can't prevent myself to think about this affair. Of course you haev a couple of different lines here, with the actual affair it is inspired from. But I maintain that there is some links between both.
4 Reviews
Don't you ever call me Chickie again!
kapelusznik1828 April 2014
***SPOILERS***Things got completely out of hand at the Walda Price, Ruth Roman, apartment as we see at the start of this "Naked City" episode with notorious drunk and womanizer Tiberius "Toby" Bennington Tennant the 3rd, Gene Lyons, found dead with an icepick in his chest. That after a wild confrontation with Walda and her 15 year old daughter Jessica, Zina Bethune. With the police headed by that sensitive soul Det. Adam Flint, Paule Burke, on the scene it's Walda who takes full responsibility in Toby's death claiming it was an act of self defense in protecting her 15 year old daughter's honor if not her very life.
The story that Walda tells the cops doesn't stand up to scrutiny and it's her estrange husband mobster Cary Glennon, Jack Lord, who tries to give her a hand in exonerating herself but she doesn't want any of his help or advice. It turned out that after she left him Gary was convicted of extortion and spent the next four years in the can:Sing Sing Prison. Leaving her and Jessica to fend for themselves without a bread winner or father, for the very young Jessica,in the family.
***SPOILERS*** As expected Walda's story of self defense falls completely apart and leaves her as well as Jessica, in going along with it, ripe for a change of both lying under oath as well as, in Walda's case,1st degree murder! It's both Det. Flint and mobster ex-husband Gary Glennon, a very strange combination, who finally get both Walda and Jessica to come clean with the truth in Toby's death that in fact not only made a lot more sense but was also far easier to defend then the moronic story that they concocted that made then look far more guilty then they really were! Just by being honest and telling the truth in what happened would have saved both mother and daughter a lot of suffering that they put themselves through by lying about it!
The story that Walda tells the cops doesn't stand up to scrutiny and it's her estrange husband mobster Cary Glennon, Jack Lord, who tries to give her a hand in exonerating herself but she doesn't want any of his help or advice. It turned out that after she left him Gary was convicted of extortion and spent the next four years in the can:Sing Sing Prison. Leaving her and Jessica to fend for themselves without a bread winner or father, for the very young Jessica,in the family.
***SPOILERS*** As expected Walda's story of self defense falls completely apart and leaves her as well as Jessica, in going along with it, ripe for a change of both lying under oath as well as, in Walda's case,1st degree murder! It's both Det. Flint and mobster ex-husband Gary Glennon, a very strange combination, who finally get both Walda and Jessica to come clean with the truth in Toby's death that in fact not only made a lot more sense but was also far easier to defend then the moronic story that they concocted that made then look far more guilty then they really were! Just by being honest and telling the truth in what happened would have saved both mother and daughter a lot of suffering that they put themselves through by lying about it!
Ruth Roman & Jack Lord
jarrodmcdonald-15 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Ruth Roman shines in this 1960 episode of The Naked City which casts her in a role that is obviously based on Lana Turner. The plot is slightly changed from the real-life murder of Lana's mobster boyfriend (slain by her daughter Cheryl Crane). In this version, the woman is divorced from a gangster played by Jack Lord and will go to any lengths to protect the fourteen year-old daughter, who is involved in another man's murder. In the opening shots, we see the murder weapon is an ice pick, and that the death is accidental. Roman's character, fearing the police will never believe it was all an accident, concocts an elaborate tale that drags her daughter deeper into a web of lies. Roman is truly riveting in a scene where it all starts to unravel, and she winds up in jail facing Lord through a set of bars, bargaining for her daughter's well-being.
Mediocre script
lor_13 February 2024
Stirling Silliphant set a high bar for writing on "Naked City" and hack writer Ellis Kadison handed in a by-the-numbers story for this subpar episode.
It doesn't resemble the series' usual format, with an uninteresting starting point, perfunctory police work, and then everything sorted out in a flashback telling us what really happened. Zero action for the cops, just Burke getting a confession by putting on the pressure.
Young Zina Bethune, a wonderful starlet who deserved stardom, is showcased doing some fine dramatics, including starting the show with terrific screaming. It boils down to a scandal of the Lana Turner real-life variety: mom & daughter fighting over the same creepy guy. Ruth Roman steps in right out of a '40s Woman's Picture as Zina's mom, and most disappointing is a stock, boring role for Jack Lord as her gangster father -crying out for him to play a bad guy, but Lord is 100% honorable even on the wrong side of the law.
It doesn't resemble the series' usual format, with an uninteresting starting point, perfunctory police work, and then everything sorted out in a flashback telling us what really happened. Zero action for the cops, just Burke getting a confession by putting on the pressure.
Young Zina Bethune, a wonderful starlet who deserved stardom, is showcased doing some fine dramatics, including starting the show with terrific screaming. It boils down to a scandal of the Lana Turner real-life variety: mom & daughter fighting over the same creepy guy. Ruth Roman steps in right out of a '40s Woman's Picture as Zina's mom, and most disappointing is a stock, boring role for Jack Lord as her gangster father -crying out for him to play a bad guy, but Lord is 100% honorable even on the wrong side of the law.
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