The Well-Dressed Termite

Watching "Naked City" chronologically, this segment is by far the worst to date (as of 1/2-way through Season 2). Culprit is Jay Dratler, writer who contributed to such classics as "Laura" and "Call Northside 777". He really stunk up the place this time.

Burke puts the pieces together gradually of a complex mystery story, unusual for a series where generally we have a criminal (or sometimes several) and watch them commit a crime and then get tracked down and caught. Direct and simple.

This time the convoluted plot and its MacGuffins make no sense for quite a while, infuriating McMahon. I was infuriated too, as Dratler's plot twists are ridiculous, matched by terrible dialogue that is quotable only for its idiocy. Nadir is a murder in a bathtub that is telegraphed (by director Laslo Benedek, whose work I usually admire) and so poorly done I almost turned off the show.

Jack Klugman is solid as the main character while Norma Crane as his wife is saddled with an unplayable, laughably phony role. It all turns out to be about industrial espionage and bugging, with a silly "eerie" sound effect played occasionally to make the wiretapping seem like exotic B-movie science-fiction.

By the way, the meaningless episode title earned my personal Razzie award this year.