Quincy M.E. (TV Series) Sullied Be Thy Name (1977) User Reviews

Decent Quincy episode.

[poolandrews · 6/10 · 12 March 2008]

Quincy M.E.: Sullied Be Thy Name starts as Los Angeles coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) is called out to the scene of a death, Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) requested Quincy personally since the deceased Father Martin Torrell was a good friend. Father Torrell's body has been found in the bed in an apartment of a prostitute (E.J. Peaker) which if proved would destroy his impeccable name & reputation. Clues are thin on the ground but Quincy does find evidence that the body was moved although Father Torrell definitely died of natural causes, but who would want to move the body & why? Maybe porn king Charles Desskasa (John Saxon) had enough motive since Father Torrell was on a crusade against pornography & Desskasa in particular...

Episode 11 from season 2 this Quincy story was directed by Jackie Cooper & is an entertaining Quincy mystery. I wouldn't call Sullied Be Thy Name a Quincy classic since there isn't actually a murder in it, Father Torrell dies of natural causes & I like the murder mystery episodes so I can't say this is one of my favourites. It's OK though & still watchable, the story is a little different & the ending isn't too predictable either. The whole story does feel a little improbable though & the guilty party does take a hell of a chance for ultimately not that much gain, I mean why didn't they just phone the police & say Father Torrell died of a heart attack? It's natural causes & they would have been totally in the clear. Moving the body & leaving themselves open for all sorts of charges just didn't have that much benefit compared to the consequences if they were caught. Well, that's just my opinion anyway for what it's worth. I liked it though as it still had all the aspects which make for a good Quincy episode.

Here in Sullied Be Thy Name low budget film icon John Saxon makes a guest appearance as a publisher of a porn magazine called 'Phantasie'! We know he's a big porn king because he wears a really bad Hawaiian type shirt which he leaves unbuttoned down to his waist, he wears lots of expensive looking 'bling' jewellery as well just to complete the 'chav' look including lots of rings & even a large gold medallion around his neck!

Sullied Be Thy Name is a good watchable mystery Quincy episode, the lack of a murder doesn't help it & the eventual explanation & motivations are a little flimsy for me. Fans of the show should still like it.

Monahan channels Quincy

[rayoflite24 · 6/10 · 11 August 2015]

Sullied Be Thy Name starts off with Quincy (Jack Klugman) being called to a possible crime scene by Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) where a priest, Father Torrell, has been found dead in the bed of a call girl. Father Torrell was a highly respected friend of Monahan's who cannot believe he would solicit a prostitute, and therefore he wants Quincy on the job to uncover any evidence of wrongdoing. When the autopsy reveals that Father Torrell died of natural causes, Monahan does not accept the findings and continues to investigate insisting that there was foul play. He focuses his investigation on pornography publisher Charles Desskasa (John Saxon) since Father Torrell had mounted a very public campaign to shut down his publication.

I wouldn't characterize this as a bad episode if you can get past a few oddities. First off, there is a complete role reversal during the first half of the episode in that Quincy is the one saying that the deceased died of natural causes and there is nothing further to pursue, whereas Monahan is the one crying foul and insisting that there was a crime committed. Monahan has zero evidence to support his conclusion made at the very beginning other than a personal connection to the deceased which is very irresponsible behavior for a cop. It just seemed so hypocritical to me that Monahan is so open-minded and supportive of further investigation here when it is someone important to him, but not in any other cases where he just wants to wrap it up and fights Quincy tooth and nail if he doesn't concur with him.

If you can get around that and the cheesiness of the pornography publisher character and everything that goes along with him (John Saxon did his best with a lousy role), this is an OK episode that does feature an investigation. It does lose a point for me, however, because Monahan does most of the investigating here which is much less enjoyable than Quincy.

Lots of a priori assumptions in this one....

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 17 March 2013]

For once, Monahan insists that an accused man is innocent--though, as usual, it's all based on an a priori assumption (in other words, he made a conclusion before even investigating the case). Open-minded certainly is NOT one of this cop's personality traits throughout the series! The show begins with a priest being found dead in a prostitute's apartment. What makes it worse, is that the priest was an anti-pornography crusader! Rather quickly, Sam and Quincy are able to uncover some inconsistencies--such as proof that the body had been moved. In other words, he died somewhere else and was brought to the prostitute's bed. But this isn't enough--Quincy is convinced some deeper conspiracy is afoot and he's going to get to the bottom of it.

There is an inherent weakness in this episode. In previous shows, Quincy has an inquiring and open mind--looking at options no one else is considering. However, here Quincy is like Monahan--he automatically assumes the priest is innocent and that a pornographer is behind moving the body to discredit the man. Moreover, he investigates where the police should be investigating--interviewing the pornographer and trying to determine WHERE the death occurred--which really isn't the job of a coroner. Now it's not that I was rooting for the pornography king--but for Quincy to never consider that the priest was a hypocrite is sloppy and unrealistic. Overall, a weaker than average episode--and one that could have been a lot more interesting.