Hi, television. It’s been a while since I’ve really had time to watch you!
Here’s what I watched this week:
Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders (Netflix)
This is the latest in the true crime docuseries that Joe Berlinger has been doing for Netflix. Over three episodes, this series told the story of a series of Tylenol poisonings that occurred in the early 80s. The show featured the last record interview with James Lewis, the number one suspect. Personally, I thought Lewis came across like he was guilty as Hell. If you’re like me and you suffer from frequent headaches, exercise some caution before watching this one.
Good American Family (Hulu)
I finally watched this true crime miniseries this week. Good American Family centers around the story of Natalia Grace, a seven year-old with dwarfism who was abandoned by her adoptive parents. Her adoptive mother (played by Ellen Pompeo) claimed that Natalia (played by Imogen Faith Reid) was actually a 22 year-old con artist.
It’s an interesting story and the miniseries featured good performances from Pompeo and Mark Duplass, cast as her husband. But, at 8 episodes, the whole thing felt a bit overextended and the show itself was pretty inconsistent. As so often happens with these Hulu true crime docuseries, the attempts to use the story to critique and satirize middle America fell flat.
Just after surviving a difficult mission, Lt. Hanley (Rick Jason) and Kirby (Jack Hogan) are given orders to guide an artistic demolitions expert named Cpl. Velasquez (Charles Bronson) to a German observation post that sits on top of a rocky mountain. Their objective is to blow up the enemy post so a group of ten thousand Allied soldiers can cross the valley below on the very next day. Complicating the journey to the targeted destination is Velasquez’s slow pace and fascination with the local geology. This lack of focus causes plenty of problems with Hanley who just wants to get to the location and blow it to smithereens. Once they finally make it to the observation post, Velasquez spots a vault dug into the side of mountain and determines it’s the perfect spot to set his charges. However, when he goes into the vault, he sees that it is full of priceless sculptures and works of art, and he can’t bring himself to blow them up. But if they don’t complete their mission, 10,000 Allied soldiers will soon be sitting ducks. Will Velasquez come to his senses in time to save the men?!!
Today, I watched my old VHS tape of this season 3 episode of COMBAT, called “Heritage,” which premiered in April of 1965. When I was in junior high, I was at Wal-Mart and they had a big bin of VHS tapes, and in those bins, they had tapes that would contain one episode of the series. I don’t remember now who the guest stars were on the other tapes, but I certainly got excited when I saw an episode with Charles Bronson for sale. Since this was in the late 80’s, my tape is over 35 years old, and it’s still holding up well. “Heritage” is the only episode of COMBAT that I’ve ever seen. The series stars Rick Jason as Lt. Hanley and Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders. Morrow just makes a very short appearance here at the very beginning, with the episode focusing on the characters played by Jason and Bronson. The other primary character in this episode, who goes by the name of Kirby, is played by Jack Hogan who appeared in 111 episodes of the series. He’s more in the background of the episode as Bronson and Jason take center stage.
Charles Bronson plays a much different type of character than he would go on to play in most of movies from the 70’s and 80’s. His Cpl. Velasquez can be described as more of a lover and not a fighter. Rather than focus on getting to his target, he’d rather take his time and soak in the interesting and varied rock formations along the way. Rather than easily taking out the enemy and saving his fellow soldiers, he can’t bring himself to destroy priceless works of art, pieces he calls our “God-given…immortal heritage!” It takes a little getting used to, but Bronson turns in a strong performance as a man who has something much more beautiful on his mind than just following orders and killing. This character and performance contrasts greatly with Rick Jason’s character who just wants to complete his mission and get back to base. It’s a shame that war puts people into these kinds of positions where you have to destroy some amazing things in order to save others, but that’s just how it is. I thank God that there have been so many brave men and women who have done what it takes to give us the freedom that we enjoy every day. Even though it was gonna hurt, Cpl. Velasquez, as played by Charles Bronson, is the kind of man who does what it takes.
Overall, “Heritage” is a good episode that’s elevated by Bronson’s excellent performance. It’s a prime example of just what a great character actor Bronson was before hitting the big time as an international superstar a few short years later. I may have to check out a few more episodes of the COMBAT series after this!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to Shane Kippel!
Shane Kippel, as I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, played Spinner Mason on Degrassi: The Next Generation. He started out as the school bully but, by the time the third season began, he was pretty much the heart of the ensemble. How cool was Shane Kippel? He was so cool that Spinner ended up getting held back three times just so there would be an excuse to keep Kippel on the show!
(“What type of idiot fails his own language!?” Spinner once said when confronted with his grade in English. Oh, Spinner!)
Today’s song of the day features Shane Kippel on drums. From Degrassi, here is Downtown Sasquatch with Dust!
(The other members of the band are Jake Epstein on vocals, Aubrey Graham on guitar, and Adamo Ruggiero on bass.)
Andy Griffith’s “What It Was, Was Football” is a classic, comic monologue about a naive country preacher who stumbles upon a football game and tries to make sense of something he’s never seen before. Needless to say, it’s hilarious, and it highlights just what a great comedian Griffith is. In honor of what would have been Andy Griffith’s 99th birthday, I gave it a listen, and now I share it with you. Enjoy!
Andy Griffith would have been 99 years old today. This man has brought so much joy into my life over the years, and that joy has primarily come from his performance as Sheriff Andy Taylor on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW (1960-1968). There are 249 episodes of the classic TV series, and I have watched every single one of them many times. I love Andy’s relationship with his deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts), and their adventures lead to so many laughs, but the shows that touch me the most emotionally involve his relationship with his son, Opie (Ron Howard). There are several episodes throughout the series where Andy will put his trust in Opie even when he’s unsure if it’s the right thing to do. One of those episodes is the first episode of season 3, entitled “Mr. McBeevee.” It’s one of my favorite episodes of the entire series, and it illustrates the special relationship between a dad and his son.
This episode of the classic western TV series RAWHIDE opens as Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) and his group of drovers agree to drive 750 head of cattle belonging to rancher Mason Woodruff (Larry Gates) to market. The deal gets off to a bad start when Roman Bedford (Brendon Boone), who’s part of Yates’ outfit, finds himself trying to romance Vicki Woodruff (Jill Haworth), the daughter of the ranch owner. Woodruff’s foreman and world class A-hole, Del Lingman (Charles Bronson) sees Roman making his move and gets pissed. You see, Del wants Vicki for himself, so he tries to bully Roman into a gunfight. Luckily for young Roman, Rowdy and Mason Woodruff are able to momentarily diffuse the situation before the cowboy can be blown away by the experienced gunman. Unable to accept the humiliation that he suffered at the hands of Del, Roman challenges him to a duel to settle the score. Roman is a good shot, but he’s not a fast draw, so a couple of the men with Yates’ crew, Jed Colby (John Ireland) and Simon Blake (Raymond St. Jacques), try to teach him some tricks that just may give him a chance against Del’s superior gunplay. To complicate matters even further, Mason Woodruff has a hidden criminal past that Roman may know about. Because of this, the rancher has another reason to want Roman dead, and Del Lingman is just the man to take care of the problem. Who will survive the duel at daybreak?!!
As hard as it is to believe, my viewing of “Duel at Daybreak” is the only episode of RAWHIDE that I’ve ever watched, and it’s special to me for two reasons. First, the episode premiered on my mom’s 14th birthday, November 16, 1965. And second, it’s the only time that tough guy icons Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson would appear on screen together. For historical reference, this was the last season of RAWHIDE, with only three episodes of the classic series to come after this. Eastwood was at the beginning of his legendary movie career after filming FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965) for director Sergio Leone. Bronson, who was already a well-respected character actor, was two years away from making THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) and three years away from breaking out as an international superstar by playing Harmonica in Leone’s masterpiece, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968).
For the episode itself, Charles Bronson is the true standout as Del Lingman. He’s the kind of mean SOB who would goad a man into a gunfight, kill him, and then sit down for dinner without a care in the world. Bronson has a face that makes for a good villain, and he often played the bad guy in his early TV shows and movies. He projects real menace and danger in this role. Clint Eastwood’s Rowdy Yates may be the star of the show and the trail boss, but he’s a bit more of a secondary character in this specific episode as the main tension is between Bronson and the young cowboy played by Brendon Boone. Looking back now, it’s an incredible missed opportunity that the “duel at daybreak” wouldn’t feature Eastwood versus Bronson. Eastwood mostly tries, and fails, to play peacemaker in the episode. The two legends do exchange a potentially badass back and forth when Eastwood is trying to deescalate the situation and keep Bronson from shooting the young cowboy over a little mud on his pants:
Rowdy Yates: “Putting a high price on a pair of pants, ain’t you?”
Del Lingman: “Perhaps you’d like to pay for them.”
Rowdy Yates: “Any time, mister.”
It’s a good scene, but it’s just a shame that they didn’t get a chance to mix it up at the end.
As Charles Bronson’s biggest fan, I enjoyed seeing a couple of actors who worked with him in the 80’s. John Ireland, who plays Jed Colby in this episode, co-starred with Bronson in MESSENGER OF DEATH (1988) as Morman patriarch Zenus Beechum. It’s not one of Bronson’s best, but one of the highlights of the film is its strong cast. Ireland has roles in so many great films, including MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946), RED RIVER (1948), GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957) and FAREWELL MY LOVELY (1975). He would appear in 11 episodes of RAWHIDE. Raymond St. Jacques, who plays Simon Baker in this episode, has a very memorable role in Bronson’s disturbing hitman thriller THE EVIL THAT MEN DO (1984). In a unique twist in the Bronson filmography, Jacques’ bodyguard character Randolph gets duped into thinking he’s about to get some three-way action with Bronson and Theresa Saldana only to end up dead with a knife sticking out of his throat. It’s a memorable meet and kill. I noticed he played a character named “Coffin” Ed Johnson in COTTON COMES TO HARLEM (1970). With a name like that, he’s got to be good! He would appear in 13 episodes of RAWHIDE.
Overall, “Duel at Daybreak” is a special episode of RAWHIDE since it put Eastwood and Bronson on screen together for the only time in their careers. I wish they could have fought with fists or guns, but it wasn’t meant to be. Beggars can’t be choosers, and at this point, I’ll gladly take what we got.
Bret Maverick (James Garner) stops off and visits his old friend Jed Christianson (Edgar Buchanan). Jed is desperate to break up the hot and heavy romance between his beautiful and wild daughter, Carrie (Abby Dalton), and a good for nothing gunslinger named Red Hardigan (Clint Eastwood). He asks Bret to stay for a while and help break them up. Not really wanting to get involved, Bret changes his tune when he’s offered $1,000 to hang around for a week. There is one serious problem, though, and that’s the fact that Red has a reputation for being extremely fast and accurate with a gun, and he’s not afraid to use it. When Bret actually sees a demonstration of Red’s shooting skills, he knows he’s going to have to come up with a plan to drive Red away that avoids a gunfight at all costs. And that’s exactly what he does. I won’t give away exactly what he does, but it involves his brother Bart (Jack Kelly) and a notorious gunslinger named John Wesley Hardin, and it’s genius!
As we continue to celebrate the birthday of Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood, I decided I’d watch his 1959 guest starring appearance on the TV series MAVERICK with James Garner. I recently watched Eastwood and Garner work together in the enjoyable “geezers in space” movie SPACE COWBOYS (2000), which came out about 40 years after this. With that fresh in mind, I especially enjoyed seeing them work together while they were both in their prime. “Duel at Sundown” is the first episode I’ve watched of the MAVERICK TV series, and I must say that I had a ball with it. James Garner’s effortless charisma and laid back demeanor as Bret Maverick make his character right down my alley. Nothing seems to rattle the man, and he’s as funny as hell! As of the time of this review, all five seasons of the series are streaming on PlutoTV, so I’m planning on catching some more episodes as I can. As far as the young Clint Eastwood, who was 29 when this show premiered, he definitely looks the part of a future star. Maybe I’m just being influenced by what he’s accomplished over the last 60 years, but his steely intensity, his great head of hair, and his way with the ladies are all on display. And even though his character of Red is a hot headed gunslinger who’s driven by jealousy, there are a couple of times when he flashes that million dollar smile, and you can’t help but like him. For me, it’s fun to watch these megastars in roles when they were just working actors trying to build a career. You can usually see the qualities that will make them the most popular actors in the world, but they’re still going to lose to the star of the series at the end. It’s a rite of passage.
Overall, “Duel at Sundown” is an excellent introduction to the MAVERICK TV series for me. It’s funny and actually quite clever, as evidenced by the scheme that Bret Maverick comes up with at the end to keep from having to face Red in a gunfight. But the true highlight is seeing Garner, in one of his signature roles, working with a young Eastwood who’s destined for stardom. I highly recommend it!
Everyone knows that Sean Connery made his debut of James Bond in 1962’s Dr. No but what they may not know is that Sean Connery was not the first actor to play James Bond. James Bond made his first appearance 8 years earlier when an American television show called Climax! presented a 48-minute adaptation of Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, Casino Royale.
In this version of Casino Royale, James Bond was known as Jimmy Bond and he was about as American as you can get. (Felix Leiter, meanwhile, was now English and named Clarence Leiter). Jimmy Bond was played by Barry Nelson, an actor who is probably best known for playing the blandly friendly hotel manager in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Casino Royale’s villain, Le Chiffre, was played by none other than Peter Lorre.
This version of Casino Royale was initially meant to serve as a pilot for a weekly television series but, perhaps fortunately, the Climax version of Casino Royale didn’t get much attention when it was originally aired. According to Sinclair McKay’s authoritative Bond book, The Man With The Golden Touch, this version of Casino Royale was forgotten about until a copy of it was discovered in the 1980s. By that time, of course, everyone knew that James Bond was English and that Felix Leiter was American.
Thanks to YouTube, I’ve seen the Climax! Casino Royale and it’s definitely a curiosity. If Dr. No hadn’t launched the James Bond film franchise, there would be little reason to watch this version of Casino Royale. It moves a bit slowly, is way too stagey, and it reveals that, contrary to what we’ve all heard, live television was not always the greatest thing on the planet. Not surprisingly, this adaptation contains none of the brutality or the moral ambiguity that makes Fleming’s novel such a fun read. American television audiences would not see Jimmy Bond strapped naked to a chair and an American television show would never end with the hero saying, “The bitch is dead.” The best you can say about this version of Casino Royale is that Peter Lorre makes for a good villain (in fact, of the three versions of Casino Royale, the television version is the only one to feature an effective Le Chiffre) and Barry Nelson would have made a good Felix Leiter.
That said, I still find the television version of Casino Royale to be fascinating from a historical point of view. This is the type of show that you watch for curiosity value. This is the type of show that you watch so that you can think about how different things could have been.
So, presented for your viewing pleasure, here’s the original version of Casino Royale:
Mike Kovac (Charles Bronson) is taking pictures at a tenement fire in New York City. After getting his pictures of the fire, he gets a few shots of some of the people hanging around, including Norma Delgado (Angie Dickinson). A group of young men see him taking the pictures, so they take the camera away from him. It seems Norma is the daughter of Marty Delgado (Robert Armstrong), a mobster who’s just finished off a six year stretch in prison. Prior to going to prison, Marty stashed a lot of cash away and the boys are planning on taking it away from him. They’re afraid if anyone knows his daughter is around, they’ll be on their way to take the money for themselves. When the boys show back up at Kovac’s house, take his pictures and smash him on the head, he’s determined to figure out what the hell is going on. The first step is finding Norma. Once he finds her, everything else should become clear.
Aside from Charles Bronson as Mike Kovac, the most interesting thing about this episode is the presence of the lovely Angie Dickinson. At this point in her career she was mostly guesting on TV shows or doing smaller parts in movies. She’s so beautiful, but she really doesn’t have a lot to do here. The next year she would play John Wayne’s love interest in RIO BRAVO (1959) and she’d be on her way to stardom. It’s a treat seeing her and Bronson on screen together.
Bronson does have one decent tough guy exchange with the young thugs:
Kovac – “…a real tough bunch. You’re tough like a coat of cheap paint. First stretch of bad weather comes along and it peels right off!”
Thug – “Maybe you’re the paint remover?!”
Kovac – “You don’t get that boy out the darkroom, we’ll soon find out!”
As soon as Kovac says this he gets knocked out cold, so Bronson’s not always as tough as he seems at this point in his career.
One other thing, I am finding that I like the episodes where Kovac’s “Pop” Anton (Ludwig Stossel) shows up. Pop is also a photographer, and he’s so proud of his son and the way his pictures are always in magazines and in the papers. During the middle part of this episode he just has one slight criticism of his son’s work, “you need more lighting.” When Kovac gets the money shot at the end and Pop sees it in a magazine, he’s so proud… he just thinks there needed to be more lighting! It’s a lighthearted and fun way for the episode to end.
Through the Shattered Lens 