Bob Davis – Through the Shattered Lens

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing Crime Story, which ran on NBC from 1986 to 1988. The entire show can be found on Tubi!

Today, we start the second season of Crime Story!

Episode 2.1 “The Senator, The Movie Star, and the Mob”

(Dir by John Nicolella, originally aired on September 22nd, 1987)

The second season of Crime Story opens with Torello, Abrams, and the Task Force still in Las Vegas. With Luca and Pauli apparently dead as a result of that nuclear blast at the end of the first season, various gangsters are trying to position themselves as Manny Weisbord’s new man in Vegas. Carlo Mastrangelo (Stephen McHattie) is the latest contender.

(And yet, it’s hard not to notice that, during the opening credits, both Tony Denison and John Santucci are listed. Neither appears in this episode other than in the pictures displayed at their funeral. But the credits don’t seem quite convinced that Luca and Pauli are dead.)

Crusading Senator Rourke (Kevin Spacey, in his first major television role) comes to Vegas. Rourke—the son of a former bootlegger and a presidential contender who speaks with a slightly abrasive Boston accent—is holding hearings on the Mob. Also arriving in Vegas is Pamela Palmer (Jenny Wright), a platinum-blonde movie star known for her glamorous sex appeal but who spends almost the entire episode hiding a black eye behind her sunglasses. As Torello discovers, Pamela is Mastrangelo’s occasional girlfriend, but she’s also having an affair with Senator Rourke.

Anyone who has studied history or who has an interest in conspiracy theories will be able to see the obvious real-world parallels. Rourke, with his bootlegger father and his less-than-ideal private life, is an obvious stand-in for both John and Robert F. Kennedy. (Of course, when seen today, the casting of Kevin Spacey in the role brings a whole other dimension to it. Now we instinctively distrust Rourke as soon as we see him, despite the fact that the show portrays him as sincere in his crusade against the Mob.) Pamela is Marilyn Monroe. Mastrangelo and his second-in-command Bobby Meeker (Michael Wincott) bring to mind Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli, two of the mobsters whose names regularly turn up in JFK assassination lore.

In real life, a heartbroken Marilyn Monroe overdosed and both Kennedy brothers were assassinated. On Crime Story, Torello is able to prevent Mastrangelo from assassinating Rourke, and an emotionally strengthened Pamela is able to leave Las Vegas for what will hopefully be a brighter future than the one that awaited Marilyn. This episode feels like a work of alternative history, one in which the Kennedys lived up to their promise and one determined man like Mike Torello could prevent a nation from being traumatized.

For a history nerd like me, this episode was enjoyable. It held my interest. I liked seeing how the show reimagined history. At the same time, Luca and Pauli were definitely missed. A format in which Torello deals with a villain-a-week doesn’t carry the same emotional punch as watching Torello obsess, episode after episode, on just one particularly nasty villain. Because Luca and Torello were opposite sides of the same driven coin, not having Luca around makes it feel as if Torello is incomplete as well.

That said, this episode ended with a shot of a bandaged man sitting on a beach in Mexico. Could that man be Luca? Hopefully, we’ll find out soon!

First released in 1962, Eegah! has a reputation for being one of the worst films ever made.

Usually, whenever I come across a film with that type of reputation, my natural instinct is to be a contrarian and to argue that the film is not so much bad as its just misunderstood. I can’t really do that with Eegah! Eegah! is a legitimately bad movie, though I don’t know if I’d call it one of the worst. It’s a low budget vanity project and, quite frankly, I think snarkiness is better directed at big budget vanity projects. Eegah! is bad but it’s also bad enough to be entertaining in a train wreck sort of way and there’s something to be said for that.

While driving at night, 30 year-old teenager Roxy Miller (Marilyn Miller) runs over Eegah (Richard Kiel), a giant caveman who has somehow gone unnoticed up until that moment. Eegah runs off into the desert. Roxy tells her boyfriend, Tom (Arch Hall, Jr.) and Tom’s father, Robert (Arch Hall, Sr., who also directed) about her encounter. While Tom plays his guitar and sings a sappy ballad, Robert goes into the desert in search of Eegah. When Robert doesn’t return, Tom and Roxy grab a dune buddy and head into the desert.

Roxy finds Eegah and Robert first. Eegah grabs Roxy and takes her to a nearby cave, where Robert is waiting for them. Eegah can’t speak and does most of his communication by swinging around a club and being a bit too handsy. (There’s one painting on the wall of his cave but it’s not very good.) Eegah, despite his fearsome appearance, seems to actually be pretty amiable. But then he falls in love with Roxy and becomes rather possessive. When Roxy gives Robert a shave, the bearded Eegah demands a shave as well. He’s fairly handsome without the beard but still, it’s hard not to get grossed out by the way he tries to lick up the thick shaving cream that’s covering his face.

Eventually, Tom rescues Roxy and Robert and not a minute too soon! There’s a party in town and Tom and his band are scheduled to play! Eegah, upset that Roxy has left him, picks up his club, puts on his best animal skin, and heads into town on a rampage!

Eegah (and, yes, I’m dropping the exclamation point) was produced and directed by Arch Hall, Sr. (He receives a story credit as well.) It was actually one of many movies that Hall Sr. made, all in an effort to make his son into a film star. In Eegah, Arch Hall, Jr. performs two songs and dances with Roxy. The film positions him as a teen idol but Hall, Jr. doesn’t seem to be particularly comfortable with the role. Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s working with an absolutely terrible script.

I do, however, appreciate the performance of Richard Kiel as Eegah. Kiel does the best that anyone could with the role, playing him as being giant who simply doesn’t understand that you can’t walk around with the a club in public without someone calling the police. Poor Eegah! He doesn’t even know what the police are.

Eegah! (yeah, I’ll return it’s exclamation point for the next-to-last paragraph) is a film that is so ineptly done and poorly written that it becomes rather fascinating to watch. It’s boring only if you’re the type who can’t appreciate terrible dialogue, terrible camera placement, and the type of acting that can only be found in a film that was directed, produced, and essentially written by one guy trying to make his reluctant son into a star.

Arch Hall, Jr. was far less interested in being a star and instead became a pilot and pursued his love of flying. As for Richard Kiel, he went on to play Jaws, one the greatest of the James Bond henchmen.