Vanessa Brown – 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 Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC! It can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, Pembleton, Lewis, Bayliss, and (ugh) Flasone investigate a shooting at a Vietnamese restaurant.

Episode 6.7 “Saigon Rose”

(Dir by Nick Gomez, originally aired on November 21st, 1997)

There’s an incredibly dumb moment in this week’s episode of Homicide. In an otherwise deserted hallway, Flasone confronts Kellerman with his suspicion that Kellerman executed Luther Mahoney and now, as a result, innocent people have been killed due to Georgia Rae Mahoney’s vendetta. (As if Georgia Rae wouldn’t have launched a vendetta if the killing hadn’t been an execution….) Kellerman and Falsone have a scuffle in the hallway and they both end up pulling their guns and having a brief, John Woo-style stand-off. When another cop comes walking down the hallway, they reholster their weapons.

It’s an idiotic moment that should have had no place on Homicide. It also gets at what is so annoying about Falsone. Why is Falsone investigating this? No one has asked him to investigate it. No one else seems to care about whether or not Kellerman murdered Luther. Most would probably say that Luther got what he deserved. But Falsone is on a crusade and the show seems to think that it makes him a hero, as opposed to a rat.

While Kellerman and Falsone are threatening to kill each other, Pembleton, Lewis, and Bayliss are investigating a shooting at a Vietnamese restaurant. Almost everyone who worked at the restaurant — including an off-duty cop — is found dead. The only survivors are two teenagers who hid in the kitchen. When interrogated by Pembleton and Lewis, they reveal that one of the shooters was a local cop named Toinette Perry (Camille McCurty Ali).

Toinette was hired as a cop despite having a history of mental instability. Her father had a friend at city hall and pulled some strings. Her father subsequently disappeared. Pembleton and Lewis think that Toinette recruited her cousin, Curtis (Dion Graham), to commit the robbery with her. Bayliss and Falsone are sent to arrest Curtis, which just proves that you can’t get away from Falsone on this show. He has to be involved in everything.

This episode wasn’t particularly complex. The mystery was easily solved and, while the episode did hint that the off-duty cop resented Toinette for being a “diversity hire,” it didn’t really pursue that angle with any real depth. That’s not necessarily a complaint. Homicide is at its best when its just about the detectives doing their jobs. Camille McCurty Ali gave a chilling performance as the sociopathic Toinette.

Meanwhile, Laura Ballard was rushed to the hospital after a night eating crabs with Gharty. (My boyfriend assures me that this is a Baltimore thing.) It turns out that Laura has an allergy to shellfish. Gharty is horrified at the thought of living in Baltimore and not being able to eat crabs. It was a cute storyline, largely due to Peter Gerety’s performance as Gharty.

This was not a bad episode but Falsone needs to leave Kellerman alone!

Seriously.

(With the Oscars scheduled to be awarded on March 4th, I have decided to review at least one Oscar-nominated film a day. These films could be nominees or they could be winners. They could be from this year’s Oscars or they could be a previous year’s nominee! We’ll see how things play out. Today, I take a look at the 1949 best picture nominee, The Heiress!)

“I have been taught by the masters.”

— Catherine Sloper (Olivia De Havilland) in The Heiress (1949)

I’m not going to spoil too much of the ending of The Heiress, beyond saying that those are the words with which Catherine ends the film. Taken out of context, they may not seem like much. However, after you’ve spent two hours with Catherine, her father, and the man who claims that he’s in love with her, these are perhaps seven of the most chilling words ever uttered. When you hear them, you don’t know if you should cheer or be very, very afraid. Myself, I had both reactions but, then again, I often do.

The Heiress, which is based on a play that’s based on a novel by Henry James, takes place in 19th century New York City. Austin Sloper (Sir Ralph Richardson) is a widely admired and very successful physician. He’s also a very cold man, one who has never recovered from the death of his wife. He lives with his daughter, Catherine (Olivia de Havilland). Catherine is shy and is continually told that she’s plain and boring. She’s devoted to her father, though Austin is cruelly manipulative of her. Catherine, who has never been in a relationship, has pretty much accepted that she’s destined to be alone.

Or, at least, she has until she meets Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift).

From the first minute that Catherine meets him, Morris seems to be perfect. He’s handsome. He’s intelligent. He’s witty. He’s charming. He’s Montgomery Clift, for God’s sake! For Catherine, it’s love at first sight and Morris says that it’s the same for him. Suddenly, Catherine’s life no longer revolves around her father. Now, she dreams of marrying Morris.

Austin isn’t happy about this. Despite showing his daughter nothing but disdain for most of her life, Austin suddenly become protective of her. He says that Morris only wants to marry her because she stands to come into a great deal of money. To prove his point, he announces that, if Catherine and Morris get married, he will disinherit Catherine and neither she nor her husband will ever get their hands on his money.

How will Morris respond to Austin’s threat? Well, you’ll have to watch the movie to find out and you really should! The Heiress is a great movie, featuring noirish direction from William Wyler and brilliant performances from by de Havilland, Richardson, and Clift. Dr. Sloper may be a monster but Richardson plays him with so much authority that it’s hard to dismiss his worries about Morris, no matter how much you may want to. Montgomery Clift, meanwhile, keeps you guessing about Morris’s intentions. And, finally, the great Olivia de Havilland deservedly won an Oscar for her performance as Catherine Sloper. Over the course of the film, Catherine goes from being a withdrawn wallflower to being a … well, I can’t tell you anymore. I don’t want to spoil the film any more than I already have. The ending will leave you shaken in the best possible way.

The Heiress was nominated for best picture but lost to All The King’s Men.