By
Harvey F. Chartrand
PETER GUNN: THE COMPLETE SERIES is now available for
the first time ever as a 12-DVD box set from Timeless Media Group… all 114
episodes, with a running time of over 58 hours.
PETER GUNN – created and produced by Blake Edwards – ran
for three seasons – from 1958 to 1961. This classic detective show was a
delightful blend of film noir and fifties
cool, featuring a modern jazz score by Henry Mancini (a bonus CD of the soundtrack is included in the set), outbreaks of the
old ultra-violence, a gallery of
eccentric and sleazy characters (usually informants, gangsters and Beat
Generation bohemians), and great acting by series leads Craig Stevens (as
Gunn), Lola Albright (as his squeeze, sultry nightclub singer Edie Hart) and Herschel
Bernardi (as Gunn’s friend and competitor Lieutenant Jacoby, who seems to work
all by himself 24 hours a day in the 13th Precinct headquarters).
Gunn can morph from suave private eye to tough guy handy with his fists in a
nanosecond, but it’s refreshing to see how often he is taken by surprise or
beaten up and knocked unconscious. Gunn
operates out of a nightclub, Mother’s, where Edie Hart is the featured singer. No
lonely neon-lit office in the Bradbury Building for him. (And he doesn’t pay
Mother, the big tough old broad who runs the joint, any commission for helping
him find clients!)
Gunn is that rarity… a wealthy shamus, and his services
don’t come cheap, unless he’s in a charitable mood. His standard fee is $1,000,
and his sterling reputation precedes him, keeping the clients streaming in through
Mother’s door. Gunn is a hepcat with expensive tastes. He wears $200 Brooks
Brothers suits and resembles an American Cary Grant (which is the pivotal
reason why Edwards cast Stevens in the role). Gunn drives around in a cool
two-tone Plymouth Fury convertible, equipped
with a mobile phone! (This is 55 years ago, folks!) He seems to know just
about every high-society type and low-life specimen in town. Stunningly
attractive women find Gunn irresistible, but his heart belongs to Edie and he
never succumbs to temptation.
PETER GUNN is set in a waterfront city on the Universal
and MGM back lots – a city where it is almost always night. Interior scenes are
lit in such a way that one can sense the darkness outside. For sheer smoky noir
cinematography, this series can’t be beat.
Episodes were directed by Edwards, Robert Altman and Jack
(The Incredible Shrinking Man) Arnold,
as well as top TV directors of the era. Guest stars include such familiar faces
as Stanley Adams, Joe Besser , Whit Bissell, Walter Burke, Jean Carson, James
Coburn, Russ Conway, Jackie Coogan, Elisha Cook, Henry Corden, Norma Crane, Patricia
Donahue, Norman Fell, Myron Healey, Alan Hewitt (who bears an uncanny
resemblance to James Gregory), Sterling Holloway, John Hoyt, Roy Jenson, George
Kennedy, Ted Knight, Anna Lee, Ken Lynch, Theodore Marcuse, Ross Martin, Murray
Matheson, Frank Maxwell, Gavin MacLeod, John McIntire, Howard McNear (Floyd the
Barber on The Andy Griffith Show), Jeanette
Nolan, J. Pat O’Malley, Edward C. Platt,
William Schallert, Vito Scotti, Harold J. Stone, Nita Talbot, Joan Taylor, Lawrence
Tierney, Mel Welles and Jack Weston.
Notable musical guests include trumpet virtuoso Pete
Candoli, drummer Shelly Manne and singer Diahann Carroll (in her first major
role). Jazz pianist Bill Chadney is also a series semi-regular, ideally cast as
Emmett, Mother’s resident piano stylist. (Chadney
and Lola Albright were married in 1961.)
Shelley
Berman should receive a special retroactive Emmy Award for his towering
dramatic performance in THE COMIC (1959), maybe the best – and certainly the most chilling – PETER GUNN
episode, with the series regulars playing secondary roles to Berman, who is
absolutely incredible as paranoid nightclub comic Danny Holland.
Image quality on the
12-pack DVD set is for the most part excellent, although several episodes from
Season Two are substandard (with harsh, grainy black-and-white tones), but
still acceptable. Audio quality is good to very good.
To order PETER GUNN: THE COMPLETE SERIES, CLICK HERE TO ORDER
