Naked City (TV Series) Button in the Haystack (1961) User Reviews

Chance To See Peggy Ann Garner At 30

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 13 July 2006]

I had to get the DVD with this episode after I heard that Peggy Ann Garner had a role in it. Garner was my favorite child actress, thanks to her incredible Oscar- winning performance in "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn." I have several of her films from that year, 1945, but had never seen her as an adult. Her career after her teenage years was very limited on screen and her talent wasted through either bad decisions of hers or stupid neglect of talent by movie producers.

Anyway, she's in this film with Albert Salmi, whom she was married to at the time, and was about 30 years old. Unfortunately her role was not big in here but at least I got to see what she looked like. The story really revolves around Salmi, a guy who thinks he's going to get charged with a crime he didn't commit and goes on the lam, so to speak. The "good guys" in here go to great lengths to find the real killer and get Albert off the hook.

The episode is fair: seen better, seen worse. However, for anyone who shares my interest in Peggy Ann, here's a chance to see her again.

Easily My Favorite "Naked City" Episode

[sebekm · 10/10 · 19 July 2009]

I first viewed this series on television as a young child. I liked it then because of its "big city" setting and outstanding musical score. As a "boomer" adult, I've been collecting the series on DVD, and I believe I now have all the box sets and the single (four-episode) issues. I just viewed this episode yesterday, and it is easily my favorite. While viewing the other episodes (more than 50), I was struck by the extraordinary acting displayed by the recurring cast, and the series' ability to attract stellar motion picture/television talent. While this episode doesn't have some of the "big name" actors, its guest stars of Albert Salmi, Peggy Ann Garner, and Joseph Bernard definitely deliver the goods as the tortured ex-con on parole, his wife, and Assistant DA, respectively. The two things that make this episode my favorite are its main plot thread (tracking the gun), and the focus on Detective Flint's humanity and sense of justice. The more I watched this series on DVD, the more I was impressed by Paul Burke's acting ability: He is truly outstanding. All in all, I found this to be a wonderful episode that epitomizes the very best elements of the series. A special treat was the increased degree of voice-over narration by Lawrence Dobkin. Anyone who has seen this series knows who he is, even though they might not know his name. He's the guy who – at the end of every episode – delivers one of the most memorable tag lines in the history of television: "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them." While the IMDb cast list shows Dobkin as the uncredited narrator, it was neat to see him briefly on-screen in this episode (uncredited once again) playing a factory worker.

The Great Peggy Ann Garner

[cervantes1547 · 10/10 · 29 August 2007]

I share your passion of Peggy Ann Garner.What a talent she was. It is too bad that she had to leave this earth on Octoiber 16,1984. She had a very hard life but no one will ever forget her in her classic performance A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. She was an angel in this movie. I have the book Plain Beautiful The Life Of Peggy Ann Garner . I recommend it to anyone who loves Peggy. She is gone but she will never be forgotten.As an adult she had memorable roles but her angelic expression as a child actress will be in our hearts and long as life exists. I own a rare video clip of Peggy talking to Bob Hope the night she won the Oscar for A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. God bless Peggy Ann Garner.

Much ado about nothing

[lor_ · 20 March 2024]

Right from the opening scene I had a bad feeling about this Naked City episode. Had it been 1961 rather than 2024 when I watched it, I would have changed the channel.

What transpires is a shaggy-dog story, with weak casting (Albert Salmi and Peggy Ann Garner guesting and overacting, plus zilch supporting cast). There's nothing interesting to grab one's interest, no intriguing crime, not even any suspects.

Instead, we have a would-be human interest story, at times verging on sentimentality, that plays like a bad Poverty Row B-movie from the 1940s. Howard Rodman's reject-level script turns the interest solely onto Burke, doggedly searching for the truth and a missing gun that could exonerate the arrested man Salmi. Rodman would have us believe that our hero Burke will move heaven and earth to act like a self-appointed public defender rather than do his job as a cop. It's not believable and sadly, not interesting.

My contrarian instincts caused me to come to an odd conclusion at the end of this stinker: bring back James Franciscus. Just kidding.

The gun that changed his-story

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 24 June 2014]

***SPOILERS*** Breaking his back making a living at his West Side of Manhattan gas station the hard-luck ex-convict Len Brewer, Albert Salmi, really stepped deep into a pile of you know what when in a panic he hid his unregistered .45 automatic that he hasn't fired in 15 years in the side of a truck that he was servicing. With his Mafia loan shark Lewis shot dead at the gas pump it was Brewer who was the #1 suspect in his murder since he's been late on his payments for the last few months. In fact Brewer was seen arguing with him just moments before Lewis was found shot & killed. As it turned out it was this out of town hit-man identified by Brewer , through police mug shots, named Wee Willie Willie Sabbothdowsky who was sent by the Mafia, all expenses paid, in from Saint Louis to do Lewis, who was skimming off the mobs numbers racket, in. But with the gun, that can prove Brewer's innocence, gone he'll have to face a grand jury in the loan shark's murder that is certain to indite him for the crime.

It's only the very humanistic and feeling others hurt Det. Adam Flint, Paul Burke, who deep in his heart of hearts feels that Brewer is innocent of the crime and goes all out checking out every truck garbage can and junk yard in the vicinity of the murder to find the clue or needle in the haystack, the missing gun, that can prove Brewer's innocence. It's a dirty job, especially rummaging through the piles of garbage, but someone got to do it and Det. Flint is more then willing to get the job done. Meanwhile back home it's Brewer's long suffering wife, in having to put up with him all these years, Edie played by Peggy Ann Garner who was told by him to not spend the $1,200.00, that he's been saving all these years in a lock box, on his defense since he feels, with the .45 automatic now lost for good, it won't help him anyway.

***SPOILERS*** Despite all the odds against finding the missing gun Det. Flint finally tracks down the man who found or bought it a guy name Seymour who work s at the Handready Junkyard who claimed that he, after spending $100.00 for it, had it melted down for junk! The junk or joke was soon on him as Seymour was later caught red-handed in the act of trying to destroy the gun in him feeling it would implicate him in Lewis's murder. As things eventually turned out the reason for all this mess of misunderstanding the missing gun proved to be a dud anyway. Brerwer's fear in breaking his parole as well as being indited in Lewis's murder proved to be totally unfounded! Not only had the missing gun not been used in some 15 years it also had it's firing pin and trigger removed making it useless as well as, this is the good thing for Brewer, not being considered a firearm that would have had him brake his parole!