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Reviews
The Rockford Files: Requiem for a Funny Box (1977)
How I remember this episode
I notice this is on the ME-TV schedule tonight and I discovered by reading these reviews that I saw this many years ago. Perhaps in its original airing. I remember the scene between the father and son. After listening to his father's denunciation of his lifestyle the son replied with a tired haughty tone, 'Don't you think that all has a rather piquant quality?' The father replied dismissively, 'No, I don't use those kinds of words.' As for Chuck McCann, I remember him on a talk show doing a hilarious imitation of Robert Cummings being much older than he appeared. He mimed Cummings putting on a youthful mask and having a small tape recorder in his mouth instead of using his actual voice. The tape recorder rewinding sounded very real.
For the First Time (1959)
Post-war medicine in Italy
Spoiler
While watching this film I was struck by the fanciful idea that this is really about health care in Italy in the late 1950s. Here we see Mario Lanza raising money for a deaf girl's operation by performing in a stunning series of operas. I suppose a lucky patient would have to be an attractive, virginal girl like the one in this film. Then I recalled that Mario was often called upon in real life to raise money for charities in this way. I began to think this must have been how health care evolved in Italy. With Mario's untimely death- some claim by the Mafia because illness caused him to miss a concert he had promised to give-some other system had to replace him.
The film itself is an excellent opportunity to witness Mario's rapturous tenor in a variety of roles -Canio,Radames,Otelo among others. The locations are gloriously picturesque. The copy I saw was actually dubbed in German which made it more interesting.
The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
The comments I've read about the plot differ from my memory
The way I remember this film is to my way of thinking a better film than this apparently is.
(Spoiler) When my buddies and I watched this one night a long time ago, we saw the Creature being captured and brought back to land. I remember the fire and the surgery and how it transformed him into a more human like creature. He is able to live on land because he has lungs that were still developing and he wore a suit.
As for the rest of the story, my memory is quite different from that of other commentators. I thought I remembered him talking to a social worker and a job counselor. He gets a job in an office working for two partners. One is sympathetic toward him and the other is a crook who dumps his work on the Creature's desk. This guy's also after the nice guy's wife.
Eventually, the Creature discovers that the bad guy has cooked the books and is embezzling money from the business. Before he can do anything about it, the good guy discovers what's going on and confronts the crook who kills him. The Creature walks in on this and kills the killer. Deciding that he's not a suit and tie kind of guy he returns to the sea.
My friends and I thought perhaps the Creature was too ethical and lacking in presentational skills to make it in the business world. Seeing how he looked jammed into his badly tailored suit, we thought maybe he would be better off as a guard or linebacker. (He didn't have the moves for a tackle.)
T.H.E. Cat (1966)
T.H.E. Cat -part of my lost youth
I was hooked on this show from the first episode. Robert Loggia's cool athleticism,the sinuous jazz theme, the film noir look of the exteriors and interiors, the secondary characters. Currently, there is an excellent video on YouTube which is the opening of what I believe was the first episode. Cat is intent on proving to a priest who was the witness to a crime that he is in grave danger. The priest is within the walls of his church with a few bodyguards stationed in various places inside and out. Cat sets out to get through these defenses in order to make his point. He vaults over a wall, scales to the roof and walks across a tight rope, then dispatches the guards with swift brutality. I actually owned a comic book which I certainly miss now. It had a terrific cover photo from this episode.
Guestward Ho! (1960)
Chief Hawkeye was a clever man
My favorite character on this show was the Indian chief. I liked the way he entered a scene in his Continental Mark V convertible loaded with hot looking maidens. He wore a huge flowing feathered head-dress. The maidens had sexy buckskin outfits. His musical theme was a jazzy arrangement of old-time B western 'Indian' dance music. DA DA, DA DA, DA DA,DA DA,DA DA, DA DA, DA DA DA. He sold 'authentic' Indian trinkets which were made in Asia and planned to buy back the United States by following his investments in the Wall Street Journal. His intention was to return the country to his people. Since he had the only supply center anywhere near the ranch, the New York family which had bought the ranch had to deal with him. Today, some Indian nations, such as the Navaho are very rich.
Ben Casey (1961)
Ben Casey: the Ur Doctor
Ben Casey was the greatest exemplar on TV of sixties confrontational characters. A dynamic professional above and beyond normal standards. If you were going to use him as a role model for your own career, you'd better be as brilliant as he was. You also have to have a brilliant mentor like Dr. Zorba who fully understands how brilliant you are and sees your career as virtually indispensable to the profession. I agree with the other member who compared him to Capt. Kirk. Kirk was in a more professionally secure place as captain of his own ship. If they served together, Ben might have physically intimidated him since he dominated scenes with such great actors as George C. Scott. Spock would have had a much better relationship with Casey than he did with McCoy. Neither of them suffered fools gladly. Casey would have known Vulcan, Klingon and Romulan physiology and psychology enough to impress Spock. Spock and Kirk would seek his advice on more than just medical matters.