Peter Gunn season 1 (1958)

Peter Gunn belongs to the first golden age of American private eye TV series. In the closing years of the 50s 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and Richard Diamond, Private Detective all hit the airwaves. And, more interestingly, there was at the same time a crop of decidedly hardboiled TV private eyes - Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Johnny Staccato and Peter Gunn. These three series were all heavily influenced by the great American private eye movies of the 40s and early 50s and by the style that later came to be known as film noir.

This was no coincidence. The classic American B-movie had been largely destroyed by the advent of television but there was still an audience for slightly gritty crime thrillers. The TV private eye series more or less took over the audience of the crime B-picture. Of all these series Peter Gunn was probably the biggest commercial success.

Peter Gunn was created by Blake Edwards who wrote many of the episodes and directed several.

I reviewed the second season of Peter Gunn a while back (at that time the first season was unobtainable on DVD) and I was somewhat underwhelmed. Compared to Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and Johnny Staccato it seemed rather tame and rather conventional and even a bit strait-laced. It seemed a bit too sanitised. A reader left a comment on that review suggesting that the first season might be much more to my taste. The suggestion was that Peter Gunn, like so many American TV series, started very promisingly in its first season and then in subsequent seasons fell victim to the perennial timidity of network executives.

Apart from Craig Stevens who is very good as the title character there are three other recurring characters. Lieutenant Jacoby (Herschel Bernardi) is Gunn’s patient long-suffering cop pal who is usually willing to cut Gunn some slack, sometimes against his better judgmeent. Mother runs the night-club that is more or less Gunn’s second home. Edie (Lola Albright) is Gunn’s cute chanteuse girlfriend who can’t quite get him to commit to her although she has no intention of giving up.

Selected Episodes

The opening episode, The Kill, was written and directed by Blake Edwards. It opens with the murder of a gangster. The new gangland boss who takes his place seems likely to be even nastier and more unpleasant. This episode has a definite film noir look and fell. It establishes Gunn as a guy who stocks by his friends and also as a tough guy who can be ruthless when necessary. There’s a bit on an edge to the character which was missing in the second season.

Streetcar Jones is a jazz musician suspected of murder but he doesn’t strike Gunn as the murdering type. Somebody wants to stop Gunn from proving Streetcar’s innocence. An OK episode.

In The Vicious Dog Pete has to see a man about a dog. A journalist believes that a dog attack was an attempt to intimidate him, and Pete agrees. The dog angle makes this a bit more interesting than most stories of this type.

In The Blind Pianist there’s only one witness to a murder and he’s blind. He can’t identity the killer. Or can he? And if he can, will he?The audience knows the identity of the killer so the interest is in Gunn’s attempt to prove a case with only a blind witness. Not a bad story.

The Frog is a small-fry gangster who wants to talk with with Pete but when Pete gets to the meet all he finds is the Frog’s hat floating on the water. The Frog’s boss, mobster Swink, obviously had him killed but why did he have the Frog’s apartment searched afterwards? A routine plot but fairly hard-edged by the standards of this series. It works pretty well.

In The Chinese Hangman Pete is hired by a religious cult leader to find a woman who stole $200,000 from him. Pete tracks her down but with unexpected consequences. A much darker episode and a very good one.

In Lynn's Blues Edie is worried about an old friend, a night-club-singer named Lynn. Pete goes to see her and it’s obvious she’s seriously scared. She’s got a gangster boyfriend, she wants out and he doesn’t see it that way. A fairly routine episode but still very enjoyable.

In Rough Buck a very promising boxer, Tony Triano, is shot and it looks like a professional hit. But everybody liked Tony. Nobody had a motive to kill him.

In Image of Sally Si Robbin, just out of prison, kills a guy. The man he killed was a professional killer. It was self-defence but he can’t prove that so he’s charged with murder. Si hires Gunn, not to beat the murder rap but to find his girl Sally. At least she used to be his girl. Now she’s Joe Nord’s girl and Joe Nord is a big-time criminal and a nasty piece of work. Pete gets some help from some beatniks (who look the way middle-aged men who’ve never seen a beatnik imagine beatniks to look). It’s another noirish episode with Si being not such a bad guy but he’s got himself into deep trouble, and Sally certainly has some femme fatale qualities.

The Man with the Scar is a very good episode. A young man is with his girlfriend when a man with a scar interrupts them, there’s a fight and the man with the scar is killed. The girl tells him not to worry, that it will be taken care of, but actually he has very good reason to worry.

The Torch is a case of arson and murder. The widow of the man killed in the fire is a suspect. She hires Pete to prove her innocence. It’s a fairly straightforward story but well executed.

The Jockey is an impossible crime story. The girlfriend of a successful jockey is a night-club singer. In between sets she goes up onto the roof. This time she fell through the skylight and was killed. There was nobody up there with her and nobody could have been up there with her, so it was accident. But the jockey thinks she was murdered. Pete doesn’t know if it was murder or not but he’s been given a case so he’ll do some digging. And he digs up something that really interests him. Not a bad story, but just a tad predictable.

In Sisters of the Friendless a young man is facing a murder charge. He has an alibi but there’s a problem. The one person who can confirm his alibi cannot do so for rather unusual reasons. A low-key story, pretty lightweight.

The Leaper is about a man who jumps to his death from a tall building. Except he didn’t jump. Pete doesn’t know that yet but he’s looking into the case for the widow. The curious thing is that the leaper was a professional carnival performer, a human fly. It’s Lieutenant Jacoby who makes the vital connection this time.  A good episode.

The Fuse is a very film noir episode. Honest union boss Carlo Matzi is murdered. Everyone knows that crooked union boss Jake Lynch was behind the murder. So why is Pete working for Lynch? He has his reasons. A solid story that isn’t dazzlingly original but it’s executed with a lot of style. Another very good episode.

Let's Kill Timothy tries to be whimsical but misfires. We get a couple of awful songs, we get Pete hired as bodyguard to a seal and some excruciating comic relief from a beatnik artist.

In The Missing Night Watchman (written by Blake Edwards) Pete is hired to investigate a robbery. Valuable jewels were stolen from a shop and the owner doesn’t want the police involved. He’s afraid of losing his best customer, the irascible Mr Lansdown (a wonderful performance by Murray Matheson). There’s also the matter of the missing night watchman and what’s going on with Mr Lansdown’s Buddha? An enjoyable romp.

Murder on the Midway is a carnival story and I just love murder mysteries with a carnival setting. The magician is doing his usual trick, making his glamorous lady assistant disappear, only she winds up dead. Pete thinks Rowena, who does the girly show, knows something. Rowena is one of those dangerous blondes, the type that men should avoid but they never do. A pretty decent plot with several plausible suspects. A very good episode.

Pecos Pete takes Pete to Texas. A rich cattleman wants to find his brother’s murderer. Pete has to do the cowboy thing, and it’s a fun if rather slight story.

Scuba has a great opening sequence and the plot revolves around scuba diving. There is murder as well, of course. A fine episode.

The title of Edie Finds a Corpse is totally accurate. She does find a corpse. In her bathroom. She is not happy about it. Pete isn’t happy about it either.

The Dirty Word has a nice slightly off-kilter atmosphere. A low-rent crooked private eye named Sam Hayes is framed for the murder of a rich guy named Sinclair. Pete doesn’t approve of Sam but he owes him a favour. Sinclair was surrounded by oddballs and there were things about him that didn’t add up. A good taut plot and good atmosphere.

The Ugly Frame begins with a nice old guy who runs a delicatessen getting murdered. Murdered for fourteen dollars. Lieutenant Jacoby had known the old guy for years. Jacoby wants the killer really badly. But maybe the case is not as straightforward as it looks. Jacoby ends up in an awkward situation. Maybe Pete can get him out of it. A solid episode.

The Lederer Story begins when a rich lady yacht owner, Mrs Lederer, drops dead in Mother’s. Before expiring she had asked to speak to Peter Gunn. Pete figures he’s more or less morally obliged to find her killer. Yes, her killer. The lady died from poison. Pete is convinced that the answer to the puzzle will be found on Mrs Lederer’s yacht. But he finds that boats can be dangerous places. A good solid episode although the mystery isn’t that hard to figure out.

In Keep Smiling a guy from out of town winds up dead. That’s Lieutenant Jacoby’s problem. Pete’s problem is a client in town for a bowling conclave who’s fallen victim to a blackmail racket. Since the dead guy was also in town for the bowling conclave Pete figures that his problem and Jacoby’s problem are probably the same problem. All Pete has to do is set himself up as an obvious blackmail victim. A fairly straightforward episode but enjoyable enough.

Breakout begins with a prison break. Then a guy hires Pete to find somebody but Pete is pretty suspicious. And Frank Norbert doesn’t want to be found. A solid film noirish episode with double-crosses and betrayal, and a father who can’t figure out what went wrong with his boy.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed the first season more than the first. It has a bit more of an edge. It’s a bit more noir. Not as good as Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer or Johnny Staccato but still entertaining. Recommended.