Martin Kane, Private Eye: "Altered Will"

Thanks to my favorite Roku-friendly purveyor of low-budget vintage entertainment, I watched an episode of "Martin Kane" starring William Gargan. In fairness, let's give some credit to a certain purveyor of low-budget vintage entertainment on disc, whose watermark appears on screen a few times and from whom the video may have been "borrowed."

Pub-D-Hub identifies it as episode 1, but it's apparently the first installment of the second season after starting as a syndicated TV program (there was also a concurrent radio version, also with Gargan). "Altered Will"  is not a sophisticated plot.  A rich guy is murdered, and everyone assumes that the only possible reason for this is financial, and everyone further assumes that the only suspects are the beneficiaries in the deceased's will. Kane is hired by the victim's secretary because she is being questioned and she wants to prove her innocence.

You don't have time for a lot of twists and machinations in a half-hour, so a lot of the dialogue is expository, and the clues are a little clunky. The story turns on Kane's ability to check out a law book from the library and find a key point in estate law that everyone else misses. Still, the action moves along nicely, and it's an entertaining crime show.

What stands out to me is the ambition of this early example of live television. The first several minutes are a point-of-view narrative of the murderer's actions. Several dissolves utilize clever visual parallels to transition from one scene to another. There are more close-ups and camera angles than one might expect from a cheap-and-fast 1951 TV production. It's clunky, but it works.

According to a great sidebar on the Thrilling Detective site, Gargan ripped the series in his 1969 autobiography, criticizing "feeble character development" and "limited camera work" but admitting the show had a certain charm before deteriorating. Gargan played the role tongue in cheek, and he says the writers in turn got sillier, leading to a rapid "slide downhill."

Yet  "Altered Will" is pretty entertaining, a diverting enough half-hour to make me want to see more. I have to say, though, I think I'd rather see Mark Stevens or Lloyd Nolan, who played Kane in later incarnations. The jury's out for me on Gargan in this role, but I'd like to check out Stevens' supposedly more serious (I believe that) interpretation or that of Nolan, who brings such verve to Michael Shane in those comic private eye movies. Interesting that Gargan returned to the role years later in a European-based revival of the series.

We just don't know much about Martin Kane from this particular episode except that he loves him some tobacco. Talk about integrated advertising! The American Tobacco Company is the sponsor and overlord of the program, reminding us throughout the show of the 4 different brands available for discerning pipe smokers. I don't just mean off camera, either; Kane is a dedicate pipe smoker who  hangs out at his favorite tobacconist's to trade quips, reveal where he is in the case, and most importantly to stock up on Old Briar (ask for it by name, Martin!)

Plus he's thoughtful enough to load up his pipe on camera and do it slowly enough that we can see his favored brand.

Martin Kane looking for clues...or is he?

Nope, he's looking for tobaccy

Ya think?

"Martin Kane" isn't a classic, but for what it is, it's kind of great. It blends the jauntiness of Kane and his jovial banter with the police with the occasional bit of effective dark cinematography (no doubt for economic reasons) to create a pretty cool early private eye show. I have some Nolan episodes buried in the Cultureshark archives, but I also want to check out some more of the Gargan version of the show. And you can put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

This is actually a pretty cool shot

Ball Bloopers

Last night, through the magic of Roku, I was wandering through local TV news from around the country (No need for an intervention--this is the only time I've done it, and I can quit whenever I want), and I somehow ended up watching an LA TV station's "Extra Innings" baseball highlights show. There was a segment on an Angels player and a ticker of MLB scores running at the bottom of the screen. Looked semi-interesting.

Turned out I was just in time for "Baseball Bloopers." Well, who isn't down for some amusing diamond mishaps? "Yakety Sax" started playing to get viewers in the mood.

First up was Cleveland Indian Mike Napoli's terrible slide into third base on a triple last week. He came up short and sort of sputtered his way to the bag. It looked awful and made for a classic blooper, especially with the wacky music and the shots of teammates cracking up in the dugout. Good stuff if you're into "The Lighter Side of Baseball."

But the next two Baseball Bloopers were home plate umpires getting nailed in the family jewels with baseball. Ouch! Now, we have a proud tradition in this country of laughing at men getting hit in the balls with balls, but often a funny fail video will give us a shot of the victim laughing, giving a thumbs up, or otherwise providing some indication that he's OK.

Not so "Baseball Bloopers"on "Extra Innings." After each shot of a poor fella being smacked in the nether region, the producers showed a catcher and/or team trainer attending to the hunched-over ump. The effect was to make the impact seem WORSE. It was like they wanted to reinforce that each blow wasn't something they could just shake off, but a painful, devastating injury.

And by the way, "Yakety Sax" played the whole damn time! You know, just so we remembered that these were funny bloopers, not just chilling snapshots of the last moments two adult males were able to conceive children.

I guess if they had played "Shake It Off," it would have been worse.

Summer of Angst: The (previous) Pepsi Generation Part 1

Welcome to Cultureshark's Summer of Angst, in which we examine last year's DVD collection "The Lost Television Legacy of James Dean." Since we have a short selection this week, now would be a good time to note that we don't only get ol' J.D. on this set. No, we also get a heavy dose of...Marcus Winslow, who introduces each segment on the DVD.

Yeah, that's right, Marcus Winslow. You may remember him from--Well, you won't remember him, because he's not an actor (which will come as no surprise when you see the poor guy read the cue cards), but he is James Dean's cousin. At least, that's what the DVD says, and the DVD has the TCM name on it, and TCM wouldn't lie.

Winslow doesn't add a whole lot on this first disc. I keep waiting for him to offer something a little more personal than, "He had a bit part in this one," but still, his presence is a nice little link to the Dean legacy.

I had no idea the Dean legacy involved Pepsi Cola, but a pair of adverts kick off the proceedings. I have to say there is no way I would have spotted Our Man Dean had not the producers of this set slowed down the footage and highlighted him. I'm still not 100% convinced, but, again, you know, TCM, no lying, etc.

This portion of the set provides something we don't necessarily expect: James Dean having FUN. In fact, everyone in this first ad, shot December 1950, is having fun.

There's not a lot to this ad, but it has a peppy jingle, and there is something appealing about seeing all these happy youths having so much fun on a merry go round.

By the way, I really hope that Dean got so into his character that he yelled, "A merry go round! WHOOPEE!" before jumping on his horse. Not a "carousel," either--a merry go round.

If there's a theme to this spot apart from fun, it's bouncing. Note these lyrics:

"Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce
Go get Pepsi for the Pepsi bounce"

I'm not sure how much you want to be bouncing around while drinking all that soda, but, hey, these kids are young and carefree.



Pepsi--It's SWELL!

Winslow tells us that the very next day, Dean shot the second ad on this disc, and that this gig got him his SAG card. What he doesn't mention, but which I heard elsewhere, is that someone was so impressed by Dean on the first day, they asked him back for that second spot. You'll see next time that the actor got a lot more to do on that occasion, but I wonder what the heck they saw in his merry go round riding to make them ask him to return. He must have made some kind of an impression on that horsey!

Streaming Video Power Rankings: Week 9

1) Hulu: Season finales everywhere, and I'm really getting into 11/22/63, which I am watching the old-fashioned way: one episode a week. About time I got started on all those Criterions, though.

2) Seeso: Technically, it's been much better lately, and now that I've discovered "Count Arthur Strong," I'm getting good value. Granted, it helps that this month and next month are free for me.

3) Netflix: Is there a ton of great stuff here? Yes, there is. But the sizzle reel of upcoming movies they released just isn't that exciting. The "Back to the Future" trilogy? Great, but that's already been on Netflix and left. A new Adam Sandler comedy? No comment. "The Sandlot"? OK, but that's hardly a game changer.

And it's starting to tout the Disney deal kicking in, but what about all the Disney catalog titles? Where are they? And why are toons like "Hercules" and "Mulan" leaving in June if this Disney deal is so great? Plus Starz confirmed that "The Force Awakens" will be on its channels in the fall, not on Netflix.

Other than that, hey, go, Netflix!

4) Pub-D-Hub: Solid but unspectacular update this weekend.

5) Warner Archive Instant: They suckered me out of a month just so I could watch some of the old TV shows before they yank them.  The number of movies has never been lower, and frankly it's an embarrassment.

6) Shout Factory TV: Oddly, a  bunch of Dick Cavett episodes (the Black History Month collection) disappeared the other day, but hopefully that's just a blip.

7) Watch TCM: This would be the best channel on Roku if it were on Roku. In addition to the rarities, right now the likes of "Bringing Up Baby," "Hoop Dreams," "Shane," and "Double Indemnity" are available.

8) Amazon Prime: Added more second-tier HBO content--a good reminder that the partnership pays off pretty regularly. Hey, "Mr. Show" is now available!

9) WWE Network: Had a reasonably well reviewed "pay per view" event Sunday and is touting new original content this summer. Who cares about reality shows, though--I want to see more old 80s footage.

10) YouTube: They changed their Roku interface yet again, making fast-forwarding and rewinding even more difficult. Grr.

The Wonderful World of TCM: Double feature of watchable oldies

Oh, it's been a long time since we visited The Wonderful World of Turner Classic Movies! Longtime readers (and of course the various organizations that have me under surveillance) know that I currently have no DVR, and with my work/superheroics/foosball schedule being what it is, I rarely get the opportunity to sample The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind.

The good news is that Watch TCM (unfortunately, it requires authentication) offers a wide variety of golden oldies every week, a rotating assortment of classics, B-movies, shorts, and everything else you'll see on the muthaship. The bad news is that you sometimes have to act quickly because the movies have short windows of availability.

The good news (see, I have even more of it), is that you get closed captions and even intros if they are available. The bad news (fair and balanced, I is) is that Bobby Osbo does not shoot an intro for all the pre-codes and obscurities they run during the day.

You know what, though? I always thought the real gold on TCM was the weird stuff it ran in those morning hours. Prime time gives you the themes and the stars of the month and the classics you have already seen a bunch of times, but earlier, all kinds of stuff pops up.

I don't know when TCM ran these two movies, but I was glad to see them: Her Majesty, Love (1931); and Stranger in Town (1932). These are not great films--one of them isn't even that good--but they are refreshing in their own way.

"Her Majesty, Love" is a flat romance between two people from different social strata. Leonard Maltin's guide gives it a lowly *.5 and calls it "unbearable," but I think that's a bit harsh. Maltin and I clashed recently (he doesn't know about it, but I disagreed with his book's take on "The Kid from Cleveland," which I reviewed for ClassicFlix. Someday, I hope we settle this beef). After all, the father of the gal is played by W.C. Fields, and Leon Errol is also on board to do some of his typical drunk business. Fields doesn't have nearly enough to do, but where I come from, if you have a chance to see a movie with he and Leon Errol, you see that movie (Our class reunions are pretty wild where I come from).

"Stranger in Town" is a better overall picture. It's an unpretentious story of a town elder (Chic Sale doing his "old-timer" gimmick) fighting to save his grocery business when a young man comes to town on behalf of a discount grocery chain and sets up operations across the street. Complications ensue when Sale's daughter (Ann Dvorak) falls for the young man.

Again, not a classic, but it's a watchable little light comedy, and I don't mean that as faint praise. This one isn't even in Maltin's book, and while I lament the lack of so many films of the classic studio era in that otherwise awesome guide, these are the kind of oddball flicks I love to check out on TCM.

Watch TCM is a  hidden gem, but it also frustrates, and not just because it isn't available for Roku or another TV-based platform. I know that there are big walls separating, say, Turner Classic from Warner Archive Instant, but this selection of films is *exactly* what WAI should be offering each month. Instead, it's almost a ghost service right now instead of the "TCM on demand" so many of us hoped it would be. Folks, if you haven't cut the cord yet and you're looking for a streaming classic film service, there is no need to wait for Filmstruck. Such a service is already here...sort of.

Streaming Video Power Rankings Week 8

1) Hulu Plus: Let me tell you something. As much as we all hate paying for streaming video with ads, Hulu is at least out there adding new content every week, and I don't think classic TV fans realize how much is actually available. Just this week, it added the 1958 "Invisible Man" and a bunch of  "Hopalong Cassidy: episodes. When was the last time Netflix added any TV series before 2012?

2) Watch TCM: Quietly offers dozens of vintage movies uncut and uninterrupted on your computer. I'll write more about this tomorrow.

3) Pub-D-Hub: Saw some cool stuff on here last week, including an old unsold TV pilot, and I look forward to checking out some of this week's new material. I like that they are updating the "Yesterday's News" category.

4) YouTube: I finished watching that series I didn't want to mention last week. I still don't think I want to mention it yet--might be fodder for a separate project--but I'm glad it's up there!

5) Seeso: Boy, did I enjoy "Garth Merenghi's Darkplace." There is some good stuff on here, and the stream is more consistent lately.  However, it sent me a survey this week, and when I tried to click through, I got an error message.

6) Shout Factory TV: Catching up on superhero TV shows meant I did not get to "Streetwalkin'" this week, but soon...

7) Netflix: Remember when the 15th of each month was a big day for new Netflix content? Well, I do. I guess I'd be more excited if I were a Chelsea Handler fan.

8) HBO Now: I don't get HBO, but I hear they're tearing it up these days with GOT/Veep/Sillicon Valley, and I believe it.

9) MLB.TV: Pirates in the free game of the day this Friday, baby!

10) Amazon Prime: This may not be Amazon's fault, directly, but the site I love to use to check new additions to Netflix and Amazon, Instantwatcher, suddenly lists Young Turks clips, toy reviews, and basically a bunch of stuff that looks like YouTube content.  It's all well and good that Amazon Prime has this material, but the fact that it's in the Instantwatcher feed makes it even more difficult to follow Prime content. It's even harder to see any "real" content now.