Posted by jefty This episode is from that series which, as outlined in the book, was a departure from the popular detective shows of the era. The book contends that this series is credited with being the "first police procedural" where the detectives are real cops in plain clothes vs uniforms and not the armchair and drawing room detectives like one of the networks other popular shows The Casebook of Ellery Queen. One unique production technique was to film complicated action sequences outdoors and insert them into the show..this earned the show the reputation, as voted by the newspaper crime photographers of Gotham, as the most realistic police or detective show on tv at the time. Ken Lynch played the Lieutenant and Sgt Brady by Jack Orrison. Another technique was shooting the show in the first person, ala Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake, so you only heard Lynch. A first for tv at the time. The book, chapter eight recounts how difficult it was for Lynch to hold up props like a gun while balancing the script etc...and when he took a punch they'd whirl around the camera and show a kaleidoscope effect...fun stuff. Certainly a historic show considering these unique "firsts". Great and rare find Gord and nice write up..I wonder how many of the original kinescopes survive...it would be great to have some with titles and credits intact.
on 10/8/2009, 8:27 am, in reply to "Tv Noir of the Week - Crime-Fighter"
75.176.18.73 | Message modified by user jefty 10/8/2009, 9:21 am
The book, The Forgotten Network" is the story of the Dumont tv network that was HQ in New York. One of their shows was "The Plainclothes Man" which ran on radio for 3 years before premiering on tv in Oct 1949. It was followed Rocky King, Detective starring the affable Roscoe Karnes on Sunday nights.
"The noirish atmopshere was frequently enhanced by cigarette smoke courtesy of it's primary sponsor, Edgeworth tobacco, proud makers of Holiday cigarettes, Holiday Pipe mixture (looks good, smokes good) and Edgeworth pipe tobacco." - Dumont, the Forgotten Network"
""Is the casino vault armored? No, it's made of wood! -" Bob Le Flambeau" -1956
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