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Rating:  - "In Awe of this Classic Show!"
I just started to collect this series one month ago. Now I own all volumns avaliable. This 4 episode DVD is a classic. "Prime of Life", dealing with an execution of a deserving killer, is pure writing/acting genius at it's best! This was done over 46 years ago & sure beats anything on TV today. From the photography, music, location setting, the styles of the day--add these qualities into top-notch writing & it's a winner all the way. It's like Film Noir in a tv show for many of the episodes. The "Father of Hill Street Blues." My favorite detective is Frank. If you would like to experince what TV once was & hopefully could be again, then buy this highly enthrawlling series. Top favorite of mine.
Rating: - Four stories down, 7,999,996 to go
I'm kind of hesitant to give five-stars to four episodes of one old television series, but NAKED CITY: PRIME OF LIFE presents a strong sampling of a remarkable series. If it matters the episodes on this dvd aren't presented in chronological order.
The first is `Prime of Life' (originally aired Feb. 13, 1963) and features Paul Burke as Det. Adam Flint, a New York City policeman out of the 65th Precinct, who has been summoned to witness his first execution by electrocution. This episode is filled with a lot of interior monologue provided by Det. Flint, who isn't sure he wants to witness an execution, and is peppered with flashback scenes of the violent crimes committed by the man sentenced to die. `Naked City' was, famously, shot on the streets of New York, and that quasi-documentary quality gives this one a lot of body, as well as guiding the cast and crew to keep it as natural as possible. Much of `Prime of Life' takes place in an execution chamber, probably a set, but it has a real feel to it. Det. Flint, we learn early on, is a sensitive individual who doesn't necessarily relish the idea of watching a vicious criminal put to death. A nice, in-depth exploration of the death penalty seen from a cop's point of view. This episode also includes a very young Gene Hackman, in a small role, as a court reporter/reluctant witness.
Robert Duvall plays Francis L. Childe in `The One Marked Hot Gives Cold,' (March 21, 1962.) Duvall plays a troubled young man who's chased by the police after stealing records and files from the orphanage he was raised in. Duvall, as you'd expect, gives an intelligent and sensitive portrayal of a violent man who befriends a young girl (Laurie Heineman) while searching for the father who'd abandoned him (Edward Andrews.)
One of the oddest entries is `Hold for Gloria Christmas' (Sept. 19. 1962.) Burgess Meredith plays the mad/brilliant Greenwich Village poet Duncan Kleist who, over time, has sold the original drafts of his poems to bartender Stanley Dorkner (Herschel Bernardi) to pay off his prodigious bar tab. Now the destitute Poet wants them back, and the Bartender doesn't want to give them to him without getting $500 in cash in return. Young star spotters will want to keep their eyes open for Alan Alda in a small role, and a blink-and-you'll-miss-her appearance by Jessica Walter.
Diahann Carroll plays a teacher of pre-teen, visually impaired children in `A Horse Has a Big Head - Let Him Worry!' (Nov. 21, 1962.) The boys from 65th Precinct are called on the case when one of Carroll's `legally blind' children slips off an inner-city bus and gets lost in New York City.
As narrator Lawrence Dobkin tells us at the end of each episode, there are 8 million stories in the naked city. These shows tell those stories by taking the viewer to the real streets of a real city, and besides the stories it's a blast seeing what the place and people looked like forty years ago. It also tells the stories by getting under the characters' skins and into their heads, dragging Freud along with them in the process. Writing, acting, photography, are all top-notch. If you're a fan of police procedurals with heavy emphasis on the human element, this is a can't miss.
Rating: - Hold for Spider-Man
"It's a treat to see so many gifted actors at the beginnings of their careers, especially with such literate material. Let me especially single out "Hold For Gloria Christmas," the story of a dying poet struggling to send a precious gift to the future..."
Naked City was filmed on the streets of New York and this episode proves it in a strange way. In two scenes, the action takes place around a newsstand, in both cases, those mostly in the first one, you can clearly see some of the magazines for sale. The one between the two actors in the first one is a comic book, Amazing Fantasy #15, the very first appearance of the Amazing Spider-Man, a character now famous for two rather superb films of his own. If you freeze frame you can pick out others including the Journey Into Mystery Comics #83, the first appearance of Marvel Comics The Mighty Thor. The later is harder to pick out, but the Spider-Man appearence couldn't have been given more prominence even if someone had paid for the product placement.
It's not just a great TV show, it's a trip back in time when you might have picked up two comic books now selling the tens of thousands of dollars for under a quarter.
The show is fantastic, Meredith, (later Batman's Penguin) and Alan Alda are worth the cost of the DVD alone.
Rating: - A series of rare depth, power & humanity
It's astonishing to watch these stories, created during the early 1960s, and realize just how much TV was capable of providing when talented writers, actors & directors were allowed to tell real stories. Even with the restrictions of the culture in general & the networks themselves, TV could produce true quality that both entertained & left the viewer with food for thought.
It's a treat to see so many gifted actors at the beginnings of their careers, especially with such literate material. Let me especially single out "Hold For Gloria Christmas," the story of a dying poet struggling to send a precious gift to the future; and "The One Marked Hot Gives Cold," a poignant & heartbreaking tale of the inevitable betrayals & disappointments that come with growing up. Robert Duvall is remarkable as an angry, wounded, yearning man searching desperately for the father who abandoned him, while acting in turn as a surrogate father & friend for a sensitive 12 year old girl, knowing that she's going to be hurt, knowing that he's prolonging her fairy tale, but hesitant to destroy it even as he tries to prepare her for the end of childhood innocence.
But every episode is equally worthy, each one more like a small film than a weekly TV episode. I hope that the entire series is eventually released on DVD. If only TV could be this good today!
Highly recommended!
Rating: - my favorite TV series all-time
Not only was this a groundbreaking series for such hits as "Hill Street Blues", but it had a profound effect on me as an adolescent, with its humanistic view of cops and criminals alike, its bittersweet and emotional musical theme, all the NYC locations, and especially the great scriptwriting. There is no doubt in my mind when I say that "Naked City" is my favorite series of all.
It featured so many actors who would go on to become superstars like Redford, Hackman, Duvall, Hoffman, Coburn, Hopper, and so many great character actors, but it was the regular cast of eminently likeable characters that held the show together week after week.
Now there are 4 dvds with 4 episodes each available, and should be in the collection of anyone who values fine drama, period. PLEASE BUY THESE DVD'S SO THEY WILL RELEASE MORE!!! There were 99 episodes in all (before it was mysteriously cancelled while still high in the ratings) so there is still a treasure trove of classic television drama for Image Entertainment to choose from...
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