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Rating:  - The Last Episodes of the Last Season
The 138 episodes (all in B&W) of the police drama "Naked City" were originally broadcast on ABC from 1958-1963. The series started in a 30-minute format (39 episodes), took a year long break and return in a 60-minute format. The series was filmed in the old Biograph Studios in the Bronx, famous as the studio where D.W. Griffith got his start. Image Entertainment's 3 DVD release "Naked City - Set 3" contains an assortment of twelve of the hour-long episodes from the last part of season 4. The titles, episode numbers, and original air-dates are detailed below.
Although the title makes it sound like a racy exploitation series it is actually the total opposite. Many consider this gritty crime drama the best ever of its genre and the title reflects a focus on stripping away the glamour off NYC and exposing its ugly inside; at least to the extent that they could get away with on broadcast television during those years.
"Naked City" is a follow-up to the 1948 film noir feature of the same name. Both movie and television series utilized extensive location shooting and they definitely have a different feel than the Hollywood product of that era. Also unusual was featuring jazz music by Billy May and Nelson Riddle.
The show never stopped changing its cast and was a bit like "Police Story" in this regard, as it designed to showcase its many great guest stars (it drew a lot of big names from Broadway); and this variety was the show's greatest asset.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
5 Dec 1962: (4-12) THE VIRTUES OF MADAME DOUVAY
6 Feb 1963: (4-13) KING STANISLAUS & THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE
2 Jan 1963: (4-16) HER LIFE IN MOVING PICTURES
9 Jan 1963: (4-17) ROBIN HOOD AND CLARENCE DARROW WENT OUT WITH A BOW AND ARROW
23 Jan 1963: (4-18) THE APPLE FALLS NOT FAR FROM THE TREE
27 Feb 1963: (4-23) THE HIGHEST OF PRIZES
27 Mar 1963: (4-26) ON THE BATTLEFRONT EVERY MINUTE IS IMPORTANT
17 April 1963: (4-28) NO NAKED LADIES IN FRONT OF GIOVANNI'S HOUSE
8 May 1963: (4-31) THE S.S. AMERICAN DREAM
15 May 1963: (4-32) ONE TWO THREE RITA RAKAHOWSKI
22 May 1963 (4-33) GOLDEN LADS AND GIRLS
29 May 1963: (4-34) BAREFOOT ON A BED OF COALS
Rating: - 1960's Black & White Crime Drama TV Show
The shows on this DVD box set were good. The old scenes of New York looked great. Reminded me of times when I was a lot younger and first saw Naked City on the small screen (a very small screen).
JES
Rating:  - Very Good, But......
After purchasing two other sets of Naked City DVDs, I have to say that this #3 was NOT Naked City's "finest hours."
It seems to me that by the time the Naked City writers got to the year 1963 (the show's last season), they must have started to get burnt out on story lines. With the other disks, I found myself watching the whole four one-hour episodes in one sitting, but these disks (it's a three-disk set) I found myself stopping mid-way to go to bed.
The investigation plot was somewhat confusing, compounded by a script made up of inane wording requiring the viewer to stop and think, "What did he just say, and what does it have to do with the story?" Basically...and sadly...it seemed that the writers had a hard time filling the the one-hour show.
All-in-all, the shows are good, if for only the NYC scenery and watching then-unknown actors (like Dustin Hoffman and Christopher Walken, and "Law and Order" DA Stephen Hill as a young man) play some of their first roles in show buisiness.
If you are an old-time New Yorker, and a fan of old black-and-white TV, you'll enjoy having the whole Naked City set.
Rating:  - David Janssen as a dying executive
David Janssen is the star of "On the Battlefront Every Moment is Important". The co-writer of that episode is series story editor Howard Rodman, who would create Janssen's "Harry O" a decade later. Janssen would start playing "The Fugitive" the year after this episode aired.
Janssen plays the owner of an advertising agency who is dying of leukemia. Janssen decides intelligent, creative, focused Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke) is the right man to take over his company. Flint, who is investigating a theft at the company, must decide whether to leave the force for the challenges and rewards of running a business.
One scene was filmed in the famous restaurant "Danny's Hideaway", and propreitor Danny has a role.
This was one of Janssen's very few performances prior to "The Fugitive" where he showed the gravitas he would give to the character of Dr. Richard Kimble. I think this episode might have influenced producer Roy Huggins when he created "Run For Your Life", a series about a man (Ben Gazzara) with only a year or two to live.
This was Janssen's second guest star role on "Naked City". He also guest starred once on "Route 66", which had the same executive producer (Bert Leonard). Janssen was a close and long time friend of series star Paul Burke. Janssen, Burke, Martin Milner ("Route 66") and Clint Eastwood had small roles in one of Universal's "Francis, The Talking Mule" movies in the mid 1950's.
"Naked City" used the best actors in America as guest stars, such as George C. Scott, Lee J. Cobb, Peter Falk and Walter Mathau. Janssen wasn't in that league, but he was at his best on this show.
Janssen isn't listed on the box as one of the stars of these episodes of "Naked City". I wonder why. Janssen was arguably as big a star as Robert Culp and Tony Franciosa. Is he that forgotton? Or is he not considered to be as good an actor as the others?
I think it would have been a shrewder marketing move to put his name on the cover. There are still a lot of people who fondly remember David Janssen.
Rating: - superb
There is no payroll for Naked City dvds, so I am still not on it....and I don't want to be.
Buy this DVD, however, and watch it with a good stiff drink. Superb performances by everyone...but mostly by the city of New York, circa 1959-63. (A very different place then!) Film noir at its best before film noir was a buzzword...gritty, real, filmed on the streets..an incredible look at NYC with believeable heart-wrenching stories (with humor, too) and totally unreal performances. This set of DVDs is worth the price just for one of the hour-long episodes, starring pekingese-faced Madeleine Sherwood and John Larch. Such brilliant performances. As a bonus you get Paul Burke and lovely Nancy Malone (epitome of NY sophistication when I lived there)...plus all the other regulars. You are transported back to the 50's and 60's in NYC. If you don't want to go, don't buy it.
I just wish the DVDs played better on my player. Hard to move around on them...and sometimes they won't play at all...but then I throw them onto my computer and they play perfectly. But any problems are worth it...the soundtrack, the Naked City theme, the reality of the plots and characters, and being transported magically back to New York in those somehow simpler days.
Try it, you'll like it.
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