MIKE HAMMER (the unsold 1954 TV pilot)

[Dewey1960]

Tonight, as part of the closing night program of our TV NOIR series at the Roxie, we’ll be presenting the insanely rare unsold 1954 pilot episode of MIKE HAMMER, written and directed by Blake Edwards and starring perennial fan favorite Brian Keith in the title role. It’s an uninhibited and sublime slab of noir brilliance and, for my money, the jewel in this particularly thorny crown of delights.

By the early 1950s Mickey Spillane had become just about the best-selling author in America. His quick-to-kill private-eye hero Mike Hammer had pounded his way into the subconscious of countless thrill-hungry readers looking for a quick fix of sex and violence, all wrapped between the lurid covers of those two-bit Signet paperbacks. Around this time British film director and producer Victor Saville latched onto the screen rights and released three Mike Hammer feature length films in fairly quick succession—I, THE JURY (53), KISS ME DEADLY (55), and MY GUN IS QUICK (57)—each featuring a different actor in the role of Hammer. And as we all know, the only Hammer to achieve lasting fame is Ralph Meeker in Robert Aldrich’s brilliantly subversive KISS ME DEADLY, while Biff Elliott and Robert Bray flail anonymously in the ethers of relative obscurity.

In 1958, MIKE HAMMER became a weekly network television series starring Darren McGavin. It lasted only two seasons and, while McGavin is an engaging and skilled actor, he never really convinced anyone that he was Mike Hammer. Defeated by McGavin’s glibly passive persona (but helped enormously by Skip Martin’s dynamic jazz soundtrack), the show really doesn’t have the lasting reputation of TV Noirs like JOHNNY STACCATO and M-SQUAD. Previously however, in 1954, a year before he produced KISS ME DEADLY, Saville produced a pilot episode for a proposed television series called MIKE HAMMER. Brian Keith took the part of Hammer and up-and-coming Blake Edwards wrote the script and directed. But at the last minute the network became squeamish about the intense violence and passed on the show. As a result the world was deprived of the second best film treatment of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer. And in some strange ways it’s a close second at that.

This half-hour pilot episode finds Hammer about to dine out at his buddy Jimmy’s swanky restaurant, The Purple Peacock. Before going inside he has a short chat with the young kid selling papers out front. The kid is Mike’s pal and they jawbone a bit about Father Crump who runs the neighborhood orphanage where the kid happens to live. Mike goes in and notices Harry Lund, a local thug having dinner at a nearby table with some of his cronies. Lund is scheduled to testify in front of a grand jury against his former boss, mob kingpin Carl Muuse, the next morning. As Lund and his party exit the restaurant, a long black sedan pulls up out front and a machine gun starts blazing. Bullets shatter the windows of the Purple Peacock and everyone ducks for cover. When the smoke clears and the corpses are tallied up, not only is Harry Lund lying dead in the street, so is Mike’s pal the newsboy.

Mike knows damn well Carl Muuse is behind the shooting spree and what follows is regulation Spillane: a righteously indignant Hammer decides the only justice is vengeance and if the cops can’t take Muuse and his goons down, he will. And like a bulldozer he plows a brutal path of violent retribution that ultimately includes Muuse’s sexy blonde mistress Janice Graham. In twenty-five swiftly paced minutes the whole thing is wrapped up and filed away under “case closed.”

Chief among the many components that make this show work so well is Brian Keith. Belligerent, loud, threatening; he’s got Hammer down to the last nail. His voiceover propels the action and even the most seemingly preposterous lines seem absolutely right: “The city was quiet and the sharp wind off the river smelled like rain.” He hits hard and when he’s hit, he’s hit just as hard. In one brawl with a pair of hoods, he winds up with a stinging shiner that he wears throughout the rest of the show as a badge of honor. Nearly matching him in sheer manic anger and volume is Robert Bice as Pat Chambers, his adversarial ally on the force and their contentious interaction throughout the story is tough and believable. Edwards’ script is sharp and his direction well paced, vastly superior to most television crime dramas in 1954. George Diskant, who photographed it, gave it a highly cinematic look despite being shot on a typically meager TV budget. MIKE HAMMER, an unsold TV pilot that hardly anyone has seen, rivals the best of his 40s noirs!

But what amazes most about this stunning little torpedo is how it obviously served as a blueprint for one of the most influential American films of the 50s—KISS ME DEADLY—made one year later by the same producer. A number of specific moments jump right out; Hammer viciously banging the back of a thug’s head against a brick wall who then slowly slides down to the ground unconscious is one of the most jolting. The relationship between Muuse and his two henchmen is an uncanny first incarnation of the Carl Evello / Charlie Max / Sugar Smallhouse triad from KMD. Don Harvey, as Ray Kittle, Muuse’s personal hit-man does the lion’s share of the heavy violence in this pilot and he’s especially brutal in his savage brawls with Hammer. And Virginia Lee (she could have easily been cast as Evello’s half-sister “Friday” in KMD) as Muuse’s kept girl is a major revelation, emerging as a key character in the story, giving it—and Hammer—surprisingly unexpected depth.

[moira finnie]

Chief among the many components that make this show work so well is Brian Keith. Belligerent, loud, threatening; he’s got Hammer down to the last nail. His voiceover propels the action and even the most seemingly preposterous lines seem absolutely right: “The city was quiet and the sharp wind off the river smelled like rain.”

You had me at the words, "Brian Keith..."
I'll be there in spirit, Dewster.

[Dewey1960]

As you must know, we would much rather have the flesh and blood version of yourself,
but we'll definitely take the spirit version! Thanks for putting up the pic of Mr. Keith
as Mr. Hammer!!

[MichiganJ]

In 1958, MIKE HAMMER became a weekly network television series starring Darren McGavin. It lasted only two seasons and, while McGavin is an engaging and skilled actor, he never really convinced anyone that he was Mike Hammer. Defeated by McGavin’s glibly passive persona (but helped enormously by Skip Martin’s dynamic jazz soundtrack), the show really doesn’t have the lasting reputation of TV Noirs like JOHNNY STACCATO and M-SQUAD.

Just saw the McGavin series is being released on DVD on Tuesday.

[Lzcutter]

Just saw the McGavin series is being released on DVD on Tuesday.

Now if only McGavin's The Outsider would come to DVD or one of Dewey's festivals!

This City of Angels girl needs to see her city!!!

[MichiganJ]

Didn't know where to put this, but here seems to work.

I watched Kiss Me Deadly, a film I assume most Oasis members have seen many times. In the event you haven't, there are spoilers below.

I can understand why Spillane apparently hated this film; his private detective Mike Hammer comes off as arrogant, contemptible and pretty dense, too. The film begins with the credits scrolling up instead of the usual down, which, coupled with the running of the obviously naked (except for an overcoat) Cloris Leachman (suggestive heavy breathing on the soundtrack), is wonderfully unsettling, a feeling which stays throughout the course of the film (and lingers even after it is over). The science fiction ending is startling and very 1950s pessimistic. (Does anyone really think Hammer and Velda survive?) I'll admit that I should have seen Carver as a femme fatale, but I fell for her hook, line and sucker. (Truth be told, I probably would again. Gaby Rodgers…phew.)

In my effort to see all things Tanya Roberts, I also watched the made-for-TV-movie Murder Me, Murder You with Stacy Leach playing Hammer (Roberts is Velda). Leach is terrific as Hammer; hard-as-nails, unconventional, but with ethics and brains. I loved how he's dressed as a 40s private detective but the scenario takes place modern day (circa 1984); and Roberts….double phew and an oo la la too boot.

[RedRiver]

What's this I'm reading about a short-lived series from Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer stories? This one featured Brian Keith as well, in the title role of ARCHER. It wasn't even all that long ago. 1970's? Maybe I knew this at one time. Maybe not. I'm a HUGE fan of the books. MacDonald is to me what Woolrich is to Dewey! But I simply don't remember this show.

[Dewey1960]

Hey Red - I was a huge fan of MacDonald's Archer novels too. The series you mention was very short-lived; less than one season back in 1975. I've never caught an episode, but its reputation is pretty dismal. Frankly, much as I like Brian Keith, I can't quite see him in the role. Looks like no one else did either.

[MichiganJ]

I vaguely remember seeing an episode or two.

[youtube][/youtube]

It looks as though Archer may be back on the big screen soon.
http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/the-gal ... rner-bros/

[RedRiver]

Really? A new movie being talked about? Tell me more.