Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer: The Complete Series (1958 – 1960/Darren McGavin/Universal/A&E DVD
Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: B
The
gumshoe detective peaked in the 1950s, along with Film Noir, radio dramas
(which were phased out as TV took hold) and that included Mike Hammer, the
famous detective created by Mickey Spillane.
The books were selling well and still sell to this day, but Hammer was
also being imitated. On the big screen,
the best Hammer film ever made arrived in Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (1955, reviewed on Criterion Blu-ray elsewhere on
this site) and the best TV version was also produced with the great actor
Darren McGavin in Mickey Spillane’s Mike
Hammer: The Complete Series.
Running
from 1958 – 1960, the half-hour series stayed so during its entire run, but it
turns out to be the most brutal crime show of its kind until Mannix ten years later and actually got
better and better as the show moved along despite no storylines identifying
progress or multi-part episodes.
Although
there were some great actors here I was less familiar with, the show is still
loaded with name actors. Guest stars
include (sometimes playing more than one character during the show’s run) Mike
Connors, Lorne Greene, Angie Dickinson, Nita Talbot, Ruta Lee, Sue Ane Langdon,
Barbara Bain, Walter Reed, Lawrence Dobkin, Robert Fuller, Evelyn Scott,
Richard Benedict, DeForest Kelley, Yvette Vickers, Virginia Gregg, J. Pat
O’Malley, Ken Lynch, Charles Aidman, Marion Ross, Herschel Bernardi, Dick Van
Patten, Robert Vaughn, Ted Knight, Barrie Chase, Paul Langton, Anna May Wong,
Keye Luke, Barbara Luna, Constance Towers, Karl “Killer” Davis, Gloria Talbott,
Robert Dix, Jack Weston, Penny Santon, Denver Pyle, Abby Dalton, Grace Lee
Whitney, John Hoyt, Jeanne Cooper, Marya Stevens, Alan Mowbray, Evelyn Scott,
Neil Hamilton, Barney Phillips, Suzanne Lloyd, Madlyn Rhue, June Dayton, Dorothy
Provine, Evelyn Ward, Victor Sen Young, Frank Maxwell, Richard Crane, Gene
Saks, Dennis Patrick, Val Avery, Ned Glass and even The Ames Bothers. Now that’s a great guest cast!
The
writing became stronger in the second season and the teleplays in particular by
B.X. Sanborn (M Squad) are the strongest in a solid group of adventures. Most of all, there is McGavin in his early
prime, more formidable than you might expect the father from A Christmas Story to be, having plenty
of fist-fights and shootouts each show.
Though Stacy Keach had a 21-year run as the character, I still think
this is more consistent and all 79 half-hours (on 12 DVDs) offers a great show
much deserving of rediscovery. You are
bound to be more impressed than you might think.
The 1.33
X 1 black and white transfers are pretty good and the show was shot on 35mm
film, which is why they look as good as they do today. Despite the disclaimer on the package about
picture quality, these copies have fine detail and gray scale for the most part
and hold up nicely. The Directors of
Photography are also very talented including John L. Russell, A.S.C. from
Hitchcock’s Psycho. Hope we see a Blu-ray set someday. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is very well
recorded for its time and typical of how well Universal (and their Revue TV
subdivision) was at recording their series, which is what you would expect from
a company that owned MCA Records/ Dave
Kahn’s instrumental theme song for the series “Riff Blues” is perfect for the
show. Very sadly, there are absolutely
no extras, though the show and McGavin deserved them. At least the show has finally arrived on DVD.
However,
we all know McGavin moved on to success as monster-hunting reporter Carl
Kolchak where his voiceover style from this show was taken to new heights. For more McGavin, try these links:
Night Stalker/Night Strangler DVD (out of print)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1379/Night+Stalker/Night+Strangler+(MGM/r
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974 – 5) complete DVD series
set – U.S.
version
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2888/Kolchak:+The+Night+Stalker+(1974-7
Australian
version
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9520/Kolchak:+The+Night+Stalker+-+The
- Nicholas Sheffo
