This is gonna be a reach. Anyone watch the 59-62 Lee Marvin cop potboiler show? I watch some on Youtube if the quality is good enough. I think its fascinating. It doesn’t hold your hand. It’s kinda hard to tell whats going on. It often avoids tropes, Example:
A guy who accidentally killed a man goes to his ex-wife to beg for money so he can buy a saxophone, which is the only way he can earn a living.
She says no. Get out. Eventually he just wears her down. She gives him $16. Its not enough. He grabs her purse, he yanks it out of her hand and she falls backwards and CRACKS the mirror behind her with the back of her head!. oh god, did he just accidentally kill her too? Is she gonna slump to the floor leaving a streak of blood on the mirror?
Nope. She’s fine. She just happened to hit the mirror just right. She worms the truth of the murder out of her ex. Does he kill her? Does he threaten her? Nope. Just slinks out. She asks whats he gonna do. He just says “Try and get by one day at a time.”
And in the end when you think hes gonna get life in prison, its offhandingly remarked he only got 4 years cause the dead guy attacked him first.
I love the show. And yes, I know its the basis of Police Squad! (in color)
I know I used to watch it in its original run, when I was a kid. That was my introduction to Lee Marvin (probably). But I haven’t watched it since then, and I don’t remember enough (or anything, really) to comment on your assessment. It sounds like it might be not bad, I guess I’ll have to look it up and see what I can find on YouTube.
eta: I found a playlist with the first two seasons. Here we go, down the rabbit hole.
M Squad was a very good (sort of) police procedural show I remember well from childhood. I used to watch it with my father, who enjoyed that kind of show and was also a Count Basie fan (the latter wrote the score for M Squad, or else performed it, and his name was prominently featured in the credits). I’ve since watched the show recently, as of a few weeks ago, on YouTube, and it holds up nicely. It was a tough, violent show, and now it’s also a fascinating time capsule in that it featured a while lotta cigarette smoking going on, like so many (most?) black and white contemporary crime and mystery series of its period.
Hi can any of you help me locate a specific episode of M Squad please? My dad remembers an episode where bullets are found but they don’t fit/match the suspected murder weapon. He thinks they were wrapped in cigarette paper to make them fit. I’ve read all the episode synopsis and can’t find anything that fits. Have trawled YouTube watching random episodes but haven’t stumbled upon it yet. Many thanks
I definitely remember when the show was on back when I was starting school. I may have watched some episodes then, but I was more into shows like Combat! I probably would have watched more if I had known about Lee Marvin’s service in the US Marines during WWII.
I’ve seen some episodes on YouTube, one with Leonard Nimoy in particular. I agree that the series holds up really well, mainly because the darker elements aren’t sugar-coated like they are today. In the language of the time it’s a real “gritty” cop show.