Crime Story

why this show only has 89 votes. It's one of my favorite shows of all time along with Twin Peaks, Arrested Development and Miami Vice. And anyone who loved Vice should love this. It's also by Michael Mann who as great as he is with movies is so much better with TV. This is actually where I fell in love with Andrew Dice Clay. That's right, you heard me. He played Max Goldman on the show and was great. Along with the wonderful Anthony John Denison, Dennis Farina and Stephen Lang. And in the pilot there is a super young David Caruso and the 4400's Billy Campbell plays one of the detectives. And let's not forget the super-cool don Manny Weisbord played by the legendary Joseph Weisman. And speaking of stars this was much like Miami Vice with a long list of guest stars. I remember Kevin Spacey playing a Kennedy type in one episode. They don't make shows like this anymore. It's a shame. We're fascinated when something like LOST is almost as good as TV used to be. If you like watching TV on DVD definitely give it a watch. It's better than everything on television right now.

From producer Michael Mann, a brilliant crime drama series that can be mentioned with similar reverence as THE UNTOUCHABLES(TV series)1959-1963. Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Las Vegas...organized crime is spreading its wings. Michael Torello(Dennis Farina)is the head of Chicago's Major Crime Unit and determined to bring down up and coming crime figure Ray Luca(Anthony Denison). The action takes place in the early 60s...and it is very impressive that the clothing, hair styles, automobiles and music are circa 1963. The opening theme is a revved up revised version of Del Shannon's "Runaway". The Torello/Luca relationship may even be more intense than that of Ness/Nitti in THE UNTOUCHABLES. From direction to dialogue; from story line to acting...hard to find fault with one of the best in this genre.

Kudos for strong acting from Stephen Lang, Bill Smitrovich, Andrew Dice Clay, Jon Polito, David Caruso, Ray Sharkey and Joseph Wiseman. Rocker Todd Rundgren is responsible for all original music that drives this 42 episode crime drama.

Crime Story was a strange, hard and often inspired tv series from the mid-eighties. It was made by the producer of Miami Vice, Michael Mann, and the cast is stocked with Michael Mann regulars - Stephen Lang, Bill Smitrovitch, Ted Levine and Dennis Farina (all except Ted Levine are in Manhunter).

Although Farina and his crew throughout the series chase after their arch nemesis, Ray Luca and his gang (Pauli Taglia, Frank Holman), the story comes in two parts. The first part, allegedly set in Chicago, the second set in Las Vegas.

Throughout the series, the director tries for a fifties, early sixties feel, even though that's tough to maintain. Great music, every episode is introduced by Del Shannon's "Runaway".

However, very often the focus is the psychological dynamic between Mike Torello (real-life Chicago cop Farina) and Ray Luca (played with a psychopathic coldness by Anthony John Denison). Torello may be on the right side of the law, but there is an equally uneasy quality about the doggedness with which he keeps going after Luca. What would his life be without him? Torello is also frequently tempted to cross the line and behave in a more effective, but illegal way himself.

If you haven't seen it, and you like Wise Guy, or the feel and look Michael Mann gives to his productions, don't miss this series. As this is a classic 80s series, there are also lots of cameos from familiar actors and actresses.

Michael Mann is a first class director. He is laser focused and always delivers in spades. He is the genius who directed the tv film The Jericho Mile and the film noir classic with Jimmy Caan Thief. I think he needs to be given credit for this HE DIRECTED THE FILM THAT IS BETTER THEN SILENCE OF THE LAMBS!!!!He directed Manhunter which was so unjustly overlooked when it was released, but has now on DVD been given the credit it deserves. Mann also directed Heat, The Insider and Ali. Before he did that however, he created the classic tv shows Miami Vice and Crime Story. These are the series that made tv crime shows "grow up" in a sense. It made them more gritty and realistic the way that The Untouchables and Dragnet did. Mike Torello on this show was just as tough and bad ass as Elliot Ness or Joe Friday! I loved the look of this series, it made you feel like you were back in that time where cars had finns, where rock and roll was king and where the good guys wore black! I loved the theme music for the show, it was Del Shannon's "Runaway" I always remember that song. Mike Torello against Ray Luca was almost like a morality play of good versus evil. The scripts were first class, and the actors never gave a performance that didn't rule. Dennis Farina had actually been a cop with Chicago Police Department and it amazes me that a man who never had an acting lesson could give such a fine performance in every show that he has been in! Crime Story wasn't a show for sissies, but it always delivered and kicked ass!

Crime Story was very probably the best show of its kind ever. Although it ran only two seasons, it boasted a superbly worked story and, without question, the best cast ever assembled for television. Not a big star in the mix, but the finest selection of character actors around. Probably the best conflict ever between two men on screen, Denis Farina as cop Mike Torello, and Anthony Denison as hot-headed mob figure Ray Luca. Luca's rise to power in Chicago and later in Las Vegas is the central plot, with Torello and his task force on target to bring him down. With Torello's every failure to bring Luca to justice, he becomes more frustrated and empassioned, and turns up the heat a notch each time, while Luca dances just beyond his reach, increasingly arrogant in his new-found invincibility.

Along with the well-laid foundation of drama and conflict, there was quite a lot of dark humor, one of the things I liked best about the series. Much of this was provided by John Santucci as Paulie, and Ted Levine as Holman, as Luca's sleazy low-life helpers. One show in particular stands out, in which Luca dispatches Paulie and Holman to go to work at a competitor's casino, to do everything possible to make it lose money. Another great role was Luca's long-suffering wife, Cori, played with shrewish gusto by Johann Carlo.

The first season was superior to the second, mostly because the first was so close to perfect. The second half of the first season, in which Torello follows Luca to Las Vegas, is no less than outstanding. Having seen "Casino",the Martin Scorcese movie from 1995, I was struck by how many similarities there were between that movie and "Crime Story" in Las Vegas.

This show was in reruns on USA ten years ago, for a short time, it seems they only ran the whole series through twice. I did tape it at the time, but have since been able to order the entire series on tape, a ten-cassette set. Although the picture quality is not great (EP mode), I am grateful to have these episodes to watch at all. If anybody ever properly puts this series on video (two episodes per tape, stereo sound), I would be even more grateful. The best television show of the 1980's deserves better!