Girl on the Run

As a child/teen I loved "77 Sunset Strip" and watched it every Friday night when I did not have a date. Stuart Bailey was my hero: intelligent, mature, ex-OSS, PhD in Sanskrit of all things (as established, if I remember correctly, in "Girl on the Run") and a private investigator. I missed "Girl on the Run" in 1958 but did catch it about 1980 and managed to make an audio cassette recording of it. Quite a fine piece of noir it is. Zimbalist is excellent (and if he were not I would still like him); O'Brien is convincing; and Byrnes does what may be his best work ever as a cold homicidal maniac for hire. One could not find anyone farther from Kookie than is Smiley. Contrary to what others have said, it is my impression that WB was so impressed by Byrnes work that they said in effect "This movie does not exist in the 77 Sunset Strip continuity so forget it and we will use Edd as our appeal to teen-aged girls in the series." They were so right that Byrnes never again was allowed to show his talent as an actor, so well displayed in this movie. By the time "77 Sunset Strip" appeared only Stu Bailey remained. Even the noir disappeared and though the TV series was great, something was lost. It seems a tragedy that WB has not released this film and the series on DVD. They had better hurry up as my generation is beginning to die off as we become senior citizens! Addendum, 5 Feb 2011: I have just watched "Girl on the Run" again on what might charitably be called a "grey market" DVD. It holds up even better than I had hoped. It truly is a fine bit of noir with a light touch.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. stars in the pilot film for the popular TV series, "77 Sunset Strip." The story is about a lounge singer who witnesses the killing of a union boss (a ripe old plotline staple of 50's TV), and then is stalked by the killer, as he tries to get rid of the only witness to his crime. Zimbalist is hired to find her under a ruse by the murderer, and then falls in love with her and helps to bring the killer to justice. Eddy "Kookie" Byrnes plays a gunman hired to kill the singer, by the murderer, which is kind of odd since he's a good guy in the series. But, I'm guessing he is portrayed as a reformed man in the next episode. Slow moving by today's standards, it's a pleasure to be able to watch a story at a regular pace, and not have your eyes gouged out of your head by rapid, 3 second takes strung together to make a 2 hour film.

Zimbalist is good in the role of the hero PI, but for someone supposedly trained by the government during WWII to be a spy, he makes an enormous amount of mistakes. He leads the heroine around the town to at least 10 different hiding places before he gets the idea he might be followed. Shepperd Strudwick is reliably evil as the villain, and the Erin O'Brien plays her part as a 50's damsel in distress as well as anyone could.

If you can't remember the series, don't worry. Seeing this film will introduce the characters and get you ready to enjoy a true slice of classic 50's television, "77 Sunset Strip." Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb!

I tried to watch all the episodes of 77 SUNSET STRIP several years ago, but stopped after twenty episodes, because I could not anymore. Gumshoe topics are not my stuff at all, except HARPER - Paul Newman, TONY ROME - Frank Sinatra, CHANDLER - Warren Oates - or MR RICCO - Dean Martin. Donald Sutherland in KLUTE That's all, folks. Mike Hammer in KISS ME DEADLY? Hmm Yes, OK, but only because it was made by the great Bob Aldrich. I nearly forgot Elliot Gould in THE LONG GOODBYE and Bob Mitchum in the two Ray Chandler's remakes THE BIG SLEEP and THE LONG GOODBYE. But for the rest, and there are thousands and thousands of them, between movie theaters releases and of course TV series, I can't watch them anymore. This very one from Richard Bare is not a total junk, but I prefered from Bare SMART GIRLS DON'T TALK. The movie itself is well paced, and provides a good climax. Not a bad film noir but the fact that I watched partly 77...Tv show before disturbed my comfort watching this one.