Brass

After Carroll O'Connor's television tenure as Archie Bunker was peremptorily ended, he immediately moved to develop a pair of concepts as means of continuing his weekly serial television career; IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT was successful whereas BRASS was not, and for sufficient reason. BRASS shows effects from its TV pedigree stamped liberally upon it, including such as freeze frames during its opening and closing moments, surges of unsubtle music as commercial interruptions apparently near, in addition to other integral elements, in particular distinctly deferred resolutions for some scenes and characters. O'Connor is Frank Nolan, Chief of Detectives for the New York Police Department, tasked to solve two separate crimes, one concerning murders of geriatric victims in Penn Station and the other a multiple homicide in the CBS parking structure, with Nolan not realistically being given the assignment by the Police Commissioner who has opted to bank upon his top-ranked investigator to personally apprehend the killers. Together with his sleuthing, Nolan offers his opinions to nearly everyone upon him upon a wide range of subjects and also lobbies to save the police pension of a boyhood friend who has been discovered associating with known criminals and is at risk of being fired as a result. Co-scriptor O'Connor, an excellent actor, contributes polished timing and some clever business but at no time convinces as a Chief of Detectives, this being the film's most glaring drawback, although it is as well riddled with incongruities and continuity failings. Paul Shenar wins the acting laurels - he portrays the principal villain - while good turns are contributed by supporting players Richard Bright and Al Mancini, also answering to the Forces of Evil. Direction by Corey Allen is not routine, and he utilizes the camera to fashion a mise-en-scene that includes a good deal of invention, while Robert Gundlach's appropriate design should not be overlooked.

In between his successes with All In The Family and In The Heat Of The Night, Carroll O'Connor did this pilot film for another series Brass. In this he plays the NYPD's Chief of Detectives or in police jargon the Chief of Ds.

There are two parallel stories in this pilot, one concerns the killing of several people in a parking lot, similar to the CBS killings. The one ultimately responsible thinks he's too big to touch and he's got a lot of juice.

The second one is more interesting. Some senior citizens are being shot with a low calibre 22 pistol, the best not to give out too much noise allowing for the perpetrator to escape. The detectives assigned fell down on the job and my favorite scene in the film was O'Connor dismissing them. He takes over personal investigation of the case, a lot like the way Rock Hudson did in McMillan&Wife.

Brass had a lot of promise, but I've seen other promising pilots get rejected also. It really is a crapshoot as to what gets picked up and what doesn't I've felt for years.

But on the other hand if this had been successful we might never have seen Carroll O'Connor defending law and order in Sparta, Mississippi.