M Squad

M Squad is probably the only true film noir TV show ever shot. It was done with low camera angles and the most intense black and white photography with surprising lighting. As few shades of gray as possible were used. It needs to be viewed on a b/w TV for the full effect. It is an important work, and if the series still exists, it should be shown on PBS. Very intense drama. A good antidote to the sugary sweet shows like (two of my true favorites) Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best. Good shows, but the fifties were nasty, and the TV shows that you find on G4 or Nick are just not representative. It was a show that made the viewers uncomfortable, I have read. I a very thankful that my parents never took those parental rating seriously (yes, they had them then).

There's no way you could ever truly "get" "Police Squad" or any of the "Naked Gun" movies without seeing "M Squad." When you see "Police Squad" or "Naked Gun", you know it's satire, but satire of what? You realize it must be satire of old police dramas, but very pointedly, it is satire of THIS PARTICULAR police drama. They broke the mold on film noir police dramas with this one.

This was no sissypants show. It was made for men who appreciated real men - the perfect vehicle for Lee Marvin as Frank Ballinger, tough Chicago detective. With his low-voiced police growl and tall lanky tough-guy look, he dealt with Chicago bad guys with frank talk, force and the point of his snub-nosed revolver.

This show would have a difficult time airing today due to its lack of political correctness in the violence department. However, it would be fun to see another run on cable.

Straight out of the James M. Cain hard boiled school of crime fiction (minus the sex, of course) this was TV by men for men. Each episode began and ended with a pithy remark or two by the hero/narrator Detective-Leut. Frank Ballinger about "my town"--Chicago, that is.

Oddly, this fifty-plus year old series can still provide insights and observations that seem fresh, about police work, about human nature in general. The tough, minimalist dialog contains lines that make you want to write them down for future use.

Lee Marvin is perfect. He was only mid-thirties when this series was shot but looks somewhat older, or anyway more mature, with his lived-in face and prematurely white hair. Marvin personifies toughness but he's no Steve McQueen. That is, he can handle a line of dialog articulately, use his voice like a woodwind, yet lose none of his manliness.

The only aspect of the character of Lieut. Ballinger that is a bit unrealistic is his almost monkish attitude toward women--imposed on the character due to the prevailing broadcast standards of the time. In this series women are mostly trouble, or else the grieving widow of a police officer or the wife of a criminal, astonishingly naive about what her man really does.

Without all the technical advances of today's television production, this show accomplished more with just tight writing, solid acting and straightforward directing.

I recently saw Max Weinberg's Big Band and it was a real treat to hear them play the theme from M Squad - especially since I had just watched all the episodes of the series over the past year or so. Lee Marvin was one cool cucumber of an actor who wore a cool hat during the series run. It's great to see him walk the streets of Chicago in his relentless pursuit of criminal apprehension. Like Joe Friday, we never really see Marvin's Frank Ballinger off the clock, but unlike Friday it seems like when he does get the occasional day off, Ballinger might actually have a good time at a local windy city watering hole. I watched many of the episodes in the wee hours of the night, which was the perfect time to enter Frank's black and white universe of no nonsense crime fighting.

I've been working my way through the DVDs by timeless media. Man, they are great. Great because of Lee Marvin. I was expecting Marvin might have some work yet to becoming the Lee Marvin we know in Point Blank and The Killers. No way. He has tough guy cop done better here than it's ever been done. Someone mentioned that Marvin's Frank Ballinger challenged bad guys to escalate things with him. That's the perfect way to put it. The gun stays on the hip, Marvin gets in their face, reads them the facts and lets them absorb it. And then cuffs them. There are so many subtle things Marvin does here that make the tough guy work. It's maybe how he appraises the other actors. Like he's thinking " I'm listening, I'll tell you later if I believe you." Very stony. The material, in it's sketchy short form, deflates the magic of Marvin here and there but in a funny way. My favorite Police Squad type of moment has Marvin in a fistfight at the circus that starts a fire that burns the whole circus down in an apocalypse of panic and flames. Footage of some old big budget movie used as a backdrop. Very Frank Drebbin kind of unintended consequence. I recommend you get your own copy of Marine sniper turned actor kicking ass on TV