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).

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.

This show was so hard-bitten Ballinger almost got killed once having been pumped full of lead. When did Joe Friday ever get shot? It's a crime this adult drama has never been rerun.

Lee Marvin became and remains one of my favorite actors because of this series. As a kid I eagerly awaited Friday nights at 9:00 (EST) on NBC. Frank Ballinger always got the bad guy, and we got to hear some really cool music along the way. The late fifties and early sixties were a golden age for TV cop shows and TV music -- this show was one of the main reasons. After much travail, I have managed to obtain a rare videocassette of two episodes, and even rarer, a copy of a CD reissue of the sound track LP. Great stuff! The "Police Squad!" opening credit sequence, and the characters of Frank Drebin and his boss, were lifted (lovingly, I am sure) from this show.

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