A Death of Princes

No witty re-telling of the plot here or tirade on the proper pronunciation of "HammerSTINE/STEEN" from me----no, only my observation that "A Death of Princes" is one HELL of a good police/crime drama.

It's script is solid, the direction excellent, the performances-- especially the brilliant portrayal by Eli Wallach-- compelling, all set against the dark, gritty magnificence of New York City, filmed during the post-Christmas season of 1959/60. The plentiful night shots of downtown Manhattan, in all of its gaudy glory--including St Nick's arena, serve as terrific visual documentary of the era. The opening sequence, with the volley of gunshots mixing with the pealing of Sunday morning church bells, is dynamic and imaginatively staged, all-the-more impressive since it was filmed for a weekly, hour-long TV pilot.

Only the slightly weak staging of the big climatic shoot-out finale detracts from the overall power of this show. I'm even willing to overlook the cutesy, "girl-talk" scene in LIbby's apartment (how does a struggling, bit-playing stage actress AFFORD such a posh joint??), since the supporting cast of babes c.1960 is fresh and attractive, and not-too-obtrusive in terms of the plot.

Too bad that "Naked City" would eventually stray from good, solid, reality based story-telling like this into the "freaky", far-out" NYC-style socio-drama, featuring neurotic, quirky and eccentric characters that all too frequently detracted from the drama with their pretentious silliness. But, for the moment, the series was very solid, as would be stunningly demonstrated by the episode which follows. LR

In my opinion, this is the best Naked City episode of all. It's really the start of the one hour revamped version and everything and everyone clicks, particularly Paul Burke, Horace McMahon, and Eli Wallach. Even Peter Falk's role at the very beginning, is memorable. One of the all time great police dramas, with everything in synch; acting, writing, casting. Crooked cops are difficult to portray and the scriptwriter (Stirling Sillaphant) does a marvelous job. Even the wonderful black and white photography comes across so well, it adds to the mood and aura of suspicion. The producers really hit a home run by replacing James Franciscus with Paul Burke; the quintessential intellectual lawman. Wish they made TV like this today.

This episode will be remembered for 3 things. Peter Falk's great uncredited cameo, Eli Wallach's great acting, and unfortunately for fans of Broadway, Nancy Malone's mispronunciation of Oscar Hammerstein's name. She fails not once, but twice. Because of circumstances, with all due respect to everyone involved in the egregious error, this can only be described as callousness.

The episode premiered October 1960, and Oscar passed in August 1960. In a tribute to Oscar, on the night of September 1st, 1960 the entire Times Square area was blacked out for 3 minutes. His name had to be in the news. We get a beautiful nighttime shot of the Lunt Fontanne Theatre toward the end, where the Sound of Music was playing at the time, universally recognized as one of Rogers and Hammerstein's greatest works. As a matter of fact, Ms. Malone character, Libby, is fictionalized as having a small part in this musical as a nun. What was she, Silliphant and Brahm thinking? Mr. Hammerstein was beloved worldwide, and still his. His work is legendary. There can be no excuses or equivocation. Even in a 1956 "What's my Line?" episode widely available, Mr. Hammerstein is a mystery guest, and his correct name pronunciation is widely discussed during the show. He made it clear it was not "steen" most of his life. This was not live TV, and someone should have caught this mistake. Wouldn't Libby, since she was so passionate about getting the small part, correctly pronounce the name of the person responsible for the play?

After watching the complete Year One of "The Naked CIty" starring Jame Franciscus, it's time to check out the Paul Burke era, with the show significantly expanding to a one-hour format.

Stirling Silliphant remains in charge, writing "A Death of Princes", Tightly directed, it plays like a solid feature film: a crime caper starring Eli Wallach and carefully introducing a host of characters, notably star Burke and his fiancee Nancy Malone, plus a colorful supporting cast. The subplot of evil Wallach, a bad apple cop of the first order, plotting a precisely timed meticulous crime caper set at a boxing arena is nicely meshed with Burke under boss Horace McMahon's directions keeping tabs on Wallach to get the goods on him. Exciting opening scene is a spectacular set piece, as Peter Falk has a shootout with cops and is cornered by Eli, only to be killed by Wallach in cold blood, with Burke as witness.

Brahm wraps up a full-length feature film in just 50 minutes, and I was impressed with how many "small roles" also were encompassed in the process. George Maharis is strong as the boxer who Wallach blackmails into participating in his scheme, only to see the light and do right at the last minute. He's introduced in a touching scene with his young daughter Susan Melvin -they were reunited a year later in a fine "Route 66" episode "Don't Count Stars" starring Melvin as the precocious owner of a San Diego hotel.

Jan Miner is powerful as another reluctant caper member, and Nancy Malone's friends Anne Helm and attractive (but unsuccessful) actress Carla Hoffman have a nice little scene with Burke. In the boxing ring, Clifton James and Godfrey Cambridge play Maharis' corner men.