The Last Detective (TV)

(2004-2007)
Created by Leslie Thomas
Written by Richard Harris
Starring Peter Davison, Sean Hughes, Emma Amos, Tob Spendlove, Elizabeth Bennett
IMDB Entry

The British love their mysteries. I keep coming up with programming that feature a detective -- professional or amateur -- who solves crimes, usually murders.  Since I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, I definitely wanted to see Peter Davison in The Last Detective.

"Dangerous" Davies (Peter Davison) is a police detective who is scorned for being a nice guy, unwilling to be cruel to the people he arrests.* After the events of the first episode, he's even more scorned by the police, who make him the low man in the office, only assigned to the crimes that no one else thinks are important. But Davies is a dogged investigated underneath his mild exterior, letting him discover crimes that are more complicated than first thought.

His personal life is messy. His wife Julie (Emma Amos) is divorcing him, but is only separated and still seems close, even if she does sleep with other men.** The other detectives treat him like a joke, and his boss, Ray Aspinal (Rob Spendlove) shows his contempt. His one friend in Mod Lewis (Sean Hughes), a pseudointellectual and overall flake who can't seem to hold a job.  Also of note in the early shows is his landlady, Mrs. Fulljames (Elizabeth Bennett***), who has a great and annoying fondness for Rogers and Hammerstein.

Davies suffers from contempt from all quarters, but soldiers on. Davison is excellent as a man too mild-mannered to object to the abuse and jokes, but who still goes about solving the crimes.

I was delighted to spot Sian Phillips -- Livia from I, Claudius -- in one of the episodes.

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*The name is ironic.  His actual first name was never revealed.

**In the first episode, one comes to her house when he leaving, which leads to a mildly awkward conversation.

***Best known to me for her role in The Sandbaggers.

The Emperor Jones

 (1933)
Directed by Dudley Murphy
Written by DuBose Heyward, based on the play by Eugene O'Neill
Starring Paul Robeson, Dudley Diggs, Frank H. Wilson
IMDB Entry

Some actors are legends, and in some cases, this is because few have seen them. Paul Robeson was certainly the best Black actor of the 1930s and 40s,* but Hollywood of that era being what it was, he didn't get many opportunities to star. The Emperor Jones, while technically not a Hollywood film, is one of those few, and he shows how spectacular an actor he could be.

Brutus Jones (Paul Robeson) is hired to be a Pullman porter, but he quickly goes onto the wrong path, gambling and carrying on with various women. During a crap game, he accidently kills Jeff (Frank H. Wilson) and is sent to work on a chain gang.  He strikes and kills a guard who is beating another prisoner, and goes on the run, getting a job as a stoker on a steamship. When it passes a Caribbean island, he jumps ship and joins up with the trader Smithers (Dudley Digges) who helps him to become ruler of the Island. Power goes to his head, until he is deposed and his descends into madness.

The movie is a classical tragedy of a man destroyed by his hubris. Robeson is definitely impressive and you get the impression he would have made a great heroic actor if times were different. Digges is also impressive and the scheming trader who realizes that Jones has gone too far -- but can't convince him of that.

Despite its origin as a play by one of America's greatest playwrights, Hollywood wasn't interested in filming it due to the all-Black cast,** so a couple of independent producers took it up. The movie flopped, though, probably because it wouldn't play in Southern theaters. There is also some scenes and words that are problematic these days.

On a larger level, there is a lot on condescension and clear racial attitudes of the time that wouldn't fly today (and shouldn't have flown even back then), so it can be difficult to watch these days.***  But Robson is a compelling presence throughout and it was worth it to see him in a leading role.

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*He also was an All-American football player.

**Smithers is the only white character of note.

***Though not even in the same ballpark as Wonder Bar.

The Yesterday Machine

 

(1963)
Written and Directed by Russ Marker
Starring Tim Holt, James Britton, Ann Pellegrino, Linda Jenkins, Jack Herman, Jay Ramsey, Olga Powell
IMDB Entry

Hollywood is cruel. It's the "what have you done lately?" attitude: if you had a few flops, or if you're growing older, you can end up forgotten. Tim Holt was a successful cowboy actor in the 30s and 40s, and appeared in four legitimate classics, but by the 50s, his star had faded.** He ended up taking roles in low-budget films and one of his final appearances was in The Yesterday Machine.

Howie Ellison (Jay Ramsey) and cheerleader*** Sandy Del Mar (Ann Pellegrino) have their car break down on the way to a football game. Looking for help, they are shot at by a pair of Confederate soldiers. Howie gets help, but Sandy remains missing.  Reporter Jim Crandell (James Britton), aided to Police lieutenant Fred Partane (Tim Holt) track them down to a secluded farmhouse, the headquarters of ex-Nazi scientist Professor Ernst von Hauser.**** Von Hauser has invented a time machine and it planning to go back to save Hitler.*****

The movie is pretty pedestrian and the acting no more than serviceable.  Of note is Olga Powell as Didiyama, an Egyptian slave of the pharaohs, who von Hauser has brought back.

Holt only appears in a handful of scenes, lending his name to be the only recognizable star. The movie was a local production, where small studios would make a film for small theaters far from the big cities and most of the actors appeared in nothing else. The film is certainly not a classic, but still manages to be entertaining.

As for Tim Holt, this was pretty much the end of the line. He had a guest spot a few years later on The Virginian, and appeared in one more film before his death. 

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*Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, The Magnificent Ambersons, and  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

**Despite the fact that Westerns were a big thing.

***The film begins with a pre-credit sequence of her twirling a baton for no particular reason.

****The fall of the Third Reich created vast unemployment among mad scientists.

*****Of course.