Peter Gunn:
Late 1950’s Television Noir
by Guy Belleranti
Take a Blake Edwards creation, add the music of Henry Mancini and
his orchestra and what do you get? If you answered The Pink Panther,
you’re right. But you also get a TV series that ran from 1958 to 1961.
That series was Peter Gunn.
Indeed, Peter Gunn was created and produced by Edwards, and the
jazzy theme music was Mancini’s. Edwards also wrote a number of the
program’s scripts, and directed some of the episodes.
Peter Gunn ran on NBC for two seasons, and then was on ABC for
its final season. A total of 114 one half hour episodes were aired, all
in atmospheric black and white.
Peter Gunn was a private eye, but not as hard-boiled and
wisecracking as Edward’s earlier P.I. creation,
Richard Diamond. Instead, Gunn was
a cool, confident and sophisticated man who dressed in a suit and tie
and solved cases the cops couldn’t or wouldn’t.
Craig Stevens played Gunn with just the right touch. Other
program regulars were Lola Albright as Gunn’s sweet and sexy blonde girl
friend, Edie Hart, Herschel Bernardi as Police Lieutenant Jacoby, and
Hope Emerson as the owner of Mother’s, the smoky jazz club so integral
to the series. Edie sang in Mother’s, and Gunn spent much of his off
time here. Gunn also gathered up clients and cases at Mothers.
Peter Gunn was television noir at its best. The smoky jazz club,
the shadow-filled cinematography and Mancini’s music created great
atmosphere. In addition, the dialogue was crisp and snappy. The program
had its action sequences – chases, fist fights, etc. – but it wasn’t
laden with violence. While the stories were primarily no-nonsense in
style, there were also some comic moments. For example, in one episode
Gunn has to baby-sit a circus seal to protect it from gangsters.
Lt. Jacoby and Gunn had a love-hate relationship. Sometimes they
were the best of friends; other times Jacoby was riled by Gunn’s
penchant for cutting corners. However, Jacoby couldn’t argue with Gunn’s
success, for in the end the suave P. I. always got his man.
A bit more about Mancini’s music. It was so successful on this
series that an album of it became a number one smash on the Billboard
charts. Mancini won an Emmy and two Grammy’s for the music he produced
for the program.
The program spurred a novel and comic book, and in 1967 a
theatrical movie “Gunn” was released. Directed by Edwards, the movie
also featured Mancini’s music and Stevens as Gunn. However, the movie
was pretty much a flop commercially. Perhaps one of the problems was
that it was in color instead of the original noir-like black and white.
Go
to Rewind the Fifties Home
