Noirsville Bonus - Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer Noir TV (Season Two)

Stocks and Blondes - Directed by Ray Nazarro, written by Robert Turner, DOP Bud Thackery.

Starring Darren McGavin as Mike Hammer, Rita Lynn as Eddie Sanford, Dennis Patrick (Guilty Bystander (1950), The Striptease Murder Case (1950) and probably best known from Dark Shadows TV Series (1966–1971) ) as Simon Loomis, and K.L. Smith (Pushover (1954), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), ) as Tom O'Rough, and Roxane Brooks as Dina Dawes.

First Avenue

An old buddy ex prize fighter of Mike's,Tom O'Rough, gets knocked around by thugs while he was on his way to see Mike. He's brought to Bellevue Hospital. Mike visits him there. He tells Mike that long time chiseler Si Loomis has weaseled his way into the confidence and heart of his employer Eddie Sanford.

Mike and Tom O'Rough

Eddie and Mike

Mike does some footwork first going to Si Loomis' office and confronting him with no results, then visiting Eddie to give her the lowdown on Loomis. Mike finds Eddie unresponsive to his concerns. She is in love with the grifter.

Mike Hammer: [narrating] Well, I tried. Whoever coined the phrase love is blind must have know Edie Sanford personally. She liked Si Loomis, trusted him, was willing to be fooled by him, so she stuck with him.

Si's office is in the Chrysler Building

Mike,  Si , and  Dina

Mike is finally able to use Loomis' secretary Dina and her jealousy of Si's relationship to Eddie to break things open. The episode is filmed mostly on sets with some establishing NYC shots featuring an ambulance driving into Bellevue Hospital. 6/10

A Haze on the Lake -  Mike is hired by Carl Kunard (Lorne Greene) to investigate a series of possible assassination attempts on his life while he's vacationing at Saranac Lake, NY. All the attempts so far have been amateurish. The location used in this episode looks anything but Saranac Lake. It's obviously a Western setting a lake near Los Angeles, with hills displaying sparse vegetation. Saranac in the Adirondacks is surrounded by pines and spruce.

An obviously near Los Angeles lake

The list of suspects are limited to who are at Kunard's lodge. Kunard's wife Julie, his business partner Lloyd Randall, and his son Larry. Arriving about the same time as Mike are members of Larry's fraternity. The are up there to haze a new pledge, away from the prying eyes of the college which has forbidden hazing.

A outboard motor exploding in his face is the last straw, Carl (Greene) calls Mike

Julie (Elaine Edwards)

Lloyd Randal (Dick Gering)

the Haze by spanking

Carl getting his jollies voyeuring the haze

An curiously interesting episode, Carl Kunard at first comes off as some deviant weirdo who gets his rocks off with a spanking kink, that morphs into a general predilection for torture in general. Of course the hazing goes too far and the pledge Paul is driven out of his wits.

Directed by Sidney Salkow, written by Kenneth A. Enochs (as Kenneth Enochs) and the DOP was by William A. Sickner.

Starring Darren McGavin as Mike Hammer, Lorne Greene as Carl Kunard, Ray Stricklyn as Paul,
John Carlyle as Larry Kunard, Dick Gering as Lloyd Randall, Elaine Edwards as Julie Kunard, and  William Roerick as Cliff.

It's watchable 5.5-6/10.

When I Am Dead, My Darling...  - A Nautical episode. Mike is vacationing in Paris. Mike's current gal pal Gloria (Carolyn Hughes) is heading home before him so he takes her to the departing ship in Le Havre. There, Mike meets Jacques Lomere (Paul Dubov) a ships officer off the ocean liner Isle de France that he knows.

Jacques Lomere (Paul Dubov)  and Mike

Mike is asked by a Jacques if he'd help an American widow Laura Laurents (Catherine McLeod) who is seeing her recently deceased husband everywhere on board since she boarded. They don't know if she is just crazy or a victim of a cruel prank.

Laura Laurents (Catherine McLeod) and Mike

Laura Laurents: Mr. Hammer, if you don't help me, I'll never reach the United States.
Mike Hammer: Oh? Why not?
Laura Laurents: He won't let me. He wants me to join him.
Mike Hammer:And who's he?
Laura Laurents:My husband.
Mike Hammer: Oh. What you need is a good lawyer. You see, any good divorce lawyer...
Laura Laurents: My husband is dead.

Mike agrees to accompany her back on the ship. During the voyage a running joke is that Mike's girlfriend Gloria keeps getting stood up by him as Laura keeps having her "hallucinations" and has to check on things.

He's starting to think that she really is insane until the ghost husband Pierre (Jan Arvan) actually tries to throw her overboard and Mike stops him in the act.

almost overboard

Directed by Boris Sagal, written by Bill S. Ballinger (as B.X. Sanborn). DOP was John F. Warren.

Pierre (Jan Arvan) and Mike

Directed by Boris Sagal, written by Bill S. Ballinger (as B.X. Sanborn), DOP John F. Warren.

Starring Darren McGavin as Mike Hammer, Catherine McLeod as Laura Laurents, Paul Dubovas Jacques Lomere, Jan Arvan as Pierre Laurents, Carolyn Hughes as Gloria, Eugene Borden as Dr. Luge, and Rolfe Sedan as Dr. Bouchet.

Another watchable episode with obvious stock ocean liner footage and studio set interiors. At least it has hammer-tomically correct Carolyn showing up in various swimsuits one of which is a bikini.5.5-6/10.