Noir TV - The Outsider (TV Series 1968–1969) Lost Transitional TV Tailfin Noir?

The Outsider

I watched some episodes of The Outsider as a teen when it first came out in 1968. I always liked Darren McGavin and liked the episodes I caught. I'd missed the 1967 pilot film completely and I know that I must have just stumbled upon the series mid season flipping channels by accident. I was in high school back then when it came out on Wednesday nights, and if I remember right it also started late, at 10PM Eastern. 

The Outsider was created by Roy Huggins a novelist turned film and TV writer. I've read that the series back story is that ex con David Ross (McGavin) is back in circulation after being pardoned by the governor. He was framed for that murder rap. Oops! Sorry, shit happens, and this time it happened to you.

I'm not positive of how any of the backstory is arrived at, I don't know if it's all from a script outline, or if it's all revealed in episode one. Or, do you get David Ross' backstory in dribs and drabs throughout the run of the series. The early episodes are not available legally at the moment. The episodes that are streaming are in various forms. Some are complete copies of episodes with the commercial breaks intact (since VHS tapes weren't available yet (1968), these copies are obviously copies from when the show must have been on cable, sometime in the mid to late seventies at the earliest). Other episodes are missing the opening flash forward, was this just a timing problem when they set their recorders? 

That flash forward as narrative device was part of the TV pilot film The Outsider (1967). So, anyway back to the backstory. 

So, innocent Ross did a 6 year stretch. Since he's now got "connections" inside and out of prison and a good handle on what's going on with the criminal element, probably more than the police do, he decides to make a living as a private investigator. Investigating for people who don't want bad publicity, or who don't want to go to the police. Maybe (I'm guessing) he'll also investigate and find out who framed him on the side. (without seeing the complete series this is just a possibility). 

It would be interesting to watch the complete series episodes in order and see how they depicted Ross' backstory and where most of his business was coming from. 

The production which had been going smoothly was suddenly thrown a monkey wrench. NBC, in a panic, demanded that they make changes to the original concept. Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot on June 5, 1968. Overnight violence on TV was getting the blame, script changes making the show less violent were requested. There were already 8 episodes completed. All those had to be redubbed and reedited, toning the violence down while at the same time they were also shooting new episodes. 

So Ross is operating up on Hollywood Blvd., in a third floor office working the Tinseltown drift. Show biz folk, old money Beverly Hills big shots, the parasites that feed off of them and, of course, all the losers and has-beens of all endeavors. 

By the looks of his crummy flop that he shares with a freeway, his empty refrigerator, and the '61 Plymouth Belvedere beater he drives, Ross is just scraping by. 

That Belvedere with tailfins BTW, is actually another star of the series. The car was (according to the brochures) originally either a metallic emerald green or metallic twilight turquoise, now after seven years of baking and oxidizing in the California sun, looks in some streaming copies like a drab metallic goose shit green. Perfect to blend into the background stakeout rig for a private eye. Ross describes it at one point as a blue sedan so it was probably the twilight turquoise.

For our gearhead readers the '61 Plymouth Belvedere a Curbside Classic

1961 Plymouth Belvedere - Curbside Classics

1961 Plymouth Belvedere (I would guess this is the emerald green paintjob) - Curbside Classics

1961 Plymouth Belvedere - Curbside Classics

1961 Plymouth Belvedere - Curbside Classics

1961 Plymouth Belvedere - Curbside Classics

Space Age interior with froggy eyed looking gauges and rear view mirror on a stalk sticking out of dash, how "space age" Noir is that, cool. (however Ross' Belvedere has your standard rear view) 6T-FinSeeker

Push button transmission on left, matching pushbutton radio on right - Hemmings Motor News

The series, being set in Southern California it's going to by default just organically have that sun baked Film Soleil Noir feel. Think Detour, The Scarf. Jeopardy, Inferno, Bad Day At Black Rock, The Wages Of Fear, Hitch-Hiker, Highway Dragnet, Mulholland Falls, The Hot Spot, etc., etc.

"David Ross was not a stereotypical glamorous private detective. He did not make much money, lived in a run-down Los Angeles apartment building, drove a beat-up 10-year-old car, and often got beat up himself while on cases. Ross was a loner who had never finished high school and had been orphaned as a small child. As an adult, he had served six years in prison on a trumped-up murder charge, before being pardoned. In short, Ross had found the world a very unfriendly place – he was an "outsider." Nevertheless, he turned private eye to tackle other people’s problems, and proved an extremely thorough and productive investigator." (TV Guide)

In that stylish, tongue in cheek flash forward typically, Ross would humorously explain, in classic Film Noir V.O. fashion, how he got himself into another fine mess, all the while a plot point is depicted on the screen ending in a cliff hanger like freeze frame. A hook. So, in effect, the series always had a partial non linier story opener.

Of the 26 episodes made, only 5 are streaming in close to their original format, two other episodes (Flip Side and Service For One) were combined into a TV movie called The 48 Hour Mile (to be reviewed in the future). In condition, the streamers range from a sepia toned I Can't Hear You Scream, to the almost decent looking (for VHS quality) Periwinkle Blue. 

FYI, The 48 Hour Mile looks the best of all the streamers. However for obvious reasons The 48 Hour Mile jettisons both the opening flash forwards and The Outsider title sequences and adds a new title card and then as a device, inserts an interesting psychedelic acid trip in part to bridge the interwoven stories. 

Again, I've never seen the whole complete series, and the few I did see, I only saw once and that was 55 tears ago. Since my focus on all things Noir has grown, a nagging voice kept calling to me back to re watch The Outsider. 

I had managed a couple of years ago to find a watchable copy of the pilot film, reviewed here.  Its a good film. The pilot could definitely use a restoration if possible. It's probably the best indicator of what the series should have looked like before all the script changes ordered by NBC.

It also would be nice to see the complete series in order. With all the interest in Noir these days any additions to the cannon are priceless. Usually with series, about a quarter of the episodes are great, another fifty percent run between good to just OK. and the rest of those left are somewhat flawed. 

The reason is that long running series usually have multiple creative teams and staff changes but that is over the long haul. The Outsider in it's only season had thirteen different directors. Alexander Singer directed the most at six. Gene Levitt, one of the series producers, directed four, Charles S. Dubin directed three, three other directors did two apiece, and seven others one each. The series obviously hadn't jelled in its first and only season. It had over twenty writers, and four different cinematographers. Then drop a major script change requiring edits to already completed episodes. The Outsider was doomed. 

The series star Darren McGavin was also a late Classic Noir vet appearing in Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm and in 1958, The Case Against Brooklyn. He was also dabbling with television. I'm sure I saw McGavin first in Riverboat. A lot of studios were shutting down their "B" units and a lot of now surplus movie personel made the transition to TV.

McGavin was a vet also of early Noir TV. His first TV role was in the series Crime Photographer (1951–1952), and bookending the decade with Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1958-1959). I love Mike Hammer but I've not seen the first.

He made The Case Against Brooklyn just before starting Mike Hammer. then pretty much segueing to do mostly TV after the 1950s. He notably appeared in The Night Stalker (playing a newspaper reporter who turns sort of into a paranormal detective) both TV films and series for Dan Curtis Productions (Dark Shadows). The films are both great, the series some good, some ok, some meh.

McGavin also appeared in Showtimes Noir anthology series Fallen Angels - Perfect Crimes (TV Series 1993–1996), and he of course is well know to most people for his portrayal of Old Man Parker in holiday favorite A Christmas Story.

Other notable Classic, Transitional, and Neo Noir vets starring on The Outsider include Marie Windsor, Betty Field, Jane Meadows, Claude Akins, Joan Blondell, Farley Granger, James Edwards, Keye Luke, Whit Bissel, Warren Stevens, Simon Oakland, Timothy Carey, Aldo Ray, Fred Williamson, James Gregory, Kenneth Tobey, John Doucette, Lloyd Bochner, Virginia Mayo, John Marley, Thomas Gomez, Paul Stewart and probably a few others I've missed all make their appearances in the series.

Just for fun since the color timing is all over the map in these streamers. Noirsville will review the episodes available, and go with noting what color the  '61 Plymouth Belvedere is displaying. 

Another detail with the Belvedere worth noting is that in some episode beyond episode 10 the Belvedere received a nice dent in it's right front fender and it stayed that way until the last episode. 

The Stack

One Long-Stemmed American Beauty  (Classic Femme Fatales)***

Season 1 ep.9  This episode aired Nov 20, 1968.

Directed by Alexander Singer. Written by Roy Huggins and Shirl Hendryx. Cinematography by Robert Hoffman. Music by Leonard Rosenman. 

In this copy the '61 Plymouth Belvedere is a drab metallic goose shit green. Not only that, but being metallic gives it an iridescent quality. 

The episode stars Darren McGavin as David Ross, Betty Field (Blues in the Night, Bus Stop, Butterfield 8, Coogan's Bluff) as Landlady, Julie Adams (Slaughter on 10th Avenue, The Psychic Killer, The Killer Inside Me (1976)) as Laura Carlvic, Marie Windsor (11 Classic Noir vet) as Leslie Jamison, Judith McConnell as Dorothy Johnson, Richard Van Vleet as the Stuntman, Peggy Pope as Florist, and Walter Mathews (The Naked Kiss) as Vincent Carlvic.

(We are already nine episodes into the series. By now we should (if regular watchers back in 1968) be quite familiar with Ross's backstory, his habits, his gal pals, etc., etc. By now we should have seen all of Ross' apartment, the neighborhood where Ross lives, where he has his office (the pilot film has it on  6533 Hollywood Blvd), where he hangs out if he does.)

Darren McGavin as PI David Ross

The Story

We get the opening flash forward. A stuntman in a Western gets shot off a roof and falls, Cut! He gets off the fall cushions dusts himself off, and speaks with the director. He then heads into the studio. Behind a dressing table on wheels David Ross is waiting. 

When the stunt man gets close David pops up and clocks him. A fight. Then the freeze frame. The V.O. and then the credits.  The music used for the title sequence is a cheap laid back West Coast "Tinseltown" studio musician Crime Jazz. There some hits of bosanova and that Mediterranean sound that you heard in a lot of 60s European films. Its mostly a light beat under electric piano, strings, and horns, occasionally a welcome sax riff makes wail or we get a bongo beat. It's really unmemorable. A shame.

The title card, what the original color is will not be known until a restoration. lol

A cemetery service. Ross waits until all the mourners have left and then approaches the young woman who remained\behind. Ross introduces himself to Miss Johnson. She was Leroy's (the deceased's) current gal pal, wink, wink.

Ross tells her that he did some preliminary investigation about the case, checked out the obit. Ross tells her that Leroy Rawlins was an actor in bit parts and that died of an overdose of tranquilizers and alcohol. Dorothy Johnson says that it's not true. He tells her that if she thinks somebody killed him it would be a police matter. Dorothy explains that she went to the police and they consider the case closed. 

She explains that for two weeks a car had been following them back from the studio with it's lights off. And there's strange people scurrying around outside her apartment in the dark. 

A florist delivery truck pulls up and the man driving it places a wreath near the grave, while complaining about the traffic. Ross asks Dorothy if she sent them. No. He checks the card, no name or message of condolence.

Dorothy also tells him that she wants Ross to understand one thing, Leroy was a dancer, he trained as a dancer, he hardly ever drank at all, and I never saw him take tranquilizers the whole time I knew him. 

Cut to a montage of Ross driving the Belvedere South on La Cienega going past the Losers Club accompanied by cheap enough West Coast Jazz that whoever is playing it gets no credit on episode on  IMDb.

'61 Plymouth Belvedere on La Cienega 

Cut to a montage of Ross driving the Belvedere South on La Cienega going past the Losers Club accompanied by cheap enough West Coast Jazz that whoever is playing it gets no credit on episode on  IMDb. It may be either Leonard Rosenman or Pete Rugolo.  Ross visits the Florist. Weasels the name of the sender by sweet talking the counter woman and heads over to the Bel Air address. 

Ross is visiting Leslie Jamison (Windsor) She lives in a mansion on Bellagio Road and has a rolls parked outside. When he arrives he is shown in to Leslie who is getting a massage. 

Marie Windsor as Leslie Jaimeson

It's a scene right out of In A Lonely Place, I can see Marie Windsor enjoying sorta sending up Gloria Grahame. Ross tries to pretend he is a reporter looking to do a story on Leroy but tells her that he traced her through the florist. From Leslie he finds out that Leroy was her husband once. As Ross leaves Jamison's he spots a suspicious red corvette in the side mirror.

Ross next visits The Garden Of Allah Rooms where Leroy last lived. He he meets the landlady and tries to pass himself off as someone who owed Leroy money. He asks her if Leroy had any relatives. She tells him no. 

Betty Field as The Landlady of Garden of Allah

When Ross gets back in the Belvedere outside the apartments, in the review he spots a tail in a red 1968 Corvette convertible. We get a little tour of 67 Bel Air during the chase, but eventually he ditches the Corvette by ducking into a dive way.   

After the Corvette passes David dives back on Hollywood Blvd to the office at 6533 Hollywood Blvd. It starts going Noirsville when he gets up to his third floor office, the Corvette driver is waiting for him. He sucker punches Ross then gives him a karate chop on the back of the neck and also a few kicks to his body. 

Ross is found laying on his office floor by Dorothy Johnson who is there when he comes to. Ross, once recovered, starts checking all the karate schools in the vicinity of Mid Wilshire's Koreatown . He finally spots a picture of a student. a "Mr. Williams" on a wall. Williams is the karate assailant. Ross digs out that he is a stuntman at a studio. Bingo! here is where the flash forward happens. We cut to a set where Mr. Williams gets shot off the roof in a scene from a Western. The shot done Williams goes into the backstage area where Ross sucker punches Williams. They tussle a bit and Ross wins, From Williams Ross finds out that he was hired by Vincent Carlvic a producer. 

From Williams Ross finds out that he was hired by Vincent Carlvic a producer. 

Carvic is staying with his wife on his yacht tied up at Marina Del Rey. Ross drives over and locates the turquoise colored yacht.

Confronting Carlvic and his wife Laura on their yacht, Carlvic admits he hired Williams because he didn't want Ross finding out about his wife's affair with Leroy. Dead End. 

Ross next talks with Ben Wright Leroy's agent. Ben tells Ross that Leroy was an excellent dancer but also a user of women to get what he wanted. 

Ross reports to Dorothy, who yells back at him that it is all lies. When Ross asks her what she does she tells him that she is a assistant casting director and admits that she did get Leroy a few jobs. She tells Ross to get out and that she will send him a check. When Ross gets back to the office his florist calls and tells him she just got a thousand dollar order for one long stemmed rose a day for Mr. Rawlins grave.

Noirsville

Sunset Strip

McGavin is great, the archival footage of West Hollywood streets is wonderful. It's the real deal. Besides having a riff on a scene from In A Lonely Place there's also has a dash of Sunset Blvd. Marie Windsor and Betty Field give great performances and are having fun doing it. Watchable but needs a restoration. 6/10

Part of the opening title sequence split screen. . .

. . . and the comparison to the entirely sepia toned episode below

I Can't Hear You Scream (Sepia Noir)****

Season 1, ep. 10 aired Nov 27, 1968

Directed by Alexander Singer. Written by Roy Huggins and Edward J. Lakso. Cinematography by Ray Flin. 

This entire copy is a light sepia toned Black & White the '61 Plymouth Belvedere shows more detail that is usually overpowered by color. It gives you a good idea on how the series would have looked had it been filmed in Black & White. 

The episode stars Darren McGavin as David Ross, James Edwards (The Set-Up, The Phenix City Story, The Killing, The Manchurian Candidate) as Lieutenant Wagner, Ena Hartman as Eleanor Springer, Myron Healey as Frank Murphy / Flynn, Juanita Moore (Women's Prison, Two Moon Junction) as Esther Branson, Gwendolyn Grimes as Mona Gentry, and Marc Cavell as Solly Thayer. 

The story

The opening flash forward is of Ross at a craps table trying get a lead on a gambler named Flynn. When he asks one too many questions he gets beat up. The flashforward ends as usual in a freeze frame.

Anybody here know a high roller named Flynn?

Freeze Frame - "You may be wondering how i got myself into this situation?"

The credit sequence always begins with David Ross starting his morning routine in his crummy flop, here below are some highlights in sepia tone.

Darren McGavin

After the credit sequence we are transported to Dorothy Chandler's brand new Los Angeles Music Center. It sits roughly on the North side of where Court St. would have crossed Grand. It sits where Bunker Hill was. Oh, there's still some of the hill there, but it maybe 100 feet lower than it was, once it got scaped off. 

Mark Taper Forum

The Peace on Earth Fountain

The only three touchstones left of Bunker Hill in Los Angeles are Angels Flight, unfortunately moved to a location South of where it used to be, and the two tunnels under Bunker Hill,  the 2nd and 3rd Street tunnels

We get a bit of a tour of the site, The Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, the plaza with it's fountain and The Mark Taper Forum, as we see Ross walking around looking for his contact, Solly Thayer. Solly looks like a junkie used car salesman. He's short and scrawny. Got that weasel look. He is dressed in a loud plaid jacket and black slacks. 

Marc Cavell as Solly Thayer

Solly tells Ross that this crook Joey Kane, who has just recently had four heart attacks, gets out of bed today, against doctors orders, and goes directly to Ester Branson and confesses that he and a guy named Flynn pulled the stickup. He tells her that her son Terry had nothing to do with it. Her son was the patsy. Right after Joey makes his confession to Ester he keels over with a fifth heart attack. 

Ester calls the police.  Ester (who works as a cleaning lady in Ross' office building) gets a hold of her neighbor Solly and tells him to contact Ross. So, on the way to Ester's Solly fills in Ross on all this that  happened. By the time they get to the flophouse Joey is still unconscious and medical personnel are carrying Joey down the stairway to the ambulance. The cops are not believing Ester's story. 

Looks like a New York backlot set

Joey Kane

Juanita Moore as Esther Branson

Ester immediately wants to give Ross a hundred bucks. A pride thing. Ross waves her off and asks Ester questions getting as much information on what she knows about the people who knew her son.

Ross heads down to police headquarters and questions Lieutenant Wagner, he tells Ross that unless he can get a death bed confession from Joey Kane, he's going to go with the jury verdict.

Solly has another rendezvous with Ross telling him that the owner of the old bar where Terry Branson hung out with Joey Kane is now running a new place called The Back Door. 

We get more tour of Los Angeles as Ross goes to see Bessie who owns The Back Door bar to ask her what she knows about the Flynn and robbery. 

Bobo Lewis as Back Door Bessie 

Bessie blows Ross off but Mona, a B-girl, fills in Ross about Flynn, she tells Ross he spoke like a heavy bettor. 

Gwendolyn Grimes as Mona Gentry

Ross next visits one of Terry's old girlfriends on South Central, she tells him she hasn't seen him since way before the robbery, tells him that Terry was dating a dancer Eleanor Springer who worked at KNBC TV. 

Ena Hartman as Eleanor Springer

At the TV studio Eleanor tells Ross that Terry was a loser and she gave him the brush. At about then Eleanore's current boyfriend shows up and is introduced as Frank Murphy. 

Snooping around illegal gambling games in town gets Ross thrown out of all three but not before he spots Eleanor with Murphy who is shouting like a heavy high roller. 

Noirsville

There's some great dramatic scenes between McGavin and James Edwards. The rest of the cast acquits itself well. A few nice stylistic touches in this one. 7/10

Tell It Like It Is... and You're Dead (a B Noir)***

Season 1, ep. 11 aired on December 4, 1968

Directed by Alexander Singer, Written by Roy Huggins and Bernard C. Schoenfeld. Cinematography by Robert Hoffman. Music by Music by Pete Rugolo. 

This copy from a TV Land cable broadcast was made sometime after 1996 (so the original transfer was at least 30 years old already). The '61 Plymouth Belvedere is a drab metallic midnight turquoise with an iridescent sheen. 

This episode starred Darren McGavin as David Ross, Marilyn Maxwell (Champion, New York Confidential) as Winnie Blake, Whitney Blake (My Gun Is Quick, A Face In the Crowd) as Judy Elliott, Jackie Coogan (The Beat Generation, Marlowe and of course The Addams Family) as Rusty, Ted Knight (Psycho and The Mary Tyler Moore Show) as Nick Ames, Read Morgan (Marlowe, Dillinger) as Lacey, Eve McVeagh (Tight Spot) as Mrs. Forrester.

No Freeze frame the episode on this streamer starts with the Stack freeway interchange then to the "How Ross begins his day" montage which is obviously a homage to Harper's opening sequence. Then a shot of the Belvedere swinging into Bel Air. 

Oxidized midnight turquoise?

Ross arrives at the mansion of ex burlesque queen Winnie Blake. She lives with her "houseboy" Lacey. Winnie shows Ross where a bullet hole was lodged in the wall. 

It was fired at her last evening. Ross asks why does she think anyone would want to kill her. Winnie asks Ross if he's heard of her book and shows him a manuscript of her "tell all" book "Take It Off." 

Winnie tells him that there's a lot of half shots that are now big shots in the book who may not want to be in it. Ross asks Winnie who else would know who is in the book and she tells Ross that her ghost writer Judy Elliot. Ross wants Winnie to make a list of all the names she names.

Whitney Blake as Judy Elliot

Judy Elliot becomes a love interest for Ross, that I've read was never really exploited, she just in this one episode. It may have been an exploratory sidebar they were trying out as the series was taking form. 

Ross coincidently arrives at Judy's just as a young kid makes a getaway in a yellow Porsche having just stolen the latest tape. 

Ross' investigation goes through the list of suspects which include Nick Ames an prominent business man with a shady past, and Rusty a part time comedian and nightclub owner.   

Noirsville

This episode has a pretty good performance by Jackie Coogan. Ted Knight is amusing as the impeccably dressed, angry, shady, businessman. James Edwards as police Lieutenant Wagner, appears again but briefly. Whitney Blake in this episode is looking an awful lot like the icey blonde Madeline (Kim Novak) of Vertigo. You gotta wonder if that is what the director was homaging / intending or if it was by accident. 

There is also a homage / reference to Dick Powell's Murder My Sweet where Powell strikes a wooden match off of a statue of Cupid's ass. In this episode Ross when meeting Winney for the first time inadvertently puts his hand on a statues ass.   

A cheapo episode shot mostly on sets with not much of the Belvedere or Los Angeles.   5-6/10

Periwinkle Blue  (Black Comedy Noir) ****

Season 1, ep. 24 aired on Apr 2, 1969

Directed by Richard Benedict. Written by Roy Huggins with Edward J. Lakso and based on a story by Gene Levitt. Cinematography by Robert Hoffman. 

In the episode the Belvedere is a dull metallic goose shit green. 

This episode stars Darren McGavin as David Ross, Lois Nettleton (A Face In the Crowd, Twilight Zone TV series, Period Of Adjustment) as April Endby, Ellen Corby (The Strangler) as Aunt Myrtle, Douglas Dick (Rope, The Accused)  as Arthur Endby, Bill Quinn (Brainstorm) as Lt. Kanter, and Richard Benedict (Ace In The Hole, Crossfire, Backlash) as Case.

Flashforward  

Ross, with a cut on his head and a bandage on his leg, comes to in a mountain shack. 

He hears something outside and scrambles towards the door. Through a crack in the board and batten door, he spots a hand grab an ax out of a chopping block.

Whoever is out there is heading his way. Ross looks up and lifts himself up enough to slide the door latch into the lock. 

Whoever was approaching steps up to the door and rattles it. Ross sees a back entrance but he doesn't have time to do anything except gab a piece of cord wood and slid up against a wall. Freeze frame.  

This streamer jettisons the opening credits. What comes next is another extended homage to Harper.

The Story

We jump to the freeway at dusk outside of Ross' apartment. Ross enters juggling his keys, a takeout box, a bag of groceries, and the newspaper in his hands. He elbows the wall switch flipping on the lights. 

He drops an apple out of the bag when he kicks the apartment door shut. He goes to put the stuff down on a coffee table but it's cluttered with yesterdays trash. So he places the newspaper and paper on the couches end table. 

The grocery bag Ross takes into the kitchen.  Each passing car on the freeway throws momentary bars of moving light across the room. 

Ross opens the fridge puts the grocery bag in, while at the same time pulling out one can of Budweiser out of a six-pack. Ross pops the top and throws it into the box he uses for a garbage can. Ross picks up the box and brings it back to the coffee table. He places it at one end and lifts the coffee table and all the trash slides into the box.

Ross picks up the box and puts the box out in the hall. He then grabs the take out box and paper and puts it on the coffee table.  He opens the box and finds he's short some pieces of chicken. 

He goes back into the kitchen. From out of his fridge he pulls out his phone. He dials Happy Chicken complaining about being shorted. It's a humorous sequence. It gives you a little bit more of off hours Ross at home.  

He sits back on the couch and is taking a bite of chicken when he finally looks at the newspaper.  He sees a piece about a man who was killed in a hit and run accident. 

The man is the same man who came into his office recently telling Ross that he suspects that his wife is trying to kill him. 

Flashback

Ross is sitting at his desk, in his Hollywood Blvd. office ordering lunch on the phone. about to eat again. (it's a nice segue).  

While he's finishing up on the phone "ketchup, and try to not get the chips soggy....," a man, Arthur Endby, enters the office. Ross hangs up. Endby starts right in with his concern to Ross. "I hope you can help me."

Douglas Dick as Arthur Endby

Ross asks him to sit down. Endby then tells Ross that he thinks his wife is trying to kill him. We go into another flashback this time with Arthur and his wife April. In it Arthur finds a previous marriage certificate in a book that April was hiding from him. 

She tells him about falling in love and marrying a skiing instructor who died losing his balance and falling off a cliff while they were horseback riding 3 months after they were married. 

April tells Arthur that she wanted to come into the marriage appearing fresh and untouched for him.  The next incident is when Arthur gets a call from his doctor about a physical he is scheduled for, for the life insurance policy his wife took out on him. 

A double indemnity clause

Arthur also adds that there was a double indemnity clause in the insurance and he was feeling very insecure.

We momentarily come out of the flashback at this point, and see that the delivery from the fast food joint has arrived at the office and Ross is poking around in the bag. He pulls out a burger wrapped in paper. He opens it and lifts the bun. No pickle's or ketchup. He flips it over and finds nothing on the other end as well. 

Ross: I don't want to appear to be unsympathetic,. Endby but some wives feel protected with a life insurance policy, nothing earth shattering about that. 

The third incident is when he is carrying a stack of old records down to the basement and steps on a stair that has come loose and he falls to the floor. Arthur adds that he thought that the nails were deliberately tampered with. 

When Arthur asks Ross what he thinks he answers that it's circumstantial evidence you can't condemn your wife on circumstantial evidence. The flashback ends as Ross slams the newspaper down on the table. 

Ross meets April at the funeral. April feels that it's a waste of time to cry, and rather than get in the limo with Arthur's weepy office workers, she asks Ross if he'll give her a ride home. 

April invites Arthur in for coffee. She excuses herself and Ross checks out a photo on the mantel. Its April as the winner of the Miss Marino Bay beauty contest . When April finds out she doesn't have any coffee she apologizes. Ross says he'll go then and tells her if there's anything I can do for you let me know. April replies that she feels like Chinese and he can take her to dinner. 

Afterwards, Ross feeling a bit guilty, starts to investigate April for Arthur. His first stop is the cheesecake photographer who took Aprils beauty contest photo. The photographer is in the middle of a shoot a woman in a bathing suit is gyrating on a stage to music while a color wheel bathes her in different hues. 

The cheesecake photographer sequence.

They show some nice stylistics in the scene using low angles and shooting through the revolving color wheel.  

From the photographer Ross finds out that April's maiden name was Shannon. Finds out that her Aunt Myrtle was her legal guardian when April was living in Marino Bay. 

Shot through a revolving color wheel

Ross drives up the coast to Marino Bay and we find that Myrtle is another take on the drunk old lady archetype in Film Noir, Marlowe and Mrs Florian (both Murder My Sweet, and Farewell My Lovely) Ester Howard's character in Born To Kill, Bette Davis as Baby Jane Hudson. 

So Ross goes to visit Myrtle passing himself off as a member of the Marino Bay Chamber of Commerce doing some type bullshit survey about populations shifts. She invites him in tells him to sit down.

Ellen Corby as Myrtle

From Myrtle Ross gets the scoop on April's parents deaths. The brakes failed. She tells Ross that she took April in but that she was a wilful girl. Myrtle gets up and grabs a single glass and a decanter, swirling it.

Myrtle: I'd offer you some but.

She's only got enough for herself. Myrtle is an alcoholic

Then we get both versions of Jerry's (the ski instructor's) death. Aunt Myrtle tells us what the wrangler said at the inquiry, and that was that it looked like a storm was coming up and he went out to look for them. He caught up to them just as he saw April pushed Jerry off a precipice.  Ross asks Myrtle if they believed him? 

Myrtle: Of course not he's a drunk [taking a slug out of her glass] 

A little more dry humor. 

Aprils version of the story is done with quick cuts between Myrtle and April in the witness stand the sequence starts with April's voice then to Myrtle's and back

April: Yes I did Have an argument and I admit that I even.. 

Myrtle: Slapped. 

April: Jerry. He was, he got, very upset. And. He lost his.

Myrtle: Footing. 

April: And I, I reached out to grab him, and I tried to hang on to him, but he just, he just slipped out of my hands. 

Myrtle tells Ross that coroner's jury wan't out ten minutes, when they came back with a not guilty of course.

Ross: Of course. Now the wrangler who testified, where can I find him.

Myrtle: In the graveyard, a couple of months after it happened he was burned to death in his cabin. A kerosene lamp exploded. Like I said, [polishes off her glass of booze] he had a drinking problem.

The last thing Ross asks Myrtle, as he's leaving is, was April's husband insured? Myrtle says yes, and that leads Ross to his next segment. 

(This whole sequence is a hoot, Ross' reaction shots are priceless. It is a smart, extra stylistic, and humorous surprise, that you wouldn't expect in a TV series)

The whole story so far is riffing along on a "black widow" theme. Of course Ross finds out that Jerry was also insured double indemnity for $20,000. 

It starts going Noirsville for Ross when April starts coming on to him.  

Noirsville

A really well done episode that is a fun watch. Lois Nettleton is gorgeous and completely convincing in this, and McGavin's reactions priceless. 9/10

Through a Stained Glass Window  ****

Season 1, ep. 25

This episode first aired Apr 9, 1969. It was either the second to last or last episode of the series depending on what you read..

It was directed by Charles S. Dubin. Dubin injected a little more humor into this episode.

The 1958 Belvedere in this streamer is back to the metallic goose shit green,

I believe I read in Jim Dawson's book Los Angeles's Angels Flight, that this episode "Through a Stained Glass Window" contains some of the very last footage of Angels Flight before it was dismantled and of Bunker hill just before before it was shaved down to the elevation where it sits today. They are Classic Noir touchstones and they provide some nice cinematic memory. It's also a ignominious finale, a curtain call for old Bunker Hill. 

Besides Darren McGavin, the various stars with backgrounds in Noir also contribute  additional dashes of cinematic memory. This particular episode has noir vets Arch Johnson (Niagara, and Transitional Noir Twilight of Honor), Jane Meadows (Undercurrent, Lady in the Lake, Song of the Thin Man),  Walter Burke another noir vet of The Killer That Stalked New York, Dark City, Mystery Street, All the King's Men, The Naked City, as L.J. Fox, ubiquitous early TV character actress Ruth McDevott, and Harry Swoger as Frank Stobles. 

I never saw this episode when it aired that I can remember. Seeing Angels Flight would have been meaningless back then. I would not have comprehended what I was seeing, the end of Classic Hollywood Noir's "ground zero," the end of Bunker Hill, and basically as it was happening. 

Anyway this episode is sort of a tongue-in-cheek hilarious send up of some Noir tropes and it also makes it obvious that it is homage to Bunker Hill and Angels Flight.  

The flash forward is a riff on Chandler's Marlowe and Mrs. Florian, in Farewell My Lovely, and Arsenic and Old Lace, throw in a dash of Psycho set in a old Queen style Bunker Hill mansion. 

The Flash Forward

Alice Donner, wearing a colorful muumuu, her neck decorated with necklaces of bone and shell, wheels  out a large wooden bowl on a serving cart. Tropical music is playing. David is holding a photograph.

Alice: Well, here we are!

David: [Holding a photograph] You know, I was just looking at the photograph here, the attractive young couple in the tropical growth...

Alice: My young husband and I, on Samoa. My favorite island. We spent our honeymoon there, but he, poor darling, died after about two weeks. Some strange fever. I stayed on for ten years.

David: Really! Well.

Alice: Wont you sit down [dipping a small wooden drinking bowl into the larger and handing it to David].

David: What, what is this?

Alice: Kava. 

David: Ah ha.

Alice: Its the Samoan national drink. We don't have coffee breaks in Samoa but we do have kava breaks. It's much more than a ceremonial drink.

Ross is drinking the kava. It's strong.

Alice: Very refreshing, made of roots.

David: Eh, Woots.

We cut to a quick shot of hula girls shimmying and what else, bongos! 

Woots

David: Woots! [starts twitching his nose]

Alice: A little numb there [she points at spot between her nose and lips]

David: Y-yyyyeah!

Alice: That's kava. [smiling]. Now I'll get you another drink and I'll show you your room. 

Alice gets up and fills David's bowl. David stands up but has to grab the chair as he stumbles. Freeze frame.

Freeze Frame

Here the Voice Over starts:

David: [slightly drugged sounding] A little old lady from Pasadena is one thing but a lady from Samoa, a chief no less, is something else, again. My name is David Ross? I am a private investigator and I -eee, you may be wondering how I got into a situation like this? 

Begin the titles opening title sequence. We see a multiple split screen, that fades to a shot of the Stack. It's the huge downtown Los Angeles cloverleaf. 

The Outsider title appears to drop over it. The letters as cutouts then they solidify to white. A mid sixties West Coast version of crime jazz with horns and electric piano. 

And we get a Harper like montage, of the start of Ross' day. 

Venetian blinds. Ross jerks blinds up revealing the freeway view. Starring Darren McGavin again in cutout then solidifying. A toaster spits out a black shingle. Ross takes a bite anyway. 

He pulls his phone out of a refrigerator, then a bottle of milk.

He takes a couple of swallows before it registers that it went sour. It end with Ross putting on his jacket and going out the door of his flop. 

, 

The Story

Ross is on a case for L.J. Fox. He's tailing Eddie Johnson. Eddie just got released from prison. He stole $250,000 from L.J. 

Eddie got caught, goes to prison for seven years, and is out on good behavior. 

The money was never recovered. Eddie claims he was robbed of it himself before he got picked up by the police. L.J. calls bullshit on that. Figures he hid it someplace and wants Ross to find it. He'll pay Ross ten percent of what's recovered that's a potential $25,000 paycheck.

Eddie Johnson

The prison station wagon drops Eddie at the bus station but he slips over to a car rental agency and pulls out of their lot in what looks like a 1966 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa convertible. Ross makes a U-Turn and follows. A second tailer, who looks pretty sketchy, pulls out in a Chrysler 300 and follows Ross. 

 Ross makes a U-Turn and follows. A second tailer, who looks pretty sketchy, pulls out in a Chrysler 300 and follows Ross. 

Frank

We next see Ross sitting down in a lunch counter next to Eddie who is feasting on milkshakes. Ross orders a coffee and hops into a phone booth to call L J.  

Ross tells him about Eddie's movements since getting dropped off at the bus station.  Rental car. Picked up a package of books at a used bookstore. Got a room at the Starlight Motel. L.J. crabs about Eddie spending his money. L J. thinks the money may be in the books. 

L.J. Fox

Here we get a short flashback when L.J. details the robbery to Ross. L.J tells Ross it took him 25 years to earn it and ten seconds to lose it. Ross tells L.J it's probably the money he saved in prison.

We cut to Eddie looking through a phone book in his motel room. He circles an ad, and then rips out the page. Through his door another guy interested in the money just walks right in and starts accosting Eddie. 

Asking him "where is it?" Ross is walking along the second floor balcony outside Eddies room he hears and sees, through the open door, this going on. Ross runs in and knocks out the stranger with one punch. The guy falls into his arms and Ross tosses him on the bed. Eddie runs out. He leaves behind the bookstore package. 

When Ross searches the strangers pockets he finds out he's a police officer. The package Eddie left behind is full of books about auto AC mechanics, and one odd ball paperback about Bunker Hill. Ross also finds the yellow page out of the phone book with Kool King auto refrigeration. 

Ross heads to the Kool King address, and there it goes Noirsville when he finds Eddie confronting Frank. Eddie's would have been partner in crime, who Eddie double crossed. 

Frank is going to start shooting if Eddie doesn't tell him where he hid the money. Eddie blurts out Third Place, downtown L.A., the two hundred block. 

Ross sneaks up behind Frank and grabs his gun hand. They struggle. Eddie gets gut shot. Ross questions him more about the house, it had a stained glass window and Third Place is off Bunker Hill Ave. 

Unfortunately, in the seven years Eddie's been in prison most of Bunker Hill was urban renewed.

From the house mover Ross finds out that all of the houses that where on Third Place were moved and relocated rather than demolished. Ross now has to track them and the eccentric residents that live in them all down to find the right house. 

Noirsville

The Last Days of Bunker Hill

A big parking lot kitty corner to Angels Flight on NW Corner of 3rd and Olive, where the Angles Flight Cafe sat (it filled in as William Conrad's Los Amigos Bar in Cry Danger (1951)). 

Zoom in towards Angels Flight upper terminal.

Angels Flight engine house

Ross on Angels Flight

The BPOE (Elks Club) is gone, Sunshine Apts gone, Clay Street gone.

Cashier / Operator at top of Angels Flight 

Ross walking across Olive Street towards where the Angels Flight Cafe sat.

A few of the mansions left on Bunker Hill waiting to be moved "The Castle" and "The Saltbox." 

3rd & Olive

This is the last of the regular episodes available currently on YouTube. It's got great footage of in situ Angels Flight, and what was left of Bunker Hill circa 1968, and some very good humorous sequences. It would be interesting to see what it would look like restored. 8/10

After watching five regular episodes of The Outsider we are still no closer to an overall assessment of the series than before. Two of the episodes were serious detective work. One injected a love interest for Ross. And two were of more humorous fare. Are these five the better episodes? Are they just average? Are there more episodes with Noir visual sparks? More that quote and homage Classic Noir stories? We don't know. I'm also so far unimpressed with the music, but again not seeing the whole series, you can't make a comment.

There was no big interest in Classic Film Noir by us, the younger generation in the late 1960s we were looking forward not backwards. Were the critics to harsh on the show. Was it too dark for the public Zeitgeist at the time?  

Roy Huggins, the shows original creator, held on to the concept of a low rent, ex-con P.I. but, along with Stephen J. Cannell, softened the outcast "outsider" angle by moving him from a freeway view flop, to living in a trailer on the beach in Paradise Cove, Malibu, along PCH, with his crusty old truck driving father. He's also got two buddies, one a policeman, the other a shady excon conman. The reworking was a long running hit The Rockford Files. 

It might be worth looking back on all these early fifties / sixties TV programs and "follow" the Noir vein to see where all the various tendrils went after 1960. There's more out there.