S01/E04: THE BLIND PIANIST

A piano player named Stephen Ware is wearing dark sunglasses (appears to be blind) and working at a supper club called The Blue Funnel. He is playing for a single, older wealthy woman, Laura Hope Stanfield, seated alone at a table just beside the piano. There are no other patrons in the club, closed for the night or they simply stopped serving. (But the door remains open for anyone to come in?) A well-dressed man wearing a white scarf, Guy Beckett, enters and nods at Laura, but she displays an expression of disgust and ignores him. Guy comes up behind Laura, removes his scarf--with a knot he’d made in the middle of it--and strangles Laura to death. The blind pianist moves his head over toward the incident, but continues playing. Guy is obviously not worried about a witness, since the pianist surely has no idea of what just happened.

While a crime scene photographer is taking pictures at the supper club, Lt. Jacoby is interviewing the club’s owner, Max Walston. Max tells Jacoby that he went out to run an errand for Laura. He stated that she was hungry and gave Max one hundred dollars and told him to get some sandwiches. By the time he got back, she was dead. Peter Gunn arrives and Jacoby asks, “What are you doing here?” Gunn says he “just dropped in”, but Jacoby isn’t buying it. Jacoby interviews the pianist, Stephen Ware, who says he only heard a man come in and leave. When Jacoby asks how he knew it was a man, the pianist says he knows from footsteps. Stephen also tells Jacoby that the only other thing he heard was Laura slump onto the table. (Then why didn’t he ask her if she’s okay?) In the meantime, Gunn goes to a phone booth and calls Mother’s. He speaks to Edie; mostly flirty chitchat between the two of them before hanging up. (It appears the phone call was a way for Gunn to kill time while Jacoby finishes up the interviews, since Gunn and Edie discussed nothing of importance to this episode). Jacoby still appears annoyed at Gunn for not letting him know why he showed up at a murder scene. Jacoby then leaves. Gunn takes a chair from a table, spins it around and straddles it cowboy style to face Stephen still seated at the piano. At this point it is apparent that Gunn is there because he was called in by Stephen. Stephen and Gunn chitchat about old times; it’s been two years since they last met up. The club owner, Max, leaves while telling Gunn to lock up on his way out. Stephen then confesses to Gunn that he is no longer blind! (This means he witnessed a murder and didn’t do anything about it?!) A recent corneal transplant operation in Europe took care of that. However, no one except the doctors knows he can see (and now Gunn). Stephen explains that his entire reputation as a pianist is based on “Stephen Ware, Blind Pianist,” and he can’t afford for anyone to know he’s not. That is why he did not intervene, even while witnessing a woman being killed beside him. Gunn tells Stephen that he should tell police what he knows, and that he’s “established”; it wouldn’t make any difference to his fans whether or not he can see. But Stephen doesn’t want to risk it. He tells Gunn he will pay him whatever he wants; just find the killer within 24 hours. If not, then he will go ahead and tell police what he knows. Stephen gives Gunn a description of the killer ("tall, dark hair...") and tells Gunn that Laura had said she “had been at Wilbur’s place earlier.” As Gunn leaves, he jokes that when Stephen sees his bill, he will wish he’d never had that operation.

Gunn arrives at a beatnik parlor owned by Wilbur. A jazz combo is playing on stage behind a man seated at a microphone chanting poetry over the music (talking about people crying because they’ve never had a jelly donut). Patrons seated throughout the establishment are listening intently. Wilbur is at the bar talking to his girlfriend, Capri, as Gunn approaches. Wilbur speaks with a combination of beatnik jargon and rarely used wordage from the dictionary; synonyms for words that are simpler and much more common in normal conversations. Wilbur is also passionate about art that may appear very strange to others. Wilbur introduces Gunn to Capri before taking seats beside each other at the bar. Gunn asks Wilbur what he knows of Laura Hope Stanfield. Wilbur gets up and moves to the other side of Capri, so that Capri is now seated between him and Gunn. Capri is very attractive, with dark hair and a mole on her left cheek and large mesmerizing eyes that seem to dance back and forth from Wilbur to Gunn, depending upon which of the two is speaking. Wilbur mentions that “Mrs. S.” has had many facelifts. He also tells Gunn that Laura was in earlier to see Shirley Blaze, but Shirley wasn’t working this evening. “Shirley Blaze?” Gunn asks. “Shirley Blaze is our new intellectual ecdysiast.” Gunn, apparently unfamiliar with the word, asks Wilbur to explain. “Ecdysiast…like to peel, like to shed one’s outer garments.” Gunn clarifies by saying, “Stripper.” Wilbur explains that Shirley now has a boyfriend that was once Laura’s boyfriend (using the word “cat” in place of boyfriend). Gunn asks Wilbur for the boyfriend’s name, but he doesn’t know it. Wilbur gives Gunn a detailed description of the man. Tall, dark hair. At this point Gunn must have made a connection with the description of the killer provided by Stephen. (There's only one tall, dark-haired man in the whole town?) Wilbur tells Gunn that the man has been in the club a few times. He gives Gunn the address and apartment number for Shirley. As Gunn is leaving the beatnik club he walks past Guy Beckett seated at the bar! (What doesn’t make sense at this point is how Wilbur, who owns the place, which is not that big, and should see and know everything going on there, never saw Guy Beckett and simply point him out to Gunn). Guy, with a shrewd smirk on his face, turns his head and looks over at Gunn as he leaves the club.

Gunn arrives at Shirley Blaze’s apartment. She opens the door, looks at him up and down, and tells him to “come in.” (Not knowing who he is?) Gunn enters and Lt. Jacoby is seated on the couch. The expression on Jacoby's face when he looks up at Gunn is hilarious. Both Gunn and Jacoby remain silent for a long time just staring at each other (another comical moment). Shirley, a very attractive blonde, walks up to Gunn seductively and begins flirting with him. “Look what I found,” she says, likely speaking to Jacoby. “Isn’t he a doll?” she continues. “Yeah,” Jacoby responds. “What’s your name, doll?” she asks. “Gunn,” Jacoby answers! Shirley offers Gunn coffee and he accepts. As she walks to the kitchen, both men turn their heads to watch an amazing rear figure in tight pants in motion. Once she’s out of view, both men look at each other again. Without waiting for Jacoby to ask, Gunn tells him, “I can’t tell you who I’m working for.” But that he’s after the same thing. After Shirley hands Gunn a cup of coffee, Jacoby asks her if they can be left alone for a while and she goes into a room and closes the door. Jacoby apparently already has a suspect named Guy Beckett. “Tall, dark hair?” Gunn asks, “Yeah,” Jacoby confirms, but Shirley Blaze “swears” Guy Beckett was with her at the time of the killing. That he was still with her up until a half hour ago. Gunn would know that Shirley is lying, based on what the pianist had informed him. Jacoby says Mrs. Stanfield had other boyfriends and he’s going to check them out as well. (Jacoby had apparently gathered a list of Laura Stanfield's boyfriends, which is how he got the name Guy Beckett. But how did he make the connection to Shirley Blaze? Maybe he'd already interviewed Guy Beckett and he gave Shirley Blaze as his alibi?) Jacoby must think that both he and Gunn are on the wrong track, since Shirley Blaze is giving Guy a solid alibi, but Gunn knows better. After Jacoby leaves, Gunn puts down his coffee cup (never having taken a sip from it) and goes to the bedroom where Shirley is developing photographs as a hobby. She then tries to seduce Gunn. Peter Gunn tells Shirley that Guy Beckett killed Mrs. Stanfield. Shirley insists that's not possible because Guy was with her. Gunn then tells Shirley there was a witness and gives her exact details of how the murder occurred. “Guy wore a dark suit and topcoat. Strangled her with a scarf. Put a knot in it so it wouldn’t slip…by the way, it was a white scarf.” Gunn has apparently set a trap, knowing that the killer will now come after him for information about the witness.

Gunn arrives at his apartment and Edie is there sleeping on the couch. He sits on the edge of the couch and awakens her with a kiss. Edie becomes jealous after smelling a woman's perfume on Gunn (that must have gotten on him when in close contact with Shirley). Gunn tries to hurry Edie out of his apartment because a man, probably with a gun, will be looking for him and probably try to kill him. When Gunn opens the door to lead Edie out, Guy Beckett is standing there and at gunpoint forces both of them back inside. The telephone starts ringing and Guy says to ignore it. Guy accuses Gunn of wanting to blackmail him; that's why Gunn didn’t go to the police. Guy demands to know how he was seen committing the murder. Gunn says, "You figure it out." Guy then tells Gunn that they are going to get in his car, but won’t say where they are going. (If Guy Beckett intends to kill Gunn—and now Edie too, because she is a witness—why wouldn’t he just do it right there in the apartment and leave?)

Outside, Shirley Blaze is at the driver’s seat of Guy Beckett’s car. A taxi pulls up on the other side of the road and the pianist, Stephen, gets out. Wearing dark sunglasses and using a blind man’s walking cane, Stephen begins to cross the street. Guy tells Gunn and Edie, “Let’s go.” Stephen removes his glasses and shouts, “Pete, that’s the man who killed Mrs. Stanfield.” Guy Beckett turns and aims his gun at Stephen, but Gunn quickly grabs the man’s arm and they struggle to the ground where Guy Beckett ends up shooting himself with the gun, killing him. Shirley Blaze speeds away from the scene in the car. Gunn tells Edie that Jacoby will “pick up the girl.” Stephen tells Gunn that he didn’t answer his phone call (the call Guy Beckett had told Gunn to ignore), and that he dropped by to tell Gunn to forget about the 24 hours. That he’d decided he was going to police. He then tosses the cane away from him and onto the sidewalk, a sign that he was discarding it and letting the world know that he can see. 

QUOTES:

At The Blue Funnel supper club, Jacoby states the name of the victim to Peter Gunn…

Jacoby: “You don’t know why anyone would wanna kill her, do you, Pete?”

Gunn: “No.”

Jacoby: “You wanna tell me why you’re here?”

Gunn: “No.”

NOTES:

There is something very disturbing with accepting a man watching a woman being strangled to death and not doing anything about it, regardless of the circumstance; there is no excuse! And Peter Gunn shouldn’t have accepted it either. One may argue, however, that if the strangler also carried a gun (as shown when he arrived at Peter Gunn’s apartment), then the woman and the pianist would both be dead.

The part of Wilbur’s girlfriend, Capri, was played by Capri Candela. Producers apparently chose to keep the actresses’ first name for the role, if the name is even real. After intense research, no information regarding an actress or anyone named Capri Candela can be found except for mentions of her brief appearances on the Peter Gunn series and one episode of “One Step Beyond” from 1959 (episode: “Father Image”), where Capri Candela was a dancer, but not credited. (She wasn’t credited for this episode of Peter Gunn either). It is almost as if the name Capri Candela is fictitious and she was doing her acting under that assumed name.

Capri Candela appeared in only four episodes during the three seasons of Peter Gunn and she never speaks. Regardless, she must have achieved some popularity among viewers; a published TV listing (see below) had a picture of her and announcement of her appearance in an upcoming episode.

The Blue Funnel club owner, Max, was played by veteran actor of film and television Ned Glass. With his heavy Jewish, New York City accent, Glass is well remembered as soda shop owner, Doc, in the 1961 film, “West Side Story.” And his memorable line from that film after striking Tony in the face: "Is this the only way to get through to you?! Do just what you all do... bust like a hot water pipe?!" 

The “blind” pianist, Stephen Ware, was played by another long-standing actor, Barney Phillips, well known as Sgt. Ed Jacobs in the TV series “Dragnet” (eleven episodes between 1951 and 1953). And how could anyone forget Barney Phillips’ appearance in “The Twilight Zone” (episode: “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”) when he removed his deli cook’s cap and exposed a third eye in the middle of his forehead?!

Question: What was the motive for Guy Beckett killing Laura Hope Stanfield? The reason is quite vague in this episode. At Peter Gunn's apartment Beckett stated that he'd received a loan of $100,000 from Laura Stanfield, leaving the assumption that he just didn't want to be forced to pay back the loan.

Only a few hours having passed since the murder of the woman—seems unbelievable, given how much occurred during that time!—and Stephen Ware saying he’d changed his mind and will take the matter to police, does that mean he doesn’t have to pay Gunn anything for the 24 hours he was hired? That would mark four episodes in a row (the first four of the series!) that the “detective for hire” still hasn’t earned a payment.

DECEASED: Guy Beckett strangles Laura Hope Stanfield with scarf. The gun in Beckett's hand goes off while wrestling on ground with Peter Gunn, killing Beckett. *This does not count as a Gunn kill.

Total Gunn Kills: 0 - Series Total: 0

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NEXT BLOG: S01/E05: “THE FROG”

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