S01/E06: THE CHINESE HANGMAN

David Bryce arrives at his apartment where a huge burly, broad-shouldered intruder named Clarence was waiting inside. Clarence sneaks up on Bryce from behind the door and immediately puts him in a strangle hold and breaks his neck, killing him. Clarence then places Bryce’s head in a rope noose he’d prepared hanging from the ceiling and kicks away a stool at the dead man's dangling feet, making it look like suicide. And that is how it gets ruled by police.

The same man that attacked and killed Bryce enters Peter Gunn’s bedroom through an open window a few minutes after two in the morning as Gunn sleeps. Gunn quickly retrieves a gun from under the pillow, but Clarence grabs onto Gunn’s wrist and with a deep-sounding foreign accent tells Gunn, “You come with me.” Clarence won’t say where or why.

In the next scene they arrive in a car at “Temple of Peace and Meditation”, a place known to Gunn as patronized by very wealthy members. The soft and mellow sound of a traditional Chinese string instrument is heard in the background. Clarence leaves Gunn alone in a room with oriental rugs and a slew of Chinese artifacts where Gunn soon becomes captivated by the portrait of an attractive blonde woman on the wall. “She’s quite lovely, isn’t she,” Ahben Unesku says as he approaches Gunn from behind. (The name Ahben Unesku seems more Arabic than Chinese, but nevertheless, he owns the mediation temple filled with Chinese stuff. Though he was bald-headed and wore traditional temple attire for this show, the actor, Theodore Marcuse, was an American who grew up in San Francisco and had no resemblance to either ethnicity). Unesku invites Gunn to sit, and they do; on the floor! A Chinese guzheng still playing…somewhere.

Unesku hires Gunn to locate a thief who stole over $200,000 in donations from the temple; Unesku’s “trusted assistant,” he says. He tells Gunn the thief is the lady in the portrait, Joanna Lund. Gunn accepts an offer of $1000 “now” and $2000 after Joanna Lund is found. Unesku holds out a single crumpled bill in his hand, folded to about the size of a finger; it is implied to viewers as a $1000 bill (this is how $1000 bills were treated?!)

Lt. Jacoby arrives at the Temple (investigating the death of David Bryce) and is introduced to Ahben Unesku by the hulk bodyguard, Clarence. Once again in the series, the look on his face when he sees Peter Gunn there is hilarious! Jacoby tells Unesku a card showing David Bryce to be a member of “your cult” was found in the dead man's pocket. (Does this mean Bryce was wealthy?) Unesku is offended by the term "cult". Jacoby wants to know why Bryce would take his own life. Unesku tells Jacoby that Gunn is there for a business transaction that has nothing to do with Jacoby’s “suicide” investigation. (If Jacoby is so convinced that it was suicide, and it was ruled that way by authorities, why conduct an investigation?) Gunn and Jacoby leave together, going past a large Buda statuette surrounded by lit candles. (It must be about 3 o’clock in the morning by now and this place is that active still?)

Following leads he’d obtained from his “underworld” sources (on what should be the following evening, at least), Peter Gunn visits a photography studio to see if Joanna Lund had photographs taken for a passport, and sure enough she did. A short stubby man in a suit and hat is seen following Gunn. Peter Gunn gets on an airplane and lands in Paris, France. (While Peter Gunn is narrating, he says he’d hope to find Joanna Lund and “the hundred thousand dollars”. (He misspoke here, as the amount Unesku said was stolen is two hundred thousand). Gunn narrates that it took him four days to locate the hotel where Joanna Lund last stayed (how he got that information is unknown to viewers). Gunn has also realized that he is being followed by the short man in hat all the way from the states. Gunn flashes a picture around that he got from the photo studio and learns Joanna Lund has traveled to Spain.

Gunn attends a bullfighting event in Spain and later a bar in a town where he’d learned “from information” that Joanna Lund was staying. After “two days watching and waiting,” Joanna Lund enters the bar and takes a seat at a table. Gunn gets up from the bar and walks over trying to make conversation—as one American to another—but Joanna Lund wants no part of it.

Another day, outside during DAYLIGHT hours (a rarity with the Peter Gunn series), Joanna Lund approaches Gunn in a courtyard with a fountain running behind them as he is feeding pigeons. She explains that he gave up to easily at the bar after the rejection.

Back at the bar, with suggestions of a romantic setting, Gunn and Joanna Lund have a drink together at a table as a guitar player plays a Henry Mancini tune that happens to be called “Joanna”. The flirting chit-chat continues back and forth between them with Gunn making it a point to romance Joanna; all part of the assignment, of course, since he would never cheat on Edie.

Gunn narrates that they spent a week together; “Seven wonderful days.” They toured part of Spain and “got to know each other.” They watched fireworks from a balcony during a carnival and danced to music from a combo of guitar players while holding each other tightly. Gunn continues narrating about his doubts that she stole Unesku’s money and that he would have to confess the truth about why he traveled to Spain. But she already knew! Joanna denies having stolen any money and says she left because Unesku considered her his “possession”. Joanna is saddened by news of David Bryce’s death and admits she was to meet with him in Spain. Joanna tells Gunn that Bryce would have never committed suicide. Gunn pretends to display jealousy, something that angers Joanna (not appreciating the accusation that she and David Bryce were more than friends). She says, “Goodnight,” and leaves.

Gunn is alone at the bar and it must be very late because the bartender yawns, hinting that he’d like to close it up. Gunn keeps looking over his shoulder, obviously hoping Joanna Lund is no longer angry with him and meets with him at the bar.

Gunn pays and leaves and heads over to Joanna Lund’s room. When she fails to answer the door after Gunn knocks, he turns the knob and enters to find Joanna hanging dead from a noose. Gunn picks up the tipped-over chair under her feet and straitens it out, only to find out that her feet are dangling a lot higher than the height of the chair’s seat. Proof this was a staged suicide by whoever killed her.

Back in the United States, Peter Gunn sneaks into the Temple of Peace and Meditation where Unesku isn’t please about Gunn’s uninvited arrival. Gunn is angry and aware that Unesku had sent his “assassin” Clarence to kill Joanna. “When it comes to hanging people, Clarence is a little careless…he hangs them just a little bit too high,” Gunn says. Unesku admits that he had Joanna killed because he couldn’t have her, and he had David Bryce killed for taking her from him. But he insists that she did steal the money. Gunn says the “fat little man” following him is how Unesku knew how to find Joanna, but Unesku says it was he that followed Gunn and later sent for Clarence, saying he knows nothing of any fat little man. When Gunn tells Unesku he wants his $2000 and Unesku will be going to prison afterward, Clarence attacks him from behind. The two get into a brutal fight and Gunn eventually knocks the huge man out with a kick to the head as Clarence was leaned over. That’s when Unesku grab’s Gunn’s dropped gun from the floor and points it at him, but Unesku is shot dead by “the fat little man” who suddenly appeared. The man introduces himself as Sergeant Keep from “Central Division: Traffic” and was sent by Jacoby to keep an eye on Gunn while traveling overseas. (A TRAFFIC COP was sent on this type of assignment? Really?) 

QUOTES:

At the table in a bar in Spain where Peter Gunn first approaches Joanna Lund and offers to buy her a drink, but she tries to shoo him away…

Gunn: “I have that feeling I’m not doing so well.”

Joanna Lund: “I have the same feeling.”

Gunn: “Maybe if I backed up and started again.”

NOTES:

Is it feasible that Peter Gunn knew he had Sergeant Keep following him throughout his journey overseas, but never once noticed (and it was never shown to viewers) that Unesku (even if disguised) was also on his tail the whole time? From the States to Paris to Spain and Peter Gunn never saw him?

It may seem unusual to the average viewer that Peter Gunn and Joanna Lund spent seven days together in a foreign country clearly romancing each other, yet never kissed and were never sexually intimate.

Actor Theodore Marcuse, who played Ahben Unesku in this episode, died in a traffic accident in Hollywood at the age of 47.

In a close-up of Joanna Lund, played by actress Marion Marshall, with the courtyard fountain behind her, she looks absolutely stunning.

Actress Marion Marshall, one of the most beautiful women of the Silver Screen era, was once married to actor Robert Wagner. They later divorced. Robert Wagner was under suspicion regarding the death of his wife Natalie Wood, who he was married to before marrying Marion Marshall and then remarried after divorcing Marion Marshall.

Film editing goof up: At the bar when Gunn is the last and only customer of the night and guitar players are playing a rendition of the Henry Mancini song, “Joanna” (the ONLY song ever heard at that bar every time a scene takes place there), there is a faraway shot showing Gunn seated at the bar and the bartender is up against the bar on the other side. In what should be a continuous scene (as there was no break in the music), an instant later the bartender is leaning back on the rear counter.

DECEASED: Clarence, hired by Ahben Unesku, breaks neck of David Bryce. Clarence kills Joanna Lund (not shown). Police Sergeant Keeps shoots Ahben Unesku. 

Total Gunn Kills: 0 - Series Total: 1 

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NEXT BLOG: S01/E07: “LYNN'S BLUES”

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