S01/E17: LET’S KILL TIMOTHY

This episode appears to be the series producer’s attempt at a comedic installment. Many episodes of Peter Gunn, before and after—some might say a majority of them—will have some comedy, but after mostly staying loyal to traditional film noir style drama, fans may be disappointed with this episode containing nearly thirty minutes of supposedly-humorous lunacy. Complete with silly musical background tunes, the only thing missing is the annoying studio laugh track typically heard expelling recorded audience laughter in TV sitcoms every time someone says something, even if it wasn’t funny.

In the pre-title sequence, three jewel thieves enter a safe room in the David and Son department store, presumably after closing, by using a torch to cut out a hole in the safe door. Two thieves (George and Tiny) enter the safe while the third, Casper Wellington (who also happens to be an employee of the store, making this an inside job) remains outside the safe ready to collect the gems handed to him. George and Tiny pass four trays full of gems to Casper, who then pours them into a leather bag. Casper then double-crosses his henchmen by telling them, “There should be more. Take another look.” As the two thieves inside the safe room look around, Casper takes off with the bag of jewels, obviously wanting them all for himself. When no additional gems are found inside the safe, the two men stick their heads out through the cut out hole in the safe door and realize Casper is gone. With their heads still sticking out, George and Tiny turn to look at each other, practically rubbing noses, wondering what just happened.

The title scene with Henry Mancini’s amazing Peter Gunn theme song is ruined at its end by Mother’s face appearing largely on screen while playing the piano and belting out a song called “Oh, Look at that Baby”. Mother’s club appears to be closed and she’s performing for a handful of employees (bartender Barney, club singer Edie, and pianist Emmett). Peter Gunn walks in and joins the group, mostly smiling and laughing at the amusing lyrics screaming out of Mother’s mouth and her comical facial expressions. As mother is almost done with the song, Casper Wellington (who had heisted the jewelry) is seen outside peeking into the window. The group asks Mother to do another song. (Aren’t their ears shot after the first one?) Mother says she hadn’t done anything like this since Prohibition. Casper enters the club and tells Gunn he needs to speak to him privately. They walk away from the others. Casper then tells Gunn he needs to hire him as a body guard to protect “Timothy”; that someone is trying to kill him. Gunn, of course, has no idea who is Timothy. Casper says Timothy’s life is in danger; that Casper will purchase a train ticket to get him out of town by morning and needs Gunn to watch him until then. When Gunn says he wants to hear what Timothy has to say about this, Casper says he’ll go get him. Casper storms out of the club.

Outside, Casper is seen at his truck and spots George and Tiny walking along a sidewalk toward Mother’s. The two men look over at the truck and don’t see anyone, as Casper hides on the other side of it. When the men enter Mother’s, Casper jumps into the cab of the truck.

George and Tiny enter Mother’s and Mother yells at them, “We’re closed!” The men approach Gunn with George pointing a gun and asking for Casper Wellington, but Gunn plays as if he knows nothing. The men then leave.

Casper appears at a rear door all jittery with eyes darting around the room and calls to Gunn. When Gunn approaches, Casper grabs desperately onto the lapels of Gunn’s suit and says he drove around to the back and has Timothy outside. Gunn tells him about the men looking for him. Casper says those are the men that want to kill him. He wants Gunn to hurry out back and get Timothy and then meet with him at the railroad station in the morning. The entire time he spoke to Gunn, he was still grasping Gunn’s suit lapels. (Ridiculous acting). Casper storms out and moments later Gunn follows.

Barney and Edie ask Mother to do another song and she obliges by deepening her voice a bit and singing, “Won’t you come Home, Bill Bailey” while pounding keys on the piano. (Ugh). About a minute later Gunn enters the room again from the rear and Mother stops singing and playing. Gunn says, “Folks, meet Timothy.” He’s holding onto a leach and on the other end there’s a seal! The seal (actually, it’s a sea lion) squeal-barks four times, as if saying hello to everyone he was introduced to.

At the police station lobby, a drunk walked in by a police officer is standing in front of the desk sergeant trying to defend himself by saying he’s being persecuted. But when Peter Gunn enters through a door walking a seal and the drunk looks back and sees that, he tells the sergeant on the other side of the desk to go ahead and book him.

Gunn enters Jacoby’s office and leaves the door wide open as he walks past Jacoby at his desk and takes the seal to a couch where it gets on the cushions making itself comfortable. Jacoby gets up to close the door, annoyed about it being left open. He asks Gunn, “You raised in a barn?” (An old saying used when someone has the bad habit of leaving doors wide open after walking through them). Jacoby then continues working, jotting notes on a paper on his desk. He completely ignores the situation of a seal brought into his office and on his couch! (This was possibly the funniest moment of the episode). Gunn asks Jacoby what he knows about a Casper Wellington. Jacoby says he is wanted in connection to a burglary of jewels where he is employed and hasn’t been seen since. Gunn gets Casper’s home address, even though Jacoby says he has the place staked out.

Gunn goes to visit an “Artist” called Vladimar Sokolwasky. At first Vladimar is afraid to open the door and later tells Gunn he’s under personal attack by his landlord for his being behind in the rent. Gunn looks around the room and asks what happened to all the paintings. There are none hanging in the room. Instead, it is filled with a long line of record players from one end of the wall to the other and some musical instruments strewn about. Vladimar explains that his creative artistry has changed to something he calls the true art; “sound paintings”. When Gunn doesn’t understand, he demonstrates by playing the first record with some jungle sounds and says this is called, “Ode to a Purple Baboon”. Vladimar then starts swinging his arms around the room like a lunatic to the sounds. Gunn asks Vladimar if he knows Casper Wellington and Vladimar says he doesn’t. But when Gunn holds up a 50 dollar bill, he admits to knowing him. Vladimar says Casper raises seals down at his place at the waterfront. Vladimar tells Gunn to try that place and Gunn says he’s already been there. Then Vladimar says to try a place on Beck Street, Number 428, Room 3. “A disgusting rooming house,” he says. When Gunn leaves, Vladimar continues playing records from many record players at the same time, making a horrendous amount of strange noises and sounds. And he appears to love what he’s hearing.

(It is not clear how Peter Gunn got the lead to see Vladimar, only that they are well acquainted. What made Gunn think he could get information about Casper Wellington from a nutty “artist”? Did someone around Casper’s home tell Gunn about Vladimar and how he must know of Casper’s whereabouts? Was Gunn simply taking a chance with an underground figure who happens to know the exact location of almost everyone in town?)

Outside Vladimar’s place Gunn observes that George and Tiny have removed the seal, Timothy, from his car and have loaded it into their car. Gunn yells, “Hey, where are you going with my seal?” (okay, funny) and races after the car on foot, but the seal-nappers get away with continuous squeal-barks heard coming from Timothy.

Gunn arrives at the rooming house Vladimar told him about and meets with Jacoby there after having called him. They enter a room that has been ransacked. At first they think no one is there and then they hear a man grunting from pain. They find Casper Wellington under a turned over sofa chair. He’s all beat up. Casper tells Jacoby it was George and Tiny. They forced him to tell them the location of the seal and that he’d left Timothy with Peter Gunn. Also, that he’d fed the gems from the jewelry heist to Timothy. Gunn suggests that George and Tiny probably have the same plan as Casper; to ship Timothy out of town by railroad because “the jewels are too hot to fence here.” Jacoby puts handcuffs on Casper.

Gunn and Jacoby arrive at the railroad station at 4:20 in the morning where they wait to see if George and Tiny show up with a seal. Jacoby is carrying a brown paper bag stuffed with fish as “seal bait.” George and Tiny show up hauling a large crate and place it on the counter attended to by a clerk. Gunn tells Jacoby to walk over to the crate and place the paper bag near it. That if he knows Timothy, the seal will “kick up a fuss.”

Jacoby walks over to the crate on top of the counter and places the bag of fish beside it. The seal starts barking like crazy and even busts the side of the crate open. Jacoby holds up a gun to George and Tiny and they try to make a run for it in different directions, but both are quickly captured by Gunn and Jacoby. An empty paper bag flips off Timothy’s head. He’s eaten up all the fish.

At the veterinarian’s clinic, Gunn stares at a painting of a dog on the wall of a waiting area. Jacoby is seated on a couch. A pretty blonde vet’s assistant appears and tells the men they can go in now. Inside another room, a doctor approaches and hands Jacoby a small clear glass vial with just a few gems at the bottom of it. (Major film goof up here; see notes below). Gunn asks about Timothy and the doctor says he is fine and Gunn can go in and see him. Gunn and Jacoby go into a room where Timothy is on a gurney wrapped in a sheet and Gunn says hello. Both men leave a moment later and the seal wants to leave with them, but the vet holds him back. Timothy complains by shaking his head and barking several times.

QUOTES

Inside Mother’s when George and Tiny are looking for Casper Wellington and pointing a gun at Peter Gunn…

George: “You’re Peter Gunn, aren’t ya?

Gunn: “That’s right.”

George: “What did he hire you for?

Gunn: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

George: “Would you like me to shoot you”

Gunn: “Not particularly.”

 

NOTES

Film/Editing Goof Up: When comparing the amount of jewels taken at start of episode with the amount the doctor handed to Lt. Jacoby after extracting them from the seal (actually a sea lion; referred incorrectly in episode as a seal), it is clear that the amount of gems shown at the start was a lot more, even though the doctor (veterinarian) said, “They’re all there.”

A true veterinarian would likely not have performed surgery in a case such as this and would have surely insisted on just waiting until the seal, uh, expels the gems naturally, then collect it from the stool. (Not a pleasant task, but for $100,000 just about anyone would have done it. And it was probably how Casper Wellington was going to get the jewels back. Why cut him up in surgery?)

The story for this episode was written by Blake Edwards (he also directed) and was first used in a radio broadcast of “Richard Diamond, Private Detective” that aired on February 5, 1950 called “Timothy the Seal”.

The song Mother sang called “Oh, Look at that Baby” was popularized by banjo player Harry Reser (1896-1965) and appears on an album called “HARRY RESER, ORIGINS OF HIS MUSIC – ORIGINAL RECORDINGS 1926-1929”.

The artist Gunn went to visit for information about Casper Wellington is named Vladimar Sokolwasky in this episode (as shown on sign outside his door), but in credits he is listed solely as “Vladimir” (played by actor Henry Corden, who became the voice of Fred Flintstone after Alan Reed’s death in 1977 in spin-offs of The Flintstones 60’s animated series).

 

DECEASED: There were no deaths in this episode.

 

Total Gunn Kills: 0 - Series Total: 6.

 

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NEXT BLOG: S01/E18: “THE MISSING NIGHT WATCHMAN"

 

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