S01E15: THE LEAPER

Note: A “Human Fly” was the term used at one time when referring to someone who, for entertainment purposes, would scale to the top or near the top of high-rise buildings.

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Human Fly Lester Warnecke is standing on the outer ledge of a high-rise hotel building on a very high floor. (What viewers of this episode don’t know yet is that Lester was hired to stand on building’s ledge by someone known only as “Sam”, under orders from thieving brothers Benny and Jukie Juro, however, us viewers—and crowds below on the sidewalk—are led to believe that Lester is a depressed man about to commit suicide). While Lester is on the ledge, police are out in full force to the scene, causing the distraction Benny and Jukie Juro needed for a $200,000 jewelry heist they are committing at the same time (not shown). A hotel employee comes to a window beside Lester and tells him “nothing is worth this” and to come back inside. He extends a hand out to Lester to help him back in, but Lester asks, “What time is it?” (Knowing the job required him to remain out there until a certain time). The employee tells him it is 4:20. A hitman named Chop (played by actor James Lanphier, who would become a regular in Season 3 as Maître D' Leslie in Edie’s Super Club) who is an associate of Sam, is seen on the roof of another building aiming his rifle at Lester Warnecke. The purpose of killing Lester is to avoid having to pay him for the job and at the same time silence him about the jewelry heist. As Lester reaches for the hotel employee’s hand, Chop shoots him with the rifle and Lester falls to the sidewalk below. (Although not shown, of course, the thought of Lester’s body taking that plunge and smashing onto the ground below might cause one to cringe; seems overly gruesome for a television audience in 1958). 

Peter Gunn arrives at Mother’s where Mother has prepared a bag of groceries for Lester Warnecke’s widow, Gussie Warnecke. Mother and Gussie happen to be old friends. Mother asks Gunn to do her the favor of checking on Gussie and deliver the bags of groceries. Mother is aware that Gussie will make a crack about such sympathy, thus telling Gunn to just say she’s paying her back for all those free passes that Gussie gave her for the “Orpheum” (theater). Gunn leaves the club and heads over to Gussie’s home. (Seems strange that a scene takes place at Mother’s without Gunn and Edie having a moment together; they do meet up there later in the episode).

At Gussie Warnecke’s home, Gunn gives her the bag of groceries from Mother and sure enough she complains that she’s no charity case. Gunn tells her about Mother paying her back for all the free passes for the Orpheum. Gunn also gives Gussie a bottle of cherry wine that he got for her. She offers some to Gunn which he accepts and she pours drinks into two glasses. Gussie tells Gunn that Lester was the greatest Human Fly in the world and there’s no way he would have fallen from that building, and she doesn’t believe he jumped. He had too much to look forward to, including a new job. Gunn gets curious and wants to know more about the job. Gussie says she took a phone call for Lester “Thursday” and she thinks she recognized the voice. It was that of “Sam”, also known as “Samson The Great”, a former strongman in carnivals (“lifted weights, broke chains…built like an ox”) who was on the circuit with Lester. Gussie tells Gunn that Sam now owns and runs a fishing and boat rentals place down by the river. After Gussie reiterates that Lester didn’t fall and didn’t jump (implying murder?), Gunn says he’d look into it. Gussie says she doesn’t have the money to pay him and Gunn said he’ll just put it on Mother’s Orpheum account. (Note: Gunn took only one sip from his glass of cherry before leaving).

Gunn arrives at a place called “Sam’s” and he and a big, burly guy, Sam, talk on a boat dock. Sam thinks Gunn is there to rent a boat. He says he hadn’t spoken to Lester since before “last Christmas”. Sam’s wife, Pearl, arrives on the dock asking Sam for the keys to the car. She and Gunn begin talking and Pearl mentions “all the fun” they had with Lester and Gussie Warnecke at “the carny last month”, thus Gunn catching Sam in a lie. Sam nervously says, “Oh, yeah, I guess it was last month.” Sam then tries shooing Pearl away to stop her from talking anymore. After Gunn leaves, Sam uses a telephone to call Chop (the hitman who shot Lester with a rifle) and says, “Guess who my first customer was this morning…Peter Gunn.” (This means that he knew of Gunn already and pretended he didn’t?) 

At Lieutenant Jacoby’s police station office, Jacoby is looking through the scope on a rifle and panning it across the room (testing or playing?). He ends up pointing the rifle at the door just as Gunn walks in. Jacoby tells Gunn that he wants permission from Gussie Warnecke to perform an autopsy on Lester’s body and he’s learned all requests must go through Gunn. (Why would authorities require permission? Isn’t an autopsy always mandatory in the case of a suspicious death or murder?) Jacoby tells Gunn that Lester didn’t die from the fall; that he was shot. The rifle Jacoby is holding was found in a vent on the rooftop of a building facing the hotel where Lester was shot. (How does Jacoby know Lester was shot if an autopsy hadn’t been performed yet? Were they able to see a puncture wound on a body that had smashed into the sidewalk?) Gunn and Jacoby also discuss how the jewelry heist happened when police were all on the scene of Lester Warnecke standing on a building ledge and now suspect that was all planned by the thieves to distract police.

Back at Mother’s, Gunn asks Mother what she knows about a place on the river called Sam’s. She tells Gunn that he spends all his money on his wife. Gunn then visits Edie in her dressing room where they engage in some loving chitchat and smooching. Mother knocks on the door and then enters to let Gunn know that Gussie needs to see him.

Back at Gussie’s place, she tells Gunn that Lester’s “special fly shoes…grippers” are missing, which means that’s what he was wearing when he was out on the ledge of the hotel, which means he was on a job, which means that he was murdered. (Something Gun already knows. Doesn’t she know by now that Lester was shot?) Gunn sets a trap by having Gussie call Sam and telling him she wants the money that Lester was promised for the distraction job. Sam, who has Chop beside him, tells Gussie to meet him at his place (Sam’s), over by the pier, and he’ll give her the money. Sam and Chop realize that Gussie knows about the jewelry heist, thinking Lester failed to keep his mouth shut.

Peter Gunn arrives at Sam’s late at night and has a flashlight pointed at him by Chop when he steps out of his car. Chop also points a gun at him. As Chop instructs Gunn to move toward the river, Jacoby, who was hiding in the back seat of Gunn’s car, quietly opens the car door. Jacoby yells at Chop to drop his gun, but Chop turns and shoots, striking Jacoby in the leg. The lieutenant fires back killing Chop, but then falls to the ground from the leg wound. Sam comes out running and attacks Gunn. They end up falling into the river. They continue fighting in the water where Gunn eventually overpowers Sam and must drag him back out onto dry land.

At Gunn’s apartment, there is a panning scene of the room while a conversation between Gunn and Edie is heard in the background that seems sexual in nature. Edie: “That’s nice.” Gunn: “I’m glad you liked it.” Edie: “I’d like it a lot better if you did it again.” The scene finally pans around to show Gunn and Edie at a table playing a card game where Edie wins the game.

QUOTES

At Lieutenant Jacoby’s police station office when Peter Gunn walks in and Jacoby points a rifle at him…

Gunn: “I’ll marry your daughter, Lieutenant.”

NOTES

Filming/editing goof up: In what is obviously stock footage, during the pre-title sequence while “Human Fly” Lester Warnecke is standing on the ledge of a high-rise building, a huge crowd of possibly a thousand or more spectators is shown on the sidewalk, most looking upwards. In the next scene from Lester’s point of view facing down, the same crowd is now only about 50 people.

Sincerest apologies, but the following cannot go without mention as particularly unusual details of episodes need to be noted. It appears the producers of this series got another huge no-no in broadcast television past the Federal Communications Commission. At the end of the episode as Gunn and Edie are at a table in his apartment playing a card game, Edie is shown wearing rather tight pants. There is a moment where she puts the cards down and laughs, after winning the game, and she spreads her legs a little revealing a spectacular cameltoe. It was just a flash, but someone with a sharp eye back in 1958 watching television may have caught it. (However, it is also possible that televisions back then didn’t have the high definition resolution we have today and that segment may have been missed). 

DECEASED: Human Fly Lester Warnecke is shot by Chop. Lt. Jacoby shoots Chop.

Total Gunn Kills: 0 - Series Total: 6.

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NEXT BLOG: S01/E16: “THE FUSE"

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