Outside the police
station, a car pulls up alongside the curb near a payphone booth. A hood
working for mob boss Vincent Donniger gets out of the passenger seat to make a
call to Lt. Jacoby in his office. The hood tells Lt. Jacoby something (there is
no audible dialogue heard in pre-title opening). Jacoby quickly puts on his hat and leaves
his office. The hood that made the call gets back in the car. Jaboby is then
seen exiting the police station and headed along the sidewalk. The car with
hoodlum that made the call then pulls up beside Jacoby and a hail of bullets
from a machine gun erupts from the side window. Jacoby drops onto the sidewalk
in agony.
Peter
Gunn is at the hospital and a doctor approaches him in the hall. The doctor
tells Gunn that Jacoby will survive, but he’s in bad shape. Gunn asks if he can
see Jacoby and the doctor says it’s okay, but he’s “loaded with drugs” and
Jacoby “may not make much sense.” Gunn jokes about how it wouldn't be the first
time in his life he didn’t.
Gunn
enters the room and finds Jacoby asleep with a traction device on his leg. Gunn
doesn’t want to disturb Jacoby and turns to leave, but Jacoby wakes up and
calls out to him. Jacoby explains that he got a phone call from someone saying
he had information on an old unsolved murder. The caller said he was leaving
town and to meet with him right away. He’d realized it was a trap when he was
shot. Gunn says he’ll try to get a lead on who did it. Just then, Police Captain
Ben Loomis enters the room and says he’s already got one lead. The car used in
the shooting was reported stolen two days earlier and was found. (How does
police know it’s the car?) Loomis says the lab is looking for prints or other
evidence. Jacoby says they won’t find anything because these guys were “pros”.
Gunn says not completely because “they blew the job”, signifying how Jacoby is
still alive. Gunn tells Jacoby to “take care” and leaves.
Outside
the hospital, the hood working for Vincent Donniger follows Gunn.
Gunn
arrives at Mother’s looking miserable because of Jacoby’s situation. Edie is
singing on stage. Gunn takes a seat at the bar and Mother walks over to sit
beside him. Gunn asks Mother if she’d made the calls to her underground
“stoolies”, but she says that they are afraid to talk and it seems that the
“order for the kill came from way up.” Mother tells Gunn that there was a very
worried woman looking for him earlier at the club and she will be back. Mother then leaves Gunn alone at the bar.
Edie
completes her number and joins Gunn at the bar where she tries to cheer him
up. The woman Mother was talking about earlier returns and tells Gunn she needs
to speak to him, but when she spots Vincent Donniger entering the club she
panics and runs out the door. Gunn tries to chase after her, but the woman gets away.
The hood following Gunn is hiding behind the wall of another building,
observing Gunn going back into the club. Gunn kisses Edie on the nose and she
returns to the stage to do her next number. Mother approaches Gunn and tells him that she just got a call from a man named Alfie, who is an acquaintance of
Gunn, and that Alfie wants to see him. She says this within earshot of Vincent Donniger seated at the bar
nearby.
Gunn
arrives at a key-making shop run by Alfie. Alfie speaks with a heavy British
accent. He greets Gunn by saying, “Blimey, Pete, you got here quick.” Gunn asks
Alfie if he has information for him and Alfie says he might. Gunn asks if there’s
a price and Alfie says, “Oh no, chum, it’s not like you to be rude.” Alfie says
he’d rather stay alive, and that is why he took so long to contact Gunn. Alfie
says the men that shot Jacoby parked their car right outside his home and he
got a good look at them, but didn’t recognize anyone; that they were probably
outsiders “brought in” to do the kill. Gunn asks if he can identify them from a mug book and Alfie says it would be too dangerous for him to go anywhere near
a police station. (If these criminals were “outsiders”, why would they appear
in a mug book from the local precinct?) Gunn offers to bring the mug book to
him at the shop and Alfie agrees.
At
the police station, Sergeant Davis (who Gunn calls “Johnny”) is not allowing
Gunn to borrow the mug books. Gunn begs that he “needs them badly” and Davis
finally agrees. Davis tells Gunn he’d better get them back because he never did
like “walking a beat” (a reference to getting demoted and being placed back on foot
patrol).
Gunn
arrives back at Alfie’s key shop while carrying the mug books only to find the place in
ruins and Alfie left for dead on the floor. Gunn lifts Alfie’s head off the
floor and cradles it under his arm. With Alfie’s last dying breath he manages
to blurt out the name “Donniger”. Gunn then says to himself over the dead man, “Donniger.
Vince Donniger”. (This means Gunn is familiar with the name. Is he also
familiar with the man? Because Gunn saw him at Mother's a little earlier and
there was no indication whatsoever that the two men knew each other.)
Gunn
is seen walking along a sidewalk. (It’s not clear if he just left Alfie’s key
shop, but that’s how it seems. Did he stay at the shop until authorities arrived
to investigate a murder? Also, he doesn’t have the mug books with him. When did
he return them?) The hood working for Donniger stops Gunn, pulls out a
revolver, and forces Gunn into the back seat of a car where Donniger is seated.
Gunn looks at him and says, “The man with his finger in every racket in town.”
(At this point it appears clear that Gunn is very familiar with Donniger and
holds quite a bit of resentment toward him. It now seems unusual that he had no
problem with a gangster like that patronizing Mother’s club and completely
ignoring him.)
In
the car, Donniger advises Gunn that he should leave town if he wants to remain
alive. Gunn practically accuses him of Alfie’s murder and shooting Jacoby, but
Donniger denies being involved.
Back
at the hospital in Lt. Jacoby’s room, Gunn asks Jacoby how Vincent Donniger
would benefit by having Jacoby “out of the way”. Jacoby tells Gunn that he has
no involvement with Donniger and that “an operator like Donniger” would be
handled only by Captain Loomis, and that Loomis hasn’t been able to obtain any
proof to convict him. As Gunn leaves, Jacoby tells Gunn that he needs to “lay
off” this case or he will get himself killed. Gunn tells him he can’t because
it’s a “personal matter now”. (Is that because Gunn ended up getting Alfie
killed?)
At
the police station, Sgt. Davis is typing up a report and answers a phone call
from Gunn who want to speak to Capt. Loomis. Gunn asks for Loomis’ home address
and Davis gives it to him.
Peter
Gunn arrives at Capt. Loomis’ house and presses the doorbell. A woman opens the
door. It’s the same woman that ran away from him at Mother’s club! She panics
when she sees Gunn and quickly tries to shut the door, but Gunn stops the door from
closing completely. She tells Gunn that she is Captain Loomis’ daughter. Gunn
forces his way inside, but Dora Loomis doesn’t want to say what’s going on.
Gunn tells Dora that she came looking for his help a day after Jacoby was shot
and wants to know how her father is connected in this. She yells out to please
leave her father alone. Captain Loomis then comes through the door after
suffering a terrible beating outside his house. Gunn runs outside with his pistol drawn,
but a car flees.
Back
inside the house, Gunn and Dora attend to wounds on the captain’s face. Gunn asks
Dora to leave so that he and the captain can speak privately. Gunn wants to
know if it was Donniger that had him beat up and Loomis says it was, to teach
him a lesson, and was told that he should be happy with the money he’s received. Gunn is
shocked that the police captain has been on the take from gangsters. Loomis
said he’s been doing it for three years; and “looking the other way”.
When
Gunn demands to know why, Loomis explains that his wife died and now that he’s old
and alone, his daughter has been looking after him; that she won’t do anything
with her life or for herself, and never married “like she should”, because she
dedicates all her time to him. He says that he’d allowed her to become a “drudge”.
Note:
Drudge (Merriam-Webster Dictionary): One who is obliged to do menial
work; one whose work is routine and boring; menial or tedious labor.
Loomis
tells Gunn that he needed the money to be able to leave her so that he can fend
for himself without his daughter’s assistance. Gunn wants to know why Donniger
ordered the killing of Jacoby, who wasn’t involved with Donniger’s affairs.
Loomis explains that the District Attorney is unhappy with him for not being
able to get anything on Donniger and Jacoby is in line to take over the case;
and that Donniger knows Jacoby is untouchable—he can’t be bought by the mob’s
money. They needed to get Jacoby out of the way before that happens. When Gunn
tells Loomis that they may continue to try killing Jacoby, Loomis says he’s not that
low; that he placed a guard at the hospital to protect Jacoby. The phone rings and
Loomis answers it. Loomis hangs up and tells Gunn that was the policeman guarding Jacoby; he reported
a suspicious car circling the hospital. Loomis told the guard he’s on his way.
(Really? The captain is called out for that? Not police units?)
Gunn
and Loomis arrive at the hospital and park behind a car where Donniger is in the rear seat. A hood is seen going up the stairs to the hospital’s
front doors. Capt. Loomis pulls out his pistol and yells out at the hood. The
hood turns and fires a shot at Loomis; the bullet seems to hit Loomis in the arm.
Gunn fires his revolver back at the hood, killing him. Donniger opens the car
door and points his pistol at Peter Gunn. Loomis jumps out in front of Gunn,
knocking Gunn to the ground as Donniger fired a shot. Loomis is shot in his abdomen and drops onto the sidewalk. While on his knees, Gunn shoots
back at Donniger, who falls out from the car dead.
Gunn
cradles the back of Loomis’s neck with his arm and lifts the captain’s head up
from the ground. With Loomis’ last dying breath, he asks Gunn if he’d made up
for what he’d done. Gunn tells Loomis that he made up for it “all the way”.
Gunn
arrives back at the hospital to see Jacoby. After having been given a sedative
by the nurse, Jacoby is mumbling incoherently. Gunn tells Jacoby to go back to sleep
and he’ll let him know later what happened. Jacoby mumbles incoherently a
little more and then falls asleep. Gunn pulls the blanket up a bit to tuck him
in.
QUOTES:
In
the hospital room where Jacoby is recovering from surgery after being shot...
Gunn: “Who
would want you out of the way, Lieutenant?”
Lt.
Jacoby: “List be about phonebook size.”
When
Gunn returns to Mother’s after trying to chase down Dora Loomis who ran from
him…
Edie: “That’s
a switch.”
Gunn:
“Hmm?”
Edie: “Girl
running AWAY from you.”
NOTES:
The
entire scene with Gunn trying to get Sgt. Davis to lend him the mug books, with
some back and forth arguing, appears to be unnecessary footage and the episode
would have been fine without it.
During
editing of this episode, it appears a moment of audio was intentionally silenced.
At exactly 23:35, Jacoby is mumbling incoherently, and then he says something,
but that audio was removed. (I am curious to know what Jacoby
said that producers decided it must silenced; any lip-readers that can provide
that information?)
This
is the first time that Sergeant Davis appears in a Peter Gunn episode. He will
become a regular recurring character in future episodes. Sgt. Davis is a Black man with
a highly-regarded position with the police force, something rarely seen in
early television broadcasting.
In
this episode Gunn referred to Sergeant Davis as “Johnny”. In future episodes he
will be known as Sergeant “Lee” Davis.
Actor
Morris D. Erby, who played Sgt. Davis, was born in California in 1926 and died
in 1978 at age 51. Erby was a World War II veteran with the U.S. Navy.
At
8:30 into the episode, Edie’s dress shoulder strap has fallen over while seated on a bar stool and quite a
bit of cleavage becomes exposed. It is surprising that scene was allowed to remain during a 1959 TV showing.
Lola
Albright sings “You're Driving Me Crazy! (What Did I Do?)”, a song written and
composed by Walter Donaldson in 1930. It was recorded that same year by Lee
Morse, Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees and Guy Lombardo & His
Royal Canadians (with vocal by Carmen Lombardo). Since then it has been
recorded by over a hundred different successful artists.
Watch Lola Albright sing "You're Driving Me Crazy!"
DECEASED: Key
shop owner and informant for Gunn, Alfie, shot in chest (not shown); he named Vincent
Donniger as the killer. Hoodlum working for Vince Donniger is shot by Gunn. Captain
Ben Loomis is shot by Donniger. Vince Donniger is shot by Gunn.
Peter
Gunn Kills: 2 – Series Total: 10
Comment below your thoughts on this
episode and this blog
NEXT BLOG: S01/E35: “KILL FROM NOWHERE”
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