S01/E34: BULLET FOR A BADGE

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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