Death Notice

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S1 (Death Notice)

The series wasn't shy of dealing with the seedy underbelly of the city, be that killing, hard drugs or, in this case, a strip club. Because of the opening to the episode it seems like it's going to be one of the stories that focuses on the negative aspects of S&H's job, the aforementioned underbelly of the city, rife with leering faces bathed in a hellish red glow as they watch the act, bringing the tone of the episode right down from the start. There are some brief comments in the episode about people 'like that' being human too and under the same protection of the law as more 'respectable' citizens, but that's about as deep as the episode goes and doesn't explore the issue. Actually it's just a 'dancing girl' type thing, which I expect is tame by today's TV standards, and the faces aren't really leering, just watching, but it's still the seediest start to an episode so far in the series, quite voyeuristic and gratuitous, clearly just there to get people watching the episode, although it turns into quite a different kind of story after a while.

The way Anton Rusz, the little old man who attends the Panama Club and leaves a message of death for one of the girls, is played up as this crazy, imbalanced character, the typical psychopath that we immediately think of, is cleverly done, if simply. He only needs to be half hidden in shadow, to leave his message scrawled on the tablecloth, and to be described by the none-too-bright Arnold as having 'scary eyes' and he's guilty. Since the series wasn't particularly in the habit of misdirection we assume it's a simple case, but for once things do get a bit twisty, in a slow kind of way. The loony image of the man is increased by further messages being left for other girls that are then murdered, and when he takes the trouble to hide in an alley to warn about the next death, he seems sure to be a crackpot, but there's no reason to assume he isn't the killer. It makes us wonder why he's apparently killing off the girls, but generally the villains in the series, so far at least, don't have a lot of motive so we probably don't expect there to be much of a reason at the end.

There's no doubt S&H won't catch him, and they do, but even early on if you were paying attention you might wonder how this little old man could have lifted Jim Lee, Ginger's boyfriend, off his feet and into the bushes! And if he was a psycho, he wouldn't be working with someone else, so the clues are there, and once we get to know the little old Hungarian he's a completely different person to whom we expected. If you know that he's not guilty there's a lot of enjoyment to be had when S&H arrest him and take him down the station because he thinks he's just helping the police with their enquiries, not realising their hostile tone is because they think they've caught a murderer!

It's probably about this time you realise this is actually straying more into the upbeat end of the S&H spectrum, with little of the downtrodden streets and negative images of episodes firmly in the depressing side of the series. We do see back alleys, deserted offices and of course the Panama Club itself, but the story turns towards expensive apartments such as Ginger's place with swimming pool (as usual, Starsky leaps in as soon as he sees it - I reckon he'd have done that even if there hadn't been a body in there!), Kathi and Jerry's roaring log fire, the industrious-looking meat plant of Superior Meats, and the big finale at Golf Land, about as opulent and showy as the series could get. It's also the tone of the episode with a higher class of criminal than gutter dwellers.

The biggest change is in the final scene where Huggy makes his shoehorned-in appearance at Hutch's house where the Panama Club's manager, Manny, Francine, and one of the other girls, join S&H for a singalong, Hutch playing the guitar and then them all sitting round for a Christmas dinner-type meal. It's about as far from the opening as you could get, especially when Anton gives his speech about the secret ingredient to the dish he's prepared being love and friendship and all things nice. It's like they thought they'd better raise the tone and make it all family friendly by the end, and it's not that I don't like the way it ends, I do, but it feels incongruous with the first half.

The party gave David Soul his first chance to bring in his previous persona as a singer and entertainer, to the series and it's a fun way to close out the episode, and could only have been bettered if Captain Dobey had been there jigging away, but while he could stretch to sharing a meal at Huggy's with S&H as in last the episode, I should think sharing one with disreputable people at his officer's home would be a step too far - I doubt he'd consider it appropriate and would have disapproved of the company. Huggy being at the party was fine, but I saw a more suitable way to involve him in the story when S&H test out Anton's story about hearing the pay phone line. Instead of playing a trick on Dobey as they both talk to him on different phones (and this gives us another play on the mix-up between the cop's names - Dobey gets annoyed because he can't work out who's talking to him!), I was expecting them to call Hug.

The story wasn't particularly good, even with the twists as it becomes much more about villains that have no personality, as some of the weaker episodes have had recently. Delano, the suit who owns Superior Meats had very little screen time for us to get to know him, and it may be that there were too many bad guys. Assisting him was his goon Lou Posey, and they were the real baddies of the story, though they were being blackmailed by Kathi, one of the Panama girls, and her boyfriend Jerry, an abusive partner, something else that wasn't explored. No wonder she was always crying. But even he seemed small fry, just this guy that worked at Golf Land and wanted money. Anton, though he wasn't a baddie, was far more interesting than any of these people. Delano's security men were particularly stupid thinking they could get away with knocking S&H about rather than let them see their boss. I wondered if the scene where the black guy of the pair gets chucked in a bin, was racist, but I don't think it really was as it just happened to be him that started on Starsky, while the other guy was forced to show them to Delano. Both of them were Superior Meatheads anyway!

The scene with Lou in the cold room didn't do him any favours. S&H pull their hard cop/hard cop routine on the heavy, but in a few seconds he's already complaining and shivering, while S&H don't seem to even notice the cold. That rather undermined him as a villain and is another example of why the episode is more on the positive side because it shows S&H are in control, whereas the negative ones are about them being trapped by an unforgiving city. There are occasional moments of heart, such as the boyfriend's sadness over Ginger's body, or Kathi losing it in front of S&H as they worm the truth out of her, and added to the humour that Anton brings it means there are some things to make it worth watching, but they are few and far between. The big finale at Golf Land couldn't disguise another 'cop out' of a halfhearted shootout against villains that don't mean anything or provide much threat, and altogether the episode is the weakest so far.

It's also deficient in the usual running gags and little quirks we expect from the series. There is some banter, as always, between S&H, but it often feels like filler material such as the little chat about Hutch not liking heights unless he can see down, or Starsky discussing the wonders of hot dogs, which at least comes under the category of his weird food likes. I didn't spot any references to anything else, but Starsky's stunt double makes a definite appearance, even clearly saying a line, though it comes out in Starsky's dubbed in voice - it's when he's tackled by Ginger's boyfriend, although it didn't look like a terribly demanding stunt so I'd have thought it could have been done by Paul Michael Glaser. In a long shot when they arrive at Ginger's place, you can tell it isn't them because of the way he walks, but the double in that shot looks too tall for the usual double… Hutch is harder to spot as a fake, but I imagine they would both be doubled in long shots, though Hutch has less 'unique' mannerisms or way of walking.

The clip from 'Pariah' is back under Starsky's credit in the title, replacing his running shot from 'Savage Sunday' for no apparent reason. I wondered if Manny's office was a redress of Dobey's since they were a similar shape, and also, the apartment with log fire was used again, I believe, in later episodes. I didn't spot any nitpicks for this one, although at first there seemed to be a major mistake when we hear that Kathi went home hysterical before S&H came to break the news about her friend's death, but this question was asked and answered satisfactorily. Arnold the waiter is the only other wacky character, alongside Anton, as the others seems fairly ordinary, despite the girls' out of the ordinary occupation. Arnold was quite fun, but pretty stupid, adding a bit of amusement with the 'right/left' routine.

Francine, one of the girls in a speaking role, was played by Roz Kelly who later appeared in 'The Las Vegas Strangler' two-parter and maybe another episode. Jim Lee, the boyfriend of Ginger went uncredited, but I recognised his face and I feel like he was in quite a few episodes, even appearing earlier this season. He might have been a stuntman and that would have made sense for him not to be credited if he was a regular extra or minor character in multiple episodes. And I couldn't help laughing at the inappropriate moment when Starsky jumps in the pool! If you thought Hutch was going to get away dry in the episode he jumps headfirst into a pool at Golf World - did they have a mutually exclusive contract that what one did the other had to?

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