Little Girl Lost

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (Little Girl Lost)

The 'Starsky & Hutch' Christmas Episode! Actually, I'd completely forgotten this took place just before Christmas, but that wasn't the only thing that had slipped my mind as I had this episode confused with Season 3's 'The Trap,' another to feature young actress Kristy McNichol. This was her second of the three appearances she made in the series (she'd previously played Meg in Season 1's 'The Hostages,' a similar character), but I was under the erroneous impression that Molly/Pete from this episode was Joey, the girl from 'The Trap,' though this increasingly made less sense as the story progressed. I remembered Joey had a rich and slightly eccentric Mother, whereas this girl only had a drunk Father and no other relatives (the reason she had to live with the Williams' while her Dad was in prison). At first, I was still thinking that the Mum and Dad had split, but it made less and less sense and I realised she was playing two separate characters. They didn't entirely avoid continuity with Season 1, as Kiko, the boy Hutch was friends with in 'Running,' returns fortuitously to give Pete a place to go to at the end. But don't start giving in to that seasonal grumpiness about euphoric sentimentalism as Hutch begins the episode complaining about: this is a bona fide Christmas episode that makes up for lack of snow and the usual tropes they pull to give us the shorthand for the festive season, by making a proper happy ending, not just a jokey one (though we get both).

Another thing I forgot and was straining to recall, was the contents of Starsky's Christmas present from Hutch. It's set up in the first scene to be this week's running joke, with Starsky at his childish best, trying to guess what his partner bought him, but actually it's not really referred to again until the final scene, though the Christmas spirit versus Hutch's curmudgeonliness does come up regularly with less and less ardour from him. At first, he's stalwart against it all with its 'Better Business Bureau' message of ringing cash tills, which I can agree with - someone should tell him the real reason of the season, but the closest we get to that simple message is when Duran, one of the bad guys, and Pete's Dad's former partners in crime, shows up to kidnap Pete, posing as 'Reverend Jonas' from the Gospel Mission - when S&H discover the girl is gone they talk about how unlikely it would be for a gospel mission to host a Christmas pageant and Starsky says "Have faith, my son," sadly something that could be more easily construed as slightly mocking the phrase than a comment on denominational differences.

Apart from the Christian message (though love is played out in the episode, both from Hutch's agreement to host Pete for a night at his home, and the Ramos' decision to have her as part of their family), the other thing missing from the episode is Captain Dobey. They've used the other two 'cast' members sparingly so far this season as it had become more about the two title characters, but while Dobey doesn't appear (except unheard 'on the phone' to Starsky, and as an ant!), Huggy makes up for not being in the previous episode with a short scene doing what he does best and providing information. It does underline how far he'd fallen since last season when we see him hungrily eating at the outside cafe when S&H go to him for help - when he used to have his own place you got a greater sense of his status in the city and the series, and it's not like he even gets any good jokes in or anything, other than being there. I can't complain too much as that was the style of the series that it had taken on, but once Hug lost his business it didn't help his character.

The story's a very heartfelt one and is better than the more basic action detective two-parter the season began with because we see the friendship and banter between S&H played out, one of the clearest examples being when they have to leave Pete with the Williams' and after the door's closed, Hutch goes to knock again and Starsky stops him, knowing it won't do any good. There's a little action, such as the chase and fight with the bad guys (another salt and pepper combo as they called it in Season 1 - they like having two criminals working together, probably because it gives them something to play rather than sitting alone, staring moodily out of a window, or talking to themselves in the Prudholm style!), with Hutch doing the trademark leap off of something before taking down the bad guy, though I thought that was Starsky's move! I love it when Starsky leaps out of the ground floor window after Duran and Flent, but it's funny that the destination's never in the direction they're going when they receive a Zebra 3 call, leading them to screech the old carthorse round to head the other way with tyres growling and the cumbersome beast of the Torino grunting in a huge turning circle, bumping the curb and leaving smoke in its wake, almost in slow motion - it really doesn't look that flashy when it's called upon to do anything even remotely agile, only when it's zipping along a straight road, or violently lurching to a stop does it match the bright colours of its surface personality!

The credits montage remains the same so far, and it may be that they didn't add any new sequences of this season until the next season came around, but they had plenty of good shots, anyway (my favourite still the cruising of Starsky in the Torino by the side of Hutch, whose gun is drawn, stalking along, summing up the series better than words). An oddity though, are the credits at the end of the episode. I don't know whether it was a fault in the DVD or whether they just stuck the episodes on the discs without any editing (far more likely, I'd have thought), but if so, this is a mistake stretching back to 1976, because the end credits are those of 'Murder At Sea,' not this episode! Other mistakes or oddities would be that McNichol shows some emotion not true to the character. Amazing, I know, for a child actor to do that, but I couldn't help noticing that when Duran and Flent burst into her apartment to get her and she heads for the window, she sort of crouches and grins in anticipation of being grabbed, just as it happens, betraying the fun she's having. To be fair, she does an excellent job in the role, making us care, while not being precocious, and she even makes up for the grin by doing it again a few seconds later as a grimace so it looks like it could be just a natural reaction of fear.

I liked that they brought back a character, and showed us a bit more about him with his Mum and home, even a bit of Spanish (not subtitled), but why did he visit Hutch? He walks in, says hello to Hutch and Pete, then promptly leaves. I understand that he's a friend and might just call by, but it seemed more like a device to have him meet Pete when it could have been done more naturally. Maybe I'm straying into nitpicking… One thing that did look odd was when Starsky hands over the bad guy to another cop, Sid, then pats him on the rump in thank you! Was that deliberate or was he meaning to slap him on the back, a little higher up, or was it Paul Michael Glaser's sense of humour, or even a joke between him and the guy? I don't know, but it did seem slightly out of place for the context of the scene - Starsky wasn't grinning or being funny at the time! There was another moment a bit like that near the beginning when Hutch ducks under a Christmas bell decoration - I at first thought it was a quick reaction and that he almost walked into it, noticing just in time, though reviewing that sequence he was looking at it long before, so it's more probably him looking cooler by not moving aside and just bobbing his head instead.

Hutch's place has changed this season from the riverside bungalow to an apartment at Venice Place (we're given the exact address in a dispatch - 1027 and a 1/2, Ocean), which I think is the first we've seen of what was the most recognisable home location of the series. I don't remember if he lived anywhere else, but this one sticks in the memory so much I'd at first forgotten about the riverside place. It might even be the same internal set, slightly rejigged. He has a piano there which he tinkles on briefly in a reminder of David Soul's musical talent, though sadly he doesn't play anything this time. A continuing theme of old that shows up again while Pete stays with him, is his diet of health food - she has more similar tastes to Starsky than Hutch, and actually, now that I think about it, I wonder why Hutch was the one to get the story with her, especially after he initially fails to connect (getting his fingers slammed in the telephone booth she's been trapped in at the store!). It must be because his new girlfriend, Perkowitz, is the liaison or it's her job to find Pete a place to stay - it's not openly discussed, but the way Hutch behaves towards her you can tell there's something going on there. Something you couldn't get away with now is allowing a cop (or anyone), to just take a child home with them for the night, just as you wouldn't hand over a child to someone, even a Reverend, without some kind of query about it. But then Mrs. Williams didn't appear to be the brightest lady, as nice as she was.

I was mildly confused thanks to her. When S&H went to see her the second time she was wearing a different dress (in fact, almost immediately after her first appearance when Duran returns as the Reverend), giving the impression it was on a different day. But in S&H's first scene of the episode when they're driving along, they mention it's two days to Christmas Eve, then later, Hutch takes Pete home for the night, and it's mentioned again that tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and then we end with the party which they've been planning for… yes, Christmas Eve. That all stacks up (Pete gets kidnapped, then escapes, goes back to Hutch's place where they find her watching a cowboy film with Kiko, she has a bath, then they take her shopping, which could all take place in the afternoon), but it's the dress which made me confused - does Mrs. Williams wear different clothes at different times of day? However you look at it, Mrs. Williams is really the only S&H trademark character this time!

Aside from the differences in palate that often comes up between S&H, we get a few other connections: there's often stock footage of the front of police HQ, but this time a panda car pulls away from camera with lights and sirens flashing, which gives it a more active feel than usual. The alleyway where Nick Edwards, Pete's Dad, gets shot, looks like a place they often used (possibly where Junior's Dad was killed in 'Manchild on The Streets'), and the wide residential street of the Williams' had been used a lot. There are the usual cultural references, too: Starsky calls Pete, Dillinger (after John Dillinger the bank robber of the early 20th Century), and she asks a bit later if he's doing his Barnaby Jones act (which I didn't understand, admittedly), but the main theme is Christmas, so we get what looks like a purple Star of David on the dashboard of the Torino, with a deer, bell and holly dangling from the rearview mirror, and various carols throughout the episode ('We Wish You A Merry Christmas' whistled by Starsky early on, then sung by all at the end;' 'O Come Let Us Adore Him' plays in the background at the cafe where they meet Huggy; and 'Deck The Halls,' another one from Starsky).

He really gets into the Christmas spirit, giving away money to Pete and Huggy and generally being jolly, despite the sad mood of some moments - Pete's Dad being killed and her grief over his body; her telling Hutch that he'd been more of a Father to her than her own had; and crying herself to sleep while Hutch listens sadly on his sofa. But they get to have some action too, it definitely being Hutch when the car almost hits him in the alley and he has to leap aside - it's all done in one take, so when he runs closer to the camera you can see it's him. There's good cutting from when the stunt double leaps onto the baddie from a car, but his hair was longer so you could see it wasn't Soul, and strangely, he also does a walk over to slump down on the car near Pete which could have been done by Soul, when it's clearly the stuntman! The same with Starsky's double, who speeds the Torino towards the rails, then leaps out, then it cuts closer to see the actor doing the actual fighting.

The villains weren't the most terrifying, with one guy, Flent, just a hanger-on who likes using his gun, and Duran, who was a little more unsettling because of his twitchy behaviour and the ripple of tension just under the surface that told you he would do anything to get what he wanted. I felt he might be a drug addict because he was always sweaty and had quick mood swings, his temperament unpredictable, which may have been why he was so desperate to get his hands on the diamonds and the money they'd bring. But they weren't villains that would provide any challenge to S&H, more low-life crooks that had some deviousness. It's another positive-feeling episode - while it shows back alleys here and there, it is mainly a Christmassy episode and so stays in that tradition of heartwarming tales. Pete lives in a squalid apartment and walks the streets, but it's more about S&H's kindness and helpfulness beyond their job and there's often a lightness to the episode (such as the office staff gathering to leave a toilet with a big ribbon as a gift in Dobey's office!), plus one of the best happy endings you could get, that makes this a feel-good story.

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