Vendetta

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (Vendetta)

The most important thing I got from this episode is that there's more continuity to the series than I realised: this is Hutch's girlfriend, Abigail Crabtree's, fourth (and final), appearance on the series, her first this season. Back when I was going through Season 1 I was surprised to find the character reappear, and I'd forgotten about her until I heard in this episode that the 'blonde cop's blonde girlfriend' was called Abby. I wasn't sure if it really was the same character or actor, but it definitively states in the credits, the name 'Abigail Crabtree' played by 'Ann Foster,' which was fun to realise. Of course, they weren't going to let Hutch have that stable a life, so she was going to leave, but I thought she was going to die, the tension generated in the episode so strong (and a fate that would befall Starsky's girl later in the season).

You could say Hutch was better off since she wasn't committed enough to stick with Hutch after her realisation of the fear of death, but equally, they weren't married, so she had the option to reevaluate her life and that meant taking a safer route. For Hutch it was a blow to find his dangerous lifestyle the cause of a breakup, but his good friend Starsky is there to keep him sane. The end scene was, on first thought, out of touch with the series - they were playing the usual jolly outro music, but what was happening didn't fit that mood. Soul plays it very seriously in what could have been intended as a joke on him, but he's right, this is a big thing to happen to his character, despite that continuity wasn't very important in those days. Glaser also doesn't overdo the comedy nature of what he's given, played more as an attempt to distract his partner than laughing at Hutch's misfortune, which he wouldn't do at this deep a level. But still, if the music had reflected the deeper nature of what the characters were feeling, it would have worked a lot better.

We're seven episodes in, and it's only now that we get an episode that harks back to the 'negative' impression of the city, all the others having been upbeat, opulent or comedic. This is the first that takes a look under the lid of the downtrodden parts of city life, the tramps and those running from the law, living in the squalid apartments of Hotel Bremen, frequenting shady car parks and doing their dirty work in the darkness of night. There's also an early indication of the horror genre that would become more overt in other episodes. This had begun in Season 1 with episodes like 'Pariah,' where that clanking bell and use of percussion had first given us a disturbing mood, continued in 'A Coffin For Starsky,' though in these cases it was only a hint of the sub-genre to come. This episode doesn't really go much further into it, continuing 'The Las Vegas Strangler' and the mask at the beginning of 'Murder At Sea' in terms of bringing in unsettling and disturbing elements without it truly being a 'horror episode.' It's interesting to note that Season 1 was much more down to earth and realistic, where Season 2 has allowed bigger stories to be told, more comedy and action, and a general feeling of being more confident in itself, so the fact that negativity has taken this long to be explored says something about those different takes on tone between the two seasons.

The horror aspects arrive quickly when we have a shocking view of a young man burst out from behind a curtain, facing the camera, and in slow motion and with extreme rage, swing his bat at what will be the head of a seemingly innocent other young man. This scene doesn't quite tally with the later report of Tommy Marlowe attacking his victims without any sign of emotion as if he was just flipping hamburgers or some other mundane job, as Eckworth claims. It might have been more scary if he had shown all that violence in the scene, and yet his face had been devoid of all emotion, but maybe the coaching of the actor in how he was supposed to be reacting was lost somewhere along the line? He was certainly a good actor, the character being so repugnant thanks to his extreme attacks and attempted rape of Abby, that it's surprising that we can feel any sympathy for him at all by the end. And yet, thanks to Hutch's reaction to the pathetic figure who ends up curled in a foetal position on his bed, we do see the full result of a messed up young man's life, and it is Arty Solkin, his 'handler,' you might say, who draws most of the disgust, ultimately.

Hutch had every reason to burst into Tommy's room and administer the beating of his life, even one-handed you could see the righteous anger all over him - not only had this enemy cost him physical pain in booby-trapping Hutch's car, he'd done worse to his girlfriend. But Hutch is still a police detective and he has a lot of self-control, and though he rushed in and started flinging the guy around, expecting such brutal attacks to be perpetrated by an insanely ferocious opponent, he quickly saw him for what he was: a lost child, disturbed and fallen under the wing of an evil man, and from that moment he stopped himself and held back from whatever revenge he might have wanted. I'm sure he would always have held back - we've seen numerous times where he could have shot someone, but takes them into custody and allows the law to deal with them instead. Even more here he could have been justified in roughing the guy up. Instead, he resigns himself to pity.

Tommy is a well-drawn character, we get to hear of his past, that he's wanted for the murder of his entire family, that he must have been an intelligent person at one time since he was a graduate, and that somewhere his life turned a corner. He's described as being crazy; just his presence made one of Arty's lads leave the very next day, and we see he has mental problems from the way he spends his days staring up at the lightbulb in his room, until he's practically blind. He's attached to Arty as a source of safety, I think, but he doesn't like him, because when Arty comes in at one point and says something like he must be happy to see him, Tommy doesn't say anything, and looks cowed. The way we first see him lying on the bed, he even looks violent in repose, as if he's been captured mid-action, hair splayed out on the pillow beneath, face a mask of vacancy.

Solkin, on the other hand, has none of the drama about him. In only a couple of pop culture references, (the other being Starsky's obsession with baseball), he's described as Fagin, and his boys as Artful Dodgers, which immediately gives us the impression of who and what he is: a leader of youngsters who do his dirty work for him, a man living in the gutter, which is why he takes so ill to Hutch calling him scum. Usually when criminals and lowlifes are insulted in this way they don't really react, not caring what a cop thinks of them, but you get the impression Arty thinks quite highly of himself - the way he dresses with a smart bell-hop kind of burgundy jacket, his two-tone shoes and the trouble he takes to dye and comb his hair. He aspires to a better life, clearly, though takes orders from others, which is where he gets his ill-gotten employment. He's the real villain behind Tommy, using the younger man's confusion, perhaps guilt, certainly mental illness, for his own benefit, like the others we don't see, 'taking care' of them they think.

His easy anger at Hutch shows an impotent and unbalanced persona - he surely knows he's a small fry in the pond, and when he's sees an opportunity to indulge his resentment, Hutch is the one to feel it. It comes from S&H playing the hard cop, good cop routine, with Starsky taking a more tactful, understanding persona, while Hutch doesn't have to hide his contempt. Even if he'd suspected Arty would dare take him on, I'm sure he wouldn't have hesitated to show his attitude - he's not the type to be afraid, even when shocked to find a dead rat in his fridge, then a brick through his window, he's not going to cower inside, but charge out and give chase. The villains being interesting (another pair), helps make the episode stand above the average, as does M. Emmet Walsh's addition in his first role on the series, as a former baseball player that Starsky remembers from his childhood, whose legs are broken by Tommy.

He plays it very well, inviting a lot of sympathy for Eckworth, even though he's too scared to name Arty in the police lineup. He's touched that Starsky remembers his baseball days, and even when he's evading S&H's attempts to get him to name the man behind the attack on him, he does it in a philosophical way; that it says something about us that in giving to beggars we don't look them in the face - we might see a human being if we did that. He's certainly very far from the class of wacky characters we sometimes get (though I think he'd return as one of those when he came back as a gambler, I believe), and raises the quality of the episode. There really aren't any eccentrics at all, unless you count the police officer conducting the criminal lineup, whose relaxed attitude and patter was fun to watch, as simple a scene as it was. If he was the 'Police Clerk' in the credits (he's only named as Mike in dialogue), he would be Officer Taft, as whoever was the Clerk was the same actor (Frank Leo), as Taft in Season 1's 'Pariah.'

Being of the pessimistic side of the series, there aren't many of the usual little touches to tick off. There were some good lines, my favourite being Hutch's description of one attack as "a cash and carry tap on the legs," and enjoyment, as ever, from S&H's teasing, such as when, after Hutch's ordeal at his home (Venice Place again), he suggests to the unwitting Starsky that he might like some food from the fridge, only for his partner to find the rat. He then retorts about Hutch's eating habits having changed, Hutch says something's wrong, and Starsky suggests it's the lack of ketchup! There's also the old rivalry about their respective cars, with Starsky criticising Hutch's battered old motor, and Hutch getting back about Starsky driving a white-striped tomato that needs tuning up every time it goes round the block, or something to that effect. It makes the trauma of Hutch's hand injury from the explosive in the boot even more distressing when they've just been talking so lightheartedly, and is the most shocking moment of the episode.

Captain Dobey gets to display the concern for his men that we haven't seen yet this season with Dobey being mainly relegated to a smaller role than before, this time even getting to leave his office and visit Hutch's place after Abby's been attacked. He also puts things in perspective for S&H when Hutch notes that there are so many weirdoes that hate him after his six years on the force, it's difficult to narrow it down, Dobey rejoining  with 'wait until you get to twenty-six years!' There's also a reminder of Dobey's love of food when Hutch, being the healthy one, refuses Starsky's offer of going out for a burger, to which Starsky responds asking how Dobey likes eating alone. He replies that it's all the same to him! Huggy doesn't have a whole lot of exposure, appearing in a restaurant to give them a couple of tips, and provoking greed in Starsky when he sees the dessert Hug's ordered.

The only stunt double work I noticed was when we see S&H drive up to the outside of buildings (both cars get used this time), and go in, so it must have been second unit stuff that they didn't bother having the actors do. It's mostly not that noticeable, but if you look closely, it is. And I tend to look closely! Which is why I saw that the hospital Eckworth's in is actually called 'Midtown Memorial Hospital.' Either it's another branch or location for Memorial, or it's supposed to be the same place. If so it's a very different view compared with the usual we see, this building I had the impression was smaller and there's a large outdoor area with long green lawns, a location that they'd use again in future episodes. Hutch shows some discomfort with the idea that someone has access through his front door, but there's an episode where he keeps the key over the mantel! At least I think it's him, it could be Starsky, and I'm pretty sure it's a later season.

I never buy Tommy's incredibly suspicious movements as he leaves the scene of Eckworth's attack - when he sees the passersby he tries to hide the bat at his side, then does a swift arc round to join Arty. Then again, the couple are engaged in conversation, so they weren't paying much attention. S&H's clothing had a strange fascination in this episode, so bizarre to see such outfits, primarily the yellow and green tracksuit Hutch sports, and even more, Starsky's denim shorts, long, white socks and shirt open to expose his hairy chest! I'm surprised they didn't parody these outfits in the comedy film, as they were much odder than the leather jacket or cable-knit sweater! One thing I wanted to know was what the word on Starsky's T-shirt could be later in the episode - you can make out the letters 'MAS' in the middle, so it could be 'SMASH,' but it looked like the M.A.S.K. logo lettering (though that was something from the next decade).

This isn't as thrilling as the previous episode, nor is it as action-packed as most we've seen this season, but with strong villains and the shock value of some of the directorial decisions, it's at the same level of Season 2 which has been consistently good so far. While the strikes are upsetting and horrific in their intent, it's all implied violence, the only actual onscreen actions we see coming from Hutch as he manhandles Arty, and then Tommy, so I think that was all handled well, leaving the imagination to do the work, but still giving us an opponent worthy of S&H's attention, a real danger to society, kept on a lead by a worse villain. There's genuine tension in the lead-up to Abby being attacked, knowing their plans to harm her, so that by the time Tommy walks coldly up the stairs in dark glasses at night, like a Terminator coming for its target, you feel her terror on opening the door - it's an another example being in comfort and safety, oblivious to the danger around the next corner, like when Hutch damages his hand in the explosion on his car. So it succeeds in creating a story, handling the characters, and making us think, after which you can't ask for much more from an episode.

***