Starsky & Hutch Are Guilty

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (Starsky & Hutch Are Guilty)

I didn't used to like this episode, but this time I was able to appreciate it on its own terms. Before, I think I came to it with expectations that weren't met and so it never worked for me, the placing of it as the final episode of the season not helping its case. Back in the seventies this sort of TV show didn't have much understanding of continuity (as I've mentioned before), or the placement of episodes for the most impact, or the concept of concluding with a cliffhanger, or the type of story that would feel like a conclusion for the characters. It was simply the episode of the week, and then there were no more. Partly it may have been not knowing the status of the series and whether it would be coming back for another run, and partly people didn't watch with the idea that this was all part of a world or a story of these characters' lives, they may have dipped in and they didn't need to have running story threads, recurring characters or anything beyond the event of the week. So I always wished this episode could have more finality to it as the end of a season, or, as they did with the last ever episode of the series, at least have the four main characters together for a final scene (Huggy doesn't appear at all), instead of a joke which is more a study of personality than it is funny (Starsky's horrified to find his apartment's been robbed, Hutch tries to calm him down until his partner points out that the tennis racket he lent him is also missing).

I was disappointed that such a great, high-concept idea (Starsky and Hutch are being framed by doubles of themselves), did not fulfil its potential. These criticisms still stand, but when you're not worried about the potential (and perhaps I had low expectations this time, which always helps), and you're feeling kind of sad that this will be the last you'll see of the series for a while, and you pay attention, the episode does improve. What works is that we get a few more slivers of information about our characters: Hutch doesn't have a brother (he claims at the end when the evil doubles have been caught and a police officer comments that he could be his brother), as opposed to Starsky whose brother we meet in Season 4; Dobey's been on the force for twenty-seven years (and he's seen this kind of thing before which has a way of working its way out - what, doubles for his men who go around causing chaos?); and we meet the Captain's boss, Chief of Detectives Ryan, who doesn't turn out to be the one behind the framing (unlike so many other bent police we've seen on the series, most recently Lieutenant Fargo).

I never for a moment thought that Ryan was the big bad guy behind it all, partly because it was grasping at straws by S&H (mainly Starsky), hitting out at him because he wasn't exactly supportive, but it would be ridiculous for such an important figure in the department to be trying to do his men an injury, and because of the way the actor played him as a by the book type who, though coming down heavily on his men, also sticks up for them as we later find out in the bungled operation to find evidence of the his involvement by infiltrating his office (would he really keep incriminating evidence in unlocked office drawers?). I really liked his portrayal, exuding anger and frustration at his men's alleged actions and having to take a stance, but at the same time, though S&H feel themselves to be modern cops of the time (as when Starsky defends them having snitches whom they allow some degree of free rein outside the law in exchange for information, such as Oscar Newton who was beaten up by their doubles, saying that that's the modern way of policing, as if Ryan is someone out of the past, and he in his turn doesn't like the way they dress and act, etc), it's Ryan's 'old fashioned' intelligence that works out the case since it's he that gets the confession from Eric Ronstan and realises what's going on.

In some ways Ryan is a bit of a dinosaur in the way that he hold some contrasting, even hypocritical beliefs about rights: when he thinks S&H are guilty of 'working over' a junkie he almost gives his blessing to it, or at the very least professes to understand that course of action, but when it comes to women that's a whole other thing, because even hookers have rights. Yes, but what about junkies, don't they also have rights not to be beaten up by the police? It could be that it was all part of his dressing down that he was emphasising how bad it was for them to have apparently thumped Nikki, the owner of the house of ill repute, but it did come across as if some police brutality was okay, depending on who you did it to (the real bad guy of the episode, bad girl Sharon Freemont says something about being tired of waiting for the equal rights amendment, which is her excuse for her actions, though again, it was said flippantly). But I liked Ryan, and I liked that he got one over on S&H who were the young guns thinking they knew it all, and any time a story can give you respect for a character opposed to S&H must be well written - respect is the word that sums up the man, as even Dobey is the underling to him, even allowing him to sit in the Captain's chair without a hint of ire!

And so to the real baddie: Freemont. I thought 'oh no, another girlfriend of the week for Starsky,' when I first saw her, but the elfin features of the Assistant District Attorney disguised a crooked mind so it made for a good surprise that she's the one behind the doubles (though I should have guessed as soon as seeing her office with its red carpet, as blatant a marker for villainy as a scar across the face on this series!). Her motivation is desire to move up the corporate ladder and out of the city's Justice Department (well rid of her, I say!), in super quick time by using the case she's defending, (Eric Ronstan's son, who's a bit of a flasher), as blackmail for Ronstan to make her a junior partner in his law firm, the largest on the West Coast. Ronstan evidently saw sense by confessing to Ryan, but even without that it was a pretty slender plan. For one thing Sharon's using a no-good loser as she describes him, who was going to be sent up for a third time, I think, and she was able to get him off in exchange for him impersonating Starsky. Oh, and he just happened to know someone that looked a bit like Hutch. This guy must have been a bit of an idiot to agree to be controlled by this woman - his crime couldn't have been that great if she'd been able to get him off, yet great enough that it would be worth his while to live this double life for a bit, do what she said and escape the ramifications of his crime. These things are a bit blurry and only mentioned in passing in the episode, because when you start to think about it, it doesn't make much sense.

How did she find this guy in so short a time, as presumably the sequence of events isn't that long, yet she has this plan up and ready to go? So she was obviously a dangerous person, and I think she was the type to be storing away information on everyone she met so as to have her options open: devious is the word I'm looking for; untrustworthy, ambitious and devious - she could be a Cardassian with those credentials! The main flaw with the plan is a pretty big one and to find the answer to how it worked (besides blind chance), you have to look at the conventions of the series: not everyone in the city knows S&H and their distinctive red, white-striped car. If you don't take that as read then these two imposters visiting places and people S&H have just gone to, and causing damage to people and property, would stick out like a… big red car with a white stripe. Was there not an APB out on this other Torino (the ramifications to S&H's investigations I'll mention again), did the witnesses who claimed to see S&H arrive and leave not also notice they arrived at one time, then left, then came back and left again? For that matter could there not have been just as many witnesses to see the real S&H when they were in another part of the area at the same time as they were accused of harassment? The central conceit of the story breaks down under scrutiny quite quickly.

A flaw is one thing, but a problem is another. The flaw was that so much was risked by people that had little reason to risk it and the chances of the plan coming off were so slim, but the problem with the episode, and one of the reasons it didn't reach its full potential was that false Starsky & Hutch (they weren't even given names!), were cardboard cutouts of the real ones, goons that sit around in a Motel room, baddies in need of development, so much so that I've often wondered if they were the stunt doubles we see so often rather than 'proper' actors. Actually it's easy to see that fake Starsky isn't stunt Starsky because this one looks a lot more like Paul Michael Glaser than Charles Picerni did! I'm still unsure if fake Hutch was stunt Hutch, but probably not as these guys don't get to do any stunts - almost all the violence happens off screen, except for when real S&H catch up with them. But these fakers are no match for the real deal, easily collared and adding the first anticlimax (before the second of the tag scene), to the episode - they just weren't strong enough opponents to make good villains. Look at something like 'Survival' where Starsky chases the monkey-faced villain on top of a roof for how to do a good action finale (it wasn't the finale, but anyway…).

The sight of Starsky's Torino chasing the fakes' Torino is a novelty and not a bad sequence (especially as it marks probably the only time we have three S&H's in a scene - the real ones, the fakes and stunt doubles doing the driving!), with the banter between him and Hutch about informing their colleagues they're chasing an identical car and S&H are in the second one, really good, especially when the dispatcher (I can't remember her name, if she had one), is surprised when they give their own description as the car they were chasing, the only time they could have done that - this was another moment that could have been improved by S&H being mistaken for the baddies and the black and white cop cars adding an extra dimension to the chase by getting in their way and causing confusion in a big blowout ending to the episode and season. I think this may have been the first time we'd seen more than one Torino on screen in an episode since the pilot.

The episode is intriguing until you actually meet S&H's doubles and we know what's going on, we just don't know why - funny that in long shots of the fakes jumping in or out of their car we should be forgiven for thinking they don't look quite right as often we see the stunt doubles filling in for the main actors, only this time it's part of the story! First intriguing, then still interesting (though there're plenty of mistakes such as fake Starsky having orders to wait by the phone, which is why they can't go out, but then as soon as S&H's location details come on over the police frequency they've tuned into, they leave!), the episode passes over into farce when S&H go undercover as 'janitors' to break into Ryan's office in their own HQ! Just prior they'd introduced some comedy into the mix by going undercover at County General (the hospital where comatose first victim Oscar Newton's a patient), in some kind of American accent (Texan? I don't know), acting like his pals since they've been suspended from the force by Ryan. But it's taken to a new level of ridiculousness as cleaners, Starsky in a head scarf and Hutch in a hat - I know it's supposed to be 7am on a Sunday morning, so there could be different staff than the rest of the week, but would no one recognise them at all? That's when the episode gets knocked to one side, but it's still funny, fitting the slapstick that had become more common this season, but villains with more motive and a plan with a chance of success, or even just a more sinister angle to doubling S&H, was needed to improve the experience.

There are some good performances, notably from minor characters: Mrs. Marlowe, the lady at the Cozy Corner cafe comes out from behind the counter to meet S&H with a large knife when they go to interview her as a witness (another example of conflict of interests -  allowed to go round talking to witnesses who claim to have seen or heard them committing a crime, but that's the time for you!). I really thought she might have been one of the Oracles in 'The Matrix' film series, but checking the actress names, she wasn't, sadly. Best performance has to go to one of the few crazy characters, Lennie Atkins (played by Sy Kramer who had previously been Goring in 'The Bait'), who thinks S&H are there to dish out summary justice for grassing them up, practically sucking himself into the wall in terror, almost crying with awe and fear. It really is a great performance! Nikki (who wonders if they're on the  take), might have been classed as a wacky character, but she's pretty normal compared to her employee, Kate, the bimbo who lets S&H in, and Fifi, Hutch's cleaner whom he finds doing his washing and handling his 'shorts' (which I assume is what Americans call underwear, as that would explain Hutch's discomfort with it). I thought the character had been in it before, but actually Mary Jo Catlett (this time getting a 'With the Special Guest Appearance of' credit), had played Tessie in 'The Omaha Tiger,' a similar character, but not the same. I also thought for sure she'd be in the tag scene, but no, it was just S&H in a darkened, messy, robbed apartment, not the best visuals to go out with.

We do see both Starsky's apartment and Hutch's Venice Place - he still keeps the key above the door lintel, which is not security conscious at all! Fifi (with her brilliant Charlie Brown jogging top featuring the words 'I need all the friends I can get!' on the back), maybe wouldn't have got in so easily if not for that - her story about going jogging is suspect, though, as she carries a massive 'purse' (handbag), the size of a small dog! The actions people take aren't always that rational, as shown by Nikki when fake S&H arrive - she's stood by the lamp having just switched it off when they kick the door in, but instead of turning it back on she backs away! Owner of the massage parlour, Judy Coppet, cops it from the fakes, claiming she was hit in a place it doesn't show, but couldn't she have shown a female officer? Starsky is inappropriate to a female member of staff again when in their office a policewoman's looking through a filing cabinet and he leans over her - this is a mistake on more than one level as the shot after cuts to him with his back to it, leaning on the cabinet as he and Hutch talk to Dobey! One of those filing cabinets contains a surprise: the little Mickey Mouse plush which has been sighted before, only this time Hutch takes it out of the drawer and puts it in its rightful place on top, maybe the only shot of the series where you can see both Mickey and (in the foreground), Pinky or Perky (the one with the red beret). Also, the scene where fake S&H terrorise the massage parlour seems instantaneous from when the real ones show up, but witness Mr. Klemp (who doesn't have an eye for faces!), says it was a few hours ago.

Mind you, the fakes certainly were suited up in S&H clothes (Freemont hit every thrift shop in the city, another comment on their dress sense, just as we had from Laura Stevens in 'The Velvet Jungle' - no wonder Ryan doesn't like their attire: nobody does!), and I wonder if they were duplicates or the actual costumes as I can't remember if they were wearing identical outfits when they catch up with the fakes. One aspect fake Hutch got right was rolling over his buddy's car in an effort to escape - a shame fake Starsky didn't berate him for it… 7am on a Sunday morning seems a little early for Dobey to be taking Ryan golfing, but his girth is referenced again when Hutch suggests if they get caught breaking into his office they'll all be walking a beat and Starsky replies that the exercise will probably do Dobey good! They should be singing his praises because the good Captain does his thing of turning a blind eye, or not following the letter of the law when he doesn't pass on the illicit envelope of money (part of $300k stolen from Mandalay Heights Bank eighteen months before), fake Starsky had left at his apartment, giving his men thirty-six hours to clear themselves. Also referenced: Nixon (Hutch likens Dobey's comment about things having a way of working themselves out to something Nixon would have said); Mrs. Marlowe listened to 'The Edge of Night' on TV (a film?); Starsky mentions his Cub Scout knife (which would be found in the back of a theoretical dead body in his closet); and he sings 'Blueberry Hill' in anticipation of his new Fats Domino record!

Seeing character names in the title was nothing new, but there's only one other episode that features both: 'Starsky Vs. Hutch' in Season 4. For the record, Huggy had his name in three titles, Dobey only got one, Hutch had three, but Starsky had a massive five! Nothing makes up for the lack of the Bear, though. We hadn't seen Huggy since 'Long Walk Down A Short Dirt Road,' and for him not to make it into the last episode of the season is scandalous (perhaps another reason why I didn't used to be keen on this one). It's difficult to say whether Huggy and Dobey were better or worse served than Season 1, but it's probably safe to say that they never got as much to do in general in the last couple of seasons. I still look on Season 2 as the best of the four (the order for me is 2, 1, 4 and 3), and this run through has made me reevaluate a few episodes in a better light, whether that's because of watching them consistently and really paying attention in order to write reviews, or whether my views have subtly altered since I last watched the episodes a few years ago. The best episodes of the series are in this one, but there's a general level of gelling in the action, acting, banter, comedy and music that wasn't always reached so well or so often in other seasons.

***