I Love You, Rosey Malone

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S3 (I Love You, Rosey Malone)

Starsky evidently didn't learn much from partner Hutch's mistakes in 'Fatal Charm,' as this week it's his turn to get entangled, only this time it's more romance and less horror, though the result is just the same: things get messy and dangerous. Only this time it's not so much personal danger for Starsky as it is putting a syndicate man's daughter in potential danger when it becomes known she's 'dating' a cop. It was a bit much of Hutch to say that Starsky knows how to pick 'em after the previous episode's debacle, from which he's evidently fully recovered, coming across as light and happy, perhaps to give greater contrast to his partner's turmoil and angst - he was in it so little that it could almost have been a David Soul-directed episode, though it wasn't - perhaps he seems more relaxed than usual because of it? Starsky just isn't the man for the job when it comes to wooing as an undercover operation, he wears his heart on his sleeve and he just doesn't have the strength to separate personal feelings from professional duty. I'm sure he's gone off on one in the past about how they aren't robots, and he always was a very emotional sort, full of energy and love for life, so for him to even try and contain that, despite his assertion, as Hutch reminds him: "we're cops first, unquote," he's not tough enough to deny himself when the reality of his situation dawns, and though he wouldn't put his loyalty on the line, he does play a middle road. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had he not been snitched on by Chambers, and whether it was his main deception of not telling Rosey he was police that broke down not only his cover, but his desire to carry out his mission.

He continues to say, and to Frank Malone's face, that he's against the man's organisation, but he also loves his daughter and wouldn't do anything that would harm her. And it was nice at the end that Malone, having decided to take the offered out and leave, taking Rosey with him, despite despising cops as the enemy in general, and hating Starsky's involvement with his daughter in particular, compliments him as much as he could, by answering a distraught Starsky, who says he'd protect her, that he wouldn't be the first cop who died trying to save someone. It shows he believes Starsky's intentions are true and that he would go that far, but it would still be to no avail in his view. The relative complexity of the interpersonal and the legal, was something I enjoyed more on this viewing, and reminded me of 'The Dark Knight' for not avoiding complication in favour of simplification, whereas before I just saw it as another dull romantic escapade. The story's a convoluted one, led by Chambers and Goodson, two attorneys for the Justice Department Senate Investigating Committee, who are heading up the investigation of the Malone syndicate, and the underhand tactics they use to swing things to their advantage, using Starsky as a pawn in the game when he inadvertently makes contact with Rosey Malone while he and Hutch are out jogging.

It was good to see S&H jogging together, as it's usually Hutch's domain (we've seen his interest in it before), Starsky bored by it, needing a goal instead of the never-ending motivation for fitness and health, which he spots in a pretty girl who's also running, and (using his and Hutch's age-old tactic of bamboozling the other with distraction techniques to ensure first attempt at charm), heads off to intercept. The only running gag of the episode is that we end with a similar scene, only this time it's Hutch who's feeling out of shape, and Starsky who's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, enjoying the jog in a three hundred and sixty degree shift in perspective. Yes, I did just make a gag out of the running gag being a running gag… but that's about as much humour as you can find in the episode, as it's once again deadly serious for much of the time, unless you count Dobey's angry interaction with Hutch: after snapping at him, he snatches his candy bar, newly bought from the vending machine outside the Captain's office, and slams back inside! Similarly, the only action is when S&H speed up to Shelby's numbers house in the Torino, followed by three screeching pandas, after an anonymous tip sets them on the trail (unless you count Hutch slamming Goodson up against the wall of his own office in a rage, after he insults Starsky, suggesting Rosey now has a 'ring through the nose' of Hutch like his partner).

The two lawyers play a dangerous game, putting Starsky at risk by telling Shelby (said to be a thorn in Malone's side, but one that's 'too big to burn'), anonymously that Malone's daughter is with a cop, not to mention getting his operation busted as they give S&H that tip anonymously, too, playing both sides against each other so it'll look as if Malone is on their side (he'd been subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Committee, which they would drop), and he'll be forced to accept a deal with them, rather than plead the Fifth Amendment (which, I believe, would have meant he wouldn't say anything, destroying their case). Backing him into a corner was what all this legal wrangling was about, and seemed quite sophisticated for a simple action cop TV show. It certainly fits with my view they were aiming for a more serious angle for Season 3. If I were to play the old positive/negative category game again, I'd say this would have to be on the positive end, with art gallery, restaurants and a bright, sunny park with children playing and the public enjoying themselves, as settings. The only hint of the gutter is the warehouse they bust, but it's all about money and high class professionals, whether they be lawyers or criminals (I'm sure the guy who tries to burn some papers had been in it before - Starsky tries to extinguish the wastepaper basket using the guy's hat, before putting it back on his head - he may have been a regular stunt guy in case the hat caught fire).

It's not just the story that gives the impression of greater seriousness to proceedings, Starsky a lot less sure of himself and not in the best of moods: his hackles are quick to rise when S&H first meet Goodson and Chambers, taking a quick dislike to Goodson (who calls him Starksy, a play on the usual mixing up of the pair's identities, though that was also done, Chambers talking to 'Starsky' when it's Hutch they're addressing, and he replies "Hutchinson, he's the other one" - Starsk gets his own back by calling Goodson, Goodman). S&H usually have friction with outside authority, and you can see that, while Dobey's none too happy, he accepts the need to work with them (he's gone back to the goatee, which may mean this episode was filmed before 'Fatal Charm' where he'd shaved it off). There's some work being done outside his office, so I wonder if this is a visual hint that it's a different set, and they were redecorating, as inside the office it now has a wall of books opposite the side door, which I've not noticed before. I recognised Chambers, played by bug-eyed blonde, James Keach, but it was because he'd already been in Season 1's 'Lady Blue.' Looking back at that episode I've come over all conspiracy theorist with weird connections all over: as well as Keach, we have a guy called Fifth Avenue in that, and the Fifth Amendment in this; Starsky and a lady he's trying to help; his apartment; Hutch being all irritated about people being just numbers in a similar way as Starsky is irritated about being too caught up in his heart when it comes to people. Okay, they're all coincidences, but it is entertaining to note similarities like that!

Starsky really has got it bad in this one, falling for Rosey hook, line and sinker. She doesn't seem like the typical syndicate boss' daughter, all charity work and art lover - like an early Tear Craft operative, she buys native art to sell in the city and sends the money back to them. It's as if all the badness of her Father has been sucked out of her - he must have had the desire to cultivate something good and kind in the world, perhaps subconsciously to leave behind at least something positive in his legacy on this planet. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, and it was simply the indulgence of a rich Father, allowing her to blossom into any of the passions she enjoyed. That level of freedom also lays her open to people like Starsky, who initially went in to do a job, without really thinking, and then beats himself up about it when he upsets Rosey by not telling her his real motive, after a string of joke professions in which he pretends to be employed. He plunges in full heartedly, which sounds very like foolhardily, and despite Hutch's warnings, it's already too late by then. You could almost say that his affection for Rosey was almost a psychological excuse for his behaviour, so that when Malone finds out, and tells her, it's like an answer for his 'crime' of using her. But he certainly believes it, and so does she, and you can see their sorrow at parting forever, when she chooses to accompany her Father in a new life away from Shelby and his kind. Starsky starts to jog off, breaks into a run, then a sprint, hurling all his anguish into the effort. I always loved that ending, the best moment in the episode, and thought they should have closed the episode out on that freeze frame, with no lighthearted finale to follow.

I had thought Rosey got shot and killed, but it was the parting that motivates Starsky's run ('Starsky's Run' might have been a good title, though the actual title they used should technically be amended to 'I Love You, Too, Rosey Malone,' as I think that was the only time he said the line). The last scene isn't bad, in fairness, with Starsky chasing after another woman when he and Hutch are out jogging again (at first I thought this was totally undermining his affection for Rosey, and that it was showing he's got over her by chasing someone else, but in fact he thought it was her), and his disappointment clear, so much so that she almost wishes she were who he thought she was. Hutch advises him to stop trying to forget Rosey and they have a playful moment of friendship on the child's roundabout after Starsky has gazed wistfully in the direction of some children, which I took to be a callback to the 'fairytale' he told Rosey about, how he used to imagine having a family and children. The episode was quite subtle on the whole, with another little callback happening between S&H, and Goodson and Chambers - Hutch, following Starsky's angry exit from the meeting in Dobey's office, wishes them a nice day, which is repeated by Chambers when he and Goodson leave at another time later on, like a slap in the face. I liked that both Hutch and Chambers were cool and light, while it was Starsky and Goodson that had bad blood between them, though it made Chambers seem quite a cold, slimy fellow, as he's the one who coolly makes the tipoff calls.

You can see the struggle Starsky has, as more than anyone, he hates being used. Initially, I thought the lawyers were going to warn him off Rosey after he stumbled into her circle, but it's quite the opposite, them wanting him to make another attempt. I'm not sure quite why he was so adamant that it had to be him doing it, but I suppose it was a bit of professional, if not personal, pride at stake. We don't see a lot of the usual lighthearted Starsky in this episode, something that I sense was missing from much of the season, as if Glaser wanted to do more serious acting within the constraints of the series, just as he was creatively challenged by directing. After a couple of years doing something it's only natural to want to develop instead of doing the same old thing, but the trouble is that an audience tends to want the same old thing, and many performers have experienced the dreaded typecasting, and I don't just mean in subsequent roles - it can mean that a character does the same things within a role instead of branching out and changing. It was even tougher back in those days as it was all about keeping the status quo and not changing anything for fear of losing viewers if they missed an episode, which is why they went as far as undermining the punch of an episode's ending as they did with this, feeling it a necessity to have the characters back to 'normal' by the end. Yet I think it would have worked just as well, if not better, to give the audience something to think about in the intervening week, and leave them with the punch of emotion.

Although there wasn't the action, and consequently the need for S&H's doubles, I did spot Starsky's when there's a long shot of him arriving at Rosey's gallery, which I would assume was second unit stuff with the double, rather than Glaser, especially as he doesn't have the same walk. There's no Hug (except for the romantic sort!), in this one, but there's not a lot going on that he could help with, so I'll give them this one. There is a little of the hard cop, hard cop routine, only this time it's serious: Hutch pushing Goodson against the wall, and Starsky saying sweetly, "He's the good guy." There are a few references: Hutch calls Rosey 'bag lady for the Godfather' when they're told she's in on her Father's bad business; Starsky shows his broad range of taste: he likes Stevie Wonder, he likes Mozart; and he mentions seeing Doris Day films on the late show; Rosey mentions Barbara Streisand; and Hutch at one point calls him a 'sad excuse for a Romeo,' in a nice way. But there aren't any quirky characters, everything having a much greater attitude of gravitas, since they're dealing with dangerous men. We see Starsky's familiar pad for the first time this season, the one with the bookcases, bamboo chair, and the tiny latticed window in the door, first introduced in Season 2's 'The Committee,' and the one he'd have for the rest of the series, I think.

On the whole, this was another episode which wasn't as bad as I remembered, thanks to a bit more depth to the story than I realised, though the romantic stuff is still slow and dull, and overdone, with cooing flute music to heavily emphasise the lovey-dovey mood. It's not that you need screeching tyres and adrenaline-fuelled fistfights all the time, but if it's just one of the main characters and a guest it's not really what the series is about, and this lessening of S&H's screen time together, or perhaps I should say, the desire to have a different chemistry in a number of episodes, is partly responsible for the season lacking something it had in the first two. This is all from memory, of course, so it may be that too many episodes just weren't that good, and maybe the stars were tired and wanted a break from so much of the daily grind, I don't know. That's the interesting thing about going through a season, episode by episode, and seeing how the series changed or remained the same.

The stern attitude is portrayed strongly through Starsky's short fuse as he shouts at Goodson or icily insults him (something like: 'you better be a good son to your Father, assuming you had one'), flares at Dobey, Hutch, even Rosey at the end, which sometimes came across as melodramatic, but because it was a bit off in that scene it felt right, as if they weren't acting, but really were angry with themselves and each other. One exchange sums up the gulf between them expertly, when, after he's expressed distaste with the people he has to work with in the force, she asks why he doesn't leave, and he replies why doesn't she stop being Frank Malone's daughter? It was as impossible for him to quit that life as it was for her (though it would become possible in Season 4, 'Targets Without a Badge'). At least he was truthful in his dealings with her, except for the sin of omission, not telling her his real job: he answered her question truthfully about how long he knew she was the daughter of Malone after they'd met him, and he says it was since he first heard her name was Rosey Malone, which is true, as he didn't know who she was until the attorneys told him. Truthful, yet deceiving at the same time!

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