The Action

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S3 (The Action)

Firstly, there's not a lot of action in 'The Action,' but that's probably because the action the title refers to is gambling action, and there is plenty of that kind of action. Once again, the motivating factor is another old family friendship of people we've never seen before, but the McDermott's are good friends with S&H, though maybe they aren't such good friends as all that, as Starsky hadn't seen Ellen since she was a fair bit younger (he and Hutch immediately start fighting over her in their usual way of undermining each other). Ted's in over his head with a dodgy gambling den run by Clay Hilliard, under cover of the legitimate Marlborough Health Club, and after he's worked over by the muscle (Ingie), S&H commit to taking their friend's enemy down. Vice has tried and failed, but they go in undercover anyway. Once again, I have to wonder why Hilliard has no idea of the identity of the two most famous cops in town - it's clear this is all happening within the city as Ted is taken to Memorial Hospital, so perhaps Hilliard isn't as informed about the area as he should be! Rather than play hicks or goofy flash Harrys, and in keeping with the more serious tone of the season, S&H play big spenders in the offshore oil business (we never hear their cover names) - rude, hard, but not that different from their real personalities. It's hard to imagine from this example what was to come in Season 4, with the undercover caricatures of 'Dandruff,' or how different they'd become from the dance club personas they took on in 'Tap Dancing Her Way Right Back Into Your Heart' last season!

Being silly doesn't necessarily make things better, and can in fact make them seem ludicrous, but perhaps the balance was too far swung into blandness for this undercover escapade. It started promisingly enough, with Starsky's attitude, and Hutch's laid-back, but frosty approach, but it wasn't kept up, and they were soon getting excited and throwing dice around with abandon. The guy they really fooled was an easy target, poor Freddie a clear gambling addict that keeps going even though he knows he's going to lose wife, home and everything. He was a likeable character for them to interact with (and for whom they could do a good deed by telling him when to cash in his chips, though that was also part of the plan to get Hilliard to expose himself to their operation, and get a conviction), and a willing stooge for them to practice their high rolling credentials on, betting on everything from who could be first to get a drop of sweat to roll off their nose in the steam room, to the name of film stars' horses. It certainly fooled Freddie, delighted at their excess, though in reality they had only a little cash to play with. How they got their funds was a ridiculous twist - Starsky phones up Huggy at The Pits to reinforce the impression of his high-rolling lifestyle, and Hug takes his bet of a grand on Salty Babe seriously! The horse then loses Huggy his money, only the winner is disqualified and they win $18,000 to play with! I hope they gave Hug some of the winnings, even though he was a bit dopey not to catch on that Starsky was roleplaying. You'd think he'd be quicker on the uptake, but perhaps his mind's occupied with The Pits these days?

The story is pretty basic, although I liked the idea the villains use to keep the police from getting in on their action: the actual gaming table is situated in a lorry, and they take a drive to an abandoned warehouse to play parked up. It wouldn't have worked to play on the move, and they did a great job of simulating the jolting ride of a large vehicle in motion - I'm imagining they didn't really put a set in the back of a lorry and drive around as the logistics would have been too difficult compared to a set in a studio, and the step up didn't look high enough when they enter (searched for weapons by Ingie, it felt like 'Casino Royale,' except S&H weren't known to the villains - it might have been more interesting if they had known, and let them tag along anyway to get their money), and I'm sure they couldn't have got comfortable camera views from the real inside of a lorry, not to mention the fact we never look in the back of it and see the setup - whenever the doors are open, such as when S&H jump out, we see it from the side. The bad guys weren't that bad, and S&H have dealt with musclemen before (and dodgy health clubs, too, in 'Kill Huggy Bear'), so the only real threat was from the fact they couldn't take guns or wires in with them due to the metal detector (though Ingie just waved Starsky through without checking him!).

The impression of technology becoming ever present has been something fascinating to observe through the series - they started with massive radios and now have access to small wires, and security cameras have become more common (though I'm not sure most people would be comfortable with having one in a steam room, and it probably wouldn't do a lot of good for the equipment, either!), although either Starsky or Hutch questioned what it was when they saw it. Captain Dobey, who gets to go out on the road for a change, on the night trail tailing the lorry, and mentions he should probably get a helicopter up, so the force's technological capabilities were definitely improving. It might not have been such a good idea of their Vice associate, Hobart, to tell the truck driver of City Trucking Corp. (wonder if he knew Eddie from 'The Crying Child'?), who swerved out in front of them, that they were police, as it shows that they didn't think Hilliard had any brains, when he'd clearly outsmarted all previous attempts to convict him, and the driver was indeed a plant to bamboozle any attempts to track the lorry. You know Hilliard's a bad guy by the fact he has red curtains in his office, and as we all know, red is the colour of villainy in the S&H world (though Starsky might have something to say about that, regarding his car!). I should specify that red decor is the warning sign - I couldn't see whether Hilliard had the usual red carpet, too, but later in the episode you see that he does. And even the lorry is carpeted and draped in red! You'd think this would mean he was especially bad, but he's not so tough to take out in the end.

All it took were some rigged dice and the old trick of arguing with each other when they're forced to dig their own graves, then turning the shovels on their captors, which put me in mind of old Westerns. Maybe that was a deliberate homage, since John Carradine was in the cast list as a Special Guest Star, playing The Professor, who can help them with their underhanded gambling tactics, in between bouts of massage at Lana's Massage Parlour. He acted very defensive when S&H turned up, so perhaps he had a guilty conscience, or the parlour wasn't as legitimate as it could have been. Ginger was nothing to do with the characters of the same name in 'Death Notice,' 'Tap Dancing Her Way Right Back Into Your Heart,' or 'The Committee' - it must be a common name! Talking of similar names, Ellen was played by Julienne Wells, but had nothing to do with the actress that played the Secretary in 'Nightmare,' though her name was Julian Wells. Victoria Ann Berry, however, had played two previous roles (in 'The Bounty Hunter' and 'The Las Vegas Strangler,' each a different character), this time as the Barmaid in the lorry. Gerry Black, the Sergeant who voices the opinion that Ted was worked over, had been a Policeman in 'The Plague Part I' (maybe it was the same character, promoted?), Hilliard actor Richard Venture had been in 'Snowstorm,' M. Emmet Walsh, as Freddie, had been downgraded from his Special Guest Star billing in 'Vendetta,' and best of all, the great Marc Alaimo was back for his third and final role in as many seasons (previously in 'The Bait' and 'Iron Mike'). Always good to see Gul Dukat of 'DS9' - even then he was playing nefarious types!

I thought I saw the bug-eyed man from various background appearances, one of the people on the lorry, though he was never in closeup so I couldn't be sure. And the grey-haired goon that runs along the side of the lorry with Hilliard to intercept S&H, was familiar, so he may have been part of the stunt team or a regular extra. The same may have been true of the actor that played Ingie, as everyone was credited at the end of the episode, even the little McDermott girl, except him! Either he was a stunt guy, or it was because he didn't have any lines so didn't need to have a credit, but it's odd when he was such a presence in the episode as the only real cause of concern among the villains, Eberly nothing more than a talker. Being in Season 3, there weren't a lot of references, connections or wacky characters (only The Professor, Ginger, and Freddie, a little), but Starsky warns Hobart, to leave his Dick Tracy comics at home - another authority figure for S&H to butt heads with, whom they instantly dislike, though it's clear this isn't their first dealings with him! The film 'Casablanca' is mentioned (Starsky didn't do his Bogart impression, sadly), as is Gene Autry (again), and Tonto. I would even count the Shakespeare reference, as The Professor speaks of 'the Bard.' As frequently seems to happen, the episode ends on a rushed note - just enough time to let us know everything's wrapped up, with Starsky playing cards with Ellen and the little girl. I wish these end scenes were utilised a little better to give us something good, rather than such a brief backhanded conclusion - 'Manchild On The Streets' managed to do something more satisfying.

So another average episode, perhaps felt more keenly after 'Manchild,' and although it's not like the other seasons were consistently good, they weren't, or even that this episode was humourless, because it wasn't, it's just that the story didn't have much to recommend it, the characters didn't all work as well as they sometimes do (give Ingie more villainy, maybe put Ellen's life at risk, who came across as a bit limp, and show Hilliard as more than just another villainous business type), and there wasn't much of a heart to proceedings, with Ted pretty much unimportant to the story, and, since this is the only time we've seen him, not very important to us in consequence. His wife's concern helped draw us in a little, and it was good to see Dobey and Huggy get marginally better use, but it's one of those episode that gives the impression it's running a little bit on autopilot - middle of the season, there's been some good episodes, but more verve was needed, perhaps. M. Emmet Walsh helped in this regard, with his funny, but real, energy, and it's not a bad episode with occasional examples of good direction (the shot moving round the side of the lorry as Hilliard and goons run round, was a stand out), but one that could have been more, though the story didn't give it much room to excel.

**