The Trap

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S3 (The Trap)

A solid, rounded episode, not spectacular, but a good example of what the series was about. You want more? Okay, well how about some notes on the cast, which was fairly small compared to most episodes, although that was probably due to the fact that the few minor roles (such as the cop that chases S&H into the florist's, and the florist himself), didn't have lines and so therefore weren't credited. One fun piece of casting was having Pat Morita play the 'Clerk,' the man in the shop who tuts about fingerprints on his glass cases and tries to sell Starsky the special watch - he would go on to be Mr. Miyagi in the original four 'The Karate Kid' films, so it's fun to see him here, even though it's such a small role. The other notable casting choice was to bring Kristy McNichol back for a third time in as many seasons (from Season 1's 'The Hostages' and Season 2's 'Little Girl Lost'), even if she plays, yet again, another young tearaway (at least her character has a Mother this time, even if she was of questionable responsibility!). She shares the distinction of being one of a select group of actors to appear in at least one episode in each of the first three seasons up to this episode (and is certainly the youngest), along with Marc Alaimo, Victoria Ann Berry, Roz Kelly and Suzanne Somers, which isn't a bad record to have. Strangely, I believe her character from this episode, Joey, was the only one she played to return (in Season 4), though played by a different actress!

McNichol does a good job in all her episodes, but I felt this to be a fairly slight role as she's not integral to the plot, merely padding to keep the episode running until Bagley's dastardly plan came to fruition. But like I said, it's a good episode for covering pretty much all the bases with some fun, comedy moments between S&H (even a bit of slapstick when Starsky fails to sit on a chair at Huggy's!), encounters with some wacky people (Mrs. Carston stands out by far, but Morita's Clerk and his fussy ways would also qualify), until we get to the kind of wacky that isn't fun for them: the psychotic Johnny Bagley, out for parole, and in consequence, out for revenge. A couple of things didn't make total sense here, one being that the parole board weren't doing a very good job if they let someone out who was so driven to murder a cop in the most torturous way feasible (locking him in a barn and setting fire to it), and when it comes to it, how could he afford to pay his two lackeys, Trayman and Delano, so handsomely that they wouldn't ask questions, if he'd been holed up in prison for the past seven years? And, as they themselves point out, why not finish Hutchinson off quickly with a stick of dynamite in the car or a rifle bullet to the head? Clearly, Bagley relished making his self-appointed nemesis suffer, and maybe he wasn't really going to pay the goons anyway, did they ever consider that? Whenever someone starts fiddling about with the Torino (why not do that to Hutch's car, as he was the target, Starsky irrelevant - because that's the car they drive around in for their detective work, I suppose), I always think it's going to be the one where the brakes get cut and they speed down a hill. Needless to say, it wasn't!

I never entirely bought Bagley as a real threat, though I suppose I should since he planned everything down to the tiniest detail, but he never had the presence of a Prudholm or the psychotic nature of the Las Vegas Strangler, to name a couple of the series' classic baddies. It almost seems a bit of a long shot that it would be S&H that would be the ones to investigate Huggy's place being attacked, but then again, he is a known associate of theirs (one downside of being one), who would instantly inform them if goons were looking for Hutch. At least their visit gave us the chance to see the back Delivery Entrance to The Pits, which we hadn't seen before, and Huggy getting attacked brought to mind 'Kill Huggy Bear,' though, like Joey Carston, he isn't important to the story, except in getting them on the right (or wrong), path. It was certainly an elaborate plot by Bagley to get them out to his deserted farmhouse (which looked suspiciously like somewhere they'd been before - was it 'Bloodbath' where the door was blown off while Hutch was searching for Starsky?), but it worked. You'd think they'd notice the change in dispatch voice since it's usually a woman that gives them the details or updates, but you wouldn't expect someone to go to all the trouble of putting you on the wrong trail - perhaps they should have kept their eyes open a bit more as it looks like the tan panel truck they're searching for is parked right outside The Pits when they drive away! It looked like the same vehicle, and it could be they forgot to move it for the shot, since in the episode the actual truck is streets away by then!

The glue that holds this episode, and all (well, almost all - I'm rather fond of 'Huggy Bear and The Turkey,' and suchlike), the best ones together is, of course, the friendship between S&H, and their true, submerged qualities of duty and heroism. We've seen plenty of times when they were a bit slack or bent the rules, or even behaved in the most unprofessional manner, but we know that when the chips are down and the heat is on they won't hesitate to give up their lives for each other or innocent bystanders. It's not only self-sacrifice that I got from this episode, however, but their sense of responsibility, especially to the youngsters. They try to make Joey face up to her crime, both with the shop clerk (who won't press charges because of her Mother's expense account), and her Mother (who says her kleptomania is just a phase!), arbitrarily punishing her by sending her to her room for S&H's satisfaction, rather than with any serious intent to make her think differently about stealing the lighter. S&H want her to realise she's done wrong, but when she really does something dangerous, hiding in the back of their car when they chase the van and end up stuck in the tiny barn, they had every right to treat her like the pest she was, tell her to shut up, give her the cold shoulder and put her to the back of their minds. But they don't do that. They speak to her and reassure her, and when she offers up a daft means of escape they don't make her feel stupid, but talk to her as an adult.

The key moment is when they decide to cause a diversion, having considered the chances of the villains giving her a break, risking their lives to give Joey a chance of escape, ostensibly to go for help, though they're so far from anyone that it would take too long and is only an excuse to stop her thinking she's deserting them - if she had been their saviour through that, it would at least have made her character integral to the story. Starsky gives her a short pep talk, discouraging her from a life of crime as a kind of last wish, since he knows there's a good chance he'll be killed after she's gone. It's like he has hope for her, even if he's potentially staring at the end of life, leaving that legacy which, let's face it, would have burned inside her if he hadn't made it. To think of such things at a time of extreme stress and danger is the height of heroism, a generosity of spirit that goes beyond what's expected. The actual diversionary action is a scene of great bravery, bursting out of the barn door blasting for all they're worth like a latter day 'Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid' (though fortunately more successfully), so impressive a visual it was later used in the opening credits. It doesn't all go to plan, while Joey does escape, Starsky gets shot in the leg and becomes a liability for any future escape attempt for Hutch. This is where it becomes both humorous and serious brass tacks, Hutch busying himself with a plan to use the old tractor to effect a rootin'-tootin' 'Dukes of Hazard' bust-out, only half listening while Starsky suggests he save himself and leave Starsky to create another diversion.

You believe Starsky's intentions, he's not acting or mouthing off, he thinks Hutch will have a better chance if he stays behind, but all the while Hutch is too busy 'cleaning up the man's tractor' to really pay attention to his partner's self-sacrifice, or maybe he's just taking the opportunity to ignore such morbid talk, no matter its reality, because with industriousness he'll solve the problem, or at least increase the chances of survival. And not before time - Bagley wants Hutch to die the same way as his younger brother, Ernie, whom he blames for that death, even though Hutch was presumably just one of the officers that attended the scene where he and Ernie were hunkered down in a warehouse. Bagley got out intact (though shot in the leg, a parallel with Starsky's plight that they never mined in the episode), his brother died in a fire. It's always interesting to me when they talk about something that happened before the series (seven years ago, in this case), especially if it's before S&H met, as I'd like to know more about their past and previous stages of their careers - it's pretty rare, and this doesn't go into detail, but it does give the villain a realistic motive. Another detail of interest to me was a view into procedure, as Hutch requests the dispatcher notify the Sheriff's Office that they're going over the county line in the pursuit. Again, they don't often bother with details like that and it gives a little insight into their ways. You also see them reloading their guns, which isn't a frequent sight on the series, perhaps in line with what I imagine was Season 3's remit to be more realistic.

In the event, Hutch's bold plan succeeds, the tractor taking out the wood shed and scattering the villains from their nest, proceeding to a slightly tense creep around the farmhouse as S&H take the enemy out, all without killing them. Impressive. What wasn't quite so impressive was how small the farmhouse appeared on the inside, so you think Bagley must be deaf if he didn't hear Hutch beating up his henchman or all that procedure with the watch. You knew that watch was going to get it - it was a true running gag for the episode, like they used to do, with Starsky fixated on this Yamamoto Reflex watch and Hutch unimpressed. No idea if it was a genuine brand, but I think it more likely a made up name as all those features Starsky and the clerk were trading with each other sounded a bit over the top for a wristwatch of the seventies. I could be wrong, but there didn't seem that many buttons, and though the joke is that Hutch can't simply tell the time with it, it had a simple display when it was held up to camera. Starsky thinks it a bargain that he only had to pay $300 for it, when it only had a slight scratch to the face after his scuffle with the flower shop, and he's attached enough to it to give it to Hutch when he thinks he may not make the escape. It was a touching moment, but you also knew it wasn't going to end happily for the watch, but it wasn't even an accident, Hutch deliberately uses it as a decoy and Bagley happened to be a crack shot, busting it up real good when surprised by the alarm!

Rounding off the episode are some nice moments of action or direction - I particularly liked the shot of Bagley's mob racing into the farm, Bagley jumping out, not even bothering to shut the van door as we hear the pursuing siren in the near distance, then the door shuts of its own accord due to the bumpy ground his henchmen lurch over, the pair leap out, one running out of focus across the front of the camera as it pans to track the other, a dynamic shot. The old kettledrums make a comeback to heighten the impression of danger as Hutch approaches the abandoned van (I thought it was going to be rigged to explode in his face!), though in general the music hasn't stood out for me this season. I liked Starsky's attempt to kick up a dust screen by driving in a circle, though that tactic was cut short. Maybe armour would be a good modification for the Torino in future? And the shots inside the house are nicely claustrophobic - while it's not hugely tense, since we're seeing S&H take out the villains, and they're just waiting to be caught, rather than us not certain of where each member of the opposing parties are, it works pretty well to cap off the episode.

The real cap is Starsky's promise to take Joey out coming back to bite him, Captain Dobey's only line in the whole thing being to tell him he's busted for First Degree Breach of Promise, followed by Hutch, his good buddy, kicking out the stick he's using for his injured leg, and he falls into the unimpressed Dobey's arms! As ever, it's too fast and doesn't have a strong sense of conclusion - nowadays you'd have a scene with Hutch agonising over whether Bagley had a right to think badly of him, and an enigmatic mood, but back then they almost always tried to keep it light. There were a lot of cultural references in this one, from film to history: Joey gets her idea of digging their way out of trouble from 'The Great Escape,' prompting Starsky to say, "This ain't TV, and I ain't no Steve McQueen," that old chestnut of people in films or TV saying the situation they're in isn't like films or TV! Joey thinks he's more the Charles Bronson type, which gives Starsk the chance to do his Humphrey Bogart impression again ("Know what I mean, shhweetheart?"). He also threatens to crawl to the door and do his Cagney impersonation! One of the villains reassures Bagley that 'Floyd and Petty couldn't catch this heap,' but I didn't get that reference. Joey sings 'Thanks For The Memories' as she goes to her room, Starsky likens Hutch's tractor dash plan to the Trojan Horse in reverse, and in full historical mode this episode, cites the Alamo, Custer's last stand and the Battle of The Bulge - we hear his Uncle Myron was killed in it.

Another one, Uncle Alphonse, he claims was killed when his Model T backfired and he was hit in the head by the crank, when giving Hutch crank-related information. Whether he was being serious or half-joking to lighten the mood isn't entirely clear. I already mentioned the wacky characters, but there are also some good throwaway lines such as when Mrs. Carston says her husband is no longer around: "Hang-gliding's for the birds," she says, not giving any more detail, or needing to. Huggy intimates that he wants a tip for giving them the information on the tan panel truck, even though they came to help him, and he also did a good job trying to keep neutral when the villains came to ask if he knew S&H: "I gave them a firm non-committal." And Hutch gets in "Hell hath no fury like a scrawny weed scorned," in reference to Joey's anger at Starsky forgetting her. Definitely in the positive camp in mood as it's all nature or upmarket shops and houses, and an atmosphere of crime prevention rather than mopping it up afterwards. Oh, and it was pretty noticeable that it was Starsky's stunt double who collided with the shopping trolley in the chase in town - usually it's not filmed so close to the action, and he's better at hiding his face!

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