Ballad For A Blue Lady

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S4 (Ballad For A Blue Lady) (2)

That time in the season had rolled around when they let loose Paul Michael Glaser on directing duties, his artistic temperament given free rein to seize the opportunity of another episode's potential to express his interests and style, and this time he got in on the writing, too, co-credited with the teleplay. It also means a slower than average story filled with meaningful shots, creative decisions and a ponderous delight in turning the show into a film noir. If you love noir then seeing Glaser's name in the directing role is probably cause for celebration, but I've never been fond of that style of story or filmmaking, with its emphasis on depressing, hard-bitten lives filled with alcohol and smoking, the only part I can appreciate is the greater contrast in lighting and dramatically framed shots. I was surprised to find that this one actually featured some good moments of action, Glaser ably demonstrating an ability to keep things slick and exciting in these scenes, it's just that the episodes he does always end up heavy with slow, arty shots when the series wasn't designed to be like that, and it stands out in a negative way when an alien style is forced upon it by the creative wishes of one of its stars.

Typical examples are the scenes with Marianne Owens singing: the camera up close and personal with her, she takes the time to swig from a glass, take a drag from a cigarette and only then does she start to sing those old songs you'd expect in a noir. Why not go the whole hog and actually film the episode in black and white, it would at least take the artistic direction to its logical conclusion. Whenever S&H are together, which isn't much (another reason I'm not so keen on Glaser directing because he tends to be in it less, and if an episode doesn't feature the titular pair it generally suffers), they're either getting angry with each other or playing heavily on each other's innate understanding of the other so they don't need to say as much verbally, but the joy of their partnership is in their banter and sparring. Yes, their deep friendship is very important, but in the same way that we've seen the series at the extreme end of comedy this season (I don't need to repeat the episode titles, you know what I'm talking about), this is at the opposite end, seriousness taken to the max, little room for fun or lightheartedness. It also usually means that Dobey and Huggy barely feature, except in short, snappy moments because Glaser likes to create a busy atmosphere at crime scenes, full of people hurrying about, Dobey barking, or, whenever S&H are driving he has to have the radio spewing out background chatter as if that's normal for the series.

They're creative choices, and I'm not saying they're bad, but they're not in the house style. I liked the scene with Huggy on the roadside ('Fitch is offering five big ones for a line on that blond brother'), where Starsky never even comes to a stop, but keeps driving along while Hug leans in his window, jogging along while he gives him an update on Hutch's situation. That kind of directorial decision works quite well, and I wonder if some of this is in reaction to feedback he got for his other episodes which were very much slower, rarely featuring any action. Or maybe Glaser wanted to flex his directing muscles more and do more action to balance out the noir-ish scenes. If you didn't know it was directed by him (and the credit comes up right after the opening montage, so you'd have to not be paying attention to miss it), you could guess it was his handiwork right from the opening scene with Charlie Baron escorting Marianne into his apartment, her standing near the door in the half light and emotionally requesting him not to turn on the light. Then you get the contrast with Joe Fitch and his heavy, Casey, storming in, with all the flurry of activity and the stark visual of Casey's shadow on the wall repeatedly beating Charlie as Marianne makes a scene. Then you cut to the police examining the room, all handheld, people flooding the area, getting in each others' way, while S&H talk details.

None of this is a bad start, it's just tiresome when so much time is spent gazing at Marianne as she sings, like some femme fatale, except she's the victim. Suddenly everything's about the nuance of performance, looks and gestures, and it just doesn't feel right for a series that is much less restrained and restricted, and doesn't tend to do subtlety well. It just slows the pace and makes it noticeably out of the norm, while the story is another that had been done many times before: Starsky, or in this case, Hutch, find themselves getting close to some woman in order to get to some bad guy, or they have to protect some woman, or… whatever, so while the style of direction is radically stylised, the content of the story is not, so there's some jarring there. The argument could be that the story is what makes the series what it is, and how you present it is where the director has the control, but if they were going to use such a different genre in one area I feel they should have made the story more surprising and pushed the envelope in that regard as well. Then I'd probably be complaining that it didn't feel like the series at all!

Some of the characters are well done, with Malachi Throne (another 'Star Trek' actor for his work on both 'TOS' and 'TNG,' right after Ray Walston in the previous episode), menacing and totally believable as Joe Fitch, this guy who would do anything to protect himself in his upcoming trial (Baron, and the unseen Benny Paycheck both getting paid in full for being witnesses against him), and even more, Harry Owens, Marianne's brother, in partnership with Fitch, but in absolute fear of him, especially for his sister's safety. His wide, bulbous eyes portray so much and he was certainly the most effective guest star, completely selling his position as a lesser partner, in over his head, but unable to escape until Hutch gives them the option through his undercover work. He really wasn't at his best in that - I know Stanton said he'd been at it for over a week, and we come in when he's already become a familiar face at the club where Marianne sings, but he didn't seem to be trying that hard, his cover is that he's a songwriter from Nashville called Ken! Then when he's finally got Marianne away from her minders in a well filmed chase through crowded streets, he takes her to his place and when she makes a wild stab in the dark that he's a cop he doesn't try to disabuse her, but lets it sink in, completely ruining his chance to get close to Fitch. I suppose there always had to be a moment when he revealed his true intentions were not towards her, but her boss, but he almost ruined the whole case in the way he did it!

David Soul is good, given some dramatic scenes to play, as we've seen so often before, and I prefer this level of acting to his ridiculous turns in parodic undercover roles of recent episodes, but it's just that there's far too much emphasis on the blue lady of the title, Marianne, and I don't really care about her, and neither did the writers apparently, because after the confrontation at the end, where Fitch and his heavy, Casey, take Marianne and Harry to have them killed, and S&H intervene, we don't hear what happened. About the only moment where you really feel the danger is when Harry, with orders to bring his sister to 'the warehouse,' instead warns her to get out, and is clearly going to face the consequences alone, a brave choice, though he was probably half deluding himself that he could convince Fitch she'd run out on them. But the questions remain: did Fitch get convicted (it was Casey who shot Harry); were the Owens' persuaded to testify against him; was Marianne ultimately thankful to Hutch, even though her brother was killed; did she leave town for a new life? All these and more are completely ignored, and after a few episodes where the tag scene has been used reasonably effectively to give some closure to the episode, they throw one in that could just as well have been placed at the end of any episode: S&H are in Hutch's greenhouse talking about life, looking through the paper, Hutch is happy that a pay hike is on the way, then Starsky informs him that it's been cancelled. Yes, it's a touch of the old S&H that was missing for most of the episode, but it doesn't end the story effectively.

I do feel that Glaser's sensibilities were wasted on a cop show, and I wonder if he ever got to direct again after the series ended, as he clearly had a love for it, considering he always managed to get one or two shots in a season. I wish he'd tried something more straight up action, away from the noir-ish influences, because in the fast stuff he did do there was a certain flair. This may be a more rounded example of his work, much less extreme compared to 'Deckwatch,' for example. Did Glaser have a thing about names? It's just that 'Deckwatch' had character names Chicky and Harry, and now this one does, too (Chicky the piano player, and Harry the brother), which seems like more than coincidence. There's also a bit of oddness in the character names compared with the actors: in this we have Sandy Baron playing Harry Owens, then we have a character called Charlie Baron. And finally, the actor with the shortest surname in the entire series, Bobby 'A' playing Steve the Bartender! Amazingly, not one of the guest cast had been used in a previous episode, which must be a first for the season. There's also almost nothing of the usual things to look out for: Hutch tells Marianne she looks like Billie Holiday, the American jazz singer, and she sings some blues songs, and that's about it. S&H get angry with Stanton, a fellow detective who's not happy with them, so there's a bit of friction, though not, technically, with authority. I wondered if the house where S&H rush into the porch was the same one used in 'Discomania.' No question where the episode lies: it's at the serious end of the spectrum.

When an episode focuses on either Starsky or Hutch it just isn't as involving. I can see why they do it, to change things up a bit, have a guest take the other major role, usually female, but it had been done so many times. We want to see S&H doing their stuff, dealing with the tough job they have, and supporting each other through rough times, but it's never the best idea when one of them has to direct, taking him away from the majority of the episode. If that was one reason that kept them on the series for four years, then fair enough, everyone needs to develop their creativity in new ways, and a handful of episodes a season was a small price to pay, but I'm in two minds about whether a series' stars should be allowed to split their focus by directing, especially when Paul Michael Glaser tended towards something that wasn't in keeping with the series. He wasn't finished this season, either, as he'd be back to direct the series finale!

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