I was always an avid BURKE'S LAW fan, particularly as many of the characters in the show were played by well-known character actors. Many of these character actors were not appearing in movies frequently anymore, as age was catching up to them. One of my favorite ones to appear (only once, by the way) on BURKE'S LAW was Alan Mowbray.
The star of BURKE'S LAW (and it's brief spin-off AMOS BURKE: SECRET AGENT) was Gene Barry. A millionaire socialite, he is the chief of police of Los Angeles (and the prototype for Rock Hudson's character on McMILLAN AND WIFE a decade later). He is assisted by Gary Conway and Regis Toomey in each week's episode, in which the victim is a wealthy or prominent person. The episodes were quite satiric, punching holes in stereotypes all over the place (in one, a character with a rough-house reputation played by a young Telly Savalas, turns out to enjoy reading the Greek classics to his servants - he promises to read OEDIPUS REX to them the next weekend!). The worlds of society, Wall Street, politics, advertising, movie making, all got twisted in the series. So did the conventions of detective stories...but naturally that.
The plot of this episode was that every week four members of a posh country club get together for a heavy duty poker game. When the staff comes to rouse them after a night of playing, they find all four are dead - they have been poisoned. Burke comes to the club to investigate. The men were all quite rich, and had the good and bad points associated with murder victims in detective stories (mistresses, bad relations with people in general). So it is one of those crazy cases where you have plenty of potential suspects.
Except there is one good one here: Mowbray.
Mowbray is one of the founding members and the President of this social club. It is so exclusive not even Burke belongs to it. The moment you meet the stuffy, imperturbable Mowbray you can see he's looking through you judging your bloodlines and genes. He's that type.
It seems these four members were not the types Mowbray would encourage to join. They were nouveau rich, but because of various debts and problems running the club Mowbray had to accept their memberships. He didn't like it - ever. Naturally there were frequent conflicts with all these men and Mowbray. Therefore through three quarters of the episode we gradually think it should be Mowbray.
The solution is at the scene of the crime, when Burke sets a trap to catch the real killer. It turns on a simple action that we all use everyday. But it is a neat solution.
The star of BURKE'S LAW (and it's brief spin-off AMOS BURKE: SECRET AGENT) was Gene Barry. A millionaire socialite, he is the chief of police of Los Angeles (and the prototype for Rock Hudson's character on McMILLAN AND WIFE a decade later). He is assisted by Gary Conway and Regis Toomey in each week's episode, in which the victim is a wealthy or prominent person. The episodes were quite satiric, punching holes in stereotypes all over the place (in one, a character with a rough-house reputation played by a young Telly Savalas, turns out to enjoy reading the Greek classics to his servants - he promises to read OEDIPUS REX to them the next weekend!). The worlds of society, Wall Street, politics, advertising, movie making, all got twisted in the series. So did the conventions of detective stories...but naturally that.
The plot of this episode was that every week four members of a posh country club get together for a heavy duty poker game. When the staff comes to rouse them after a night of playing, they find all four are dead - they have been poisoned. Burke comes to the club to investigate. The men were all quite rich, and had the good and bad points associated with murder victims in detective stories (mistresses, bad relations with people in general). So it is one of those crazy cases where you have plenty of potential suspects.
Except there is one good one here: Mowbray.
Mowbray is one of the founding members and the President of this social club. It is so exclusive not even Burke belongs to it. The moment you meet the stuffy, imperturbable Mowbray you can see he's looking through you judging your bloodlines and genes. He's that type.
It seems these four members were not the types Mowbray would encourage to join. They were nouveau rich, but because of various debts and problems running the club Mowbray had to accept their memberships. He didn't like it - ever. Naturally there were frequent conflicts with all these men and Mowbray. Therefore through three quarters of the episode we gradually think it should be Mowbray.
The solution is at the scene of the crime, when Burke sets a trap to catch the real killer. It turns on a simple action that we all use everyday. But it is a neat solution.
