User Reviews

Joe Webber is a mob boss out of prison who might now be old hat. However someone is out to kill him.

Joe has served his time and just wants to go straight. He hires Peter Gunn to find out just who wants to kill him.

Gunn goes to a Salvation Army type called Snooker (Elisha Cook Jr) for some information, he is well paid by Gunn. Only Gunn discovers that Joe has gone missing.

Only Snooker has a lot of other balls in play. He and his cronies are set out to eliminate Joe Webber.

This is very old school Peter Gunn. Not much in the flashiness with camera angles. A veteran gangster past his prime or someone who wants his empire back. This means finishing off his competition.

Forget the formula plot, something about a paroled mob boss hiring Pete to find out who's after him. Instead catch two of the industry's premier baddies. There's giant-sized Bob Wilke and pint- sized Elisha Cook Jr. both getting major screen time. Wilke's the ex-mob boss, while Cook's a sidewalk revivalist. Considering Cook's many slimy roles, I kept expecting a lightning bolt to strike from above. Then too, hearing him croak out a gospel tune deserves a caustic quip from Bogart in their legendary The Maltese Falcon (1941). Also, catch busty blonde Claudia Barrett from cult turkey Robot Monster (1953) as Wilke's demure daughter and object of Edie's jealous wrath. But don't worry, our songbird and Pete do get a make-up cuddle.

All in all, it's solid Gunn, with color, style, and banter, if not storyline.

The Long, Long Ride episode from the second season of Peter Gunn is a treat for nostalgia buffs, as it evokes the gangster films of the past in its storyline of a mob boss, just released from prison, who seems to be on someone's hit list. There are echoes of the then popular The Untouchables TV series in this one; and it's fun to see veteran movie bad guy Robert Wilkie has the plum role of the Mr. Big, and he plays it well.

Also in the cast is Elisha Cook, Jr., an actor for whose personality the word furtive might have been invented. He plays a member of what looks like a knockoff of a Salvation Army band, and his character is crucial to the story, not just his usual little guy on the sidelines. He even gets to sing a little. The dialog in this one is quite good, and the atmosphere is, as usual for this series, dark. The L.A. of Peter Gunn was nearly always a city of night.