PETER GUNN
US, 1989, 90 minutes, Colour.
Peter Strauss, Pearl Bailey, Barbara Williams, Charles Cioffi, Jennifer Edwards.
Directed by Blake Edwards.
Peter Gunn is telemovie written and directed by Blake Edwards, based on the characters he created in the'50s and '60s. Besides the television series with Craig Stevens, there was a Panavision feature film in the mid-'60s.
Peter Strauss is Peter Gunn, tough and wisecracking. There are the usual villains, crooked police, seductive women. There is also a daffy performance by Edwards' daughter Jennifer (That's Life, Sunset) as Gunn's secretary.
The film is stylishly made, abounds in wisecracks and sardonic remarks as well as fights and massacres. There is the old score by Henry Mancini.
The film is set in the late '60s (with songs like 'Baby Love' to indicate the period). A glossy attempt to revive a popular series of the past.
1. Enjoyable telemovie? Private eye thriller? Gangsters? Corrupt police?
2. Glossy style? Blake Edwards' career and his creation of Peter Gunn? His work in the '60s? In the '80s? Colour photography, Los Angeles locations, special effects and stunt work? Edwards' humour in the dialogue? Ironic?
3. The title and the focus on Peter Gunn (the old title simply being Gunn)?
4. The introduction to Gunn: suave, tough, wisecracking, his relationship with Edie, her criticising him, the comedy about the lips? The gangsters calling for him? His scene with Mafia sketch by Pearl Bailey)? His being called by Tony, set to find out what was going on? The gangster connections, his presence, the massacres, his information from the dwarf? Relationship with Sheila? Edie? The comic routines with Maggie and the patter about cousin Bernice going to find Zorba in Crete? His treatment of Maggie? His friendship with Herschel, the investigation? on the spot with the murders, the corpses in his closet, the shooting with the dwarf and the alcoholic? The confrontation with the police? The final shoot-out? Reconciliation with Edie? Maggie continuing to work for him?
5. The gangsters, their stereotypes, thugs, ambitions, meetings, shootings, retaliations? The various massacres and murders? Ways of speaking? Sheila and her connection with Tony, seeming to make for Gunn? In contact with the corrupt police? Arrested?
6. Edie and her singing, the club, suspicions, the happy ending?
7. Maggie and her daffy introduction to Gunn, the long explanation, her trying to do her job, the dangers, the police at her apartment, fainting? Bernice not coming back, her decision to stay on the job?
8. The serious and corrupt policeman? The reasons for being on the take? Their trying to set up a gang war? Get out? Their callous murders? The final confrontation, fight and shoot-out?
9. The picture of gangsters in Los Angeles? Police work? Private eyes? A good example of its kind?
