Gunn

This movie is based on the very popular 1960's TV show "Peter Gunn." It was an early Blake Edwards effort that was unfortunately made three or four years too late. The film industry was already following the mood of the viewing public into the era of "relevance." Up against films like "The I.P.C.R.I.S. File" and "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" it seemed lightweight and trivial. Too bad, because this film is clever, witty, well cast, well acted, well directed, well paced, well filmed, well edited and has a superb Henry Mancini score that is as good as movie music gets.

"Gunn" is also a very good detective movie with a plot that is far above the average, as good as any Dashal Hammit story.

"Gunn" is also Blake Edwards dress rehearsal for the "Pink Pnather." Using "TV Actors" and in-your-face Mid-60's Los Angelas waterfront locations, Edwards created a low budget film with a high budget look and feel. If it were released today it would easily rival "Pulp Fiction" and "Get Shorty" for box office and critical honors.

If you want to see where "The Pink Panther" came from, or if you want to see what the early 60's in L.A. really looked like, or if you just want to see one of the best detective movies ever made, then take a look at "Gunn."

While I'm a really big fan of the original series, "Gunn" is a disappointment. Style and memorable characters was the series strong suit, and you have one real standout here. J. Pat O'Mally is perfect as Peter Gunn's chief informant. However, even the usually banal plotting of Peter Gunn is surpassed by this weak script, which leaves too much background of the villain off-camera. It's left to Peter Gunn to explain much of the plot in the closing scenes. While beautiful and even more spectacularly put together than the original Edie (Lola Albright), Laura Devon is too young and has to little to do to make the needed impression as Gunn's main squeeze. Ed Asner suffers in comparison to Hershel Bernardi, as Lt. Jacoby, and his relationship with Gunn is far more antagonistic than that portrayed in the series. The harsh photography is not kind to Craig Stevens. Further, Sherry Jackson's character is poorly written and provides a demeaning stereotype as a "mystery woman," whose real identity should be no mystery to fans of bad mysteries. Further, Jackson's fate is ludicrous in retrospect, given her actions during the climax. Still, bad "Peter Gunn" is better than no "Peter Gunn" at all, and it is a shame this movie failed at the box office.

A later Peter Gunn remake with Peter Strauss only reminds us how great Craig Stevens was in the role. Too bad Blake Edwards was unable to try again while Stevens was still young enough to play the part.

It's also a shame the 1967 PLAYBOY pictorial didn't include any revealing shots of Devon or of Carol Wayne, who has a cameo. Jackson is really good eye candy, but Wayne and Devon would have made a sublime pictorial.

Watch "Gunn" for the music and the memories, as that's about all you get.

This film was based upon the highly regarded "Peter Gunn" television series that ran from 1958 to 61. Running for five seasons to the unforgettable title theme and background music of early Henry Mancini, the show set a standard for script writing that proved, beyond doubt, television writing need not be the 'medium of 'hacks': even within the limits of a thirty minute format interrupted by commercials. This big screen treatment starring, once again, Craig Stevens as the suave, indomitable Gunn, failed at the box office, more a casualty of the changing times than the writing and acting-both of which were superb. Unfortunately this cinematic outing in color dimmed slightly in comparison to the television series that was shot, quite effectively, in a film noir format reminiscent of detective films of the 40's. Regardless, the crisp story line and plot is intriguing from beginning to end, with the intentional humor never once tripping over the drama (credit writer William Peter Blatey). I must admit, however, I truly missed two key characters from the original series played by Herschel Bernardi and Lola Albright: their replacements were nowhere near as effective. Nevertheless, the performance of Craig Stevens must be credited for recapturing the intellectually glib character of the title character,Peter Gunn: the thinking man's 'gumshoe'. This film deserves to be seen by all those who love a really good detective story.

Will someone please find the Master cut of this great film and make it available to the general public?! I saw Gunn in the early 1970's on Television on two different occasions, on the ABC network in New York City. Of course the film was edited for content and to squeeze in the sponsors commercials, so ABC cut out the good stuff. The opening scenes of the couple sleeping on the yacht,then being sprayed with automatic machine gun fire until dead, set the pace for Henry Mancini's Theme song, Peter Gunn. (Peter Gunn's theme song is Much "Cooler than James Bond's folks).I vaguely remember other bits and pieces of the movie, so I would like to view it again, uncut. Can someone please shed some light on what happened to this Cool movie starring Craig Stevens, one of the coolest detectives ever to track a suspect? This movie should have been on Video ages ago. Now it should be on DVD for the world to see. If anyone knows of a way to get a copy of the film in any format, please e-mail the details. Best regards, JD

Blake Edwards in black & white during the early sixties was a class act. But this transfer of his classic TV series to the big screen in Technicolor with a psychedelic titles sequence, nastier violence, sprinkled with words like 'pervert' and 'hooker' and a proliferation of zooms and fussy compositions belongs more with Edwards' cheesier films of the seventies.

In the absence of Lola Albright (considered by the producers too old, although the same year she was a sleek & sexy T.H.R.U.S.H. woman in the 'Man from U.N.C.L.E.' feature 'The Helicopter Spies') the cast largely recruited from television still manages to include a memorable female contingent including Laura Devon, Sherry Jackson, Jean Carson as a waitress and Marion Marshall (billed as 'M.T.Marshall') in her sole late sixties reappearance on the big screen after making an impression in a handful of supporting roles during the fifties. Here she makes an even greater impression as queen bee Daisy Jane. (I'm staggered that so few reviewers have mentioned the extraordinary conclusion.)