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.

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.)

This spinoff of the iconic 1950s detective television series Peter Gunn emerged from the imprimatur of show creator turned director Blake Edwards and the writing team of Edwards and Bill Blatty (The Exorcist). For the project, Edwards brought series star Craig Stevens back as Gunn, but replaced Herschel Bernardi (as Gunn's superior) with Ed Asner. Paramount greenlit the film, but apparently had such little faith in Gunn as a big screen transposition that execs convinced co-star Sherry Jackson to do a Playboy centerfold spread to boost the movie's prospects. Her topless photos probably sold well but didn't increase ticket sales, and Gunn died at the box office.

Decades later, the movie feels like a missed opportunity on some levels but is still reasonably enjoyable. Stevens delivers a satisfactory performance as the lead but lacks the charisma of a major star, while Asner projects the same gruff intensity that served him well as Lou Grant a few years later. Gunn operates in B-movie country, but its unabashed desire to entertain can be infectious in the right mood. Pauline Kael's old slogan "bang bang, kiss kiss" isn't out of place here - among other pleasures, we get sexy Jackson tempting Gunn into bed ("Make a wish"), gun-wielding thugs crashing in through windows, death threats and mild violence on a racquetball court, and a surreal climactic confrontation in a mirrored room; none of this may exactly be novel, but it keeps the material arresting. There are also a few unexpected throwaway gags that anticipate the farcical Edwards of the '70s and '80s; watch the low-key lunacy that happens, for instance, when Gunn trudges into his kitchen to make himself a coffee. The witty, pseudo-hardboiled dialogue throughout the picture plays like a wry send up of more earnest noir.

Upon release, critics attacked the story of Gunn as confusing, but they were incorrect: the narrative isn't convoluted or challenging to follow, and ends with a refreshingly unpredictable twist. Equally surprising is the degree of onscreen violence, including a bloody finale. Edwards and Blatty were clearly trying to reshape Peter Gunn for movie houses with more "adult" content, but they missed their target in two other respects: the picture's drab telemovie cinematography and its unmemorable lead actor fated it to obscurity.

If Edwards and company had given Gunn higher production values and cast an A-lister like the late Cary Grant or Paul Newman in the lead, the movie would have fared better, because the core elements are here for a superior picture, including an intelligent and serviceable script.

A noble effort but a box office clunker. Secret agents were the name of the game in the mid-sixties. Not private eyes on rain slicked streets in black and white. Gunn lacks the film noir cinematography of the original TV show, the great jazz soundtrack, Herschel Bernardi and most of all, Lola Albright as Gunn's love. Singer Edie. Laura Devon is gorgeous as the new Edie but there's no chemistry between Craig Stevens and Devon. The best addition is Sherry Jackson, the underrated, underhired beauty who was mainly a TV actress. Several events are lifted from the series. The bombing of Mother's night club. The racquet ball playing mobster. A man killed by a speargun. See it if you can but if you liked the original you may be let down.

This 1967 film lacks the luster of the late 50's, early 60's TV show. Replacement of key roles of Edie, Mother and Lt. Jacoby by others takes away from the viewer familiarity with the "Peter Gunn" they loved on the TV show. The story is fine, the women are gorgeous and seeing it in color is also a plus for a feature film. The camera work is good, but lacks the "feel" the black and white show gave us. Peter Gunn didn't lose his charm with age. His attraction by the women in this film is understandable. I could also understand why this film didn't do well at the box office. Peter Gunn is jazz. This film came out at the height of the British Invasion of Rock & Roll. Younger people would relate this film to their parents likes not theirs. Like fine wine, this film looks pretty good now. The jazz is good. If you get the chance watch it. It could have been a "10" but for the reasons I outlined, I'll give it a solid "7"