A Matter of Wife... and Death

With the recent passing of the great Rod Taylor, I've been purchasing some of his movies I didn't have, most of the great ones are from the 1960's, but I came across this little gem, that I believe was a pilot for a proposed TV series, that never came about? However, it's a nice little stand alone movie, with Rod playing a tough private eye, who lives with his cat, but does have the odd girlfriend over, like the gorgeous pre-'Wonder Woman' Linda Carter. Some decent action, and a not too bad plot, make this an enjoyable little experience. Mr Taylor would have been in his mid 4o's then, and still looking good. Old time movie actor Tom Drake also puts in an appearance. Worth the money for the DVD.

This film essentially begins with a private eye by the name of "Shamus McCoy" (Rod Taylor) receiving a frantic phone call from a colleague named "Paulie Baker" (Tom Drake) desperately asking to meet him at a certain rendezvous point. Unfortunately, although Shamus gets there as fast as he can he is too late as Paulie's car explodes directly in front of him. Not knowing what else to do Shamus contacts a good friend in the police department by the name of "Lieutenant Vince Promuto" (Joe Santos) who pronounces Paulie dead and asks Shamus to notify his friend's wife "Helen Baker" (Anita Gilette). When he does she begs him to find out who killed her husband and why. Naturally, Shamus promises to do so and begins an investigation which lands him directly in the middle of a dispute between two members of the mafia. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this is not a sequel to the 1973 film "Shamus" because---even though many of the characters are exactly the same--this film takes place in Los Angeles whereas the original movie was filmed in New York. Likewise, the fact that one of the characters named "Springy" (Larry Block) was killed in the earlier picture makes a sequel featuring him somewhat problematic, to say the least. So, rather than calling it a sequel it would be more correct to simply say that it was the pilot for a television series which was based on the original movie. To that extent, I previously considered the original film (starring Burt Reynolds) to be rather ordinary and this one--with Rod Taylor in the lead role--wasn't much different. And while both Lynda Carter (as Shamus' girlfriend "Zelda") and Anne Archer ("Carol Hammond") definitely added some nice scenery, neither of them had sufficient roles which allowed them to really make much of a difference. In short, this was an average crime-drama for its time and I have rated it accordingly.