BONUS: "Burke's Law": "Who Killed the Jackpot?"
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| Anne Francis as Honey West on "Burke's Law" (April 1965) |
A closer shot of a busy sidewalk is further reminiscent of Prine's song even though the song's titular hero, "Donald," is a soldier, not a sailor.
But here two sailors mosey along the sidewalk, rubbing shoulders with civilians, ogling the women.
They then pass a drunk coming out of a liquor
store. He takes a drink from a paper bag and salutes either the sky or the fire escape that the camera pans up to. The fire escape is outside the window of a hotel room where a man and woman frolic around and over a bed. The woman seems particularly
underdressed. They move their frolicking onto the fire
escape. The man’s hands are all over her as they embrace and kiss. With her
eyes closed, she puts her chin on his shoulder.
Then she opens her eyes and keeps on opening them. Her look of bliss turns to one of terror.
Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Amos Burke (Gene Barry) is getting
ready for a date, aided by his valet / chauffer, Henry (Leon Lontoc),
who is telling Burke that the woman he is dating is not right for him.
“Who pays the salaries around here?” Burke asks.
“Well, now that you mention it….”
“Only in passing. My jacket, please.”
Henry goes back to the subject of the woman Burke is preparing to see.
“I tell you, you’re making a big mistake.” He vigorously brushes and shakes out Burke’s jacket.
“Henry, you’re bending my lapels.”
“Take it from me, she’ll have a ring in your nose.”
“Well, that’s better than one on her finger,” says Burke.
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| "No man is a hero to his valet." - French proverb |
Burke takes a call from the very woman they were discussing.
“Yes, darling. Oh, ‘bring dog food, Camembert cheese.' Yes,
sweetheart.” He hangs up.
“See what I mean?" says Henry. "You’re in trouble.”
“If that dog eats Camembert cheese, he’s in trouble.”
They start to leave but the phone rings again.
“I’m leaving now, darling,” says Burke into the phone.
Cut to a nonplused Detective Sergeant Les Hart (Regis
Toomey).
“I’m glad to hear that, sweetheart,” says Les.
“I beg your pardon? Oh, you must have the wrong number, sir.
Well, who is this? [to Henry] It’s Les. Yes, Les. Where? All right, I’m on my
way.”
He hangs up and turns to an amused Henry. “Are you satisfied
now?”
“Everything happens for the best, boss.” Henry exits.
“It’s murder,” says Burke to himself as he puts on his hat
and turns to go.
This scene brings up the trademarks of “Burke’s Law,” which is known for what passes as witty exchanges, as well as its titillating wink-and-nod sexual innuendoes. Gene Barry plays a debonair millionaire police captain and confirmed bachelor who is as adept on the field of romance as he is at solving homicides. Barry was, if it is not too unkind to say so, a poor man’s Cary Grant, but he played that role with a dependable espièglerie. I am reminded, though, of a remark that my partner once made to the effect that if Sean Connery’s James Bond were any better dressed, he would have to be gay. Amos Burke belongs to the same class.
Henry drives Burke, in the latter's 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II, to the Queen Hotel. (There is something about the connection between frowsy hotels and the noir genre—even in faux noir like “Burke’s Law” and “Honey West.”) Burke meets with his two aides, Det. Sgt. Les Hart and Det. Tim Tilson (Gary Conway). They brief him on the circumstances of the murder, which are these: The man who was shot dead was registered as “John Smith.” He wore expensive clothes but with the labels cut out. A trail of blood begins near the door and crosses the room to the window.
Burke looks out the window and down at the street, just in time to see a cab let out a passenger, a blonde woman in a shiny evening gown and dark wrap.
Burke is visibly taken with the vision. “High caliber,” he
says.
“Nah,” says Les. “It was just a .32.”
Referring to John Smith, Tim raises the question, “Why would anybody so well-dressed
come to a fleabag like this?”
Burke acknowledges that this is a good question. He might be wondering the same thing about the lady who has just entered the hotel.
Burke leads his men out of the room. Les thinks this is
because they have exhausted the room for clues, but Burke says, “There is
always the element of surprise.” Then, while his men wander off screen, Burke decides
to hang around after noticing that the elevator is coming up. He steps around a
corner and awaits whoever might come out on this floor.
Burke tells his men—who are off-screen and evidently
oblivious to what Burke is seeing—to run along without him. He is going to look
around to see whether “John Smith had a Pocahontas.”
Burke enters the room and continues his conceit by addressing Honey as "Pocahontas" and describing himself as a “friendly Pilgrim checking on John Smith." He adds, "This was his wigwam."
“Who’s Selby?” says Burke.
“Mr. Pilgrim, I’ve enjoyed our chat, but I want some
answers. Some straight ones.”
When questioned about it, she says she has a permit and a
license, which leads Burke to guess that she is not just any private detective
but THE notorious private detective he has heard so much about.
“Honey West,” she says evenly.
“North, east, and south, too,” he says wistfully.
When Honey asks where her client, Andrew Selby, is, Burke replies, “In the morgue.”
“So, you’re Burke,” she says, circling him like a buyer considering a Cobra sports car.
“I’m not sure I like the way you said that.”
“Oh, don’t worry," she says. "To know me is to hate me.”
“Yes, I’ve heard some stories. Isn’t murder a little out of
your line?”
“We aim to please,”
“You’ve already succeeded. May I give you a lift?”
“You taking me in?”
“Is that an invitation?” he asks.
(That’s three questions without any explicit answers from either of them.)
“Don’t let it go to your head,” says Honey and puts on her
wrap.
As they are about to board Burke’s Rolls-Royce, they begin bargaining. Burke wants to know everything she knows.
“Everything?” she asks. Burke allows that she should limit her report to the
case at hand. “And let you get ahead of me?” she retorts.
Clearly, Honey does not intend to let the police handle this case on their own.
As the Rolls pulls away from the curb, it is followed by none other than Sam Bolt (John Ericson) driving the AC Cobra that will later grace his and Honey's own TV series. This is our first look at this car.
Burke suggests that Honey get off the case and threatens to take
her license for withholding evidence. Honey mentions that Selby specifically
asked her to bring a gun.
Over cocktails at a restaurant or night club, Burke learns that Honey began following her client three days ago but lost him today. Then Selby called her out of the blue and told her to meet him at the Queen Hotel. Burke shares the caliber of the gun that her client was killed with.
“Oh, anywhere. I have friends.”
“Like the one behind us?”
(We can see the Cobra out of the rear window of Burke’s Rolls.)
“You’re sharp,” says Honey.
“You’re not exactly dull.”
Henry pulls over, and Honey says, “This is where I get off.”
“And off the case,” says Burke.
Honey introduces Sam and Burke to each other.
“You her watch dog?” asks Burke.
“But no leash.”
“You mean you get lost sometimes?”
(Ooh. Can we say
pissing contest?)
Armed with the full name of the deceased, Burke finds out his address. But at Selby's home, he only finds Selby’s attorney, Chris Maitland (George Nader). Selby’s wife, Vera, is out, according to Chris. He does not say where.
Chris guesses that Mr. Selby has been murdered from the fact that Burke is a homicide investigator. The two spar over who is
going to answer some questions, as well as who is overdressed for the evening. Both had hot dates that were not kept, it turns out.
Burke promises to return to hear whatever story
Chris and Vera Selby "concoct."
Sam and Honey re-check Selby’s hotel room but find no further
clues.
“Burke has a reputation for being thorough,” says Honey.
“Played footsie, but no real answers.”
“He didn’t look like he was suffering,” says Sam.
Honey is puzzled because Selby seemed like such a humdrum banker. Sam is more concerned about her safety.
“You always try to do it alone. One of these days, you’re
going to walk into something you can’t handle.”
“Stripes or polka dot?” Sam asks, not necessarily talking
about Burke, but referring to Honey’s request that he wear a tie. (They are talking past each other—or are they?)
“Ivy league,” she says.
As they are about to leave, the phone in the hallway rings. Honey tells Sam to pick it up.
Sam lets Honey off at her office / apartment. He is overprotective.
“Bolt your door.... I’m going to keep an eye open until you get inside.”
He seems to
be the only one driving the Cobra, so far.
Sign on her building:
“Chris, you know I’ve asked you not to use the key unless it
was an emergency.”
“Like murder?”
“Who told you?”
“Captain Burke.”
"Where?"
"Selby’s house. Look, you call me, you say Selby’s in trouble, you hang up. After all, he was my client too. I went over to the house.”
"It’s been a lovely evening," she says. And then Honey West does something she rarely will do with any man on her own series.
He is not eager to call it a night. No nightcap, no
invitation into her private quarters?
“Good night, Chris.”
She does let him into her inner office, but only to continue their conversation. He displays jealousy toward Sam, leading Honey to say that
Sam is just an employee. Chris offers his own services as her attorney, but
Honey says she can’t afford him.
It turns out that Chris referred Selby to her. And when Chris says that Mrs. Selby was not home—whereabouts unknown, Honey reveals that “Mr. Selby was afraid that she wanted him out of the way.”
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| After Chris kisses her good night and leaves, |
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| Honey opens a secret panel behind her liquor bar |
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| and enters a cozy living room. |
“Any other little thing I could get for you?” asks Burke.
“Nah, I may think of something. You’re a doll to ask.”
She tells Burke that the murder weapon was her client’s own gun.
As she passes Les on her way out, she says, “Your men are all so attractive.”
Burke says, “Funny, I never noticed that.”
“You didn’t introduce me,” says Les.
"I didn’t think you’d stand the shock.”
Tim joins them and asks, “Who is she?”
“Honey West,” says Les, “private eyeful.”
“Oh, no,” says Burke. “I knew you’d say that. You want to meet her? Tail her. Keep her out of my hair.” Les wastes no time in going after Honey.
Burke gives Honey’s report to Tim. “I want to know why Selby hired a private eye.”
Cut to Honey's apartment where Sam Bolt has a partial answer to Burke's question, but
his audience is Honey rather than Burke.
“He was liquidating his assets. He must have been carrying a
hundred grand in that black bag. A walking jackpot.”
Honey wonders how someone else could have been following him and she missed it.
Honey and Sam casually continue discussing the case, all the while ignoring the fact that a bearded man (Gordon Doversola) comes up behind her and puts his arm across her neck.
Honey flips him and continues talking with Sam, who calmly continues to sit in his chair. As the camera cuts to a wider view, we see that Honey is wearing a “gi” or martial arts uniform, and that she and her "attacker" are on a mat of the standard type used for judo, karate, or wrestling.
They continue to grapple throughout her conversation with Sam.
“There are only nine thousand private boats!” says Sam.
“I have faith in you, Sam,” she replies.
Both she and
her “attacker” then kneel and bow to each other, and she says, “Thanks, sensei.
You’re a doll.” (“Sensei” is Japanese for “teacher” or “master.”) He answers,
“Sayonara” as he exits the scene. (I would wager that Doversola did not spend a great
deal of time memorizing this line.) Honey complains that today's practice session ruined her
manicure.
While Sam researches the boat issue, Honey is off to see the widow. Unfortunately, Mrs. Selby (Jan Sterling) does not succumb to Honey’s charms. The widow closes her door to the private eye. As she is leaving, Honey meets Burke.
"You can’t win ‘em all,” he says.
"Maybe you have the fatal charm."
“No, not fatal. That wouldn’t be any fun.”
"You haven’t met Mrs. Selby."
"No, but you meet such a nice class of people going in," says Burke.
While Burke rings the bell, Honey gets into her Cobra (definitely owning it today), and watches to see whether Burke strikes out.
He doesn’t.
Inside the Selby home, Mrs. Selby is making small talk with Burke in the living room but avoiding his question about where she was at eight o’clock the previous evening. She offers him the opportunity to call her "Vera."
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| “Mrs. Selby,” says Burke, “would you mind telling me where you were last night?” |
Mrs. Selby continues to avoid the question, vowing, among
other things never to clean an ashtray or to leave her bed. (Not ever?) When
Burke brings the topic of conversation back to murder, she maintains that some
people deserve to be killed.
Burke rather politely asks whether she has consulted her
attorney. (We can presume that any attorney would advise against making rash
declarations to a homicide detective about the salutary effect of selective murder.)
Mrs. Selby says that Chris Maitland was her late husband’s attorney, not hers.
She also complains that an unnamed “female
called me and said he was going to walk out on me.”
“When was that?”
"Last night, about six o’clock. Coulda killed her.”
She realizes that Mr. Selby wanted a divorce, and she finds being the dumpee, rather than the dumper, humiliating.
Burke asks, “Where did your husband keep
his gun?”
“He had a gun?”
“It killed him. I was here last night, Mrs. Selby. Where were
you?”
“I went for a ride. Alone.”
“Where?”
“By the ocean.”
“Near fresh blue paint?”
She hesitates. Burke says she needs an alibi witness because her husband was near the ocean, too.
In his car, Burke talks with Tim on the car phone. Tim tells Burke the same thing that Sam revealed two scenes ago: Selby converted his assets
into $100,000 in cash and was probably running away from something.
“Yeah,” says Burke, “I just met her.”
Burke is about to visit Miss Elizabeth Friendly, who worked for Selby. Honey is just exiting the building. She suggests that it would save the taxpayer some money if Les rode with her instead of following her.
“No thanks,” says Burke. “I need him on my side.”
Burke asks Miss Friendly (Nancy Gates) for Selby's appointment book in which Selby
kept both personal and business information. Miss Friendly cannot find it where
it should be.
Cut to Honey’s office. Chris tosses the appointment
book onto her desk.
“What are we going to plead?” Chris asks. “Kleptomania?”
“We haven’t tried that one,” says Honey.
“They’ll find out you took it.”
“Like right now,” says Honey as she looks out the window. Burke is getting out of his car. "Kleptomania sounds inspired."
"Let the police handle it," advises Chris.
"I will, when I find the killer." Honey goes toward her liquor bar, the one with the secret room behind it.
"Where are you going?"
Honey asks Chris to stall the police. She pushes open the panel behind the bar and goes through.
Chris puts the appointment book in a drawer and goes to the outer office, so he can be there when Burke enters.
"You get around," says Burke.
"Big clientele."
"Right now, you’ve got a lot to defend."
"I’m on a retainer."
"Start earning it," Burke says as he barges into the inner office. "All right, her car is outside. Where is she?"
"She’ll be back in a minute."
Burke walks toward the bar but turns back toward Chris rather than going behind it. He prepares to wait.
Meanwhile, Honey is putting the finishing touches on a disguise: Conservative suit, dark wig, glasses, modest hat.
She crosses the street and gets into a van (or truck?) driven by Sam.
Burke is getting fed up waiting in Honey's office.
"I guess she’s gone," Chris concedes.
"If she is, she went through a wall," says Burke, not realizing how close he is to the truth.
With an “Oh, by the way,” Chris now gives Burke the appointment book.
Burke advises, "Tell your client not to dogear pages."
Oh? What’s on it?”
“Oh, I see the ocean, a boat, and maybe fresh blue paint.”
Honey gets out of the van at the marina and walks straight for the boat of one Stacy Blackwell (Louis Hayward), and she finds him lounging on the deck. He buys her disguise at first. She wants to charter his boat, she says. She has to leave the country.
“Oh, you robbed a bank,” he suggests skeptically.
"No, no. It was a man."
"Oh, sure," says Blackwell.
"Some men find me very attractive," says Honey defensively.
"Why pick on me?"
"Well, your boat was so pretty and freshly painted and
everything."
"What are you fishing for?"
"Well, it’s supposed to be a secret but you were recommended
by a friend."
"If I have one left, tell me about it."
"Andrew J. Selby."
Blackwell is spooked and insists they move the conversion to
his cabin. They sit across from each other at a galley table. Honey notes that Blackwell has a telephone on his table. There is also a message pad next to it.
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| Unfortunately, Honey’s disguise is coming apart. (Her wig must have slipped as she bumped her head on the low doorway leading into the cabin. Now her real hair is exposed.) |
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| Whatever she says now, Blackwell doesn’t buy it anymore. |
"Well now, why would anybody do a thing like that?"
"That’s what I want to know."
He moves from the seat across from her and sits beside her, pinning her in.
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| He removes her glasses and wig |
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Honey gives him an elbow to the ribs and chop to the throat. |
"All right, Cinderella," he says, "turn in your glass slipper."
She gives him the phone number from the pad.
"What else did you pick up?"
"He wasn’t interested in conversation."
Burke wants to take her back to town, but she says she can
find her own way.
"Yes, I know. You’ve got friends. ‘H. W. Bolt and Company’,
is that yours?"
"Mine and the bank’s."
"All the goodies inside?"
"We try to keep up-to-date."
"It’s not admissible in court."
"Helps to get there."
"I’ll try to manage without your help."
(I am not a lawyer, but I believe that if the police make a warrantless recording of someone, say, admitting to murder, it could be thrown out by courts, but if a private citizen—such as a private investigator—records such a confession, it might just be admissible.)
Honey tries the number she stole from Blackwell. It is for the payphone at the Queen Hotel—the phone Sam answered the night of the murder. (So, Blackwell is likely the one who called and said, “Selby, I won’t call again. I mean it. Double the money or we don’t go.”)
Then, Mrs. Selby drives up to visit Blackwell.
Honey tells Sam to turn on their surveillance equipment.
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| There is a window masked by the picture of the TV set in their logo, |
Blackwell looks to see who might be watching them and spots the van. He chases them away.
Honey notes that there are other names in Selby’s appointment book from the day of his murder. And the next suspect is Jocko Creighton (Steve Forrest), who starts off as eye candy for whoever will appreciate a man in a tight scuba suit.
“I’ll sign your autograph book, little girl,” is the first thing Jocko says to Honey. (Can we say “conceited”?)
"Don’t tell me you’re a cop," he says.
"Private, but I’m easy to talk to.”
"You and me alone. I got a lot of ideas."
Sam says, "Just play it straight."
"Don’t be the Protective League, Sam," says Honey. (See note below regarding the American Protective League.)
"Come into my parlor," Jocko says. He puts his arm around Honey, and she lets him take her to his marine supplies shop. Sam brings up the rear, the proverbial third wheel.
Creighton claims he met Selby to get a loan to buy
underwater equipment, but he keeps diverting the conversation toward making time with Honey:
"Hey! I’d like to take your picture. I’ll bet you’re
somethin’ underwater."
"Let’s keep it on dry land," says Honey dryly.
Sam asks how much Jocko borrowed from Selby, but Jocko admits that
Selby turned him down due to a lack of collateral.
Jocko proceeds to eat his lunch in front of them. He does offer
them something to eat, but they pass. When it comes to eating while talking to
people who are not eating, it is not easy to do it gracefully, but Jocko does not even try. He comes off as a slob.
It turns out that there is more to his story, though. Selby offered
Jocko $5,000 if he would seduce Mrs. Selby so that Mr. Selby could have grounds
for divorce. Jocko claims that he turned down the offer.
Sam asks where he was yesterday, and Jocko says that he went
fishing.
"Do you know Stacy Blackwell?" asks
From Jocko's reaction, this question seems to hit a nerve, but he
recovers and says, "Nah, never heard of him."
Honey asks him where he was at eight o’clock on the night of the
murder.
His answer is to take her arm and, while still chewing the
food in his open mouth, to tell her to “lose your five o’clock shadow”—obviously
referring to Sam—"and then come back.”
“Don’t shave it too close,” says Sam.
Honey and Sam run into Burke on their way out of Jocko’s shop.
After Burke goes into Jocko's shop, Honey says, "Sam, I didn’t call Mrs. Selby."
Cut to: Mrs. Selby explaining that, "I didn’t say that you called, I said that female called."
"Meaning Miss Friendly," suggests Honey.
"Don’t take that name to heart," says Mrs. Selby. "She was always after him.
Knew all his secrets. You know, he didn’t tell me a thing, even though, I gave
up a career for him. You see, I wasn’t always just a showgirl; I did a special
number, and I wore this big hat…"
Honey interrupts: "I met your friend, Jocko Creighton."
"Did he tell you about that crummy deal my husband cooked up?
Grounds for divorce,” she scoffs. “I'm such a good wife.”
"And Stacy Blackwell."
"Who?"
"Isn’t it funny?" says Honey. "Here your husband had grounds for divorce
all along, and he didn’t know it."
(Ouch! Honey!)
"That doesn’t mean I killed him."
"No," admits Honey, "that’s true."
"You'll find that Miss Friendly down at the bank, but she won’t get anything. Now [that] he’s gone, it all belongs to me."
"There’s nothing left," says Honey.
"What?"
"Didn’t you know? Your husband had everything converted into cash, and all the cash disappeared."
"Stacy!" snarls Mrs. Selby. "Nothing was ever enough for him. Didn’t he know
that…. You mean, the money’s gone?"
"I’m so sorry," says Honey.
Honey puts her hand on the doorknob, about to leave.
"Shall I say
hello to Mr. Blackwell for you?"
Honey drives back to Blackwell’s boat and finds him in his cabin, dead. Honey uses his phone to call the police.
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| "No! Absolutely no MSG!" |
Burke meets in his office with his detectives, Les and Tim. Tim presents a report that says the knife that killed Blackwell bore no fingerprints. Burke suspects that Blackwell was double crossed. He asks, "Who else knew that he was carrying all that money?"
Now, here is the same trick that can be seen in the “Honey West” episode “A Neat Little Package”: The only thing that is different is that it isn’t the same person walking toward and then back from the camera.
and then Honey West walks away from the camera to reveal a new scene.
Elizabeth Friendly says she is packing to go on a luxury cruise.
“You were in love with him," says Honey.
"Oh, I never told him that," says Miss Friendly. "I understood him. I could’ve made him happy."
"You thought he was going to take you with him."
"He never actually said he’d take me. I… guess maybe I took
it for granted. How could he function without me? Who else would be quiet while
he was trying to concentrate? Or listen, just listen?"
"So, when you found that he was leaving without you…."
"I wanted to hurt him. So I called his wife, and I told her.
So she could stop him. Force him to come back, so he’d have to sit and look at
her for the rest of his life."
"You stopped him, Miss Friendly."
But things get more interesting when Miss Friendly says, "Blackwell. I
knew he’d demand more money."
"How did you know about Blackwell?" asks Honey. "You helped Selby plan all
this, didn’t you?"
"Oh, no."
"You knew where he was."
"Mr. Selby was afraid of Blackwell," says Miss Friendly. "He called me from the
hotel."
"Or you were there," Honey says. Miss Friendly is speechless. Honey sighs. "I think you better cancel the cruise."
Sam and Honey are riding in her car. (Sam is driving, again.)
Honey says, "If he had a gun, why did he call [sic] me to bring one?"
Cut to: Burke, snapping his fingers.
"He wasn’t carrying his gun," says Burke. "Whoever killed Selby took it
from his house."
Les says, "Or his office."
Burke orders Tim to pick up Miss Friendly.
Burke reasons that Selby had help in planning his
escape, and he implicitly suspects Miss Friendly of providing that assistance... or does he? Or does he suspect that there were more helpers in on his scheme? (The elephant
in the room, of course, is that Honey West was part of his plan, although, we know that Selby kept her in the dark about all of the aspects of his plan that he did not feel she
needed to know about.)
Meanwhile, Chris is playing Honey’s answering machine—the
part where somebody threatens her. He wants to keep her safe, and he insists
that she not go out.
“When you take off that suit of armor, we’ll talk,” says
Honey.
She tries to go through her secret panel, but Sam is there. “A woman’s place is in the home,” says Sam. (The sexism here is not so subtle, although it is certainly casual, not to say gratuitous.)
Burke notices that the page from Blackwell’s notepad bears
an imprint from another phone number written on a page above it. He performs
the oldest detective trick in the book by rubbing the edge of a pencil over the paper to
bring the characters of the other phone number into
relief.
He has Les call the number. At the same time, Burke gets a call from the governor's office. Meanwhile, Les discovers what the number on Blackwell’s
message pad was. He writes it out for Burke.
“Of course," says Burke. "The fish scale!” referring to the
scale found on Selby. Unfortunately, Burke is “hooked” talking to
the governor and cannot get away and follow up on this new clue. Whatever it
is, it evidently explains where the fish scale came from.
Meanwhile, Honey also figures out where the fish scale came from, but she is being held prisoner by her well-meaning male friends. (With friends like these, Honey hardly needs adversaries.) She
attempts to use judo against Sam, but he throws her on the floor.
Chris gratuitously suggests, “We should never have given them the vote.”
[See what I mean?]
So, Honey feigns an injury, and while Sam is trying to find the straight-backed chair she asks for, she dashes out of the room and out of the office.
Meanwhile, Burke is still on the phone, apparently having been handed off by the governor to a senator who wants Burke to show the sights to yet another politician who has apparently lost an election and needs cheering up. The upshot is that, even though Burke has realized the significance of the fish scale clue before Honey, she overcame her obstacle before he did.
Burke finally gets a word in edgewise and says, “Senator,
I’ve got a date with a killer.” And he hangs up the phone.
Burke’s next obstacle is that his car is inoperable. Doesn’t
he have a fleet of police cars at his disposal? Must he go everywhere in his
Rolls or nowhere at all? Besides, he is worried about Honey, rightly assuming that she is
following up the clue that he just figured out. (If you are wondering when I
told you what the clue means, you should know that I have not revealed it and neither
have either of the two people who have figured it out—or three people in case
Les has figured it out, too.) Burke says of Honey, “She’s a smart girl, but I wouldn’t
want her to handle this; it’s too hot.”
Meanwhile, Honey arrives at Jocko’s and finds him welding. (Too hot—get it?)
Naturally, Jocko thinks that Honey has come back because she
cannot get enough of him chewing with his mouth open, but he begins to think
otherwise when she suggests that he killed Selby—and Blackwell.
"Selby wanted out," she explains. "Now, as you said, he had no imagination, so you helped him disappear. Including hiring a detective to implicate his wife."
Jocko thinks that she can't prove this. "No bite, baby."
"You couldn’t do it alone," continues Honey, "so there was Blackwell for the
boat, and to keep Mrs. Selby busy."
"You’re trawling," he says.
"Oh, and to steal Mr. Selby’s gun for you."
"Talk," he scoffs.
"You wanted the jackpot. So, sort of a double, double cross.
No more Blackwell."
"It won’t hold water."
"There was fish scale on Mr. Selby’s shoe, and you’d been
fishing that day."
"More talk."
"You know, I really think that Mr. Selby’s little black bag full of money is around here somewhere. Why don’t I call Amos Burke, and you can tell him about it?"
Jocko obstructs her path and says, “You wanna play it the
hard way? Let’s dance.”
Honey flips him. He gets up and she flips him again,
so he picks up a metal tool, and wields it like a club. She avoids his blows, but he chases her around. He misses with a swing and she stomps the back of his leg. Hobbled, he nevertheless limps after her and gets her in a choke hold.
She elbows him and rolls him over her shoulder and onto the floor.
She dashes off screen. He gets up and follows her off screen. We hear the sound of a punch, and Jocko reels backward, back into view. Amos Burke follows him into the picture, flexing and nursing his right hand.
"All right," he says to Les, "let’s cuff him."
Honey comes back into view, and Les takes Jocko away.
“I love your tailor,” Honey says to Burke.
"Yeah? Next time carry a dime for a phone call."
"I got your number," she says. She exits.
"If I didn’t see it," says Burke, "I just wouldn’t believe it."
The epilogue features Burke dancing with Honey at a club. First Chris cuts in.
Ten seconds later, Sam cuts in, 
sporting BTW a string tie, perhaps loaned to him by Gene Barry from the wardrobe of “Bat Masterson,” Barry’s erstwhile Western series about a suit-and-tie-wearing, gentleman gunslinger. Sam squeezes Honey close. She asks him whether he learned that move in the Marines. "Part of basic training," he says. Burke cuts back in within seconds.
The losing suitors clink glasses at the bar. Honey and Burke ask each other whether they would ever consider switching sides. Neither of them, no.
“So, you're Burke.”
“You're West.”
The camera pulls back.
FADE TO BLACK
Notes:
Not a great classic, perhaps, but this just might be the best episode of “Honey West” ever—if only it were an episode of "Honey West." It brings out some of the possibilities that are never fully realized on the actual “Honey West.” Only a couple of episodes from her own series, “An Eerie, Airy, Thing” and “The Gray Lady,” are in the same league. (Both of those episodes were written by William Link and Richard Levinson, who later created “Columbo.”)
This episode of Burke’s Law was the thirtieth of its second
year and aired 21 April 1965.
The amount of $100,000 seems likes nothing to sneeze at, but as the total assets of a wealthy man? In 1965, the buying power of that amount was equivalent to $946,000 in 2022 dollars—comfortably close to one million.
Would a banker carry a gun? He might. I grew up in the 1960s, the son of a banker. He kept two handguns in his office at home. Wisely, considering that he had young children, he kept them unloaded, although it might have been even wiser to lock them up.
Honey accuses Sam of being the "Protective League." The American Protective League was formed during World War I as a national civilian watch group that reported on allegedly disloyal Americans and anti-American foreign nationals. It was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice but often took its own initiative. Accused of being overzealous, it officially ended shortly after the war, but its activities and influence seem to have continued for several years after its being disbanded.
Oddly, Burke takes Honey to a restaurant or night club for about a minute (in screen time) of their discussion of the case. Then they are right back in his Rolls again. Just before the shift to the dining room, they had realized that they both had dates before the evening took a different trajectory. The unstated implication is that one of them—probably Burke—used his dinner reservations to continue their conversation indoors—and facilitated by wine; however, Honey assures him that alcohol does not loosen her tongue.
Sam takes orders from Honey even though he also asserts his
dominance “for her own good” when he thinks she is risking her safety. When the
phone rings in the hallway of the Queen Hotel, however, Sam answers it only after Honey
tells him to; then he only pretends to be Selby on the phone after Honey gives him the nod.
Before they use the shotgun mic on Blackwell and Mrs. Selby,
Sam asks, “What are we going to do?” It’s Honey’s idea to use the "shotgun," and she gives him the order.
Honey tells her
jealous boyfriend, Chris, that Sam is her employee. On the series, “Honey West,”
Sam emerges as a full partner in the business, H. West and Co., which firm name—or some variation of it—had always been the name. (According to the Honey West novels, Honey
inherited it from her father, Hank West.) Supposedly, Sam worked for Honey's father, although Sam does not appear in the novels.
In his conceit that Honey is Pocahontas to her client's John Smith, Burke gets his historical details confused when he makes himself “a friendly Pilgrim.” John Smith was a leader of the British colonists who settled in Virginia in 1609. The Pilgrims settled in eastern Massachusetts in 1621. (Pocahontas was a Powhatan princess who, indeed, lived in the region settled by Smith. She knew Smith—and saved his life—though she married one of Smith’s fellow colonists, John Rolfe.)
When Burke is on the phone with an unnamed senator (after he has already spoken to the governor), he is apparently being asked to show the sights to a politician who has lost an election. We not only do not know who the senator is that Burke is talking to, but we do not even know whether he is a state senator, a U.S. senator from California, or one from another state. For what it is worth, however, in 1965, both of California’s U.S. senators were Republicans while the governor was a Democrat. Reading between the lines, I could guess who the VIP might be, but nothing is certain. Richard Nixon not only lost the race for president of the United States in 1960 but lost his bid for the governorship of California in 1962. Barry Goldwater had just lost his presidential bid in 1964 and had given up his seat in the U.S. Senate to run for president. A slightly more obscure but very plausible candidate is Pierre Salinger, who lost in an election for one of the U.S. Senate seats from California in 1964, having just been appointed to the Senate earlier in that same year by California's Democratic Governor Pat Brown. If Burke is as tight with the governor as he seems to be, perhaps he is a Democrat himself.
Burke’s political involvement provides a minor subplot and comic relief in this episode. I do not know this series well enough to know whether nuisance-calls from the governor or other politicians are a recurring headache for Burke. In this case, it distracts him from solving the case before Honey West does, even though he apparently figured out the clue before she did. Honey overcomes her obstacle before Burke overcomes his. Both of their obstacles could been seen as political BTW which is a parallel that the writers probably did not intend.
By the time “Honey West” came along, Four Star was headed by
Aaron Spelling, who went on to produce many popular TV series, including
“Charlie’s Angels” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
Cast
Jan Sterling (1921-2004) was a prolific actress. She appeared in "Johnny Belinda" (1948), "Union Station" (1950), "Ace in the Hole" (1951), "The High and the Mighty" (1954), "The Human Jungle" (1954), "1984" (1956), and many television series in the 1950s and 1960s. She had previously appeared with Regis Toomey (who plays Les Hart on "Burke's Law") in "The Human Jungle" and in an earlier episode of "Burke's Law."
Louis Hayward (1909-1985) was educated in England and worked both sides of the Atlantic. He was a stage actor before switching to film. In the early 1960s, he led the cast of the British detective series, "The Pursuers." His films include "The Luckiest Girl in the World" (1936), "The Rage of Paris" (1938), "The Man in the Iron Mask" (1939), "And Then There Were None" (1945), "Walk a Crooked Mile" (1948), "House by the River" (1950), and "The Search for Bridey Murphy" (1956). He also played such classic, dashing characters as D'Artagnan, Edmund Dantes, Dick Turpin, and Simon Templar (The Saint).
Steve Forrest (1925-2013) got into acting because of his famous older brother, Dana Andrews. (Steve's real name was William Forrest Andrews.) He appeared in such movies as "The Longest Day" (1962) and "Mommie Dearest" (1984), and was a regular on television in such series as "The Baron" in the '60s, "S.W.A.T." in the '70s, and "Dallas" in the '80s.
Nancy Gates (1926-2019) began her career on radio but soon switched to film—at the age of fifteen. She had a strong career in the 1940s, although she had a marital and maternal hiatus after 1948, before returning to film in the early 1950s. Eventually, she did mostly television before retiring at the end of the 1960s. Her notable work included: "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942), "Suddenly" (1954), and "Some Came Running" (1958).
Gordon Doversola (1934-2011) makes an appearance as the Judo Man (Honey’s martial arts
instructor) in this episode. He was actually Anne Francis’s karate teacher.
Technically, he taught her Okinawa Te, but this is essentially the same as
karate—“kara-te” from the words for “Chinese hand" or "empty hand.” Doversola’s
use of the term “Okinawa Te” here might reflect a combination of throwing and
striking techniques. (This is pure speculation on my part, however; in early
forms of martial arts—before they became sports with rules—these systems were
intended for combat where one would use whatever technique worked and not
differentiate between methods of grappling and striking.) Originally, Okinawa
was part of the independent Ryukyu Kingdom where there was a system of
hand-to-hand combat known as “te,” meaning “hand.” The kingdom came under the
domination, first, of China and, then, of Japan. Te was combined with White
Crane kung fu from China. As late as the early twentieth century, karate was
known in Okinawa as the “Chinese hand.” Japan only embraced it as a Japanese
martial art after interpreting its name to mean “empty hand.”
Overall rating: 5/5
Martial Arts rating: 5/5
Episode One: The Swingin' Mrs. Jones
Episode Ten: A Neat Little Package
Episode Eleven: A Stitch in Crime
Episode Twelve: A Million Bucks in Anybody's Language
Episode Thirteen: The Gray Lady
Episode Fourteen: Invitation to Limbo
Episode Fifteen: Rockabye the Hard Way
Episode Sixteen: A Nice Little Till to Tap
Episode Seventeen: How Brillig, O, Beamish Boy
Episode Eighteen: King of the Mountain
Episode Nineteen: It's Earlier than You Think
Episode Twenty: The Perfect Un-crime
Episode Twenty-one: Like Visions and Omens... and All That Jazz
Episode Twenty-two: Don't Look Now, But Isn't That Me?
Episode Twenty-three: Come to Me, My Litigation Baby
Episode Twenty-four: Slay, Gypsy, Slay
Episode Twenty-five: The Fun-Fun Killer
Episode Twenty-six: Pop Goes the Easel
(Note: Irene Hervey's final appearance)
Episode Twenty-seven: Little Green Robin Hood
Episode Twenty-eight: Just the Bear Facts, Ma'am
Episode Twenty-nine: There's a Long Long Fuse A'Burning
Episode Thirty: An Eerie, Airy, Thing
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