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Reviews
The Little Drummer Girl (1984)
Miscast
This was never going to be a great movie. But it could have been a good movie. However, there is Diane Keaton cast as the main character. The story revolves around her-and she was awful. I'm not quite sure just what it was, but her acting feels like just that. It is too dramatic in places. Her character is a stage actress recruited to play a spy. She never seemed to lose that stage actress presence. I would not have thought that a single character could impact a movie so much. But Keaton, and what they did with her character, altered too much for me to really enjoy it.
The finale is a fitting one as Keaton's dramatic hysteria is on full display.
The Streets of San Francisco: Superstar (1976)
Training Video for 'Absence of Professional Courtesy'
I am a huge fan of The Streets of San Francisco. I loved it in the '70's when it originally aired and I love it now on video. That said, this is my least favorite episode of any season of the show, thus my low rating. What makes this particular episode so lacking in entertainment value is the arrogant and disrespectful manner in which an NYPD detective is treated by both Mike and Steve. Detective D'Angelo is in San Francisco looking for one of his informants who fled New York following the murder of D'Angelo's partner. That fact alone should make cooperation and professional courtesy a given, let alone determination and compassion. D'Angelo's character comes closer to Dirty Harry Callahan in n style and attitude. In fact, this episode was a pilot for a new TV show in 1976 called "Bert D'Angelo, Superstar." It only lasted that one year. I really couldn't tell if the producers were trying to teach us some kind of 'moral' lesson or they were trying to counter the image of SFPD detectives that the Dirty Harry movies of the '70's established.
Mike and Steve are over-the-top condescending, arrogant, and disrespectful. They are far more interested in putting D'Angelo on notice that "You're not a cop in this city. You're a guest, just like any other tourist." That little speech was from Mike and is one of several that are meant to put, and keep, D'Angelo, in his place. At times, Mike and Steve resort to pure pettiness, like 'correcting' their guest when he calls the witness a 'stoolie.' Steve promptly reminds him the proper word is 'informant.' When D'Angelo asks them what they do for fun in 'Frisco', Mike rolls his eyes and corrects him saying 'San Francisco.'
While the actual storyline is entertaining, the attitude of our two stars is embarrassing and difficult at times to watch. I realize these are merely characters in a TV series, but I found myself losing respect for both detectives. I am a retired police detective and I would have been insulted if I had been treated like D'Angeo was or if that was my department treating an out-of-town officer in such a manner.
If you need to teach what professional courtesy is NOT, this is your episode!
The Streets of San Francisco: Men Will Die (1975)
Not my favorite
I'll start by saying I'm a huge fan of The Streets of San Francisco. That said, this episode was one of my least favorite. The plot deals with a pair of serial rapists who have murdered at least one victim. Their latest victim happens to be a friend of Mike Stone's daughter, which gets Jeanie involved in the case. The injustice theme is established early on when an attorney played by Vera Miles tells Jeanie that as the case proceeds, the system will make her friend feel more like the criminal than the victim. That point is prophetic when the friend is attacked again by one of her rapists and she shoots and kills him. She is subsequently charged with 1st degree Murder. That is preposterous because that charge requires an act that is premeditated. She was merely defending herself against a man who had raped her just days before. The injustice theme is then driven home throughout the remainder of the episode. Stone, in particular, is critical and dismissive of a local rape crisis center and seems to have an abundance of lectures for those characters, including his daughter, whose focus is on pushing back against the injustice.
I realize this is Hollywood, as well as the mid-70's. Perhaps the point of presenting such an extreme case was to magnify the topic of how rape victims were treated so poorly by the criminal justice system in those times (and on into present times). From my point of view, that point was somewhat lost due to the procedural discrepancies, such as charging the rape victim. Another particularly unrealistic example was when Mike and Steve finally get their man (the surviving rapist) as he was about to attack the attorney mentioned earlier, in her office. The suspect is allowed to walk out of the office, uncuffed, ahead of both detectives. Not even rookies would have made that mistake.