A disjointed story about 'Matty',a sad old drunk that has big hopes of a glorious return visit to his old hometown. Through an odd and unlikely chain of events this guy basically has money dropped in his lap,money comes his way by pure chance and he ends up with a murder rap over the money,which was taken in a violent and deadly mugging-robbery! This guy may not be a model citizen but he is surely not a murderer. Eventually things work themselves out but what a rocky ride in the meantime. Yikes!
3 Reviews
Bowery bathos
lor_5 December 2023
Stirling Silliphant liked to write strange yet familiar stories, often with outlandish titles for his tv shows, especially for "Route 66" , and here he manages to come up with a goofy exercise in nostalgia and bathos for "Naked City". James Barton, journeyman actor whose career dates back to the 1920s gets quite a role as a Bowery bum, playing it to the hilt.
Silliphant portrays the bums of downtown Manhattan in a glorified fashion, while their scruffy costumes and makeup plus the real, grubby locations make for an extremely old-fashioned approach. Notably, everyone enjoys themselves as a Sophie Tucker-esque singer belts out a song at the Bowery Follies, making the show seem like 1930s B-movie rather than late 1950s TV. (She doesn't get a screen credit for this otherwise all-male episode).
The story of a drunken old goofball, with the pipe dream of returning to his old home town on a horse as a last hurrah is likewise very old, and coiled with a Pollyanna-ish happy ending makes the episode seem rather silly and condescending. Mixing with obviously authentic local extras, various character actors like Louis Guss join in on the phnoy play-acting, presenting various caricatures of drunkenness.
The story's gimmicks to get our hero arrested for murder in a mugging of a wealthy guy are phony, and it turns out his pals among the bums save him, not any police work (in fact, the police and district attorney are all ready to throw the book at him). A very fine director, John Brahm, cannot overcome Silliphant's script cliches, including a vigilante mob of bums meting out vigilante justice when they capture the real killer, a real creep.
Silliphant portrays the bums of downtown Manhattan in a glorified fashion, while their scruffy costumes and makeup plus the real, grubby locations make for an extremely old-fashioned approach. Notably, everyone enjoys themselves as a Sophie Tucker-esque singer belts out a song at the Bowery Follies, making the show seem like 1930s B-movie rather than late 1950s TV. (She doesn't get a screen credit for this otherwise all-male episode).
The story of a drunken old goofball, with the pipe dream of returning to his old home town on a horse as a last hurrah is likewise very old, and coiled with a Pollyanna-ish happy ending makes the episode seem rather silly and condescending. Mixing with obviously authentic local extras, various character actors like Louis Guss join in on the phnoy play-acting, presenting various caricatures of drunkenness.
The story's gimmicks to get our hero arrested for murder in a mugging of a wealthy guy are phony, and it turns out his pals among the bums save him, not any police work (in fact, the police and district attorney are all ready to throw the book at him). A very fine director, John Brahm, cannot overcome Silliphant's script cliches, including a vigilante mob of bums meting out vigilante justice when they capture the real killer, a real creep.
A horse a horse my freedom for a horse
kapelusznik1828 October 2013
***SPOILERS*** Matty a drunk from the Bowery ends up being accused of murder for a crime that he in fact didn't commit.The murder victim's money just happened to fly into Matty's hands while he was out dead drunk and sleeping it off in an alley. Buying himself a horse and budgie Matty was q1uickly arrested in the murder of the person who's money he bought them with by the police checking out the serial numbers of the $20,00 bills.
With Matty facing a life sentence behind bars or worse his Bowery friends go out to find the real killer and bring him to justice which wasn't all that hard in that he lived among them, in the Bowery, and had a big mouth as well. And it took almost 100 of them to finally corner him, a Mister Chain, and hold him until the police came to arrest him. It was Matty's friends not the police who tracked down and captured the killer by knowing that Matty was totally incapable of committing any type of crime especially that of cold blooded murder.
***SPOILERS*** Matty now proved innocent and released from jail goes on his horse and budgie that was donated to him by the NYPD back home to Johathonville in upstate NY It's there where things are not as wild and crazy as in the big city as well as far less dangerous.
With Matty facing a life sentence behind bars or worse his Bowery friends go out to find the real killer and bring him to justice which wasn't all that hard in that he lived among them, in the Bowery, and had a big mouth as well. And it took almost 100 of them to finally corner him, a Mister Chain, and hold him until the police came to arrest him. It was Matty's friends not the police who tracked down and captured the killer by knowing that Matty was totally incapable of committing any type of crime especially that of cold blooded murder.
***SPOILERS*** Matty now proved innocent and released from jail goes on his horse and budgie that was donated to him by the NYPD back home to Johathonville in upstate NY It's there where things are not as wild and crazy as in the big city as well as far less dangerous.
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