Peter Gunn Sets 1 & 2 (1958)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Created by Blake Edwards
Directed by Blake Edwards, Alan Crosland Jr., Robert Altman
Starring Craig Stevens, Lola Albright, Herschel Bernardi, Hope Emerson, Bill Chadney, and the music of Henry Mancini

Features:

• 16 episodes per 2-disc set
  
• Brief text bios of Edwards, Stevens, and composer Henry Mancini
  
• Trivia game
  

Rating: Not rated.

Anamorphic: N/A, presented in original 1.33:1 TV aspect

My Advice: Rent it.

Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" may be the most instantly recognizable music of the last half of the 20th century. Yet few outside of the baby boom have any idea who Peter Gunn is, or where the music came from originally. Most of my contemporaries know it best as the theme music for the arcade hit "Spy Hunter." But now, thanks to A&E's tireless efforts to bring quality TV to the DVD collector, everyone can meet the man himself.

Peter Gunn is everything that great noir crime drama should be. Pete's a hard-boiled private investigator, chummy with the cops as well as the dregs of the L.A. underworld and nightlife. He's romantically involved with a sizzling nightclub singer, and spends his off-hours hanging around in a jazz club, smoking and drinking. Except for the suit and tie ensemble, he's as hep a cat as one might hope to meet. And on top of all that cool, he's unbelievably good at his job, which is chiefly in solving cases that the cops can't (or won't) handle.

Why this show can't seem to stay in syndication while The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy won't go away, I'll never understand. The episodes are tightly-plotted, the dialogue is the kind of crisp back-and-forth minimalism that is the hallmark of good film noir, and the acting, while occasionally a bit ham-fisted, is typically quite good (see the literate hobo spouting Shakespeare at the trainyard in episode "The Vicious Dog"). Craig Stevens is the very epitome of cool, and he plays the character with a charm that makes him convincing when he's dealing with the authorities or chatting up a beatnik club owner for leads. Hope Emerson's portrayal of the no-nonsense club owner "Mother" is likewise a classic. And Lola Albright's torch-singer girlfriend to Gunn is sultry and sweet all at the same time. If you like detective stories or crime dramas, this show is right up your alley, and better than great swaths of current television.

The DVDs are passable, though the features are pretty minimal. The image quality is what you would expect from 40-year-old film stock, which is to say it shows some pops and crackles, but overall it's not too bad, if occasionally a little fuzzy around the edges. The sound is a bit disappointing, with some hissing and occasional warbling of the music, which is really too bad, given the excellent running jazz soundtrack laid down by Mancini. For the most part, these little sound glitches don't affect the actual dialogue of the shows at all, primarily interfering with the musical score and louder sound effects (sirens, gunshots, etc). Were the sound quality a little bit higher, the DVDs would be worth it just to have Mancini's background music. A DVD jukebox of his compositions would have been a nice addition to the extras, come to think of it.

At 16 episodes a box, though, the DVDs are a great deal. Over six hours of viewing for approximately the cost of two feature film DVDs is always nice. The episodes are of varying quality, but even the worst of them are better than average TV. The great episodes are on par with the best of television, and more episodes lean towards greatness than mediocrity. Some highlight episodes to look for: "The Blind Pianist," "The Man with the Scar," "Pecos Pete," and "Pay Now, Kill Later."

Pick 'em up if you're feeling nostalgic for a piece of American TV history, or if you dig that crazy Mancini, or if you're a fan of hard-nosed detectives with snub-nosed revolvers. If you're not a big crime story fan, then there's probably not much about Peter Gunn that will change your mind, though I find the wry humor that Stevens injects into the character a welcome relief from the tediously serious cop dramas of today.