SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 43:15 Min.
Reuniting with producer Jay Bernstein, star (and co-executive producer) Stacy Keach resurrected Mike Hammer for a short-lived syndicated run of twenty-six episodes over two seasons in 1997-98. This TV episode first aired on March 1, 1998. Jonathan Winfrey directed the episode from screenwriter Chris Baena’s script. On this occasion, Keach’s former co-star, Kent Williams, returns in a thinly-disguised retread of his 1984-87 role as Hammer’s prickly nemesis, ‘Assistant District Attorney Lawrence D. Barrington.’
With his campaign for District Attorney in its final days, hard-nosed Deputy Mayor Barry Lawrence’s (Williams) extra-marital affair with a scheming young model (Chun) has been brutally silenced. Having been burnt up {off-screen} in her apartment’s own oven, the police dismiss Tracy Potter’s death as merely a bizarre suicide. Perusing the crime scene, Hammer quickly realizes that it’s definitely murder. To console Potter’s grieving parents (Kam & Kelly-Young), Hammer seeks to uncover how far Lawrence, is willing to go to protect/advance his career.
After resisting arrest, Hammer’s stint in the 35th Precinct’s jail means his protégés, Nick & Velda (Conrad & Whirry), conduct much of the case’s footwork. A masked thug means to violently scare them (and later Hammer) off the scent by any means necessary. Among the simmering possibilities is a blackmailing tabloid journalist and an illicit money laundering scheme linking Lawrence’s campaign coffers to a Hudson River environmental group. Yet, who really has the most sordid reason for killing the victim?
Velda, meanwhile, persuades a reluctant Grady (Daniel) to put up Lou’s Bar as collateral towards Hammer’s $25,000.00 bail for assault and battery to help snare the seemingly elusive killer.
Note: There is a glaring discrepancy between the murder (briefly seen before the opening credits) and a climatic flashback supposedly replaying the monents before that same sequence. Suffice to say, look for the black leather gloves or, later, the absence thereof. Hence, the most vital forensic clue makes no sense, if the pre-credits scene is accurate.
Mike Hammer: Stacy Keach
Velda: Shannon Whirry
Nick Farrell: Shane Conrad
Deputy Mayor Barry Lawrence: Kent Williams
NYPD (35th Precinct) Capt. Skip Gleason: Peter Jason
Grady: Gregg Daniel
Maya Ricci: Malgosia Tomassi (Keach’s real-life spouse)
Lucille Banks: Karen Moncrieff
Claire Lawrence: Kimberly Warren
Jonathan Lawrence: Dean Scofield
Tracy Potter: Alexandra Bokyun Chun (aka Bok Yun Chon)
Mrs. Potter: Cynthia Kam
Mr. Potter: Leonard Kelly-Young
Carl Prichard: Unidentified
Chloe: Suzanne Krull
Underwood (cop): Uncredited
Uniformed Cops: Uncredited
Lawrence’s Chauffeur: Gregory McKinney
Inmate # 1: Jeff Thomas
Other Jail Inmates: Uncredited
Jailed Prostitutes: Uncredited
Lawrence’s Campaign Workers: Uncredited
Lawrence & Banks’ Police Station Entourage: Uncredited
Cece (Lucille’s Aide): Uncredited
Journalists: Uncredited
Natural Rivers Now Representative: Caroline Williams
Lou’s Bar Extras: Uncredited
Police Station Extras: Uncredited
City Extras: Uncredited
Natural Rivers Now Office Extras: Uncredited
Beauty Salon/Nail Salon Extras: Uncredited
‘The Face:’ Rebekah Chaney
Unspecified Roles: Jeff Thomas, Shayna Ryan, Ryan Thomas Brown, Michael Barrett Caron, & Jason Carmichael.
Notes: Curiously, this syndicated version of Mike Hammer isn’t a sequel to the 1984-87 TV series on CBS-TV. Case in point: besides Williams’ character being identified by a slightly different name, the role of Hammer’s long-time secretary, ‘Velda’ has been re-imagined and recast with a younger actress. More so, unlike Keach’s prior version, the mysterious ‘Face’ forever eluding Hammer is teased yet never resolved.
REVIEW:
Lacking a network TV budget, 56-year-old Stacy Keach’s Mike Hammer is still watchable – that is, to a modest degree. With his hard-boiled gumshoe jailed for more than half of this episode (fair warning: this show’s loose concept of a jail cell is amusing), co-stars Shannon Whirry and Shane Conrad do okay work in their extended screen time.
Note: Considering the extensive beating Conrad’s Nick Farrell takes in one scene, it’s “amazing” how upon regaining consciousness moments later, he is physically unscathed. At a minimum, bruised ribs, a busted-up face, and a concussion would have occurred, had there been any sense of reality.
With some tweaking (i.e. replacing the surplus of amateur hour detective genre antics with plausible noir), this standard-issue plot might have been a ideal fit for Keach’s 1984-87 Hammer – especially with Kent Williams playing ‘Lawrence D. Barrington’ again. In this instance, however, both the not-so-impressive ensemble acting and the script hover merely upwards toward lukewarm – including a tasteless macho joke before the epilogue.
If anything, given the broad hints in the episode’s second half, the ‘big reveal’ subsequently rates maybe a 3 at most on anybody’s 0-10 whodunnit scale. “A Candidate for Murder,” overall, is low-rent, late-night viewing that proves easily forgettable the next morning.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 3 Stars
Note: Working a similar premise, Columbo’s 1973 “Candidate for Crime” (with Peter Falk & guest star Jackie Cooper) is a recommended viewing alternative – even if its last 15-20 minutes are far-fetched.
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