I spotted film and television historian Allen Glover’s 2019 TV Noir – Dark Drama On The Small Screen on shelf during my last in-person visit to the local bookstore, right before everything went bonkers. But I already had a stack of books in hand and figured I’d get it on a subsequent trip. Lesson learned: You see it, you want it: Just get it. You never know what might happen. Like a pandemic.
But the indie store close to the day job (still dutifully going in most days) takes phone orders and does curbside pickup, bless them, and TV Noir was still in stock. (Okay, so I phone ordered three other books at the same time. What can I say. It’s a sickness.)
I knew from my in-store browse that portions of Glover’s lushly illustrated 250+ page hardcover weren’t going to be of particular interest to me. The author’s definition of ‘noir’ is wide-ranged and focuses less on the ‘look’ of a show and more on its themes. Considerable space (over a third of the book) is allotted to the UK’s Danger Man (1961 – 1966) and The Prisoner (1968), David Janssen in The Fugitive and again in Harry O, Lloyd Bridges’ 1965-66 dark western The Loner, and even SF/Horror with The Invaders and The Night Stalker/Kolchak. Not exactly what you think of when think ‘noir’? Well, me either. But no matter. It’s the first half or more of Glover’s book that I was really interested in.
The early chapters cover standalone shows and series I’d never even heard of, some dating back to television’s very earliest days, including ‘live noir’ from various playhouse series featuring stars (or soon to be stars) like James Dean, Paul Newman, Dick Powell, Farley Granger in productions adapted from stories by Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis, Dorothy B. Hughes and others. Most of these are long gone, never saved except for their scripts, production notes and a handful of photo stills which the author uncovered.
No question: 1950’s/1960’s television was strictly a boys club, and TV Noir doesn’t even give a nod to Beverly Garland in 1957’s groundbreaking Decoy, much less Anne Francis in Honey West. But then, Glover isn’t cataloging cop, detective and private eye shows, but digging deep into dark, desolate and gritty projects like Cornell Woolrich’s The Black Angel (a 1940’s live production) or John Cassavettes cult-fave Staccato. Ample time is spent looking at more familiar shows like Dragnet, M Squad, Richard Diamond, Peter Gunn and 77 Sunset Strip.
With a few exceptions, the oddball cable rerun channels, YouTube and bargain bin DVD’s are the likely places to locate some of these 1950’s/1960’s programs like Martin Kane – Private Eye or Man Against Crime, and I’m up for rooting through used bookstore movie sections to see what I can come up with once the sheltering-in winds down.
