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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Peter Gunn
Miles-10 — 11 years ago(October 11, 2014 11:53 PM)
Oops! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!
I do give away much of the plot below! I give away the plot of a nearly sixty-year-old TV show!
The eleventh episode of season one has all the elements of a great film noir-type story (and just 30 minutes long including commercials!):
A wanted man hides something in a library reference book. He has a shoot out with police outside, during which he kills someone. Gunn is summoned by the condemned man when he's about to be executed. He gives Gunn a clue to where to find $700,000 the man once helped steal. The idea is for the insurance company to provide Gunn with a $70,000 finders fee, which Gunn is honor-bound to give to the man's daughter. Gunn knows that every crook and every lawman thinks he knows where the money is, but he only has a clue, not the location.
A femme fatale tries to seduce Gunn, who figures out that she has a pistol in her purse in case he doesn't succumb to her amourous appeal.
Gunn frustrates all comers with ironic one-liners, but he seems always to walk right into trouble with his eyes wide open.
The mastermind behind the $700,000 robbery captures Gunn and puts him under the "care" of a drunken quack who shoots Gunn full of goofy juice to make him talk. (The bug-eyed lenses on the quack's glasses are an unforgettable quirk.)
Gunn shakes himself sober long enough to rig a device that electrocutes his guard.
Gunn finally uses the clue the man on death row gave him to find the money, but we don't see him actually do it. We just see him give the money to the daughter.
If this is not the best episode of "Peter Gunn", it is certainly ONE of the very best.