Peter Gunn (TV Series) Lynn's Blues (1958) User Reviews

Formulaic but entertaining

[grantss · 7/10 · 4 August 2022]

A reasonably entertaining episode of Peter Gunn. Is quite formulaic - damsel in distress, Gunn to the rescue - but still watchable.

The limitation of the 26-minute episodes is apparent again as there is very little time for plot development or intrigue: the villain is known from the start.

Gunn and the knife happy goon

[gordonl56 · 9/10 · 25 April 2013]

PETER GUNN "Lynn's Blues" – 1958 Craig Stevens (Peter Gunn) is asked by his girl, Lola Albright to look in on a friend of hers. This friend, Linda Lawson, is having some sort of man trouble. Stevens agree and heads out to the club where Lawson sings.

Stevens listens to a set and then has a talk with Lawson in her dressing room. Before any info can change hands, the pair are interrupted by gangster, David Tomack. Tomack pulls a large blade and suggests with a big grin that Stevens should leave. His boss, mobster, Guy Prescott does not like men talking with Miss Lawson. Stevens nods to Lawson and leaves.

A quick talk with Stevens' Police Lt buddy, Herschel Bernardi fills him in on all the talk on the mobster. It seems the last man who had a thing for Lawson was found dead in an elevator with several unneeded holes in his head.

Stevens decides to have another talk with Lawson. Lawson admits she had been stepping out with the dead man. She was sick of Prescott. Presott however will not accept the break up. He had sent Tomack to 'end' the affair.

Prescott of course takes an immediate dislike to Stevens and sends his knife happy pet, Tomack to alter Stevens breathing arrangements. Stevens knows that a hit is coming and is on guard for the try. It is Tomack who collects the unneeded holes while Bernardi puts the grab on his boss, Prescott.

All this in a 25 minute runtime. Great show! (B/W)

Beautiful, but Troubled Singer

[biorngm · 28 September 2017]

When an episode begins with a murder through the top of an elevator car, gun with silencer, used on passenger, murderer escapes, the program gets the viewer's attention. Pete is called in to console a club singer friend of Edie's as the elevator passenger was the singer's friend. Murdered was Roger Dwyer, boyfriend of singer Lynn Martel, and Pete learns through Jacobi hoodlums Babe Santano and Nat Krueger are mixed in with the crime, the club, the singer and likely the dead boyfriend. Both criminals, club owner Santano and mob boss Krueger threaten Pete, telling him to stay out of the club, essentially away from Lynn, too. Pete honors Edie's request by going to Lynn's apartment to learn what has got her so frightened and withdrawn. Reviving her suicide attempt, learning Krueger wants her to himself, escorts her to Edie's via the infamous elevator. Sure enough, Krueger has sent Santano to kill Pete the same way he killed Roger. The climax is worth seeing as gunfire is involved in the settlement of differences, Pete taking care of things as well as Jacobi handling the police action with assistance. Lynn sings her final song as a goodbye to the club, and the fear she once had.

Singing The Blues

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 5 January 2010]

"Lynn's Blues" is more of a melodrama than the usual film noir/crime story. Oh, there are villains and there is a brief shootout at the end, which is par for the course, but most of the episode is Pete listening to this woman whine about her troubles and later even try to kill herself.

That woman - who is pretty and has an amazing figure, by the way - is "Lynn Martel" (Linda Lawson, in only her second appearance as an actress on TV) and she's a fellow singer and friend of Pete's girl "Edie." When Edie notices something wrong with Lynn and tires unsuccessfully to find out, she asks Pete if he'll try. So Pete goes over to the another bar, listens to her sing, and knocks on her dressing room door. Pete should have said, "no thanks" after that first meeting with the girl but he perseveres and he was lucky it didn't cost him his life as the girl is involved with tough gangsters.

Overall, not one of the more tense episodes so far in this excellent program, but it did have some cool shots in an elevator. It's also kind of neat that both Edie(Lola Albright) and Linda aren't lip-syncing; they were/are both singers.

Conventional Early Entry

[dougdoepke · 27 April 2016]

As a favor to Edie, Pete investigates murder of Edie's fellow lounge singer Lynn Martel (Lawson). Not surprisingly, Pete encounters some well-dressed thugs and a kingpin.

Okay entry, but nothing special, unless seeing a torch singer that isn't Edie counts. Can't help noticing these early episodes are more dramatic and conventional than the later ones. Here the forlorn Lynn gets an extended emotional scene grieving over her murdered boyfriend. Later entries would largely trade emotional drama and convention for greater style and exotica, which would come to separate the series from the pack. However, one distinguishing mark from the outset, including here, is the opening hook that grabs the viewer right away. The elevator trap door trick is an imaginative one. All in all, however, it's a strictly average entry.

(In passing—can't help noticing after years of movie and TV watching that the surest way of determining whether a city street is actual or a back-lot set is to see whether it's cut off on one end by another street. When it is, that's almost assuredly a back-lot set, as it is here.)

Lynn's Blues

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 14 May 2021]

When singer Lynn Martel's boyfriend has been shot dead from the top of an elevator.

Lynn really does sing the blues. Peter Gunn wants to help her out but is immediately threatened by the club owner.

In fact Lynn is owned by mobsters, body and soul. She tries to kill herself but Peter Gunn finds her.

Peter Gunn has the upper hand when the elevator trick is repeated.

A humdrum episode as Lynn sings too many miserable songs reflecting her mood.

Also Peter Gunn is lucky to be alive, despite some not so friendly warnings, he still hangs around Lynn.

I thought the hoodlums would have taken him out earlier.