Peter Gunn (TV Series) The Candidate (1960) User Reviews

Nothing to see here Folks.

[gordonl56 · 6/10 · 13 November 2016]

PETER GUNN "The Candidate" 1960

This is fourth episode from season three of the 1958 to 1961 P.I. series, PETER GUNN. Craig Stevens headlines as the hard as nails detective who always dresses with style. Regulars in the series are Hope Emerson as the owner of, MOTHER'S jazz club, and Lola Albright as Stevens' squeeze, Edie Hart, who is the club singer at MOTHER'S.

Stevens is hired by a dying man to deliver a large check to a man running for the State Government. The man, Lloyd Corrigan is running on a platform of no taxes. The man is more than happy to take the large donation.

Later that evening the manager of Corrigan's run is shot dead at a speech. Stevens and his pal, Police Detective Herschel Bernardi are soon looking for a reason for the murder. Then it turns out that a large amount of cash for the run has gone missing. Stevens beats the bushes looking for clues for who took the cash and murdered the man.

This one is really a mess of an episode and makes little sense. As the other poster suggests, it looks like it was done on the quick without much thought to a story. Not a keeper.

It was interesting to see actress, Vikki Dougan in a small bit. Dougan is the actress Jessica Rabbit was based on. She was famous for wearing long backless gowns.

Spotty, At Best

[dougdoepke · 12 June 2015]

The crime thread is pretty hard to follow. Something about a political candidate's trunk full of donation money getting stolen, while the candidate's treasurer is gunned down at a rally. The plot never really gels in a compelling way. Instead, the 30-minutes amounts to a showcase for Mr. Big Personality, Lloyd Corrigan, as the political candidate who gets a lot of screen time. Gunn and Jacobi also get more byplay than usual, (Do they really want the campaign buttons they match for?). Then there's the sexy blonde, actress Vicki Dougan who tried to get Hollywood press attention by wearing gowns revealing a certain cleavage in the hindquarters. It did get notoriety, but no show-biz career. Looks to me like this politically themed entry was timed to coincide with the Kennedy-Nixon election of November, 1960. Perhaps the half-hour was a rush job meant to be timely; but whatever, the end result amounts to a lesser series outcome.