TV… McMillan (1977), Affair of the Heart, Se6 Ep5

#1970s #AllPosts

 

McMillan minus wife, in the last series of the show that started out as McMillan and Wife…

 

With the other fanciable Rock, here giving a solid performance with my favourite Darlin Dallaser.

 

Who’s the murderer?

McMillan and co

Larry Hagman and Stefanie Powers guest star on McMillan & Wife!, cozi tv, facebook and photos © NBCUniversal Television Distribution

 

Now for an episode of McMillan (1976-77) and this is the renamed sixth final TV series of McMillan & Wife (1971-77). In this fifth episode of the sixth series, Stuart McMillan is a widower due to the sad demise of his wife Sally in a plane crash preceding this series.

Hudson’s supporting cast in this particular episode was perfect Realweegiemidget Review fodder. This included two pre-Darlin’ Dallasers and in the oft-mentioned Dallas (1978-91). These cast members were JR Ewing aka Larry Hagman and Barbara Babcock who played Liz Craig (a work colleague of Pammy Ewing’s at The Store). Also starring in this episode is Hart to Hart‘s (1979-84), Mrs Hart, aka the actress Stefanie Powers. This makes Affair of the Heart the perfect title for this episode.

The show started with a supercool inviting theme tune and 70s font that made me immediately want to watch the whole series. This included the preceding shows with his wife (Susan Saint James) and those with Hudson’s early 70s moustache and hairstyle. Enter a shaven, suited silver fox of a Rock Hudson as Stewart McMillan, a San Francisco Police Commissioner. He’s about to meet with the Deputy District Attorney (DA).

He is encouraged to smile sweetly by his work colleague as he is warned not to get annoyed with her. This advice comes from his sergeant and (apparent) chauffeur, Di Maggio (Richard Gilliland).

This inevitably means one thing… Cue a heated clash with this DA, with a shouting Rock Hudson – reminiscent of his role in Avalanche (1978) – with the trouser-suited, Deputy DA Stephanie Bryant (Powers). McMillan is not ready to open a case for the prosecution, and she thinks it’s because she’s a woman.

Cue insults of the 1970s kind, including he’s a “one man obstacle course” and she’s a “professional female agitator“. Eagle-eyed viewers will note Stephanie’s doing the big wide-eyed. come to bed thing simultaneously. He leaves for another meeting, with him giving her “a good smack on the bottom” for making him late.

McMillan has an appointment with Dr Wesley Corman, his dentist, and this is another pain he can do without. There’s good ol’ Larry Hagman in this role of Corman, McMillan’s poker buddy, good friend and dentist. So for once, I wouldn’t object to going.

Corman extolls the joys of procaine (as I’m sure Jack Nicholson’s patient did to his dentist in the Little Shop of Horrors (1961)). McMillan meets an elderly dentist, Horace (Lloyd Nolan), Corman’s father-in-law as he leaves the dentist’s office. In a scene with Horace and Wesley, it turns out  JR  Wesley has taken out 100,000 dollars against their dental practice (ironically knowing Hagman’s then near-future role) to buy into an oil scheme with money back guaranteed.

It’s revealed Wesley and his wife Lydia (Babcock) are getting a divorce as she loves someone else. Corman owes 200,000 dollars to his father-in-law. Corman claims he has been trying to save the marriage. Corman returns home – to what looked like Cliff Barnes’ apartment also in Dallas – but with a stage with a grand piano. The piano sadly has no apparent reason and a red herring (or a prop seen too bulky to remove from the set).

His wife Lydia is watching the news on TV and read by a curly mopped anchorman, Alan Evans. The married pair talk about divorce and Corman confronts Lydia about her lover. He appears vulnerable and hurt, she’s cold. He obviously seems still very much in love with her.

Corman leaves for his poker game. Lydia arranges to meet with Alan Wells (Jed Allan). her anchorman lover to talk. As McMillan and Corman attend their Monday night poker game, Alan arrives and tells Lydia wants to confess to Wesley they love each other, Lydia’s confused as Wesley has been like the man she married recently (read nice, romantic and loving). She says she wants to cool things down with Alan.

She wants time and the pair snog. Then her daddy, Horace walks in. Horace angrily demands Alan leaves. Lydia calls Wesley at the poker game asking that he return home, and it’s revealed the newsreader is dead. Cue dramatic music… and close-ups.

After returning a call to Di Maggio in the wee small hours, Di Maggio tells him Alan is dead. McMillan is on the case. This (surprisingly) is due to Alan careering off the road in a one car accident in dry weather. This you will note, was not how we discovered his untimely death.

As the coroner leaves, McMillan and Di Maggio, his one-man entourage arrive at this remote location for the accident. The “accident” is described as it seemed that Alan suffered from a heart attack and this resulted in the car careering off the road. Yet the car is found in “park” mode with the lights switched off. McMillan also finds an appointment card for the Presido Medical Building with a time stamp on it of 1.27pm…

The chief has Alan’s personal effects and finds a box of unused matches with The Cormans written on it in his shirt pocket. McMillan investigates more with his flu-ridden sidekick in tow and calls on Wesley. Corman claims that Alan visited them, had a brandy with Lydia and then left.

McMillan reveals that an autopsy will take place… revealing an overdose of Digitalis. This quick-acting heart medication was used by Horace, as it prevents heart attacks in minutes… So it really would be murder if you didn’t check out the rest of this star-studded episode.

Rock Hudson was wonderful in this role giving the gravitas, presence and forthrightness you love him for. Sadly though he didn’t have much to do in the first fifteen minutes with the storyline concentrating on Wesley’s life with his family. But he came into his own as a straightforward, direct, no-nonsense Police Commissioner.

I loved the storyline with many a red herring and twist and turn. This was until the true identity of the murderer, their motives and the true story of events were revealed. Hagman himself is always a delight to watch with his vulnerable, loved up character Corman seeming like just one of the many suspects.

Babock as his wife was perfectly cold with Hagman’s Wesley in their initial scenes. She seemed emotionally torn and responsive to both men. Her character was with the victim as he died, possibly due to this quick-acting drug. Her character would have had access to this drug via her father.

Her father is also a suspect due to this medication. Nolan had an equally baffling character as Horace who seemed angry at his daughter having a lover, yet wanted Corman out of the way too. I can’t really judge the Jed Allan performance as he had a fistful of lines, then slumped “dead” on a couch.

Also, more randomly a brother named Peter was called by Lydia – about Alan’s demise – was suddenly introduced. All these characters along with the bizarre explanation of events and the personal effects lead to this compelling episode’s big denouement.

However, the co-running storylines did annoy me. Both were initially a hindrance but do bear with them (as I did). Only one of these storylines is important to the storyline. McMillan’s relationship with the feisty, at times feminist Stephanie Duranti was more than obvious where their relationship was heading from the start. As you didn’t need to be a detective to understand the subtext. Or indeed watched Hudson’s Battle of the Sexes films with Doris Day (with whom he had more chemistry).

In the initial meeting, Powers either had a bit of a crush on this older actor – and who can blame her – or she made it too bloody obvious that the DA was equally besotted. These scenes led to inevitable flirty talk from McMillan and Stephanie, dinner at his place and then (inevitably) cockblocked by the “comic” timing of Di Maggio.

The other co-running storyline was that of the “comic” – read irritating –  flu-ridden, sidekick  Di Maggio. This annoyed me as Hudson’s character said: “Gesundheit” (translated as health from Darlin Husband Translate) every time Di Maggio sneezed. 

Other notable mentions include the knitwear worn by Larry Hagman and Rock Hudson. Firstly, I’m 100% sure Hagman wore that grey cardigan in the Dallas final episode of Conundrum (1991), about 16 years later. Check out the featured picture for this post for comparison. Also, Hudson’s cable knit cardigan reminded me of the knitwear range he wore a few years later in Avalanche, the disaster movie I loved.

But now for something completely different… you may be wondering just how this particular review choice was selected.  I found just choosing one film or show from Hudson’s career hard. My initial thought was his then-controversial character in his final role, that of Daniel Reece aka Sammy Jo’s dad in Dynasty (1981-89).

Other choices also included The Mirror Crack’d (1980). This movie has a sterling cast of Hollywood headliners including Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple and with Kim Novak and Elizabeth Taylor battling it out on-screen. This is literally as both actresses play two former actresses who battle it out over Hudson in this 1980s screen Agatha Christie adaptation. There were also his lovely, delightful comedies with Doris Day, or his aforementioned disaster movie with Roger Corman to expand on. But I’m sure many of you will agree just looking through his filmography, Rock Hudson is a Rock for All Ages.

 

Weeper Rating:   😦  😦  😦 /10

Handsqueeze Rating:     🙂  🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂   🙂  🙂 🙂 /10

Hulk Rating: ‎ ‎/10

 

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The Rock Hudson Blogathon 2018, No 59

This was entered in the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and Love Letters to Old Hollywood’s Rock Hudson Blogathon. Other reviews with this cast include,

• Rock Hudson also stars in McMillan and Wife, Avalanche, The Mirror Crack’d and more.
• Larry Hagman in Dallas, the Christmas tag 12 Days of Dallas, Conundrum and confessing my love for JR Ewing and more.
• Stefanie Powers stars in Hart to Hart.
• Richard Gilliland starred in Murder She Wrote, Hotel, The Love Boat and more.

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