***SPOILERS*** This episode features some of the best bit players around at the time, and they are well used as representatives of their craft. The plot is a well known idea - Inheritance, mother who has dropped out of sight, daughter who wants to find her, slimy, self-important lawyer that Bailey should have spotted instantly, trials and tribulations, final confrontation; this time Bailey is aided by a raggedy looking cat, tossed by the mother. Yeah, it is silly, isn't it? As usual, the acting drags the story along to the end.
One of the main problems I've had with 77 is that every episode has to have at least one major league fistfight. In the previous incarnation of "The Strip", Bailey's partner (Spencer) was supposedly ex Army C.I.D., and Bailey was ex O.S.S. Now, I was taught to fight (and defend myself - they AREN'T the same thing, by the way) by my uncle, who taught hand-to-hand combat in the Army. Besides learning how to end a physical confrontation quickly, the most important lesson was how and why NOT to get in fistfights. Bailey and Spencer apparently never learned these lessons. The ending fight in this episode was dramatic and violent (the best kind), but not a cerebral conclusion. The best part was Bailey's angel: the orange colored alleycat thrown on the bad guy's back at the right moment.
The daughter is kinda cute, but didn't look like she came from real money. The reporter (?) Paula Raymond, looked like she DID come from real money; real role reversals. Proper attention was paid the the seedy underbelly of life, and the "Queen of the Cats" had a cool dump that she lived in. All well and good, but just once, I'd like to see one of these great detectives use their heads for more than punching bags. I'll go for a 7, no higher...I think that's generous, too.
One of the main problems I've had with 77 is that every episode has to have at least one major league fistfight. In the previous incarnation of "The Strip", Bailey's partner (Spencer) was supposedly ex Army C.I.D., and Bailey was ex O.S.S. Now, I was taught to fight (and defend myself - they AREN'T the same thing, by the way) by my uncle, who taught hand-to-hand combat in the Army. Besides learning how to end a physical confrontation quickly, the most important lesson was how and why NOT to get in fistfights. Bailey and Spencer apparently never learned these lessons. The ending fight in this episode was dramatic and violent (the best kind), but not a cerebral conclusion. The best part was Bailey's angel: the orange colored alleycat thrown on the bad guy's back at the right moment.
The daughter is kinda cute, but didn't look like she came from real money. The reporter (?) Paula Raymond, looked like she DID come from real money; real role reversals. Proper attention was paid the the seedy underbelly of life, and the "Queen of the Cats" had a cool dump that she lived in. All well and good, but just once, I'd like to see one of these great detectives use their heads for more than punching bags. I'll go for a 7, no higher...I think that's generous, too.