GAYS GET PEPPARD-ED, PART ONE.........BQ VS. "P.J."

P.J. (1968)    BQ loves '60's movies........and no leading man had a more prolific 60's  Hollywood career than George Peppard......

                    I watched two his '68 releases, "House Of Cards" and this one back to back......and that's probably how they were made.....back to back......(along with that strange comedy "What's So Bad About Feeling Good", already covered in a previous post.

                     These two are thrillers that couldn't be more different in their production......."P.J." was filmed mostly on the Universal backlot (with a smattering of NYC locations).......with the exception of the high violence level, it looks and sounds like standard made-for-TV product, sausage rolled off the Universal assembly line....

                      "House Of Cards", however, has a rich international flavor, filmed all over Europe with a continental supporting cast and a cross-country Hitchcockian storyline........

                     And yet both of them share the same director, John Guillerman. Go figure.......

                     For this post, I'll do "P.J" first........a down and dirty Private Eye thing with Peppard as a broke, down-on-his-luck gumshoe who finds himself ensnared by a rich, high-powered scumbag (Raymond Burr)........and romanced by the expected,drop-dead gorgeous  femme fatale (Gayle Hunnicut).......

                      Punches get thrown,wisecracks tossed bodies fall.......but here's what both these very different movies share.........the use of gay men as ultra creepy, murderous villains......(in 60's comedies, however, gay characters were used for easy, cheap, limp-wristed laughs)

                    In the film's signature sequence, Peppard is lured to a gay bar by one of Burr's oily minions, a mincing, preening slime played by Severn Darden.  The bar's entire clientele, most of them wearing spiked rings, proceed to beat our hero senseless........gives a whole new flip-the-script meaning to 'gay bashing'......

                       ...........but George survives this onslaught with a cracked rib and a broken finger. What a guy.  The film's worst fate is reserved for one of Burr's heterosexual henchman, whose attempt to push Peppard in front of an oncoming subway train goes gruesomely awry.

                     Not bad, even with the cheapjack backlot Universal sets. Big plus: a bouncy nifty music theme by Neal Hefti, the master of insanely catchy TV show themes........maybe a tad too cheerful for corpse-ridden private eye movie, but damned fun to listen to.

                    2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2).   Next up.......Peppard and director Guillerman go to Europe......and our boy George crosses swords (literally) with another lethal gay guy........don't miss the post on that one!