Leonard Katzman – Dallas Decoder

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 22 – ‘The Red File, Part 1’

May 1, 2012 by Chris Baker 13 Comments

Dallas, Julie Grey, Red File Part 1, Tina Louise

Dead woman’s dive

MURDER OR SUICIDE?

I love the Dallas Press’s screaming headline in “The Red File, Part 1.” When Jock sits down at the Southfork breakfast table and cracks open that newspaper, I crack up.

Why does the demise of Julie, an unemployed secretary, merit a front-page, all-caps banner? What’s with the glamour shot that accompanies the story? And what crackerjack reporter got the story of Julie’s late-night death in the paper – and on page 1, no less – in time for the next day’s morning edition?

As for the question the headline poses, we may think we know the answer – Julie’s death was neither murder nor suicide; she slipped and fell – but I’m not sure it’s that cut-and-dried.

Director Leonard Katzman shoots her death scene at night, shrouding the actors in darkness, so it’s hard to see what happens in the seconds after Julie breaks out of Willie Joe’s grip and the moment she goes airborne.

What if she jumps?

Consider this: Julie is pretty distraught when she goes to the rooftop – and she knows Jeb and Willie Joe are going to kill her anyway – so what if she makes a split-second decision to do herself in?

Also, consider how Jock matter-of-factly announces her death at the Southfork breakfast table. Didn’t he almost have an affair with Julie in the previous episode?

J.R.’s reaction is also oddly muted. Yes, when he learns about Julie’s death, he retreats to the Southfork den, pours himself a stiff one (it’s breakfast time!) and looks glum, but he recovers soon enough. Within hours, J.R. is hatching a plot to frame Cliff for Julie’s death.

If he really cared about this woman, wouldn’t he want to find her real killers?

Maybe Jock and J.R.’s reactions tell us what Julie already knew: In the end, after all those years of service to the Ewings, she simply didn’t matter that much to them.

Grade: B

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Bobby Ewing, Dallas, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Red File Part 1

Which is it?

‘THE RED FILE, PART 1’

Season 2, Episode 17

Airdate: February 2, 1979

Audience: 13.9 million homes, ranking 30th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Arthur Bernard Lewis

Director: Leonard Katzman

Synopsis: Cliff becomes the state’s land-use chief. Julie dies during a rooftop confrontation with Jeb and Willie Joe, who don’t want her to expose their secrets. When Cliff is arrested for Julie’s murder, Pam believes J.R. framed him and leaves Southfork.

Cast: John Ashton (Willie Joe Garr), Fred Beir (Ben Maxwell), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), James Brown (Detective Harry McSween), Jordan Charney (Lieutenant Sutton), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Fern Fitzgerald (Marilee Stone), Meg Gallagher (Louella), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Tina Louise (Julie Grey), Jeanna Michaels (Connie), John Petlock (Dan Marsh), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Sandy Ward (Jeb Ames), Charles Wilder Young (Charlie Waters)

“The Red File, Part 1” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

Filed Under: Critiques, Critiques (Classic), Opinion Tagged With: Leonard Katzman, Red File Part 1

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 20 – ‘For Love or Money’

April 27, 2012 by Chris Baker 18 Comments

Cliff Barnes, Dallas, For Love or Money, Ken Kercheval, Linda Gray, Sue Ellen Ewing

End of the affair

The theme of “For Love or Money” is how relationships are like child’s play. Throughout the episode, the Ewings and Barneses mimic schoolyard behavior – not because “Dallas” wants to trivialize the characters and their situations, but because it wants to put them in a context the audience can understand.

The story gets underway when Sue Ellen lunches with her girlfriends at a posh hotel, where she regales them with tales of her perfect marriage. Everyone knows Sue Ellen is lying, but they humor her the way amused parents indulge children who fib.

The charade continues when the women are leaving the hotel and one spots J.R. in the lobby with a pretty blonde. “You know, if Sue Ellen hadn’t told us J.R. was in Austin, I’d have sworn that was him,” one of the girlfriends “whispers” to another. Sue Ellen pretends not to hear.

That evening, Sue Ellen confronts J.R., but he refuses to agree to stop philandering, so she leaves Southfork and spends the night with Cliff. The next morning, it’s J.R.’s turn to play make-believe: Miss Ellie notices Sue Ellen’s car is missing from the driveway and asks where she has gone so early. J.R. lies and says his wife is off doing “ladies’ things” with her visiting mother, Patricia.

Allusions to other childhood pursuits abound. Sue Ellen hides in Cliff’s bathroom when Pam drops by his apartment. When Cliff buys a suit at The Store and tells Pam he wants to look like “a winner,” it’s not unlike a child playing dress-up. The building models in his office resemble toy blocks.

There’s even some follow-the-leader-style parroting: In the episode’s final moments, Cliff ends his affair with Sue Ellen by quoting J.R.

“Maybe I’ve got to learn to play the other man’s game,” Cliff says.

“So that’s what it is, just a game?” Sue Ellen tearfully asks. “The winner takes the marbles and goes home? Is that what I am – just the marbles?”

Linda Gray’s performance here is heartbreakingly beautiful, and so is Leonard Katzman’s dialogue. More than anything else in “For Love or Money,” this scene reminds us that when the Ewings play games, no one really wins.

Grade: A

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Master of the game

‘FOR LOVE OR MONEY’

Season 2, Episode 15

Airdate: January 14, 1979

Audience: 14.6 million homes, ranking 33rd in the weekly ratings

Writer: Leonard Katzman

Director: Irving J. Moore

Synopsis: Sue Ellen leaves J.R. and moves in with her mother Patricia and younger sister Kristin, who’ve moved to Dallas to be close to Sue Ellen during her pregnancy. Sue Ellen reunites with Cliff, but when J.R. warns him having an affair with a married woman could ruin his political career, Cliff dumps her and she returns to J.R.

Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Fred Beir (Ben Maxwell), Colleen Camp (Kristin Shepard), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Fern Fitzgerald (Marilee Stone), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), John Petlock (Dan Marsh), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Martha Scott (Patricia Shepard), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing)

“For Love or Money” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

Filed Under: Critiques, Critiques (Classic), Opinion Tagged With: For Love or Money, Leonard Katzman, Linda Gray

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 15 – ‘Act of Love’

April 20, 2012 by Chris Baker 6 Comments

Act of Love, Cliff Barnes, Dallas, Ken Kercheval, Linda Gray, Sue Ellen Ewing

Bad romance

“Act of Love” is the first “Dallas” script penned by Leonard Katzman, who becomes the show’s auteur, writing and directing more episodes than anyone else. It proves to be an inauspicious debut.

My main gripe: When the episode begins, Sue Ellen and Cliff have been sleeping with each other for six weeks, so we never see the first time they consummate their relationship – a big letdown given how much time “Dallas” spends laying the groundwork for their affair.

To make matters worse, Katzman’s plotting is a bit sitcommy.

It seems Bobby is wooing a client for his construction business and needs Pam to help him charm the man, whom Bobby’s business associate describes as an old-money conservative who “places just as much importance on a man’s personal life as he does on his professional.”

But Pam has a dilemma: Her boss Liz Craig has invited her on a business trip to Paris, which would prevent Pam from helping hubby entertain his client. What’s a wife to do?

There’s even a “Three’s Company”-style misunderstanding. Pam asks Sue Ellen to lunch but is vague about the reason for the invitation, saying only “it’s important that we talk.” Sue Ellen, suspecting Pam has found out about her affair with Cliff, accepts the invitation and is perturbed to discover Pam only wants advice on entertaining Bobby’s client. “You don’t mean to tell me that you have brought me in to lunch with you to talk about having a party?” Sue Ellen fumes.

(An aside: What’s with Victoria Principal’s Texas accent in this scene? It hasn’t been this thick since the first season!)

Of course, “Act of Love” isn’t altogether bad. The final scene, when J.R. questions Sue Ellen about her pregnancy, is nicely written and performed, although I cringe when J.R. slaps her. In 1978, this may have been an acceptable way to demonstrate J.R.’s anger. Not today.

I also like director Corey Allen’s handheld camerawork in the opening breakfast scene, when the younger Ewings rush off to work and school, leaving Jock and Miss Ellie alone, as well as the fisheye lens Allen uses when Pam and Liz ride the elevator at The Store.

Allen’s willingness to experiment isn’t enough to save Katzman’s script, but it makes me wish the show had used the director’s talents more frequently.

Grade: C

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Fisheye!

‘ACT OF LOVE’

Season 2, Episode 10

Airdate: November 12, 1978

Audience: 12.1 million homes, ranking 41st in the weekly ratings

Writer: Leonard Katzman

Director: Corey Allen

Synopsis: The Ewings are overjoyed when they learn Sue Ellen is pregnant. Privately, Sue Ellen isn’t sure if the father is J.R. or Cliff, with whom she is having an affair. When J.R. questions her, she tells him he probably is the father.

Cast: Barbara Babcock (Liz Craig), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Nancy Bleier (Connie), Nicolas Coster (Joe Morris), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Meg Gallagher (Louella), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), John Zaremba (Dr. Harlan Danvers)

“Act of Love” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.