Jan Miner

            Sunday was considerably cooler than it has been lately and so I closed the back door of my floor.

            I ran out of fruit and considered taking a trip to Freshco but I wanted to get caught up on my writing and so I figured I’d just hold out till I’m on my way home from class on Monday.

            Another episode of The Naked City finally downloaded and so that night I took a break from watching Perry Mason. This was the first episode of the second season when they changed it to a one-hour show. It was well written and well shot. The story begins with a shootout between a gunman and several cops. When the crook (played by Peter Falk) is cornered, runs out of bullets and is holding out his gun sideways in an open palm to surrender, a rogue police detective named Bane guns him down. His partner Flint witnesses the murder and tries to report it to their lieutenant but it’s his word against Bane’s and so he can’t make it stick. Lt. Parker wants Flint to investigate Bane but at first he refuses. Meanwhile we see that Bane is more than just trigger-happy, he’s also crooked. He's gathered a group of people, each of whom he’s caught committing crimes and he’s blackmailing them with the threat of jail time if they don’t give in to his plan. Lia is the cashier for an upcoming charity prizefight. She stole some money but Bane didn’t turn her in. He could at any time and she wouldn’t get out of prison until she was grey. Bane caught Teddy the playboy fencing stolen goods and he can get the fence to sing about it anytime, then his rich girlfriend won’t marry him. Tony is a prizefighter beloved in New York and Bane has evidence of armed robberies he did when he was a teenager. The plan is to knock over the charity boxing match at which Tony will be fighting. He’s supposed to go against his principles and distract the audience by throwing a low punch at a precise time. At the same time Teddy is supposed to crash his sports car into the front of the theatre. Lia will have taken the charity money to a special room with two bookkeepers and a guard. Flint has been following Bane so he knows something is up. Teddy crashes the car on schedule but Tony refuses to throw the fowl punch. He leaves the ring to the room where he knows that Bane plans to kill the guard and the bookkeepers. He bursts in and punches Bane but Bane shoots him. Flint comes in and shoots Bane. Bane dies but Tony is only wounded.

Bane was played by Eli Wallach.

Flint was played by Paul Burke.

Tony was played by George Maharas.

Teddy was played by soap opera and Broadway star George Baragrey. He was romantically linked to some of the most famous actresses of Hollywood, including Bette Davis and Tallulah Bankhead.

With a highly emotional performance, Lia was played by Jan Miner, who played Madge the manicurist in the widely parodied “You're soaking in it!" Palmolive commercials and became an international icon.