Mike Hammer, Private Eye DVD
Mike Hammer, Private Eye was a melodrama television series that originally aired from 27th of September 1997 to 19th of September 1998. Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer character had almost been forgotten in the 1970's. Completely overshadowed by the James Bond, the two-fisted misogynistic tough guy was remembered mostly through TV airings of Paddy Chayefsky's Marty, in which Marty's Bronx pal Angie pores over pocket books and repeatedly murmurs, “Gee, that Spillane sure can write†and “that Mike Hammer sure knows how to handle womenâ€Â. There was a short-lived series of Hammer films in the early 1950's. Biff Elliott played the bruiser opposite the voluptuous Peggie Castle in the 3D 1, The Jury. Now heralded but then ignored, Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly starred Ralph Meeker and attempted to criticize Spillane's world view from within. This series is less organized. Early shows are taut and expressive but later in the season they tend to get downright sloppy, with no-budget production resources. Cheap video transitions replace the classier designs of earlier episodes. Free from whatever constricts still remained at the networks, the shows glory in the openness of drug use and other vices, although most all of the rough stuff is implied in Hammer's cool-cat voice overs. Every once in awhile a tasteless joke or an uncalled-for bit of gore slips into the mix. One episode shows a man murdered with a ball-point pen jammed through his eye.
