#Mike hammer series#
#Mike hammer tv#

Despite the tight schedules Mickey SpillaneвЂ™s Mike Hammer is a well-made series. Half-hour crime dramas in the late 50s were made on very tight shooting schedules (episodes of M Squad for example were shot in two days).

#Mike hammer series#

It also nicely captures the seedy glamour of film noir, of night clubs and mean streets.В The noir influence is apparent in the story lines as well.ДЄs you'd expect there's no shortage of delightfully hard-boiled dialogue.Д«y the mid-1950s television crime series had largely driven the classic crime B-movie to extinction, but the best of these television series have the same rough-edged vitality and at times a surprising degree of toughness as well.

#Mike hammer tv#

The series shows a marked film noir influence on the visuals, something that is a feature of so many of the best 50s American TV crime shows. McGavin captures this other side of Hammer pretty well. And he has a definite sentimental streak - heвЂ™s a tough guy but heвЂ™s a sucker for a sob story. The Hammer of the books is a tough hombre and has few scruples about bending the rules a little when he feels itвЂ™s necessary, but itвЂ™s an essential part of the character that he has a very clear personal morality and an obsessive sense of justice. This is really pretty close to the authentic Mike Hammer. His favoured method of soliciting information involves slapping people around. In one scene in an early episode, literally putting the boot in! When the guy is already down on the ground. Of course the character had to be watered down a little for 1950s network TV but he still comes across as a guy who leads with his fists and is sublimely unconcerned about kicking heads when it seems necessary. This is a much tougher Darren McGavin than IвЂ™ve ever seen. He was always an entertaining actor but Hammer is a very tough guy and exceptionally ruthless and I feared McGavin would make him too much of a lovable character.

I was initially sceptical about the idea of Darren McGavin as Mike Hammer. Bringing Mike Hammer to the small screen must have presented quite a challenge, Mickey SpillaneвЂ™s novels being considered at the time to be remarkably violent.

Mickey SpillaneвЂ™s Mike Hammer was originally broadcast by the CBS network from 1958 to 1960.