Naked City (TV Series) Don't Knock It Till You've Tried It (1962) User Reviews

If I can't have him I'll kill him!

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 8 April 2013]

****SPOILERS*** Walter Matthau as Park Ave head shrinker or psychiatrist Dr. Max "Bubbie" Lewine tries to play it straight as a man victimized by this floozy blond Bixie, Sally Gracie, whom he met and fell in and out of love with while on vacation in Las Vages. Now after dumping her and going back to his wife Beverly, Joan Copeland, Bixie is back for revenge together with her gun toting girlfriend Meredith, Pat Englund, to make "Bubbie" pay for what he did to her. Planing to wreck both his marriage as well as life Bixie has "Bubbie" kidnapped at gunpoint right out of his Park Ave doctor's office and held hostage in this midtown Manhattan hotel until he proposes marriage to her.

You can see right away that "Bubbie" knows he's licked with him feeling guilty in leaving Bixie out in the cold after having a wild two week affair with her in Vages. What "Bubbie" doesn't known is what exactly Bixie has in store for him which is far worse then what "Bubbie's" deepest fears about what she's going to do with him really are. The NYPD are handcuffed to do anything to Bixie and the gun toting friend Meredith in that "Bubbie" the victim in all this refuses to press charges even after he was rescued by them. This makes Bixie's job of stripping "Bubbie" of his manhood and all his worldly possessions that much easier.

****SPOILERS*** This guy Max "Bubbie" Lewine is such a first class jerk that you never feel sorry for him for a moment even if you are a man, like the police on the case,in what a sorry wimp and total disgrace to the human, or male, race he really is. In the end "Bubbie" ends up getting everything that's coming to him and more and the only one he can really blame for all that is himself. There's also Det. Adam Flint's, Paul Burke, long suffering girlfriend aspiring actress Libby Kingston, Nancy Malone, who takes up Bixie's defense despite the serious charges against her. Libby in her being ignored by boyfriend Adam Flint due to his pressing police work completely lost sight of the law and threw her lot in with both kidnappers Bixie & Meredith in the name of "Womens Rights".

Terrible

[clarkx · 1/10 · 30 November 2015]

This was so bad it almost literally made me sick. I used to go around thinking that television was superior in 1962, and even the worst show had some redeeming quality. I can't say that anymore! This was supposed to be comedic -- I guess! I say "I guess" because it seemed as if they were striving for something comedic, but it sure wasn't funny.

The story and the characters were totally unreal. It was difficult to relate to or care about any of these cartoonish characters. It was also difficult to understand what the point of the whole thing was.

By the time the final scene rolled around and the showgirl and her sidekick started breaking things and setting a large fire in the middle of a room inside a large apartment house, and the psychiatrist (who needed one himself) just stood there and let them do it, I was thinking, "Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, it did."

And speaking of that sidekick: What the hell was she supposed to be? I guess people didn't think along these lines in 1962, but all I could think was it was some kind of Lesbian relationship, or else why were they so inseparable? Why was the sidekick willing to commit murder for this woman?

There are no answers to these unimportant questions because this episode is typical of what was wrong with television, even more so back then than now, because series produced more episodes each season: Shows were ground out quickly, on a deadline, and little, if any, thought was given to them. It's amazing how many good episodes managed to get produced under those circumstances, but this sure wasn't one of them. This was nothing more than a stupid, depressing waste of time.

When at the end of the show the announcer intoned, as always, "There are 8,000,000 stories in the naked city; this was one of them," I couldn't help but think, "Spare me the other 7,999,999."

A must see for the Walter Matthau fan

[bethechange-1 · 8/10 · 26 September 2011]

Thank you RTV for showing these classics!!! Walter Matthau is excellent in this. He shows both charm and confusion, at the same time being arrogant and demanding. Very hard to pull off. Every single girls realistic fantasy about being with a married man. This episode was done with smarts and humor. Not sure if written by a man, but would be surprised. Did he really love her? No. He loved the idea of her, different from his already boring life. He didn't know the real her. Did she really love him? No, and she was smart enough in the end to realize she didn't even know him either. To kick him back to his wife after showing the real HER was brilliant and something only a real woman would do. It showed the growth she made after dealing with this confused man.