Naked City (TV Series) Sidewalk Fisherman (1958) User Reviews

Other comments here are far too cynical....

[lrrap · 8/10 · 24 April 2023]

...especially "Johnny West", who wants to burn down everything in sight about this show.

OK..I value the guy's first-hand experience with the low-life of New York, with which the writers and producers of "Naked City" in 1958 were certainly acquainted. But the very fact that the "sidewalk" custom existed is an intriguing plot device from which to spin this episode. I'm sure there were SOME guys forced to make their living this way who were not scum-bags.

It's certainly a melodramatic and manipulative show, with the heart-on-sleeve plight of Jay Novello and the little kid, offset by the cruelty of the juvie thugs who terrorize him. But is it any more manipulative than most of the TV cop shows you see today?

The other reviewer who dribbles on about an element of pedophilia in this episode needs to settle down and examine his own cynical, way-too-"modern", jaded fantasies.

Jay Novello's performance (which occasionally veers towards caricature) is nevertheless typical of this fine actor; he's very good, and his appeal to the orphanage board is sensitive, moving, beautifully paced, and totally honest. (I added an extra rating-star for this scene). And the public bath house setting of the climatic scene provides director Heyes with a uniquely sleazy, depressing backdrop.

Then there's the plot resolution, which is unexpected; either the board was going to reverse its decision or not. Instead, we get a half-way decision that does neither. It's quite bittersweet, and the joy it brings to Jay's character seems to highlight the desperation and emotional sadness that engulfs him. One of those "happy-sad" endings, more real-world than Hollywood. LR.

PS-- the other "reviewer" here who slams actor John McIntyre obviously doesn't recognize or appreciate fine character acting.

No one gets their skull cracked on my beat

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 2 September 2013]

***SPOILERS**** Sidewalk fisherman Gio Bartolo, Jay Novello, has been working for a living scooping up or fishing, with a string attached to a wad of bubble gum, on the streets of Manhattan nickels dimes & quarters but things are starting to get real rough for him and his friend and partner Shellshocked, Leonardo Cimino, as of late. It's these Time Square thugs lead by the smirking and brutal Jacko, Terry Green, who've been giving Gio a hard time by taking his business in sidewalk fishing for coins away from him.

One afternoon Jacko and his boys drag Gio into an hotel lobby and brutally work him over only to have the police come to his rescue and arrest the entire bunch of cowards: Five against one and the one, Gio, being old enough to be their grandfather. Besides fishing for coins Gio also wants to adopt 8 year old Paulie, Gary Morgan, out of the Saint Francis Orphanage where's he's been since he was two years old. Paulie is greatly impressed by Gio's tall tales about him once being a fearless fisherman on the high seas and deep rivers all over the globe. The truth is that Gio gets sea sick even when he's taking a bath much less in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean during a September hurricane. Besides that Gio is in no financial position to look after little Paulie as well as having no place to live for himself.

****SPOILERS**** Things come to a head with Jocko & co. holding Gio responsible for a member of their gang, who smashed Gio's skull in, being sent up the river for six months attempt to not only rough up but murder Gio just for fun! That's as he's stark naked and chilling out at the Allen Street Baths only to get themselves caught, after his friend Shellshock telephoned the police, and put behind bars for attempted murder. As for Gio not only has he gotten a new lease in life in getting a job as a custodian at a lower East Side housing development working the night shift but being able to adopt little Paulie if not for good but between the hours of 7Am to 7PM which is the best time to spend with him teaching Paulie how to fish not in the rivers or oceans of the world but on the streets of NYC.

Dirty Bums & Crazy Gangs

[Johnny_West · 1/10 · 14 June 2020]

Having grown up in New York City of this era, the sheer ridiculousness of this story is beyond words. Jay Novello and his pal call themselves sidewalk fisherman, but they are just drunken bums. In New York City, these filthy bums were the plague on everyone that lived, worked, or shopped there.

Bums stink like urine and vomit. They were filthy, they had lice jumping off them, and the bums would chase after women demanding money and cursing their heads off if they did not get money. They were nasty and menacing. They would sleep at the entrance to apartment buildings and harass people going to work or school in the mornings. These are the real bums of New York City. As the Clash said "All the animals come out at night. Perverts, bums, junkies, sick, venal (who got shot tonight?) Some day a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets"

Picking coins out of the New York City sidewalk grates has been going on for over a hundred years. Jay Novello claimed that he made as much as $2.50 every day. As recently as 2013, the New York Post had a story called "Grate Catch" about a guy who claims to earn at least $150 a day pulling coins and valuables up from the grates. In this story, Jay Novello is given an eight hour shift that he can work pulling up coins from the grates. The local gang allows Novello to work the night shift only. It is not clear that anyone else is working the day shift. The story is really dumb.

Novello is working day and night, in violation of the gang's rules, because he wants to adopt a little boy. Novello is homeless most of the time, and sleeps in a sleazy bum hostel when he has extra money. So why would anyone let this sleazy bum adopt a little boy?? Creepy is the least of it. According to the story Novello tells the Church Adoption Board, one day he was walking by the orphanage, and all the little kids were playing, except one. His name is Paulie, and he looked sad. So Novello thought "I'll adopt him, he needs a friend."

This sounded even dumber when Novello said it, like he was walking by the Pet Store and saw a lonely dog, and decided to make an impulse buy, an adoption of a little kid. I wonder if Paulie grew up to become the creepy Paulie from The Rocky movie? Was his sister Adrian? Did Jay Novello want to spend Saturdays with her too??

Worse than the fact that nobody just kicked Novello out of the building is that thanks to John McIntire's recommendation, the board agrees to let Novello spend Saturdays with the little kid (hopefully not molesting him).

John McIntire was the top cop on Naked City for 25 really bad episodes. Once John McIntire left this show, it got a lot better. He then went on to destroy the Wagon Train TV series with his laid back, mealy-mouthed character.

Pretty silly episode that asks too much of the viewer ! (in my opinion)

[ronnybee2112 · 4/10 · 13 September 2021]

I try to think carefully about all the naked city episodes,but this episode is a challenge.

For example.. Money was definitely worth a surprising bit more in the late '50s/early 60s than today,there is no denying that. However,I've really got to doubt that there was ever enough dropped change in sidewalk grates to have people marking territory over sections of the sidewalk,or enough money to drive several young men to beat-up an elderly 'co-fisherman'?

Baloney. These young men could have made real money doing any number of things in NYC at the time,I just don't see 4-5 strong young men beating-up old men over a dropped-change route. Baloney.

The rest is even worse,see for yourself. They tell the lonely old sidewalk fisherman (that got beat-up)..NO,he cannot adopt a young boy from the orphanage,but the 'good news' is that they WILL indeed accept his life-savings for the boy's 'college education'.

Baloney.

So what's the verdict ?

Three baloneys at least.. Now don't get me wrong,I do like this show,even this mediocre episode is at least somewhat entertaining. Seeing 1950's NYC is a treat in itself,and this is definitely a very different,pioneering tv-series !

Great pathos

[lor_ · 31 October 2023]

For a cop show, this is quite an achievement - a heart-warming bit of Americana, in which the police action is only peripheral. Genre fans whose taste has been corrupted by popularizers of cynicism (see: the cinema of Tarantino and other fakirs) need not apply.

Jay Novello, so familiar from his scores of well-executed small support roles, takes center stage and is completely believable as the prototypical little man -NY style. He fishes the grates, finding coins as his sole source of income, accompanied by an equally lovable pal Leonardo Cimino, known by everyone as "Shell Shock", and his goal in life is to adopt a little boy stuck at the foundling home run by nuns. His lifestyle is quaint, but decades later after the invention of recycling we have an underclass living off of discarded pop bottles, not all that different a signpost of persistent income inequality.

It's a sentimental story with a capital S, and writer Stirling Silliphant takes it and makes it (along with Jay's skill) quite powerful in the tradition of Americana cinema dating back to audience favorites like those animal films like "Old Yeller" and "The Yearling". Wholesome, inspirational cinema like this is completely out of style nowadays, but endearing to experience and putting McIntire and Franciscus way in the background for a week is no sin. I gave it my attention and was rewarded, even overlooking the contrived "token violence" climax in Jay's war with juvenile delinquents sharing his turf.