User Reviews

NAKED CITY – The Shield – 1959 "There are eight million stories in the Naked City" This is episode 19 from the 1st season of the 1958-63 Police series, NAKED CITY.

There is killer on the loose and the NYPD want him. All they know about the man, Gino Ardito, is that his last victim scratched his face before she died. They also have a description of some jewelry he stole.

The Police check all the usual fences and pawn shops looking for their man. They do not get any hits though.

Patrolman, Jack Klugman, out walking his beat, sees Ardito and gives chase. When cornered, Ardito pulls a switchblade and stabs Klugman in the stomach. Klugman goes down and Ardito makes good his escape.

Klugman, just barely clinging to life, is rushed to the hospital. Detectives, John McIntire and James Franciscus try to interview the wounded Policeman.

Just the day before, Klugman had asked McIntire for a favour. Klugman wanted McIntire to speak to his son, Vic Morrow. Morrow wanted to be a Patrolman just like his dad. Klugman wanted Morrow to try for something better job wise.

The next day, Ardito is spotted on the same street where Morrow just happens to be walking. While the Police are chasing Ardito up the lane, Morrow tackles the swine. Said swine, Ardito, pulls the same switchblade that he used on Klugman and guts Morrow. Morrow holds tight onto Ardito till the Police grab him. Then he smiles, and drops dead. McIntire now must tell the recovering Klugman, that his boy is dead.

The director of this rather somber episode was, John Brahm. Brahm is known in noir circles as the director of, THE LODGER, GUEST IN THE HOUSE, HANGOVER SQUARE, THE LOCKET, BENGAZI, SINGAPORE and THE BRASHER DOUBLOON.

Look close and you will see Michael Conrad, Lou Antonio and Henry Beckman in unbilled roles. (b/w)

***SPOILERS*** Wanting to be a cop like his dad young David Greco, Vic Morrow, has taken the police civil service test twice failing it, with flying colors, both times.Not really cut out to be a policeman David is still determined to get that silver badge even it it ends up killing him.And now if he fails it for a third time that's it and he knows he'll never be a cop and tired his best, studying day and night, to finally pass it.It's David's dad Officer Mike Greco, Jack Klugmann, who tries to get his not to bright, in him not passing the police service exam, son to find a new profession, like a postal worker or deli counterman, that he can handle. He also knows that if David ever did become a cop his life expectancy would be as long as a mayfly,one day, or even less.

It turns out that Officer Greco recognizing a wanted killer known as Sneaker, Gino Ardito, in a local park watching a Bachie Ball game tries to arrest him only to get knifed by the fleeing hood and ends up in the hospital in critical condition. While his dad is on life support David takes the police entrance test and again, he doesn't know it at the time, fails it for the third and last time. He also happens to run into his dad's attacker Sneaker and single handed apprehends him before the police came to arrest and put the cuffs on him.

Now with his dad completely recovering from his injuries it's up to Let. Dan Muldoon, John McIntire, to tell him the good news that his son David washed out, in him becoming a cop, for good. It's a tricky situation for Let. Muldoon but he handles it in a Solomon like way. Yes David did in fact fail his police entrance exam but proved non the less he had what it took to be a member of the NYPD. Which will soften the blow of him failing but give him confidence in any other profession he'll take up that he's qualified for!