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| Lalo SCHIFRIN on Mission: Impossible Season 6 (1971-1972) |
| Posted By: Thomas Rucki on October 3, 2009 - 3:00 AM |
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As I previously said for season 5 (see Lalo SCHIFRIN on Mission: Impossible Season 5), Schifrin's 1970's scores for the series follow the dissonant THX 1138 and the streetfunk Dirty Harry. We will focus on the two season 6 episodes ("Encore" and "The Miracle") whose music by Schifrin underlines the dark shades of the underworld’s grades as a global corporation. Moreover, the original 1966 theme music returns full force. The same music supervisor from season 5 take care of that year: Kenyon Hopkins.
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SCHIFRIN'S SYNDICATE SCORES
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Encore is a powerful martial score and according to Patrick J. White, Schifrin reorchestrated the tracks “Cinnamon” (the background music at Fallon’s Café) and “Danger” from the late 60's Mission: Impossible soundtrack album that has been re-issued in 1994: Mission: Anthology. The music from the prologue is similar to the suspenseful side of the track "Minefield" from Kelly’s Heroes. “The Plot” is reorchestrated and tracked over and over and it becomes hyperbolic due to the dominant military snare drum. The score also reflects the nostalgic feeling of Kroll because of the subdued and ethereal jazz music with a sad saxophone which becomes the Syndicate trade mark. For The Miracle, Schifrin delivers a very Dirty Harryesque score in the line of "The Killer" owing to its threatening and pulsating urban funk tracks, loaded with dissonant organ sound arrangements a la "The Cross", that are played twelve times to alert and warn us of the omnipresence of the three pushy and self-assured underworld men, the otherwordly and bizarre cues for the operation and the brainwashing, one unexpected mystical bell (see the end at St. Johns Church) that emphasize the gloomy and slick mood of the drug dealing business. For the character of Kearny, Schifrin composes some country music: listen to the music inside Marcel’s Restaurant during Act 1. One snippet from Schifrin’s “Operation Charm” is heard during the arrival of the new Kearney at Marcel's Restaurant scene plus some source music coming from radio sets: a saturated psyche-rock track in the hospital room of Kearney and a light Bossa Nova tune at Casey’s flat interrupted by a medical program about heart transplant. To conclude with Schifrin, none of his two season 6 scores were presented in the 1992 GNP Crescendo Records release: The Best of Mission: Impossible – Then and Now (GNPD 8029).
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End music credits for "Encore" and "The Miracle".
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At this stage of the series, the majority of the internet mass media has ceased to review and mention it because of the drastic change in the concept. I invite you to read my review at Amazon: http://missiondvd-season6review.com.
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129-ENCORE (First Produced) (episode #2, airdate: September 25, 1971)
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Prologue
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A police car from the City of New York drives to the Memorial Hospital. An old woman is lying on a bed under an oxygen tent while her doctor reads and writes down on her log. A tall medic steps into the bedroom and goes checking the oxygen device. He then comes out of his coat pocket a mini magnetic time bomb that he sticks to the oxygen tank. He leaves and bumps into a policeman escorting an attorney on their way to the bedroom. Outside the corridor, the fake medic named Arthur removes his white coat and watches both men behind the window of the door. The attorney asks the guard the health state of witness Gladys Collins and he answers: “She came out of it [the coma] ten minutes ago". They enter the bedroom and the attorney asks the doctor if she is able to hear him. He moves close to her, introduces himself as David St. James with the District Attorney’s office and asks her full cooperation against Kroll and Stevens. She gives a nod. An explosion occurs and the door of the bedroom is destroyed.
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Tape scene
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Wearing his dark brown casual blouson-style jacket (from season 5), Jim walks to open the door of a museum and penetrates in a hangar containing vintage firemen's trucks: you can hear Jim’s footsteps because of a strong echo inside. Jim walks straight ahead, turns and comes closer to the fourth firemen truck. He unlocks the padlock of a little box located in one side of the vehicle, grabs and activates a reel player (i.e., a brandless Craig Panorama 212 portable reel-to-reel recorder) and watches two pictures of gangsters (Kroll and Stevens) from his A4 kraft envelop.
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Summary
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It’s 10:45 A.M. in New York City: Thomas Kroll, senior gangster, goes to his barber shop ("Jack's - Men's Hair Styling Salon") for his usual services (a hot towel and a shave) where the IMF drugs him and makes him travel back to June 30, 1937—thanks to the facilities of the Majestic Studios—in order to locate the hideout of the body of rival gangster Danny Ryan and the guns that killed him which will be used as evidence to send he and his partner in crime Frank Stevens in jail.
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Cast and details
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• Limping Thomas “Tommy” Kroll played by William Shatner
• Frank “Franky” Stevens (with a scar on his cheek, a fat salt and pepper beard and orange sunglasses) played by Michael Baseleon (returning from the season 5 "The Field" but first seen in the season 4 "Phantoms")
• Stevens' tall hitman Arthur played by James Daris
• Kroll's young blonde girlfriend Carole Swanson played by Janaire
• Gangster Danny Ryan played by Charles Picerni (returning from the season 5 "Blast")
• Attorney David St. James played by Paul Bryar
• Memorial Hospital Doctor played by Martin Ashe
• Jewelry proprietor played by Alex Gerry
• Majestic Studios gate guard played by William Benedict
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| Guest IMFers |
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Featuring agent Bill Fisher (Paul Mantee: returning from season 1 "The Psychic") disguised as a young Frank Stevens, Kroll’s 1937 cell-mate wino (Sam Edwards) and extras posing as 1937 people from the Crowley Square district.
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| Jim Phelps |
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Jim poses as the 1937 police Lieutenant Eagan.
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| Barney Collier |
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Barney poses as Jim’s faithful policeman. During the barber shop procedure, he carries his hip season 5 blue jeans jacket.
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| Lisa Casey |
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Casey poses as young Gladys Collins aka Danny Ryan's 1937 girlfriend.
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| Willy Armitage |
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Willy poses as barber Albert who replaces his uncle Paul and pretends to be shot: at his awakening, Kroll sees the body of Willy lying on the floor inside the new "Joe's Barber Shop". Willy carries his light brown casual jacket from season 5.
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| Doug Robert |
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This is Doug’s last part, disguised as the late Danny Ryan (working as both Doctor and makeup artist unlike season 5 as a doctor only). The opening titles doesn’t feature Sam Elliott’s vignette unlike in season 5.
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| Act 1 |
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“Hello Tommy. I got a message for you from Danny Ryan.” (Bang!)
—Bill Fisher pointing a gun at Kroll and firing.
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Jim, Barney and Bill watch Kroll through the two-way mirror | Bill, Willy and Barney transport Kroll to the van
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| Act 2 |
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“Never mind the baby stare, who did it? (…) Yeah, what is this act you’re pulling?”
—Jim as Lieutenant Eagan to Thomas Kroll.
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Kroll watches his young self in the mirror | Jim corrects an extra carrying wrong and contemporary sunglasses
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| Act 3 |
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“It can’t be... Can’t be... A whole lifetime… flew away. What are you looking at me like that for? You think I’m crazy?”
—Thomas Kroll talking to himself and then to Frank Stevens.
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Kroll and Bill-as-Frank Stevens walk on Crowley Square | Reflection of Kroll and Casey-as-Gladys Collins
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| Act 4 |
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“I’m not a bad guy… honey. I’ve got a temper. And I’ve been feeling pretty funny today. I think you’d like me if you gave me a chance.”
—Thomas Kroll to Casey in the movie theatre.
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Kroll runs away from Crowley Square | Kroll faces his partner Stevens in a western film set
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Comments
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Actor William Shatner is known for his part as Captain Kirk in the 1966 science fiction series Star Trek but in the 1970’s, he plays many heavies parts. Shatner’s self-conscious acting is very convincing and the thin line that separates reality and fantasy is very ambiguous: see the 1937 apartment scene. Furthermore, Shatner’s sincerity elevates his character and adds an existential and tragic dimension as the episode of The Twilight Zone entitled “Walking Distance” in which the time traveler also suffers from his leg. First time that Casey shows her makeup expertise by giving Bill Fisher his latex mask of Frank Stevens. As in the last season's premiere ("The Killer"), the main foe is unsteady and the 1937 sets are already used in the same episode, especially Fallon’s Café for the Bower Hotel. Shatner receivs a "Council" treatment to make him young, meaning an injection of paraffin under the skin. The old makeup of both Shatner and Baseleon is very showy and crude. For the anecdote: when the limo of Stevens stops in the western town, we can see the Colonnade section of the Cortina prison set from “The Hostage” in the background. Oddly enough, Kroll, Casey-as-Gladys and Fisher-as-Stevens go to the movie theatre and watch a gangster film (redundant private joke!). Kroll feels uneasy in his flat and tries to find an evidence of the right time: Jim asks a plane to pass by (see the quote to the 1965 film 36 Hours, directed by George Seaton). The season 5 concept of human failure is still present with the interventions of the blonde girlfriend and hit man Arthur. The irony of this scheme is that a missing pocket watch can compromise the whole operation. One un-realistic detail in the Big Store con is Barney posing as a cop. As in “Blind”, the prologue starts with an explosion, some IMFers watch the foe and an IMFer colleague through a two-way mirror (pay attention to the detail of the reflection pow) and the 1937 flat of Kroll is Casey's one from the same episode. The barber shop is located near the offices of Paramount Pictures. During the apartment scene, Jim tells his team that they must confine Kroll in the district of Crowley Square which consists of three blocks: barber shop, a movie theatre, Fallon’s Café, the apartment of Kroll and the police station. As in the season 5 “The Merchant”, a character is named Kroll.
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Review
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A good potpourri of previous episodes as "Echo of Yesterday" (backwards time con with a reference to Hitler), "The Killer" (tailor-made location), "Operation Rogosh" (the look into the mirror, the amnesia, the prison's cell), "The Killing" (mask decomposition), "The Council" (restructuring a face with the plastic surgery), "Flight" (the final confrontation). Despite the past references, this top episode is fresh, well-paced and tightly edited containing intricate effective scenes: see the dual cellar scenes. Actually, this adventure is derived from David Maurer’s essay The Big Con and foreshadows George Roy Hill’s The Sting (1973) due to the 1930’s setting—the IMF players from the 1937 use the underworld slang of the era, especially Bill-as-Stevens who refers to the word “torpedo” for a gunman. To conclude, the IMF almost does the job of Eliot Ness and The Untouchables: a Desilu Production! Peter Graves’ performance as the tough-as-nails cop talking with the popular street lingo is amusing, especially the strict interrogation scene: “Was what?... Was what?” William Shatner also travels back to the 1930's in a Star Trek episode entitled: "The City on the Edge of Forever". My favourite "compromising" scene remains: Kroll is arrested by the 1937 police and locks in a cell with an IMF actor posing as a wino who clumsily drops a 1964 silver coin with the profile of Kennedy.
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133-THE MIRACLE (episode #6, airdate: October 23, 1971)
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Prologue
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A black car runs on a road of a hill and stops on a cliff of a Californian coast where we admire an embarkment and the deep blue sea. Come out of it two men: hipster henchman Frank Kearney and undercover F.B.I. agent Milt Anderson who waits for meeting drug dealer Alvin Taylor and doesn’t figure out why he is able to see the landing site of a 8 millions boatload of “H”. Kearney turns around the car while drawing his gun from his pants (notice the fogging on the sides of the frame), opens the car door, calls Milt and threatens him with his gun and tells him he’s been exposed. Anderson confesses his purpose and tries to make a deal with Kearney who rejects it. Anderson rushes to confiscate the gun but Kearney masters him against the hood, knocks him out in the rear with the grip, installs him in the driver seat and pushes the car to the cliff to simulate an accident.
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Tape scene
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The hand of Jim switches on a mini reel player (i.e., a brandless Craig TR-408 Miniature Tape Recorder), planted on a grey shelf of a sea souvenirs shop. He removes a secret compartment from a little barrel and takes a yellow envelop.
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Summary
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Hard-boiled Frank Kearney is abducted by the IMF which alters his personality with a fake priest’s heart transplant operation in order to soften him and find out the landing site of a $8 million heroin delivery on November 10 and therefore will send him and his boss Alvin Taynor to jail.
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Cast and details
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• Heroin dealer Alvin Taynor played by Ronald Feinberg (returning from the season 5 “The Amateur” but first seen in the season 4 “Terror”)
• Taynor’s chief executioner Frank Kearney played by Joe Don Baker
• Taynor‘s slick black killer Hank Benton played by Billy Dee Williams
• Ex-convict medic-informer Sam Evans played by Leon Russom
• Gangster Jackson played Charles Picerni (returning from “Encore”)
• F.B.I. agent Milt Anderson played by Lee Delano
• The sailor at the pier played by Jim Malinda
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| Guest IMFers |
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Featuring Steve Johnson (Lawrence Montaigne: returning from the season 1 “Odds on Evil”) posing as Father Thompson and old timer pickpocket Manny (Ollie O’Toole) who substitutes Kearney’s pistol by an empty one and a surgical staff: Sawyer (John Gilgreen) and a nurse (Francine Anderson).
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| Jim Phelps |
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Jim poses as California-based gangster John Mallet who threatens Taynor to have a pourcentage of the packet; Jim escapes from an assassination attempt when, out of the blue, Willy confiscates Benton’s shotgun.
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| Barney Collier |
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Barney poses as a surgeon that simulates an opened-heart operation through a recording video tape and conditions Kearney to love the Bible and Casey-as-Kitty thanks to drug and an infra-red treatment; Kearney believes he owns the heart of a priest; Barney neutralizes medic Sam Evans after interrupting the brainwashing act.
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| Lisa Casey |
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Casey poses as waitress Kitty Norman working at Marcel’s Restaurant that dates with Kearney. This is Casey’s third date with a hood after “Blind” and “Shape-Up”.
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| Willy Armitage |
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Wearing a brown-leathered jacket, Willy poses as Jim’s killer and shoots Kearney down with a sedative bullet in a restaurant. Jim and Willy rob the fund of a drug dealers’ reunion run by Alvin Taynor in a warehouse. Willy also wears his light brown casual jacket.
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| Act 1 |
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- Drug dealer Taynor: “The trouble with you, Kearney, is you don’t worry enough.”
- Chief executioner Kearney: “I quit all that when I was 14. That’s when I figured them sisters was putting us on about hell.”
- Drug dealer Taynor: “Don’t be too sure.”
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Drug dealer Taynor eats rationally his fennel | Kearney undergoes a bogus heart operation
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| Act 2 |
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- Drug dealer Taynor: “Sam, you know I’ve got a lot of friends. I’d hate to see your parole revoked.”
- Ex-convict Sam Evans: “What do you want to know?”
- Drug dealer Taynor: “How Kearney’s passing his time, who he talks to, who visits him. I just like to keep track of my employees, that’s all.”
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Casey-as-Kitty Norman shows the headline to Kearney | The IMFers conditions Kearney
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| Act 3 |
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“Young lady… nobody wants a dead fish.”
—Drug dealer Taynor to Casey.
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Benton points his shotgun at Jim | Kearney gets out of the hospital with a new heart
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| Act 4 |
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- Chief executioner Kearney: “It’s not my fault! You gotta believe me. I didn’t mean to do that. Look, they did something to me in the hospital, huh? Maybe they killed me in the hospital, huh? Didn’t they?”
- Drug dealer Taynor: “Yes, Frank, I’m afraid they did.”
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Kearney threatens Father Thompson to confess the truth | Benton is on his way to shoot down Kearney
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Comments
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Texas-born actor Joe Don Baker is a legendary 1970’s figure in films like Walking Tall, Charley Varrick, The Outfit and Framed. Joe Don Baker wears outrageous trendy clothes (Renaissance-like white shirt, patterned grey pants) and carries little rounded “hip” sunglasses during the prologue and also at his exit of the hospital: see his grey Sergeant Pepper’s blouson. He plays a Christianism-hating henchman who behaves as an unstable beastial heavy, only enjoying beef and beer (as good as Robert Conrad in "The Killer"); the last part of the episode shows Kearney on the brink of a dissociative identity disorder, i.e., he orders the food he hates (fish and wine), makes a wedding declaration to Casey-as-kitty but also degenerates into blind violence: blows up a bottle of Champagne and ravages the furnitures of the St. Johns Church and finally, his destiny slips drastically: incapable of gunning Jim down, fails to be shot by a murdering car and its submachine gun, reveals to Casey the embarkment of the drug box. During the apartment scene, we learn from Jim that the Iverson mob puts pressure on Taynor and from Steve and Barney the psychological profile of Kearney: raised in a second-rate orphanage at Saint Anthony in New Orleans, runaway from the orphanage at 14, religious childhood left a deep unconscious mark. There’s an obvious ethnic and cultural gap between Kearney and Benton, especially during the first scene at Marcel’s Restaurant about the country music background (“Oh, and I thought you dug that kind of music”, said Kearney to Benton). One character of this episode refer to the season 5 “Cat’s Paw”: black killer Hank Benton reminds Pod Hamp because of his shotgun use. Furthermore, the series displays the blackexploitation trend in many scenes: Marcel’s Restaurant has some black customer with Afro haircuts and there is one black gangster during the meeting inside the lumb warehouse. As in the season 2 “The Killing”, a gangster has an offcial cover in the lumber business. For the anecdote, to show the social difference of the foe characters, the writer gives them different food taste: the boss (Taynor) is very rational, vegetarian and consumes tomato juice and raw fennels unlike the chief executioner (Kearney) who is an offhand skirt-chaser and eats meat. The ambulance footage is from the season 1 “The Ransom” but the Memorial Hospital footage doesn’t square with the Mert County General Hospital (i.e., Paramount Pictures office) that we see after Benton’s visit. Notice the 70’s design through utilitarian objects as telephone: see Jim’s fancy white portable dial phone that he uses in his car. Willy’s main titles vignette come from this apartment scene. As in “Shape-Up”, the foe’s life goes upside down because of one past event. There’s one blooper concerning the undercover name of agent Steve: during the first three acts, he is called Father Thompson and from Act 4, Father Johnson (the real name of Steve). There’s a technical blooper during Act 4 after Casey critizes Kearney’s lack of money: we see the reflection of the microphone boom in the windshield of the car. As in “Blind”, a Federal agent is trapped during he prologue and Casey carries on dating with hoods. This is the first episode that shows the Californian embarkment setting that we got a glimpse at it during season 5: see the tape scene in “Butterfly”. As in the season 5 “The Killer”, the IMF makes the foe believe that a killing car was sent to eliminate him by his double-crossing boss.
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Review
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A well-directed episode by Gantman’s years Leonard J. Horn (see the gruesome surgery scenes at the hospital in which Kearney is left self-conscious, making reference to his own season 2 “Operation—Heart”) and among my favourite ones because it uses Pavlov’s dogs brainwashing ruse from "My Friend, My Enemy" (actually, Barney plays the role of Dr. Tabor and manipulates the subconscious of Kearney to make him regress) and "Kitara”. The egocentric heavy with a split personality performance of Joe Don Baker is a treat. This is the second brainwashing episode this season after “Mindbend”. The name Kearney is a veiled reference to MISSION writer Gene Kearney who used to write another brainwashing episode: “My Friend, My Enemy”, also produced by Laurence Heath. Actually, this story is a philosophical challenge because the IMF tries to restructure the pathos and the ethos of a mature man whose mind is fixed. Furthermore, the perverted overtones imply notions of religious blasphemy and transgression. As in “The Tram”, the story makes references to Roman catholicism.
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Today in Film Score History:
March 21 |
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| Alfred Newman wins his seventh Oscar, his second for Score, for Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1956) |
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| Antony Hopkins born (1921) |
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| John Williams wins his fifth Oscar, for his Schindler's List score (1994) |
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| Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score to The Green Berets (1968) |
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| Mort Lindsey born (1923) |
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| Nicola Piovani wins his first Oscar, for Life is Beautiful; Stephen Warbeck wins the final Comedy or Musical Score Oscar for Shakespeare in Love (1999) |
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