The adventures of Mickey Spillane's tough-talking, brawling, skirt-chasing private detective Mike Hammer, who's always ready to use his fists on a "mug" or his charm on a "skirt" to get the case solved. If TV had a "film-noir", McGavin's Mike Hammer would be it-the cool character on the coolest show on black and white TV in my prepubescent TV world; he seemed so worldly yet down to earth and always had the lady's eye (there was always some eye candy in the show, even if it was the 1950's)..guys were still guys..and all detective magazines had the formula "skirt" in the plot. This show was ahead of its time in some respects.. You might even arguably boast that he (McGavin) paved the way and even foreshadowed Mr Bond..a good 6 years before "Dr. No" hit the drive-in movies in the summer of '62. And then completely switching character to play the riverboat captain in my father's favorite show a few years later on "Riverboat".<br/><br/>I hope TVLand can bring him back so my sons can enjoy. (My boys love Gunsmoke and McGyver and Maverick and Sandford (RedFoxx), etc). McGavin is right up there with my other TV idol, Robert Conrad-of "WildWildWest" and "Baa Baa BlackSheep" (Boyington)fame. Darren McGavin was the quintessential Mike Hammer. Others paled by comparison. He played him with toughness, irreverence and humor. Back in the 50's, when TV censorship was at its strictest, he went as far as you could go. He'd call women "Chickie" and had no qualms at roughing them up to get to the truth. I especially liked his scenes with Nita Talbot, who took everything he dished out. In another review, revtg001 claimed that Anthony Quinn played Mike Hammer. Although, Mr.Quinn appeared in a movie of a Mickey Spillane novel, "The Long Wait",the character he played was JOHNNY McBRIDE. In my opinion, the second best Mike Hammer was Ralph Meeker in "Kiss Me Deadly".
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367 weeks ago