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Fallen Angels

kevinburtonsmith

(1993-95, Showtime)

FALLEN ANGELS was a crime television anthology that aired on the American network, Showtime, in the 1990’s. Not all the episodes featured private eyes, or even detectives, per se, but who cares?

It paired some great hard-boiled and noir short stories by some of the genre’s masters (you know, hacks like Raymond Chandler, William Campbell Gault, Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson) with some pretty interesting choices for directors, including Peter Bogdanovich, Tom Cruise, Phil Joanou, Jim McBride, Steven Soderbergh and Tom Hanks, and some pretty spiffy casting, such as Gary Oldman, Laura Dern, Danny Glover, Bonnie Bedelia and James Woods. And the writers assigned to script the adaptations weren’t too shabby either: they included Howard Rodman, Scott Frank and Donald Westlake.

It was a real treat; a handsomely-mounted production, full of style, with sharp period detail, and some truly fine acting, which garnered an Emmy nomination apiece for Bonnie Bedelia and Danny Glover (his was for playing a black Philip Marlowe, no less!). There was a jazzy, black-and-white intro featuring a sultry sax warbling around in the background, while some husky-voiced sexpot host (Fay Friendly? Sheesh!) with the proverbial legs up to here welcomed you to the show, but all that could be forgiven once the actual show began.

As far as I can figure, Showtime had very high hopes for the first season. It was heavily promoted, and there was also a nice companion book released, pairing the original short stories with the matching scripts, and a soundtrack album was even released. The shows from the first season were even eventually made available on two video cassettes (three episodes each).

Alas, the enthusiasm Showtime had for the project waned when the expected ratings never materialized. Further episodes were produced, including adaptations of “Red Wind” by Chandler and “Flypaper” by Hammett, as well as stories by David Goodis, Cornell Woolrich and Mickey Spillane, and, over the next few years, they eventually aired. Unfortunately, there were no accompanying videos, books or soundtrack albums, at least in North America.

But the shows have since popped up in various places, including on British television in the winter of 1999, where they ran under the title Perfect Crimes, and were well enough received that some episodes were shown at the National Film Theatre in London, where they played it on the big screen at “the annual crime thing here,” according to one British fan, and it was even released on DVD there in 2003. If there’s anyone out there with more information on this show, particularly the second season, please feel free to contact me. Please.

TELEVISION

BOOKS

VIDEOS/DVDS

I get an awful lot of requests for videos and DVDs of this series, particularly the second season, but unless you live in the U.K., you’re going to need some patience. The first season was released on two VHS cassettes way back in thenineties, and more recently, some episodes from the second season have popped up on a three-DVD set under the title “Perfect Crimes,” the name by which the second season ran in the UK. Unfortunately, Region Two DVDs won’t run on most North American players.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Hands across the water to Anne Petersen in Denmark, Chris Mussett, Steve Welburn and Ann Gardner for their help on this one.

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