Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Adam and Libby (Naked City)


[“Portrait of a Painter,” Naked City, January 10, 1962. Click for a larger view.]

As Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke) gets the latest info on a murder investigation, his girlfriend Libby Kingston (Nancy Malone) is — is doing what, exactly?

The phone call runs for two minutes and forty seconds, the scene shifting between Libby’s apartment and headquarters. The call is interrupted three times, when Detective Frank Arcaro looks for an eraser (!) and talks with Lieutenant Mike Parker, and when Mike takes another call. Finally, Adam asks, “Honey, I don’t mean to be nosy, but what are you doing?” And Libby explains:

“I was a seed. And I grew up through the earth into a beautiful flower. And I lived through the summer, and I let the sun soak through me. And I let the rains wash my face. And then autumn came, and I grew cold, and then winter came, and I went back into the earth again to become a new seed and to wait for another spring.”
That’s one mystery solved, utterly unrelated to the plot, utterly wonderful. There’s nothing else like Naked City.

Related reading
All OCA Naked City posts (Pinboard)

comments: 2

SaloonSinger said...

This reminds me of exercises Brando did at the New School like pretending to be a rock or a worm struggling to come out of a cookie. Years later he and Clint Eastwood would compare notes about doing such things which they both felt were awkward.

Michael Leddy said...

That’s interesting to know. There are many moments of theater talk in this series. If you’re interested, look up the episode “Dust Devil on a Quiet Street.”

(That’s me, always pitching Naked City.)