Naked City (TV Series) To Walk in Silence (1960) User Reviews

SUPERB PERFORMANCE BY CLAUDE RAINS

[lrrap · 8/10 · 4 February 2020]

Hes' REALLY good in this one, which I'm assuming was written specifically for him, as he is perfectly attuned to every subtlety of the character and the script. A true, old PRO---never to be equaled or seen again. So if your'e a fan of Mr. Rains, you'll love this show.

Too bad about the bag lady. WHY IS IT that every time a common, everyday, citizen on the street appears in this series--ESPECIALLY the women-- the performance is an eccentric, exaggerated, cartoon-y CARICATURE?? It's as if an order went out from producers Leonard and Siliphant that every "Ordinary New-York type" bit player must be grossly overacted, usually with a VERY broad Brooklynese accent. Not that the bag lady's role is big, but it certainly ruins the dramatic tone of the show when she's onscreen. Jeezzz.....

The son is also too broadly played for my taste, too theatrical and obnoxious for his more intimate scenes with Claude Rains and family.

All-in-all, though, a solidly written show, well photographed and directed (except for the excesses noted above), and a wonderful showcase for one of Hollywood's authentic, legendary actors. LR

NOTE!! The secretary who ushers Burke and McMahon into Claude Rains' office is named CORA; the crazed bag-lady in the beginning is DORA. Suzanne Pleshette in "Pedigree Sheet" was NORA. I'm gritting my teeth for the appearance of FLORA in some upcoming episode.

Claude Rains and Telly Savalas!

[Colin_Sibthorpe_II · 7/10 · 4 April 2021]

Rains's actions are almost incomprehensible today. I can only put them in the context of crime books from the 50s I have read - Crime in America by Burton B Turkus, the Kefauver commission - in which the words "gambler" and "gangster" are used completely interchangeably. Clearly gambling was a very, very big no-no then, and for an executive with fiduciary duties to be caught gambling would wreck the reputation of the firm he worked for.

With that said, it's a nice little story, well acted and scripted. And as with all this show, I can watch it for the cars and the NYC location shots alone!

Claude Rains, as character John Winfield Weldon, is absolutely outstanding.

[FloridaFred · 9/10 · 8 October 2022]

Claude Rains, as character John Winfield Weldon, is absolutely outstanding. The producers did a great job in procuring one of the greatest stars of movie and television to appear on Naked City. If I was rating this show just on his acting, it would get 10 stars plus.

But I have to ding it a star for a couple of reasons. Aside from the over-sentimentality of Detective Adam Flint (actor Paul Burke), and the usual cartoon-character that shows up on Naked City (this time it is the drunk bag lady/dumpster diver Nora (actress Sybil Bowan), there are a couple of other issues:

1. The acting by the son, character Donald Weston (actor Stephen Bolster) is stiff and artificial. It just doesn't work.

2. The lack of closure. We see Weldon and his daughter walking up the steps of the Courthouse, as he prepares to testify. But what happens to his investment firm? The writers cut it short, so that they could end the story with Flint and his girlfriend cozying up.

"To Walk in Silence" is one of the best performances in the entire run of "Naked City"! The acting by Claude Rains is superb.

I rate this show 9 stars.

It never rains, it pours

[lor_ · 6 February 2024]

The gravitas of Claude Rains saves this extremely heavy-handed script (by Barry Trivers, not series mench Stirling Silliphant) that has quality dramatic acting all around but zero suspense.

With narration and nice location photography setting the story on Wall Street, the basic situation is set up in highly contrived fashion. Rains plays an investments big shot who likes to play the ponies at a bookie joint hidden in the back rooms of Chateau Restaurant, and wouldn't you know it, evil mobster Telly Savalas (with a fringe of hair under his hat) murders a horse player (Sorrell Booke, more star power in a cameo) for not paying his debts, with a second bullet ricocheting and hitting Rains in the arm. It all takes place in the 3 minutes before opening credits roll.

The rest of the show has obstinate Rains foolishly trying to hide his involvement in this crime while fellow witnesses drop like flies as Savalas murders them. Horace MacMahon is brilliant, taking charge of the case, confronting Rains in a memorable scene, and finally concocting a rather unbelievable (but it somehow works) way of resolving the issue of nabbing Telly after the evil guy kidnaps Rains' cute daughter Deborah Walley (more stardom of the future) to put on maximum pressure.

A dumb "generation gap" subplot involving Rains' son (flop actor Stephen Bolster) is injected into the script, and the overall lack of any subtlety is a drag. But Rains manages to carry the day and is great to watch in late-career action.

The Magic Bullet

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 9 April 2014]

****SPOILERS*** After a hard day at the office Wall Street bigwig John Winfield Weston, Claude Rains,decides to chill out at the local watering hole The Château Tavern Restaurant and play the horses in an adjacent and illegal horse room for a few crumbs, bucks, before heading back home in Westchester County. While trying to put in his big $2.00 bet in Weston is shot an injured by a stray bullet from bookie joint operator Gabe "The Greek" Hody, Telly Savalas, who gunned down an uncooperative customer of his who welched on a $5,000.00 bet with him. Checking out the back way Weston being an eye whiteness to the murder does everything possible to distance himself from the shooting. Not in fear of his and his families lives if Hody finds out about him but to protect the good name of the shyster insurance firm he works for Adverson & Holt that specializes in taking care of rich widows with their dead husbands money whom, by spending it while they were alive, they put into an early grave.

With the cops lead by "Mister Sensitivity" himself Det. Adam Flint, Paul Burke, trying to have Weston get the bullet removes in order to prove their murder case against Hody Weston stands firm refusing to get operated on even if, by not getting operated on, it kills him. The brutal and somewhat idiotic Hody plays right into the police's hands by at first threatening Weston and then beating up his son Donald, Stephen Bolster, and kidnapping his teenage daughter Heather, Deborah Walley. That's to make sure he doesn't talk or have his, that's Hody's, bullet removed from his left shoulder which he's not willing to do anyway!

***SPOILERS*** If that brainless thug Hody just let things remain the way they were and not have two additional murders, eyewitness at the bookie murder site, pinned on him he would have walked and not have to pay for his crimes. But in jumping the gun and putting Weston in a corned that he couldn't get out of he in fact sealed his fate. Trapped like a rat with nowhere to escape Hody, holding Heeather hostage, ends up getting gunned down before he can gun down Heather by non other then the super sensitive and caring for all human life Det. Flint. An action which really hurt him more then it did the by now dead Gabe "The Greek" Hody.