Monday, August 22, 2011

On DVD: Man Against Crime, aka Follow That Man (1949)

One of  television's earliest crime dramas was Man Against Crime, which aired on NBC & DuMont from 1949-1954. Ralph Bellamy was cast as detective Mike Barnett. When the series went into syndication, it adopted the name, Follow That Man, due to the fact that the series' sponsor, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, owned the rights to the original title, and were not willing to pay syndication rights. Now, go figure that one out.

I obtained a 3-episode DVD of the series a ways back, and replayed it last night. The sample below isn't one of them. Here's "The Fraternity of Five":



Today's generation is familiar with Bellamy from films like "Trading Places", in which he was part of an ensemble supporting Dan Aykroyd & Eddie Murphy. Oh, if they only knew about the earlier years of his career......

Rating: B+.

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