HAWK: DO NOT MUTILATE OR SPINDLE {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The pilot of this series about the cases of John Hawk, a police lieutenant of Native American ancestry who works the night beat for the New York District Attorney's Office.
A religious fanatic named Houston Worth murders a computer technician named Catherine Delancey in an elevator before escaping. Lieutenant Detective John Hawk is on the case, deducing that the victim was strangled and then hit with a commemorative plaque she received. The police perform blood work to determine the veracity of this assumption and to ascertain the identity of the murderer. Hawk is approached by a young woman nicknamed "Scooter," who claims that she is receiving threatening phone calls laced with Biblical references. Hawk gives her a whistle to blow the next time the man calls. He soon discovers that Delancey received phone calls of a similar nature shortly before her murder; he realizes the murderer has a strange vendetta against machines and automation, calling them "idols made by man." Houston calls Scooter and starts making threats but she blows the whistle, injuring his ear.
Hawk enlists the aid of Sam Crown, a newsstand owner and friend of Scooter's. They search of Scooter; Sam mentions that he met her while she was helping to conduct a questionnaire. Hawk soon learns of the results on the blood work: there are indeed two distinct blood types present, narrowing his search field somewhat. Houston goes to the hospital to get his ear repaired, but becomes enraged when he learns his name will be added to a punch-card for future data. He views the punch-card as emblematic of the number of the beast and stabs an intern in the gut before leaving. As he loses consciousness, the intern scrawls "666" on a nearby sheet of paper.
Sam finds Scooter posing for an art class and Hawk speaks to her. She recounts meeting Houston during her questionnaire, but cannot remember his name or appearance. He became enraged when he learned that his questionnaire answers would be fed into a computer. Hawk is informed of the stabbing at the hospital and goes there to investigate. The "666" is interpreted as "999," the code for the hospital's psychiatric files. However, the hospital refuses to release these files to Hawk, stalling his investigation. He talks to one of the hospital workers about his Native American heritage, and about how his father, a steel worker, fell to his death from the Triborough Bridge. One of the nurses recalls seeing Houston when he worked as an elevator man in the hospital's maternity ward. He was laid off when the elevators became fully automated. Hawk takes what information he has and tries to run it through the hospital employment records, but he has insufficient data to do so.
Houston tries to get in touch with Scooter again, this time claiming that he merely wants to talk. Scooter panics and unplugs her phone, thus missing a scheduled call from Hawk. Against Hawk's advice she runs out of her apartment, only to encounter Houston waiting for her. He chases her down the streets as Hawk tries to track them down. Eventually Houston has Scooter cornered and is about to kill her when Hawk arrives and shoots him. The two of them struggle until the police arrive and arrest Houston. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: September 8, 1966 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:46:30
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:57391
- GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/private detective; Indigenous Peoples Collection
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1966
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Hubbell Robinson … Executive Producer
- Sam Wanamaker … Director
- Allan Sloane … Created by, Writer
- Kenyon Hopkins … Music by
- Burt Reynolds … Cast, Lt. Detective John Hawk
- Louise Sorel … Cast, Melissa Grant
- John Marley … Cast, Sam Crown
- Elaine Nadeau … Cast, Scooter
- Gene Hackman … Cast, Houston Worth
- Kathleen Maguire … Cast, Nurse
- Fredd Wayne … Cast, Detective Bowen
- Tom Carlin … Cast, Doctor
- Wayne Grice … Cast, Carter
- Eugene Roche … Cast, Detective Kramer
- Jon Lee … Cast, Lab Technician
- Carl Low … Cast, Medical Examiner
- Nancy Andrews … Cast, Woman
- Dan Morgan … Cast, Superintendant
- Graham Jarvis … Cast, Records Monitor
- Madison Arnold … Cast, Artist
- John Perkins … Cast, Police Lieutenant
- Toni Darnay … Cast, Catherine Delancey
- Charles Durning … Cast, Police Announcer
- Charles White … Cast, Telephone Preacher
- Peter Gumeny … Cast, Kowalski