Naked City (TV Series) Barefoot on a Bed of Coals (1963) User Reviews

When I have the uniform on my life has a meaning

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 19 August 2013]

***SPOILERS*** The 138th and final "Naked City" episode ends with a bang in a wild shootout in the East Village of Manhattan with wannabe New York City cop Stanley Walenty, Steven Hill, finally getting the recognition that he sought all his adult life. That's by Stanley exposing himself as a target to a mad dog cop killer in order to prevent the real cops on the scene from getting shot. Stanley has been masquerading around the city as a cop for two years after he washed out of the Police Academy on a section eight: Too unstable to be trusted with firearms.

We already saw just how unstable Stanley was at the beginning of this "Naked City" episode when he, shooting and asking questions later, gunned down petty crook Finney, Dustin Hoffman, who was found to have a toy gun on him in his failed attempt of robbing a local diner. With an all points bulletin out to find this phony policeman before he does any more damage Stanley is now back to his real identity as a barber cutting and clipping hair in a mid-town Manhattan barber shop.

Not a bad looking guy with a good and study job Stanley feels that by being or impersonating a cop will get him to meet by giving speeding tickets, and then canceling them, to gorgeous and sexy women who'll be forever indebted to him. What poor Stanley will soon find out about one of those beauties the conceded and manipulative former hat check girl Clara Espuella, Zohra Lampert, is that she's just using him for her own selfish and greedy purposes. In a both sad as well as touching scene when Stanley opens up to Clara and not only professes his love for her but admits that he's just a barber, and proud to be one, not a policeman she at first goes into shock and then hysterics which finally woke Stanley up to just who he was both dealing as well as in love with! To his credit Stanley got in the last lick on Carla by in a fit of anger cutting off one of her gorgeous black locks just before he, as mad as hell, checked out of her apartment.

***SPOILERS*** It was the girl next door or in this case downstairs the pretty and sensitive Ola Martini, Elizabeth Allen, who was in love with Stanley and didn't care what he did for a living, he could be a grave digger for all she cared, who brought not only the very the best out of Stanley but in the end by telling the police where he was headed for, the shootout in the East Village, saved his life. Unlike the first time around in this "Naked City" episode when Stanley used his gun, in shooting Finney, that got him into trouble this time around by not using it and instead taking a bullet he truly became the hero, not only to Ola but the police on the scene, that he alway dreamed about being.

It's the End of the Line for this Great All Time Classic and Absolute Proof that ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END !

[redryan64 · 10/10 · 25 March 2008]

Perhaps more than any other job, that of Policeman is dramatized, romanticized, caricatured, lampooned and idealized. The excessive number of "Cops 'n' Robbers" Movies, Radio Shows, Detective Magazines, Joke Books, Comic Strips and Television Series has had a tremendous effect on the attitudes of Jane & John Q. Public about the Police. The subconscious of our minds cannot make an independent distinction on the difference between what is real and what is imaginary.

SO the Public, God Love 'em, makes their assessments of a real life Cop based on their impressions gained from the fictional world of make believe. This lack of differentiation between the factual and the fictional often leads to trouble for the Real Life Cops.

Consider the L.A. Cops unfortunate enough to have been working and assigned to or assisting on the reckless 100 mph chase and subsequent physical resistance by poor, old upstanding citizen Rodney King. "How come it took all those Coppers to arrest him? Hell, we seen Reed & Malloy do it all by themselves on ADAM 12!"

But even with all of the distortion of true perception that exists; we still have such a large number of Police Fans, Bimbos and Wannabees embedded and flourishing in every City in the land. The Wannabees are particularly interesting and potentially the most troublesome of the above mentioned classes of characters. The Production Team of NAKED CITY had the good sense and decency to address the situation in this one weekly installment.

OUR STORY……………….In "NAKED CITY": Bare foot on a Bed of Coals, the phenomenon of the Police Freak get put under the Microscope and given a real close-up examination. (The microscope is the best metaphor that we can use as the modern DNA technology was unknown in the World of Forty or so years ago.)

FORWARD…………………. The story opens up with Narrator Larry Dobkin bringing us up close and personal to a uniformed Foot Beat Cop who is attentively pounding the pavement and doing some small things like helping a kid who jumped from just one of stairs on his porch too many and intervening in a disturbance between a big mouthed sharpie and his young ditsy female gold digging companion.

Then, suddenly he is given verbal notice from citizens that an armed robbery was in progress in a nearby store. The Foot Patrolman Stanley (a young Steven Hill) gets a most unusual expression on his face as he is caught up in an extended moment of inaction. Finally he advances with his revolver drawn and confronts the young punk of a Stick-up Man (an even younger Dustin Hoffman)!

AS the Robber is exiting the store with his gun still in hand; he comes face to face with an obviously reluctant Officer Stanley. The two come to a sort of visual standstill when the young hood sees the Cop approach. Although Dustin's character still maintains possession of his handgun; it's obvious that he doesn't relish the notion of using it. With both men in obviously highly nervous conditions, the Copper shoots the punk in the upper torso (shoulder area).

Officer Stanley then slowly retreats toward and past a Police Call Box, telling the people on the scene to call an Ambulance.

All the while, Narrator Dobkin has been filling us in with information on how Stanley had befriended Policemen when a kid, how Stanley had wanted to be a Cop so badly, how the written exam had been passed by the written exam. As Stanley passes the call box and vanishes down into the Subway, Larry Dobkin's narration explains about the psychological testing; which "Officer" Stanley did not pass. Stanley is, you see, a Police Impersonator as well as a Wannabee!

The Newspapers get hold of the now front page story of an otherwise questionable but quite possibly justified shooting and why a Cop would flee the scene. The investigation of the original Armed Robbery with a Toy Gun falls to the Detectives of the Precinct. The team of Det. Adam Flint (Paul Burke), Sergeant Frank Arcaro (Harry Bellevar) and their Boss, Lieutenant Mike Parker (Horace McMahon) all respond to the scene.

The rest of the story deals with Stanley's feelings of inadequacy for lack of Status in the World. In his estimation, his being a Barber (as he really is) is a lesser station in life and not good enough for Clara (Zohra Lampert) the fancy Show Biz type broad he desires so much in his phony Police Career. All the while that this has been going on; he refuses the advances and attentions offered him by a neighbor Lady in his Apartment Building named Ola Martini (Elizabeth Allen).

IN a great Finale, Stanley goes to the scene of a Gunman barricaded in a house and gets himself wounded in the process. Feeling somewhat heroic, we see him taken being taken to the Hospital in a City Ambulance. In a most imaginative bit of camera work, we see his point of view; a sort of "Subjective Camera" as he sees his neighbor Lady and the Crime Scene disappear behind him.

This was a great way to end this Episode, the Season and, inasmuch as this was the last show of the series, the whole damn Show! "THAT'S ALL FOLKS!"

It was a fine way to say farewell to a fine, memorable series. The regular cast was its usual fine ensemble bang up job. This included: Paul Burke, Nancy Malone, Horace McMahon, Harry Bellevar and Narrator Lawrence "Larry" Dobkin. The guest supporting cast included not only Steven Hill (the future long time District Attorney Adam Schiff on LAW & ORDER (1990-2000), super talented Dustin Hoffman (THE GRADUATE, PAPILLION, BIG LITTLE MAN, RAIN MAN, etc.), a young Mitchell Ryan, Paul Frees and all the rest.

"Fare Thee Well, NAKED CITY! We'll not see your likes again!"

Barefoot In The Dark

[telegonus · 10/10 · 17 October 2011]

As another reviewer has already noted, Barefoot On A Bed Of Coals was a fine farewell episode for the excellent Naked City TV series. and it's the best episode I've seen thus far. The story of a barber who so desperately wanted to become a cop (he failed to make the cut at the police academy) that he decides to dress up as one to do good deeds it has more than most entries in the series an emotional center rather than a purely crime focused one, though crimes certainly play a role in it. Besides, impersonating a police officer is itself a crime, thus barber and do-gooder Stanley Walenty is a criminal even as he sees himself as an upholder of the law.

From his hesitant, halting behavior one senses early on why Stanley wasn't able to become one of New York's Finest. There's something "off" about him. He appears to have some screws loose; not crazy exactly, he comes across a man out of touch with the everyday world. Yet he manages to keep his job as a barber, woos a young woman who believes him to be a cop by doing favors for her, and is attractive and at least outwardly normal seeming enough for a pretty young woman who lives downstairs from him to want him to become her boyfriend. Indeed, she's crazy about the guy, and one can see why: Stanley is a sensitive, good looking, well meaning man.

As the tale comes to a head we see fantasy (Stanley's) coming to a headlong collision with reality as his predicament becomes desperate. As he'd shot an armed robber who was merely holding a toy pistol after he'd committed a hold-up, the police have put two and two together and are on the lookout for a bogus cop. Stanley finally levels with someone: the woman he's taken with, a sort of wannabe celebrity; and what transpires afterward is extremely painful for him (and excruciating for this viewer), as once more he's doing the right thing the wrong way. He should have saying these things to the woman downstairs who's smitten with him. Shortly thereafter he decides to intervene in a police standoff, determined to show himself the world that he has the Right Stuff.

In his way Stanley does have the Right Stuff, it's just not the stuff of a police officer. He has kindly qualities and wants to be a fine, upstanding citizen; but he also needs help. The final scenes of this highly dramatic, compelling episode were as moving and heartbreaking I've ever seen in a television series. The Beatles once sang "all you need is love", and I've always been skeptical about that. It sounds a little too simple. Yet in the closing moments of Barefoot On A Bed Of Coals my mind began changing, as we see that someone really does love this solitary lost soul being driven away in an ambulance, and that this may be his salvation. Based on those final moments my guess and hope was that Stanley really does have a chance to make it: as a human being.

Confusion by other commenters on which actress plays which character?

[FloridaFred · 10/10 · 1 December 2022]

An outstanding final entry in the Naked City TV Series! Actor Steven Hill, as character Stanley Walenty, does a first-rate job of portraying a man who desperately wants to "be somebody". Actress Zohra Lampert is superb as "Clara Espuella", the neighbor who is in love with Stan Walenty, and will do anything to win his heart.

One clarification I want to make, there is some confusion by other commenters on which actress plays which character. The high-class dame who Stan meets in the restaurant is character "Ola Martini", played by actress Elizabeth Allen. The aforementioned neighbor who has a crush on Stan Walenty and offers him lunch is "Clara Espuella"; played by actress Zohra Lampert.

The final scene is perfect for closing out a 4-year run of Naked City. Clara Espuella tells Stan, "You forgot your lunch!" Then we are looking out the back window of the ambulance as it drives away, the regular cast members and the New York City skyline are left behind.

Just a good show all the way around. I rate "Barefoot on a Bed of Coals" 10 stars!