Burke’s Law: Season 1, Episode 32 – “Who Killed ½ of Glory Lee?” (1964)

Here’s the last of Buster’s TV work that I’ve been able to get my hands on.  As far as police procedurals go, it’s a decent-ish way to pass an hour, although Buster’s one scene is the most entertaining for obvious reasons.

From what I can gather from this episode, Burke’s Law follows the travails of a playboy millionaire (the titular Burke) who moonlights as a police detective (maybe?  I think?)  In this particular story, one of the two founders of a fashion empire is killed – seemingly by accident at first, but the police quickly realize it was murder.  Burke investigates to find the killer in a mystery dealing with big money, corporate espionage, licentious intrigue, divorce, and buried secrets of the past.

Not a bad description, eh?  That actually makes the story sound more exciting than it really is, though it’s generally pleasant enough.  It’s a basic whodunit not terribly divorced from the type of procedural you might see today:  suspects, alibis, misdirects, climactic “here’s how I know it was you” infodumps, and the like.  I have to say, though, in a story that involves models, mistresses, and a clueless wife, they don’t miss any opportunities for casual sexism.  The female characters in the episode are mostly sources of frivolity or condescending drollery, and there’s a scene of major slut-shuming going on at the end.

In amongst the mystery and detective work, there are some odd comedic beats thrown in – the “hilarious” sexism, of course, but also slightly hokey amusing nods here and there.  In light of that, I suppose it makes sense as a show in which Buster might have guest-starred.  After all, “police procedural” wouldn’t normally scream “guest-starring Buster Keaton” unless it was being touted as featuring Buster in a rare dramatic role, but Buster’s role and the comic nature of his scene fits in pretty well with the mildly goofy goings-on elsewhere in the episode.

Buster plays Mortimer Lovely, a rival fashion mogul that Burke suspects was stealing design secrets from the dead man’s company; in questioning Mr. Lovely, Burke hopes to find a professional motive behind the murder.  The gimmick here is that Mr. Lovely has laryngitis and can’t speak, meaning all of Burke’s questions are answered via gestures.

I wonder how much Buster was involved in developing how this scene plays out, because it does have a certain Bustery feel to it.  The way it starts with fairly simple gestures and soon escalates into elaborately-mimed scenarios incorporating full charades rules seems like a Buster thing to do, gradually building on the gags and taking them from “just plausible” to “patently ridiculous” before you even quite know what’s going on.  Needless to say, Buster’s charades game is totally on-point, and the humor of the scene is only slightly intruded on by Burke’s increasingly-silly guesses.  Even though Buster is only in one scene, it’s a scene that uses him well, putting this relatively high in my estimation of Buster’s later-career work.