LARRY BLAMIRE'S STAR TURN


SERIES: NAKED CITY, ROUTE 66 Episode: “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” “Suppose I Said I Was the Queen of Spain” Guest star: Lois Nettleton Role: Marie Marianni, Isabelle Original airdate: 11/22/61, 2/8/63


Sometimes I think Lois Nettleton was merely the finest actress ever to work the small screen. That’s all. A true chameleon. Ethereal, luminous, plain, beautiful, vivacious, scary, intelligent, electrifying, exuberant, and painfully introverted. The only questions in this no-brainer of a col- umn were: Which series? Which episode? Which performance? My fellow Nettletonian Tim Lucas will happily attest to the difficulty. The result is our first Star Turn twofer. These two shows give some indi- cation of her great range, but perhaps go further to demonstrate brilliance of acting choice, and subtlety of execution. Whoever she is, Lois Nettleton’s always so gosh-darned real.


“Show Me the Way to Go Home” is NAKED CITY at its best, a slice of life unfolding in real time. It’s about the randomness of meetings, being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time, and


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how our choices continually affect our reality and


the realities of those we touch. It’s structured like an urban odyssey, one of those trancelike days in the city trying to get from one place to another by foot, cab, bus or subway.


Nettleton plays Marie, a young woman focused on going across town to be on time for a crucial, possibly pivotal, date. Her preoccupation causes her to barely notice the troubled young man who attaches to her (Danny, the always excellent Burt Brinkerhoff), though she’s initially pleasant in that small-talky way one reserves for fellow public tran- sit users. Add to this uncertain mix a confused eld- erly woman (Celia Adler) whom Marie helps, casually at first. It’s fascinating to watch Nettleton’s wheels turn as she shuffles her options: make her very important date or find a place for this lost woman. Just as interesting is her decreasing aware- ness of the appendage Danny. As her internal struggle escalates, and the old woman takes on more importance, he becomes little more than a stranger lifting one end of a couch. It’s engrossing


NAKED CITY—THE COMPLETE SERIES, Image, $179.98. ROUTE 66—THE COMPLETE SERIES, Shout! Factory, $129.99

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