Minute 051: Let Him Have It, Boys!

Guest Host: Billy Campbell

Best known for his television roles as Rick Sammler on Once and Again, as Det. Joey Indelli on Crime Story, as Jordan Collier on The 4400, and as Dr. Jon Fielding on the Tales of the City miniseries. He is also known for his recurring role as Luke Fuller in Dynasty which was his first prominent role. His most notable films include Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Enough. He portrayed Darren Richmond on the AMC television series The Killing, and played Dr. Alan Farragut in the SyFy series Helix.

And he was the title character in a little film called The Rocketeer.

Summary

Cliff is literally in the clutches of Lothar inside 1635 Palm Terrace. The lights of the FBI cars parked out front illuminate the living room.

“Peabody!” shouts Fitch, “Open up! FBI!” Cliff and Lothar look at each other. Lothar tosses Cliff onto a coffee table, then pulls out two handguns. Lothar steps to the front door and fires, shooting an agent on the front porch.

“Get down!” yells Fitch, as the agents scramble off the porch.

“Let ’em have it, boys!” shouts Wooly, as the agents reach the line of cars. A half-dozen FBI agents open up with their Thompson machine guns.

A cascade of bullets comes through the front window. Lothar, expressionless, turns toward the gunfire and shoots back with his handguns.

Wooly and another agent pick up machines guns and add to the fusillade.

Inside the house, the air is thick with gunfire. “Cliff!” shouts Peevy.

Fitch joins in the firing with his own machine gun.

“Cliff?” says Peevy, from under a table. Lothar begins moving across the room, continuing to fire at the front window.

“Clifford!” yells Peevy, struggling across the floor in a prone position.

“Peevy!” replies Cliff, trying to move closer.

“Yeah!” says Peevy.

Lothar continues to fire, seemingly oblivious to the idea that he’s in the FBI’s line of fire. A bullet knocks Lothar’s hat off his head. As Lothar bends to retrieve the hat, he spots Peevy’s schematics of the X-3. He wads them up in his giant hand and makes a run for the back door.

Outside, the FBI continues to pump more bullets into the house. Lothar breaks the back door into splinters, then runs off into the night.

Cliff grabs the X-3 from under the tassled lampshade as bullets spray the walls. Cliff heads for the back door, carrying the X-3, while Peevy follows close behind with a jacket and the Rocketeer helmet.

One of the porch pillars is shot out by the FBI.

Peevy follows Cliff into the night of the back yard. The front porch pergola collapses.

Cliff and Peevy flee their house, running up side alleys next to houses, as the opening bars of “Begin the Beguine” play.

The business end of a clarinet comes into focus, as “Begin the Beguine” is playing at the South Seas Club.

In This Minute
Ed Lauter as Fitch
James Handy as Wooly
Alan Arkin as Peevy
Tiny Ron as Lothar
Bill Campbell as Cliff Secord
Dick Warlock as FBI Agent Murphy
Bob Sandman as South Seas Bandleader