I just discovered this terrific episode and I understand why some viewers, who saw it several decades ago, still vividly remember it. The killer's character is played by an actor whom I recognize without knowing his name. I am sure he was in the UNTOUCHABLES series. Anyway this episode was directed by a Hollywood vet named Georges Sherman, more specialized in westerns than in urban film noirs. But yes, this episode is one of the best so far in this amazing TV show. And remember the image of the SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS killer dead with his eyes half opened. When you die, you don't close your eyes, as we very often see in movies.
5 Reviews
Can't forget Count Baker
non_sportcardandy14 February 2007
Even though it's been more than 40 years since viewing this episode I would like to comment on the little remembered by myself.The naked city was viewed often in our house but this episode is the only one I recollect.The reason for that is the character Count Baker played by Joseph Ruskin.The Count is a hired assassin and he's working on his thirteenth hit,his version of a Bakers dozen.This was my first viewing of Joseph buskin and he was about the coldest looking killer I'd ever seen on the screen.Very scary with his rifle that could be used from a long distance.If someone had stated Ruskin was a real hit-man hired to play the part for TV I would of believed it.Sometime later I would see this actor in a less serious role,that was a relief for me.Til this day though I can't forget Count Baker.
fond memories--CONFIRMED
Hunt254611 June 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Haven't seen it for 40 years either, but still remember it vividly. Amazing that so much drama could be packed into half-hour (routinely, in those days!) Very cool, tense TV-noir tale in which cool hit-man goes after one last target, because all the time he was in stir, this guy was untouchable. His weapons of choice is an M-1 Garand rifles with a chicken wire silencer (Naked City usually had very unusual guns; I also recall a .30 cal machine-gun, a BAR, a .44 magnum way before Dirty Harry, and a Sten gun featuring in their episodes.) Anyhow, Halloran ends up handcuffed to a radiator after having been taken hostage by cool gangland assassin who actually likes him better than his assigned No. 2. (40-year-old SPOILER alert!) Recall cop with tommy-gun busting in to end the standoff. BREAK-BREAK Finally saw it again on newly released NC full series DVD, very nice package. Was surprised how well BAKER'S DOZEN stood up and how vivid and accurate my memories were after 55 (!) years. Have to allow for Sterling Silliphant's florrid rhetoric and constant reaching for the universal and profound, but it's a tough, gritty little programmer, as interesting as most mainstream 2013 movies. Great to see the NY of late 50s (those finny, tinny cars!) and to realize how much drama could be packed into 23 minutes. Nice turns by Vincent Gardenia and Richard Jaekel but the real stars are Franciscus and Joseph Rufkin as "The Count," a figure of chilly nihilistic grandeur. Very good yarn. (Also saw .30 Cal machinegun episode, "Fire Island," also excellent, fyi.)
Almost a classic
lor_29 December 2023
Joseph Ruskin gives a fabulous performance as Count Baker, a frighteningly cold-blooded contract killer in this offbeat segment of "Naked City". It was a riveting episode, unfortunately sabotaged a bit in the final few seconds.
I would have thought that veteran feature director George Sherman would have been more careful, as the final scene undercuts the show's overall impact. We have a solid story by Stirling Silliphant, not his usual kitchen-sink tale of very ordinary New Yorkers involved in some crime, but instead the last hurrah of a retired legendary hitman.
Vincent Gardenia as a colorful mobster (the sort of lovable types later popularized by Scorsese and in "The Sopranos") pulls Ruskin out of his bucolic existence in rural New York State 17 miles from NYC and offers him the chance of a lifetime: a hit designated by the mob against Salvatore Martino, a mafioso about to squeal before a Senate Investigating Committee. Ruskin has been after this big shot for decades, to make his "Baker's Dozen", namely the 13th victim of his notorious career as the best of the best among hired guns.
Replete with car chase and shootout on Manhattan locations, the episode is dominated by Ruskin, one of the most memorable mob villains I've ever seen on screen. But the climax of the show has a snatch of dialogue for him looped in (like a voiceover) that is jarringly fake, followed by some terrible "pithy" narration from Silliphant's pen that compares criminals to rodents -very hard to listen to so soon after creepy Trump has brought back Nazi rhetoric calling enemies "vermin". Shame on you Stirling.
I would have thought that veteran feature director George Sherman would have been more careful, as the final scene undercuts the show's overall impact. We have a solid story by Stirling Silliphant, not his usual kitchen-sink tale of very ordinary New Yorkers involved in some crime, but instead the last hurrah of a retired legendary hitman.
Vincent Gardenia as a colorful mobster (the sort of lovable types later popularized by Scorsese and in "The Sopranos") pulls Ruskin out of his bucolic existence in rural New York State 17 miles from NYC and offers him the chance of a lifetime: a hit designated by the mob against Salvatore Martino, a mafioso about to squeal before a Senate Investigating Committee. Ruskin has been after this big shot for decades, to make his "Baker's Dozen", namely the 13th victim of his notorious career as the best of the best among hired guns.
Replete with car chase and shootout on Manhattan locations, the episode is dominated by Ruskin, one of the most memorable mob villains I've ever seen on screen. But the climax of the show has a snatch of dialogue for him looped in (like a voiceover) that is jarringly fake, followed by some terrible "pithy" narration from Silliphant's pen that compares criminals to rodents -very hard to listen to so soon after creepy Trump has brought back Nazi rhetoric calling enemies "vermin". Shame on you Stirling.
Thery don't come any bigger
kapelusznik185 December 2013
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** Living is blissful retirement in his up state New York chicken farm The "Count" Roborto Baker, Joseph Ruskin, gets a visit from an old pal of his old pal and former cell-mate in the big house, San Quentin, Mr. Crudelli, Vincent Gardenia, and his bodyguard Lance, Richard Jackel, about a business deal he has for him. Mr. Crudelli want's "The Count" to knock off someone who's about to turn states evidence against the mob. Hesident at first "The Count's eyes light up when he's told whom to "hit": The guy who's testimony sent "The Count" up the river for some 20 years mob big wig Salvatore Martino!
"The Count" being the professional hit-man that he is gets everything ready to hit Martino or "Big Sal" has he's known in mob circles as he's about to make his grand appearance before the New York State's Federal Court in downtown Manhattan. "The Count"s" plan works to perfection gunning down Martino as he's about to appear in court but there's just one hitch to it. "The Count's" eagerness to gun down Martino had him totally over look any escape plans that in the end turned out to be fatal for him!
***SPOILERS*** Holed up in a Chinatown apartment house "The Count" in an act of desperation held hostage one of the cops Det. James Halloran, James Franciscus, who was part of the negotiating team trying to get him to surrender. Instead of keeping his eyes and gun on the cops outside trying to storm the place "The Count" went into a whole song & dance about his life of crime that just about put poor Det. Halloran, who was forced to listen to his BS, to sleep. What it did, "The Count's" long and boring monologue, was give the police a chance to catch him off guard and blast the hell out of him. And that was done before he could finish whatever he was talking about that in fact made no sense at all in the first place!
"The Count" being the professional hit-man that he is gets everything ready to hit Martino or "Big Sal" has he's known in mob circles as he's about to make his grand appearance before the New York State's Federal Court in downtown Manhattan. "The Count"s" plan works to perfection gunning down Martino as he's about to appear in court but there's just one hitch to it. "The Count's" eagerness to gun down Martino had him totally over look any escape plans that in the end turned out to be fatal for him!
***SPOILERS*** Holed up in a Chinatown apartment house "The Count" in an act of desperation held hostage one of the cops Det. James Halloran, James Franciscus, who was part of the negotiating team trying to get him to surrender. Instead of keeping his eyes and gun on the cops outside trying to storm the place "The Count" went into a whole song & dance about his life of crime that just about put poor Det. Halloran, who was forced to listen to his BS, to sleep. What it did, "The Count's" long and boring monologue, was give the police a chance to catch him off guard and blast the hell out of him. And that was done before he could finish whatever he was talking about that in fact made no sense at all in the first place!
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