The Dick Van Dyke Show: The “Big Max Calvada” Episode (November 20, 1963) Is Film Noir Played for Laughs

I have to be honest: I have always enjoyed every episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. But I picked the “Big Max Calvada” episode for the Eleventh Annual Favorite TV Show Blogathon because it’s a humorous tribute to film noir. And it is a favorite of mine, just like all the episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show!

Nothing about this 1960s sitcom is the least bit noir. But “Big Max Calvada” is one episode that plays film noir for laughs. Carl Reiner, the series creator, and Sheldon Leonard, the series producer, created a very funny homage to film noir. The episode is also a humorous send-up of Sheldon Leonard’s many roles in film noir in which he played gangsters and other ne’er-do-wells before turning to television and producing.

“Big Max Calvada” starts with television writers Robert (Rob) Petrie, Buddy Sorrell (“That’s with two l’s”), and Sally Rogers trying to come up with a new idea for The Alan Brady Show, the television variety show that they write material for. They are interrupted by a phone call from Marge, the office receptionist, who announces that Maxwell Calvada has arrived to see Rob. Rob has no idea who he is, so he tells Marge to have Calvada wait.

The writers try to go back to work, but Buddy wants to know why the name Maxwell Calvada sounds so familiar. The three of them start speculating: Is Calvada on television? Does he work for the government? No, Buddy says, he is Big Max Calvada, the man who was on the witness stand recently because he was being prosecuted by the federal government for his role in organized crime. Rob immediately regrets making Calvada wait. He rushes to the office door and opens it to look for Calvada, but he is already standing outside the door, waiting with his assistant, Bernard.

(This article about the television episode “Big Max Calvada,” from The Dick Van Dyke Show, contains a few spoilers.)

Calvada is very familiar with Rob’s, Sally’s, and Buddy’s writing. He is an admirer of their work, which explains why he is at their office. He wants them to write a nightclub act for his nephew Kenny Dexter. They try to come up with every possible reason why they cannot accept Calvada’s offer: They have a job writing for Alan Brady, they have a contract that they cannot break, they don’t have time to take on another job. Calvada has an answer for all of them: Money is no object, Alan Brady already knows Calvada and will be happy to accommodate him, Calvada will give them two weeks instead of one to write Kenny’s act.

And in case they still have any doubts, Calvada has already taken the time to find out all he can about the friends and family of his “associates,” including Rob’s lovely wife Laura and their son Ritchie. To emphasize his point, he picks up Rob’s photo of Ritchie and then slams it face down on the writers’ desk. Rob, Sally, and Buddy agree: They will write the act for Kenny.

Kenny Dexter is a teenager with no talent. The only person who seems to be a fan is Bernard, who never once cracks a smile but insists, on more than one occasion, that “the kid breaks me up.” Kenny desperately wants to go into show business, and his Uncle Max does what he can to help, including hiring the best comedy writers and booking a night at the Diamond Club, the top nightspot in New York City. The pressure is already on Rob, Buddy, and Sally. To make matters worse, Kenny cannot tell a joke or sing. Kenny’s aunt (Max’s wife, “Mrs. Calvada”) is the only one who says what everyone else is thinking: “He stinks.”

The three writers try to make the best of it. They don’t want to anger Big Max Calvada because they fear the consequences, and Calvada is very intimidating. He threatens Rob’s family; he schedules his nephew’s night at the Diamond Club by arranging for the scheduled performer to be conveniently sick for that one night. When Kenny starts singing at his nightclub debut, Calvada leans across the table and, in front of Rob, Laura (Rob’s wife), Buddy, Sally, and Mrs. Calvada, asks Bernard in an ominous stage whisper to make a note about speaking to Kenny’s voice teacher.

Kenny Dexter’s nightclub performance is a flop, and this disaster leads to a last meeting between the Alan Brady Show writers and Big Max Calvada. Calvada takes over the office of the Diamond Club’s owner and shuts the door on him, then asks Rob, Buddy, and Sally to sit while the faithful Bernard stays on hand to take notes. It’s the last act, the final showdown.

Big Max Calvada and his direct and implied threats are the source of great anxiety for Rob, Sally, and Buddy. Their reactions in each instance, including the last act, are the source of humor and laughs for viewers. Sheldon Leonard doesn’t have to be funny at all. He plays Big Max Calvada straight, much like he would have played a gangster in film noir.

But The Dick Van Dyke Show is a sitcom; it goes without saying that Rob and his cowriters will get out of trouble without a gun being fired or any bullets flying. But how that happens is a surprising and humorous twist that I won’t divulge here. And Sheldon Leonard is the one to deliver it—without stepping out of character. It's a clever resolution, and, as I recall, I didn’t see it coming the first time that I saw “Big Max Calvada.”

That first viewing was a long time ago, when I didn’t know what film noir was and had never heard of Sheldon Leonard or his contribution to noir. I don’t remember anymore how surprised I was by the ending of “Big Max Calvada.” I have seen the “Big Max Calvada” episode (really all the episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show) dozens of times since then. What I do know is that I still laugh as though I have never seen each episode before.

This article about the The Dick Van Dyke Show episode “Big Max Calvada” is my entry for the Eleventh Annual Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted by Terry at A Shroud of Thoughts. Click here for the complete list of blogathon participants and links to their blogs. The list is updated each day of the blogathon, from March 21 to March 23, 2025.

November 20, 1963, broadcast date  •  Season 3, Episode 9; Episode 71 of the series overall  •  Directed by Jerry Paris  •  Written by Bill Persky, Sam Denoff  •  Edited by Bud Molin  •  Cinematography by Robert De Grasse  •  Opening theme song by Earle Hagen  •  Series created by Carl Reiner

Dick Van Dyke as Robert Petrie  •  Mary Tyler Moore as Laura Petrie  •  Rose Marie as Sally Rogers  •  Morey Amsterdam as Buddy Sorrell  •  Sheldon Leonard as Maxwell Calvada  •  Arthur Batinides as Bernard  •  Jack Larson as Kenny Dexter  •  Sue Casey as Sylvia Calvada  •  Johnny Silver as the waiter  •  Tiny Brauer as Louie, owner of the Diamond Club

Produced by Calvada Productions  •  Broadcast by CBS

Chicago Deadline (1949)

Chicago Deadline is one of those films noir where it really pays to follow the narrative and the visual clues because they are all there. I saw the film three or four times, and I was still discovering new details each time. Alan Ladd plays Ed Adams, an investigative reporter who tracks down leads about a young woman found dead in a cheap hotel room and manages to uncover corruption by the time he is finished. The dead woman is Rosita, played by Donna Reed. Reed’s first appearance in the film is as Rosita Jean d’Ur’s corpse lying on a bed in the hotel room.

You can find Chicago Deadline online. Click here to see it free at the Internet Archive, which has two prints of the film. One is English language only; the other is English language with Spanish subtitles. The sound and picture quality of both prints is not great, but they are still watchable. You will probably enjoy watching the film more on the Blu-ray published by Kino Lorber as part of its Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema series. The Blu-ray comes with English-language subtitles and an audio commentary by film historian Alan K. Rode.

Many scenes in Chicago Deadline were filmed on location, and this is established with a pan shot of the Chicago skyline behind the opening credits. Ed Adams arrives by cab at the front door of the Rialto. He is at the hotel to find a young woman called Minerva. While he is talking to her, he hears a scream. One of the housekeepers has found a young woman, Rosita Jean d’Ur, dead in her bed. Just in case this discovery could turn into a newspaper story, Ed looks through the dead woman’s possessions. He finds a diary in her handbag and pockets it. Then he leaves with Minerva.

Before Ed can get Minerva home, he returns to Rosita’s room. Detective Lieutenant Jack Anstruder has arrived to investigate the woman’s death, and Ed is curious about Rosita’s story. Detective Anstruder says that it looks like she died of hemorrhaging from something like tuberculosis. He suspects that Adams knows more than he is willing to admit. The two know each other, and there seems to be a bit of professional antagonism between the them.

Ed Adams returns to his offices at a newspaper called The Journal and starts his own investigation by calling the numbers in Rosita’s diary. This diary is what ties so much of the narrative together, and viewers follow along as Ed learns more and more about Rosita. Her diary includes several names and details that Ed uses to piece together the mystery surrounding her death. The first person he calls is listed by his initials only: G. G. T. On the phone, G. G. T. wonders how Ed got his private number, but Ed won’t say, not without some information in return. G. G. T. denies knowing Rosita at all. But clearly she knew him, so it seems like G. G. T. is lying, and that intrigues Ed. Pig, one of the other reporters, speculates that G. G. T. could be G. G. Temple, vice president of Iroquois Trust. Ed impersonates a district attorney to call G. G. Temple again and find out more, but G. G. Temple hangs up on him.

(This article about Chicago Deadline contains some spoilers.)

The next number that Ed Adams calls belongs to Tommy Ditman, who is shocked by the news of Rosita Jean d’Ur’s death. He is her brother, and he is willing to talk to Ed Adams, at least at first. They do eventually meet at the morgue, where Tommy identifies the body, and then go out for a drink. In a flashback (one of the hallmarks of noir), Tommy is able to fill in a lot of background on Rosita’s personal life, but he becomes disillusioned with Ed and his intentions when the bartender arrives at their table to announce a phone call that promises “juicy” details about Rosita.

From the newspaper offices, Pig and Ed calls a number belonging to Belle, who turns out to be Belle Dorset. She is shocked by the news of Rosita’s death, but she suddenly refuses to talk to Ed and hangs up on him. When he arrives at her place of residence, the Mandor Hotel, he learns that Belle lived in the hotel for about a year but moved out right after his phone call.

Ed Adams next crashes a party and meets someone named Leona Purdy. They are immediately attracted to one another, but Leona lies to Ed and tells him that she met Rosita two or three times at parties. But she has already had a lot to drink at the party before they go out to a bar, where Ed wants her to sober up. He doesn’t really give Leona a chance to go into any more detail because he is intent on pursuing other leads. When he finally takes a moment to visit her, he learns that Leona and Rosita were once roommates, and she tells her part in Rosita’s story in another flashback.

Ed’s next stop is Solly Wellman’s apartment. Solly Wellman remembers Rosita fondly at first, but he clams up when Ed presses for more information. Now, Wellman denies ever knowing Rosita. He is so angry about Ed’s insistence that they get into a fistfight, and Ed is shown the door more confused than ever. Rosita knew several people, but they either deny knowing her or disappear before Ed can find out anything more about Rosita.

Ed has barely started using Rosita’s diary as a source for leads, but he has already tracked down several people connected to her. What follows is a complicated search for the truth about her and the details of her life. He inadvertently uncovers corruption, mob connections, murder, blackmail, domestic violence, and more. Ed Adams himself is threatened for pursuing the story, and he is beaten and left in an empty city lot because he refuses to stop. What started as a possible news story turns into a personal crusade for Ed. He hasn’t written his own newspaper story yet, and he starts to dislike how Rosita is presented in the papers by other journalists, even some on his own staff.

I read online that many compared Chicago Deadline to Laura (1944). It’s true that an investigative reporter finds a dead body and becomes obsessed with her story in Chicago Deadline, and a police detective becomes obsessed with a murder victim and her story in Laura, but that was the end of the connection for me. I never really felt that Ed Adams had fallen in love with Rosita Jean d’Ur. At the end of the film, he burns Rosita’s diary and leaves with Leona Purdy. He has found his story (although he leaves it with her brother Tommy instead of publishing it) and moves on. Detective Mark McPherson learns that his murder victim, Laura Hunt, is actually very much alive, and the two of them fall in love. I think the comparison was made mostly to ride the success of Laura.

I enjoyed Chicago Deadline more and more with each viewing. I’m sure that I would find more details in the story if I watched it just one more time. It’s a short tight story that works really well. Alan Ladd and Donna Reed were already big stars when the film was produced, especially Ladd, so it is a bit surprising that the film isn’t more well known.

For present-day viewers, smudgy dark prints were all that were available until recently, and they don’t provide a very pleasant viewing experience. But Kino Lorber released Chicago Deadline on Blu-ray in January 2024 (see my note above). I would definitely go with the Blu-ray version over the prints at the Internet Archive. But the subtitles on the Blu-ray aren’t always accurate, so don’t rely on them only. Trust your ears, too! For example, it’s Aunt Maggie, not Miss Maggie, that the housekeeper cries out when she discovers Rosita’s body, and G. G. Temple is an executive with power at Iroquois Trust, not Aykroyd Trust.

The audio commentary provided by film historian Alan K. Rode on the Blu-ray is filled with great details. Here is a short list of some of them:

◊ Donna Reed makes her film entrance as a sheet-covered corpse, which was unusual at the time.

◊ The implication that Rosita, Leona, and other female characters were prostitutes was eliminated because of Joseph Breen and the production code. The diary was almost eliminated for the same reason (why would any woman have so many names listed?), but it was retained after all because Paramount overrode Breen’s objections to it.

◊ The newspaper reporter role of Ed Adams is tailored for Alan Ladd’s noir persona. Ed Adams is a working-class reporter.

◊ Alan Ladd and Donna Reed never appear on-screen together.

Rode also mentions that Celia Lovsky plays Mrs. Scheffler, the owner of the pawnshop that Ed Adams during his investigation in to Rosita’s life and death. She is in an uncredited role, and Rode says something about her skill in dragging out the scene to increase her time on-screen, but he missed the point of this scene. Mrs. Scheffler counts the bills, the change, slowly because she is hiding Rosita’s diary, which is on the counter. Adams had left it there during his discussion with Mrs. Scheffler about Rosita when Detective Anstruder and one of his men enters the pawnshop looking for Adams. Mrs. Scheffler is inclined to help Adams because he has grown fond of Rosita, even though he has never met her and because Mrs. Scheffler liked her, too. So she hides the diary with the bills and hands it back to him with his change.

But Rode’s mistake simply illustrates what I have said before about many films noir and about Chicago Deadline, too: Details mean everything in these short, black-and-white films. And now that I think about it, maybe those details were a lot easier to spot on the large screens that were the norm in theaters in the 1940s. We present-day viewers should be more visually oriented with all our screen time, but it may also be true that some films are sophisticated enough to make watching them again and again a real pleasure. Chicago Deadline is one of those films.

November 3, 1949, release date  •  Directed by Lewis Allen  •  Screenplay by Warren Duff  •  Based on the novel One Woman by Tiffany Thayer  •  Music by Victor Young  • Edited by LeRoy Stone  •  Cinematography by John F. Seitz

Alan Ladd as Ed Adams  •  Donna Reed as Rosita Jean d’Ur  •  June Havoc as Leona Purdy  •  Irene Hervey as Belle Dorset  •  Arthur Kennedy as Tommy Ditman  •  Berry Kroeger as Solly Wellman  •  Harold Vermilyea as Detective Lieutenant Jack Anstruder  •  Shepperd Strudwick as Blacky Frenchot  •  Dave Willock as Pig, newspaper reporter  •  Gavin Muir as G. G. Temple  •  John Beal as Paul Jean d’Ur  •  Tom Powers as Glenn Howard  •  Howard Freeman as Hotspur Shaner  •  Paul Lees as Bat Bennett  •  Margaret Field as Minerva  •  Harry Antrim as George Gribbe  •  Roy Roberts as Jerry Cavanaugh  •  Marietta Canty as Hazel  •  Celia Lovsky as Mrs. Scheffler

Distributed by Paramount Pictures  •  Produced by Paramount Pictures

Chicago Calling (1951)

Chicago Calling begins with shots of technology that is fast becoming obsolete—still shots of telephone poles and overhead wires (the technology of landline telephone communication)—and jumbled conversations on the soundtrack. The jumbled conversations gradually become more distinct, until one telephone operator (a job that was once plentiful and apparently still exists, according to my online search) says, twice, “Chicago calling.” She introduces the film with its title.

(This article about Chicago Calling contains all the spoilers.)

A voice-over narrator introduces the main characters by their jobs or what they are doing at the precise moment the film begins, which is 7:23 on this particular morning. The narrator tells viewers, “They were starting the day like any other day, not knowing that they had already been singled out to test a man’s faith in his fellow man.” With these words, the narrator is also introducing the element of fate, one of the hallmark characteristics of noir. And without mentioning the word “fate” once, the narrator explains how this film also revolves around the role of fate.

The man the narrator is talking about is William (“Bill”) Cannon, who is introduced next. Dan Duryea is great in this role, and he definitely carries the film. The plot is driven by his decisions and his actions. When he appears in the film for the first time, he descends a flight of steps in a poor Los Angeles (L.A.) neighborhood. He calls for his daughter Nancy, who is playing in a narrow, half-shadowed alley with other children. Nancy is thrilled to see her father, and when she rushes to greet him, he is concerned about her scrapes and scratches. When he asks her about them, Nancy tells him that she was in a fight with a boy named Roy. Roy told her that she and her mother are leaving L.A. and her father behind, something Nancy doesn’t want to believe.

Bill Cannon goes to his apartment, where he finds his wife Mary packing. Bill never came home the night before, and she is sick of his drinking and his lack of steady employment. Bill begs her not to leave; he tries to remind her of his successes in the war (he is a World War II veteran) and his work in and graduation from a photography school. But Mary cannot be dissuaded.

It’s obvious that Bill and Mary care for one another, but Mary’s patience has its limits. She wants durable proof that Bill can change his ways. In the meantime, Bill pawns his camera to pay for Mary’s and Nancy’s car trip to Baltimore, where Mary’s mother lives. Mary found a ride with people who are driving east and advertised for paying passengers. Bill watches them leave from a hiding place and then goes on a bender.

When Bill arrives home again, a telephone company lineman is at the stairs outside the front door because Bill’s phone line and service is to be cut off for nonpayment of past bills. Bill invites the lineman in, but he receives a telegram: Nancy has been seriously injured in a car accident outside Chicago, and Mary will phone with updates. He begs the telephone lineman to let him keep the phone line so that Mary can reach him. The lineman agrees to help him.

Bill spends the rest of his day looking for a way to pay his telephone bill. He finds his friend Pete at work and asks for money, but he already owes Pete money, and Pete cannot afford to lend him more. He begs for an extension on his bill at the telephone company’s offices. He explains his story to Peggy, a waitress at a food truck. She feels sorry for him and gives him five dollars. A young boy named Bobby accidentally hits Smitty, Bill’s dog, with his bike and helps Bill take the dog home. Bobby tells Bill that his doesn’t have any parents; he lives with his older sister, Barbara.

When Bobby was introduced at the start of the film, he was described as working at a market. He looks about nine or ten years old, and he is already working. Bobby offers to give his savings to Bill. They go to the home that he shares with his sister, but he cannot find his piggy bank. The sister’s boyfriend, Art, is asleep in Bobby’s room, and his money clip is on the bed next to him. Bill is tempted but doesn’t take the money. Bobby does take it; he tells Bill that he will replace the money when he finds his piggy bank.

This news weighs heavily on Bill. He appreciates Bobby’s willingness to help, but he doesn’t want the help to come this way. He goes back to Bobby’s house and tells him that he doesn’t want Bobby to steal anything ever again and that he plans to return the money to Art. He doesn’t want Bobby to lie about what happened with the money because he will eventually lie to himself, and before long, he will start believing his own lies. He doesn’t want that to happen to Bobby because he has done it to himself.

Art and the sister return home while Bill is talking to Bobby, and Art accuses Bill of stealing his money. Bill returns the money, while Bobby insists that he was the one who stole it. His sister is furious with both of them, and she and her boyfriend are quick to assign blame. Art calls the police.

Bill and Bobby return to Bill’s apartment. Two police detectives knock on his door with an arrest warrant. But his phone rings: The telephone company lineman is on the pole outside the apartment calling Bill’s number to tell him the line is still open. And Mary calls while the two police detectives are still in the apartment. They let him take the call, and Bill learns that Nancy has died after the car accident outside Chicago. One of the detectives calls police headquarters to arrange it so Bill isn’t arrested after all. But Bill is despondent after finding out about his daughter. He walks the streets aimlessly, with Bobby following him in desperation.

Near the end of Chicago Calling is an amazing sequence in which Bobby throws himself on the barren dirt of a railroad yard and screams for Bill not to hurt himself. The sequence is amazing for a couple of reasons. One is the emotion portrayed by the young actor Gordon Gebert, who plays Bobby. The other is the image of the young boy in complete despair with the train racing past, alternately taking up almost the entire frame and showing just enough to allow Bobby to scream silently because he cannot be heard over the roar of the train. He is inconsolable, and a railroad engineer on the scene can do little to help him. The sequence is emotionally wrenching even today, but it must have been doubly wrenching, even alarming, to see on the big screen in 1951, when films were shown in movie palaces with a single screen taking up the front of the auditorium.

A lot about Chicago Calling qualifies it as a family drama, but it is also a film noir, and one reason is that it certainly doesn’t involve typical family structures for a family drama. Bill and Mary Cannon are still in love with one another, but she leaves him anyway, and some would say for good reasons. He is a heavy drinker, and he cannot seem to hold a job for longer than a few days. He is a World War II veteran, and it is possible the film is pointing out problems for many returning soldiers that were not addressed at the time.

Bobby, the young boy who becomes attached to Bill, is on his own. He works at a market, and there isn’t any evidence that he ever attends school. He is an orphan, and no explanation is given for what happened to his parents. He lives with his older sister, who treats him badly. She tells him that she will send him away once she gets married. When he tells this to Bill, Bill is dismayed, but Bobby is looking forward to getting away from his sister. He and Bill eventually form a family of their own that is not based on biological ties: They simply care about one another.

The plot of the film revolves around practically obsolete technology for viewers in 2025, but that is irrelevant as far as the drama is concerned. The actors’ emotions and their believability do not suffer because the story was filmed in 1951. When Bill tells the railroad engineer that Bobby is his son, the engineer believes him. Bill might not be Bobby’s biological father, but it is clear that there is a real attachment between them. Bill struggles to find enough money to pay his telephone bill, only to hear the harrowing news about the death of his daughter, so it’s a relief that the film ends on a positive note, with Bill making a new connection with a young boy who clearly needs him.

December 31, 1951 (Chicago), January 11, 1952 (United States), release dates  •  Directed by John Reinhardt  •  Screenplay by John Reinhardt, Peter Berneis  •  Music by Heinz Roemheld  •  Edited by Arthur H. Nadel  •  Cinematography by Robert de Grasse

Dan Duryea as William (“Bill”) R. Cannon  •  Mary Anderson as Mary Cannon  •  Gordon Gebert as Bobby Kimball  •  Ross Elliott as Jim, the telephone company worker  •  Melinda Plowman as Nancy Cannon  •  Judy Brubaker as Barbara (“Babs”) Kimball  •  Marsha Jones as Peggy  •  Roy Engel as Pete  •  Jean Harvey as Christine  •  Bob Fallon as Art

Distributed by United Artists  •  Produced by Arrowhead Pictures