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Some European publicity materials for the film , including posters and lobby card sets , advertised the film as Tenebre , and the 1999 Anchor Bay DVD release uses that same title . However , on the print itself , during the opening credits , the title is clearly Tenebrae . In addition , the title of Neal 's latest book in the film is shown in closeup as being Tenebrae . In a lengthy interview with Argento conducted by Martin Coxhead that appeared in two issues of Fangoria in 1983 and 1984 , the title was always referred to as " Tenebrae " . Early on in production , the film as referred to as Under the Eyes of the Assassin , which was later used as one of the poster taglines . In Japan , the film was released as Shadows , and in the United States it was released as Unsane in its initial – heavily edited – incarnation .
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= = Soundtrack = =
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The Italian rock band Goblin had provided the scores for two of Argento 's previous films , Deep Red ( 1975 ) and Suspiria ( 1977 ) , but the director had employed English composer Keith Emerson for his foray outside of the giallo subgenre , 1980 's Inferno . Goblin had disbanded that year , but in 1982 Argento asked three of the band 's former members – Claudio Simonetti , Fabio Pignatelli and Massimo Morante – to work on Tenebrae . Owing to their history together , Simonetti felt it appropriate that Argento 's return to giallo films should utilise the core members of Goblin . The resulting synth @-@ driven score was credited to " Simonetti @-@ Pignatelli @-@ Morante " , as Goblin 's former drummer owned the rights to use the band 's name .
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Tenebrae 's score is very different to those the band had produced for Argento previously . The early 1980s had seen Simonetti experimenting with dance music , and he decided on a more electronic sound for Tenebrae . Simonetti described the score as an electronica / rock hybrid , with the main theme including disco elements . So it would not be difficult to accommodate Argento 's preference for long takes , Simonetti , Pignatelli and Morante made sure to play each song for 3 – 4 minutes . Recording the score , Simonetti used the Roland Jupiter @-@ 8 , Roland Vocoder Plus and Minimoog synthesizers , as well as a piano , electric piano , the Oberheim DMX digital drum , a Roland TR @-@ 808 drum machine , and Roland MC @-@ 4 music sequencer . Pignatelli played bass and fretless guitar , while Morante played electric and acoustic guitar .
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While the soundtrack is not as well regarded as Goblin 's earlier scores for Deep Red , Suspiria , or Dawn of the Dead ( 1978 ) , Tim Lucas felt it " ... so fused to the fabric of the picture that Tenebrae might be termed ... a giallo musicale ; that is , a giallo in which the soundtrack transcends mere accompaniment to occupy the same plane as the action and characters . " Writers David Kerekes and David Slater were also favorable to the score ; writing that the film " bristles with arresting imagery and a cracking musical score from ex @-@ members of Goblin " . Simonetti felt the score was good , but that it was only a " medium " -level success . However , it did enjoy a second wave of popularity being remixed in clubs . The album has had multiple reissues in numerous countries since its original release in 1982 on the Italian <unk> label . That version consisted of only eight tracks . In 1997 , <unk> issued a greatly expanded version on CD , including eleven bonus tracks , with a running time of over an hour . In 2004 , the expanded CD was released in the US on the Armadillo Music label . In 2012 it was released again on vinyl by AMS Records ( Italy ) .
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= = Release = =
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= = = Original reception and censorship = = =
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Tenebrae had a wide theatrical release throughout Italy and mainland Europe , something the director very much needed after having suffered major distribution problems with his previous film , Inferno . Released on 28 October 1982 , Tenebrae saw modest success at the box office in Italy and Europe , but it did not perform as well as some of Argento 's previous films . In Italy , Tenebrae had been released with a VM18 rating , meaning it could not be seen legally by persons under the age of eighteen . Argento had desired a <unk> rating , both to attract a younger audience and to increase the film 's chances of commercial success . Tenebrae features scenes of female homosexuality ; attitudes towards homosexuality in Italy were fairly conservative at the time , and Argento said he wanted to " recount this subject freely and in an open manner , without interference or being ashamed " . The VM18 rating upset him , as he believed it was a result of the sexual diversity on display rather than the film 's violence .
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One of the film 's most excessively violent scenes features the death of Neal 's ex @-@ wife , Jane ( played by Veronica Lario ) . This scene was one which suffered the most from cuts when the film was first released in Italy . The original scene featured Jane 's arm being cut off at the elbow ; blood sprays from the wound onto white walls until the character falls to the floor . After a back @-@ and @-@ forth between Argento and Italian censors ( at the time a panel of judges ) , the scene was first trimmed from showing an " immense " spray to a small one , then a smaller one still . The scene was cut to almost nothing in the 1990s , when Lario married future Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . According to Alan Jones , Berlusconi " did not want the public seeing [ Lario ] so explicitly murdered , even if it was in a film by his country 's premier horror expert " . For a few years , it was impossible to see the film in Italy legally , as prints were withdrawn altogether . A later DVD release did become available , with the scene restored .
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Averaging a murder every ten minutes , Tenebrae ranks as one of Argento 's bloodiest films . In the United Kingdom , the film was shorn of five seconds of " sexualized violence " by the British Board of Film Classification prior to its theatrical release , on 19 May 1983 . The advertising campaign for Tenebrae featured posters and a soundtrack sleeve depicting a woman with her throat cut , blood dripping from the wound . According to Jones , who worked for Tenebrae 's distributor at the time , in the UK the posters had to be recalled after the London Underground refused to run them . New posters were issued that replaced the image of the wound and blood with a red ribbon . A similar change was made to the soundtrack sleeve .
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In the United States the film remained unseen in the US until 1984 , when Bedford Entertainment briefly released a heavily edited version under the title Unsane . It was approximately ten minutes shorter than the European release and was missing nearly all of the film 's violence , which effectively rendered the numerous horror sequences incomprehensible . In addition , certain scenes that established the characters and their relationships were excised , making the film 's narrative difficult to follow . This version of Tenebrae received nearly unanimously negative reviews .
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= = = Home media and " video nasty " list = = =
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Tenebrae has been released on home media in many different versions in numerous territories . In 1983 , when the VHS edition was released in the United Kingdom , it was short by about four seconds . However , the film soon found itself included in a list of thirty @-@ nine so @-@ called " video nasties " that were successfully prosecuted and banned from sale in UK video stores under the Video Recordings Act 1984 . Deemed harmful to audiences , " video nasties " were strongly criticised for their violent content by the press , social commentators and various religious organizations . <unk> in 2011 , Thomas Rostock said that the higher @-@ than @-@ usual murder count for an Argento film was partially responsible , while James Gracey believed it was perhaps " the highly sexualised presentation of its violent content " . He went on to say , " Of all the titles placed on the video nasty list , Tenebrae is perhaps the most misunderstood and undeserving of the grimy status it gained through its association with the whole debacle . " Kim Newman agreed that Tenebrae 's reputation as a " video nasty " was unwarranted , saying that none of the on @-@ screen deaths are as gory or lingering as those in Argento 's previous films . He also believed Tenebrae would eventually be remembered on its own merits , rather than as part of the " video nasties " list . Nevertheless , the ban lasted until 1999 , when Tenebrae was legally released on videotape with one second of footage removed in addition to the previously censored five . In 2003 , the BBFC reclassified the film and passed it without any cuts . In Germany , the release was strongly cut , and reportedly seized by the authorities .
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The film has since been released on DVD in the US , mostly uncut save for approximately twenty seconds of extraneous material . Tenebrae received an initial DVD release in March 1999 from Anchor Bay Entertainment , with a re @-@ release in May 2008 . The Anchor Bay release , though presented as " uncut " was not the fully restored version of the film . A DVD German release by Raptor was also missing about one @-@ and @-@ a @-@ half seconds of material . In June 2011 , Arrow Films issued a special edition on DVD , but although the image quality was far better than in previous DVD releases , this version was " heavily lambasted " for carrying a transfer of the film that had visible noise and " distorted audio " . In 2013 , Arrow released a Blu @-@ ray edition that corrected the audio and video problems . Additional corrections were made to the transfer and released by Synapse films in 2016 , as a steelbook edition limited to 3000 copies . The Arrow & Synapse DVD and Blu @-@ ray releases are " completely uncut " .
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= = = Later reception = = =
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Tenebrae is now considered by many fans and critics to be one of Argento 's best films , with some considering it his last great one . AllMovie refers to the film " one of Dario Argento 's best thrillers " . Commenting in 1994 , Maitland McDonagh said Tenebrae was " in many respects ... the finest film that Argento has ever made . " Richard Dyer , writing for the Directory of World Cinema : Italy , describes the film as a " tease " , one which is " perhaps the apotheosis of one of the core pleasures of detective fiction : being outwitted , wrong @-@ footed , led up the garden path " , and believed that the degree of lighting used in the film was unsurpassed . Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine said that Tenebrae " is a riveting defense of auteur theory , ripe with self @-@ reflexive discourse and various moral conflicts . It 's both a riveting horror film and an architect 's worst nightmare . " Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club noted " ... Argento makes some points about the intersection of art , reality , and personality , but the director 's stunning trademark setpieces , presented here in a fully restored version , provide the real reason to watch . " Almar Haflidason , in a review for BBC Online , opined , " <unk> beautiful and viciously exciting , welcome to true terror with Dario Argento 's shockingly relentless Tenebrae . " Tim Lucas in Video Watchdog said , " Though it is in some ways as artificial and deliberate as a De Palma thriller , Tenebrae contains more likeable characters , believable relationships , and more emphasis on the erotic than can be found in any other Argento film . " Gordon Sullivan of DVD Verdict wrote , " Tenebre is a straight @-@ up giallo in the old @-@ school tradition . It may have been filmed in 1982 , but it comes straight out of the ' 70s tradition . We 've got all the usual suspects , including a writer for a main character , lots of killer @-@ cam point of view , some crazily over the top kills , and approximately seventy @-@ two twists before all is revealed ... For fans of Argento 's earlier giallo , this is a must @-@ see . "
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Not all of the recent critical reaction to Tenebrae has been positive . Geoff Andrew of Time Out thought that the film was " unpleasant even by contemporary horror standards " . John Kenneth Muir , author of Horror Films of the 1980s , considers the film to be far inferior to Suspiria , but acknowledges that it was so " unremittingly gory " that it justified its US title of " Unsane " . John Wiley Martin , although evaluating the film as a " technically mesmeric " one , felt that thematically it was a " disappointingly retrograde step " for Argento . Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com referred to it as a " gory but not particularly effective Argento horror flick " , while Dennis Schwartz dismissed it as trash . Gary Johnson , editor of Images , complained that " Not much of Tenebre makes much sense . The plot becomes little more than an excuse for Argento to stage the murder sequences . And these are some of the bloodiest murders of Argento 's career . " In 2004 , Tim Lucas re @-@ evaluated the film and found that some of his earlier enthusiasm had dimmed considerably , noting that , " Tenebre is beginning to suffer from the cheap 16 mm @-@ like softness of Luciano Tovoli 's cinematography , its sometimes over @-@ storyboarded violence ( the first two murders in particular look stilted ) , the many bewildering lapses in logic ... and the overdone performances of many of its female actors " .
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= = Legacy = =
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Coming at the tail end of the giallo cycle , Tenebrae does not appear to have been as influential as Argento 's earlier films were on subsequent thrillers , though Douglas E. Winter said that Tenebrae 's Louma crane sequence was stylistically influential and was used in Brian De Palma 's The Untouchables ( 1987 ) . In addition , towards the end of the film , with Neal the killer supposedly dead , the camera faces Detective Giermani directly . When he stoops to pick up some evidence from the floor , Neal is revealed to be stood behind him , their silhouettes having perfectly matched in the shot . Alan Jones believes Tenebrae was the first film to use this specific shot , and that it was copied and referenced deliberately in many subsequent films . One such example , discussed as an unacknowledged " steal " from Tenebrae , is De Palma 's " surprise reveal " of John Lithgow standing behind a victim in Raising Cain ( 1992 ) . Robert Zemeckis 's What Lies Beneath ( 2000 ) also contains a very similar moment , although Zemeckis has denied having any familiarity at all with Italian thrillers .
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Neal 's death scene at the end of Tenebrae – where the character is accidentally impaled by a sculpture – is directly referenced in Kenneth Branagh 's Hitchcockian mystery Dead Again ( 1991 ) . Kim Newman says that Branagh 's film imitates so entirely the sequence ( this time with Derek Jacobi as the " victim " of the sculpture ) that Branagh must have included the reference deliberately . The subsequent moment where Nicolodi screams over and over was cited by Asia Argento ( Nicolodi 's daughter with Dario Argento ) as the moment that inspired her to become an actress .
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= Tropical Storm Gert ( 2005 ) =
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Tropical Storm Gert was the fourth of seven tropical cyclones ( 4 hurricanes , two major hurricanes , and four tropical storms ) to make landfall in Mexico during 2005 . It formed in July in the Bay of Campeche , becoming the seventh named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season .
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As a tropical wave , Gert crossed Honduras and the Yucatán peninsula before organizing into Tropical Depression Seven on the afternoon of July 23 in the Bay of Campeche . It was upgraded to Tropical Storm Gert early the next day , gaining the record for the earliest formation of a seventh named storm in an Atlantic hurricane season . Gert strengthened little before making landfall south of Tampico , Tamaulipas , late on July 24 , with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph ( 70 km / h ) and a minimum central pressure of 1005 mbar ( 29 @.@ 68 inHg ) . It moved inland over central Mexico before dissipating on the next day . Gert struck in approximately the same area as Hurricane Emily just four days earlier , causing fear of flooding and landslides due to saturated lands . As a precaution , some 1 @,@ 000 people were evacuated from low @-@ lying residences and businesses near the towns of Naranjos <unk> and Tamiahua .
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= = Meteorological history = =
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A tropical wave entered the Atlantic Ocean from Africa on July 10 , and the wave developed into an area of low pressure while passing over Cape Verde . Despite the organization , the low failed to develop into a tropical cyclone due to cool waters on the sea surface and wind shear . However , those unfavorable conditions did not completely destroy the wave , as it continued traveling westward through the Lesser Antilles until July 18 . That day , while south of Puerto Rico , the wave split in two ; the northern half moved northwest and developed into Tropical Storm Franklin over the Bahamas , and the southern half continued westward , with its associated thunderstorm activity increasing .
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On July 22 , a new low pressure area developed while the tropical wave was located over the Gulf of Honduras . However , this area of disturbed weather was unable to develop further , because the storm quickly moved over the Yucatán Peninsula . After its one @-@ day passage through the peninsula , the system entered the Bay of Campeche , but lacked any deep convection . This time , though , the wave quickly developed the deep convection it needed to become a tropical cyclone . In part , this was due to the Sierra Madre Oriental enhancing large @-@ scale rotation of the disturbance by forcing air to flow parallel to the mountain range , instead of through it . As a result , the National Hurricane Center in Miami , Florida designated it as Tropical Depression Seven , just 255 miles east @-@ southeast of Tuxpan , Mexico . Early on the July 24 , the cyclone was upgraded to a tropical storm with winds of 40 mph ( 65 km / h ) and received the name Gert .
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Gert continued to move northwest after becoming a tropical storm , and reached a peak intensity of 45 mph ( 70 km / h ) and a minimum central pressure of 1005 mbar ( 29 @.@ 68 inHg ) . Gert made landfall just 6 miles ( 10 km ) to the southeast of Pánuco , still at peak intensity , at 10 : 00 p.m. CDT ( 0000 July 25 , UTC ) . However , due to its interaction with land , the storm quickly weakened back to a tropical depression strength early on July 25 , and became a remnant low twelve hours after that . Six hours later , just a day after it made landfall , it dissipated over the mountains of central Mexico .
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= = Preparations = =
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The track of Tropical Storm Gert was slightly more to the north than the National Hurricane Center 's initial predictions , giving the storm more time to develop . As a result , the NHC predicted that Gert could intensify further , but this did not occur . The primary emphasis of the forecasts was on the impact the rainfall from Gert could cause , particularly on this area of Mexico , which had been hit previously in the season by other hurricanes .
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On July 23 , the Mexican Servicio Meteorológico Nacional ( National Weather Service ) issued a tropical storm warning for the eastern Mexican Gulf coast between Palma Sola and Cabo Rojo , as soon as Tropical Depression Seven formed . At that time , a tropical storm watch was issued from Cabo Rojo northward , until reaching La Cruz . That same day , the government of Veracruz declared a state of emergency in 24 municipalities of the state , making money from the National Disaster Fund available to those affected by the storm . As Gert came closer to the littoral , the tropical storm warning was extended northwards to La Cruz , and then to La Pesca , but it was canceled shortly after landfall .
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Tropical Storm Gert struck just south of where Category 3 Hurricane Emily had struck , and where Tropical Storm Bret hit in late June . As a result , there were concerns that serious flooding and mudslides would result due to saturated ground . As a precaution , about 1 @,@ 000 people were evacuated from low @-@ lying residences and businesses near the towns of Naranjos <unk> and Tamiahua in Veracruz , and about 6 @,@ 000 throughout Tamaulipas .
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= = Impact = =
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The highest 24 @-@ hour rainfall reports were 214 @.@ 9 mm ( 8 @.@ 46 in ) in <unk> , San Luis Potosí , and 185 @.@ 2 mm ( 7 @.@ 29 in ) in <unk> , Tamaulipas . In Veracruz , the highest precipitation reading associated with Gert was 117 mm , ( 4 @.@ 61 in ) in El Higo . However , damage overall was minimal , amounting to $ 6 million ( 2005 USD , $ 60 million 2005 MXN ) , and there was only one reported fatality , from a man who was carried away by the La Silla River when he was pushing a stalled car across the flooded stream .
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= = = Tamaulipas = = =
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According to the government of Tamaulipas , most of the damage in the state was in farmland and in residents ' dwellings , primarily near Matamoros , Valle Hermoso , Reynosa and San Fernando . In Matamoros , part of the city lost power and running water ; in Valle Hermoso , two schools were damaged ; in Reynosa , 180 people were evacuated from low @-@ lying areas in five districts of the city , while in San Fernando , the main highway through the city was closed , and traffic on the bridge over the Conchos River was restricted to one lane .
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In Mier , the spillway of the Las Blancas Dam was overtopped , causing a river bridge to be destroyed and electric power to be lost , as well . In Río Bravo , 50 families were evacuated as seven collective farms became hard to reach by road ; approximately 90 % of the residences in the farms were affected by the storm . In Altamira , 200 families were evacuated as well , and relocated to seven shelters . Also , in the municipalities of Burgos , <unk> , and Méndez there was flooding in collective farms and family dwellings . Overall , the municipalities of Mier , Reynosa , Río Bravo , Valle Hermoso , Matamoros , San Fernando , San Carlos , Burgos , <unk> , Méndez , Soto la Marina , Mante and Altamira were affected in the state , losing potable water and electricity .
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After the storm , the state government promised to take the necessary steps to prevent an outbreak of dengue and West Nile virus ; however , by June 29 , there had already been 187 cases of classic dengue , and 29 of hemorrhagic dengue , up from 8 cases two years before , and none the previous year .
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= = = Nuevo León = = =
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In Nuevo León , about 6 @,@ 000 residents who lived near the Conchos , <unk> , and Grande Rivers were evacuated from their residences across the state . Also , the precipitation from Gert caused about 100 collective farms to become isolated from the rest of the state in the municipality of Montemorelos . In the city , one building was evacuated , as a 100 ft ( 30 m ) fissure appeared on the ground near the structure .
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In the municipalities of San Vicente <unk> , Valles and <unk> , 100 people were evacuated .
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= Gone for Goode =
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" Gone for Goode " is the first episode of the first season of the American police drama television series Homicide : Life on the Street . It originally aired on NBC in the United States on January 31 , 1993 , immediately following Super Bowl XXVII . The episode was written by series creator Paul Attanasio and directed by executive producer Barry Levinson . " Gone for Goode " introduced regular cast members Daniel Baldwin , Ned Beatty , Richard Belzer , Andre Braugher , Wendy Hughes , Clark Johnson , Yaphet Kotto , Melissa Leo , Jon Polito and Kyle Secor .
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The episode connects several subplots involving the detectives of a Baltimore Police Department homicide unit and establishes story arcs that continued through the first season . Among them are an investigation by Meldrick Lewis ( Johnson ) and Steve Crosetti ( Polito ) into a widow killing husbands for insurance money , as well as rookie Tim Bayliss ( Secor ) being assigned the murder of an 11 @-@ year @-@ old girl for his first case . Both of those subplots were taken directly from Homicide : A Year on the Killing Streets , the 1991 David Simon non @-@ fiction book from which the series was adapted .
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" Gone for Goode " was seen by 18 @.@ 24 million viewers , the largest viewership of the first season , although NBC was initially disappointed with the ratings . The episode received generally positive reviews upon its original broadcast . Barry Levinson won an Emmy Award for his direction in " Gone for Goode " , and was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award . Paul Attanasio received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for the episode 's script .
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= = Plot summary = =
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The episode opens with Lewis ( Clark Johnson ) and Crosetti ( Jon Polito ) looking for a projectile a few yards away from the body of a man shot to death . The man 's girlfriend ( Oni <unk> Lampley ) , who was shot in the head during the incident but survived , tells police during questioning that her aunt Calpurnia Church hired a hitman to kill her for insurance money . The detectives learn Church previously collected life insurance from five deceased husbands . Suspecting Church of murdering her husbands , Lewis and Crosetti have the body of her most recent husband exhumed for an autopsy , but reach a dead @-@ end when it turns out to be the wrong body in his grave .
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Felton ( Daniel Baldwin ) hesitates to take a new murder case because he fears it will be too difficult to solve , so it is taken on by his partner Howard ( Melissa Leo ) , who has recently experienced a perfect streak of solving 11 consecutive cases . They investigate the body of a man dead in a basement , and much to Felton 's bewilderment , Howard solves the case easily . The owner of the house , Jerry <unk> ( Jim <unk> ) , literally calls her at the house while she is investigating and agrees to a police interview , during which he acts extremely nervous and is eventually charged with the murder .
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Munch ( Richard Belzer ) is reluctant to follow up on the case of murdered drug addict Jenny Goode , who was run over by a car . The case has been cold for three months , but he is made to feel guilty by his partner Bolander ( Ned Beatty ) into reexamining it . Munch makes no progress after speaking with the family and reexamining notes . Based on witness accounts of a man with long blond hair and a black car , Munch spends all night looking through suspect photos until he finds a man with a black car with front end damage and long black hair , but blond eyebrows . Munch and Bolander question him , believing the suspect ( Joe Hansard ) to have dyed his hair to change his appearance after killing the woman . He quickly confesses to having hit her accidentally while driving drunk .
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Gee ( Yaphet Kotto ) tells Pembleton ( Andre Braugher ) , an excellent detective but a lone wolf , that he must work with a partner . Pembleton ends up investigating the death of a 65 @-@ year @-@ old man with rookie detective Bayliss ( Kyle Secor ) . Bayliss initially believes the death to be a heart attack , but Pembleton correctly determines it is a murder because the man 's car is missing . Police later arrest a man named Johnny ( Alexander Chaplin ) who is found driving the dead man 's car . During an interrogation , Pembleton fools Johnny into waiving his Miranda Rights , then sneakily persuades him into confessing to the murder . Bayliss , although convinced of Johnny 's guilt , nevertheless questions the ethics of Pembleton 's approach , prompting Pembleton to yell angrily at him in front of the other officers . The episode ends with Bayliss responding to his first homicide as the primary detective : the brutal murder of an 11 @-@ year @-@ old girl named Adena Watson .
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= = Production = =
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= = = Development and writing = = =
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" Gone for Goode " was written by series creator Paul Attanasio and directed by executive producer Barry Levinson . Levinson was seeking to create a television series based on Homicide : A Year on the Killing Streets , a 1991 non @-@ fiction book by David Simon based on one year he spent with Baltimore Police Department homicide detectives . Levinson and fellow executive producer Tom Fontana hired Attanasio to adapt elements of the book into the teleplay for the first episode . It was first television script Attanasio ever wrote . The episode was shot by director of photography Wayne Ewing . Stan <unk> started out working as editor , but departed before the process was done due to creative differences with Levinson . Tony Black finished the editing for " Gone for Goode " , but did not return for the rest of the season , and Jay Rabinowitz worked as editor for the remaining episodes . The costumes for the episode were designed by Van Smith , but he also did not return to work on subsequent episodes . Although it was first episode of Homicide : Life on the Street , it was not technically a television pilot because the network had already ordered a full season of episodes before " Gone for Goode " was produced . The first episode was noted at the time for weaving four separate storylines into a single episode , the first in a trend of multiple subplots in each Homicide show . NBC executives indicated to Attanasio and Levinson they would have preferred the script to focus on a single homicide case rather than four , but ultimately allowed the script to be filmed with all subplots included . Additionally , despite intense advance promotion of the Homicide premiere , Attanasio deliberately sought to introduce the show with little fanfare , avoiding sensational gimmicks in favor of character @-@ driven plot , quirky dialogue and morbid dark humor .
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" Gone for Goode " included several storylines , and even exact bits of dialogue , adapted straight from Homicide : A Year on the Killing Streets . Among them were the investigation into Calpurnia Smith , an elderly woman suspected of murdering five husbands in order to collect their life insurance policies . This was based on the real @-@ life case of Geraldine Parrish , who was also accused of killing five husbands for insurance money , and was eventually convicted for three of their deaths . A scene involving a funeral director accidentally exhuming the wrong body while investigating the Church case mirrored a similar situation described in Homicide : A Year on the Killing Streets from the Parrish case . The Adena Watson murder case , which is assigned to Bayliss in the final scene of " Gone for Goode " , was adapted from the unsolved 1988 slaying of Latonya Kim Wallace , which made up a major part of the book . The Watson case became an important story arc throughout the first season which ended without the case being solved . The hit @-@ and @-@ run murder of Jenny Goode was also based on Simon 's book , and the murder of the elderly man was inspired by a case featured in the book in which a young homosexual man killed his elderly lover and stole his car .
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Attanasio also based the characters in Homicide on the detectives featured in Simon 's book . The difficulties Bayliss experienced with the case , as well as the extremely personal approach he took in attempting to solve it , were inspired by the real @-@ life Baltimore detective Tom Pellegrini , who was the primary detective in the Wallace case . Most of the detectives featured in the Homicide book said they were happy with their on @-@ screen counterparts , although Detective Harry Edgerton , the inspiration for Frank Pembleton , objected to a scene in " Gone for Goode " in which the character drinks milk in a bar , something Edgerton said he never does .
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The episode opens with Crosetti and Lewis looking for clues in a dark alley . Levinson and Attanasio specifically wanted a dialogue @-@ driven prologue scene that did not immediately clarify the fact that the two men were detectives or what they were looking for . The dialogue and staging of the scene were imitated in the final scene of the last Homicide episode , " Forgive Us Our Trespasses " , which aired on May 21 , 1999 . In that final scene , Detective Rene Sheppard ( played by Michael Michele ) says to Lewis , " Life is a mystery , just accept it " , a line spoken by Crosetti in the first episode . Lewis also said , " That 's what 's wrong with this job . It ain 't got nothin ' to do do with life " , a line also spoken by Crosetti in the first episode . Early scenes in " Gone for Goode " also involved Giardello introducing rookie detective Bayliss to the homicide unit . Attanasio sought to use Bayliss ' orientation as a way of introducing exposition and background about the show to the viewer as well .
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In writing the script , Attanasio , Levinson and Fontana wanted the dialogue to reflect the kinds of things detectives would talk about when not discussing murders or cases , which led to the inclusion of several scenes in which detectives talk casually among themselves during lunch or around the office . Fontana , who compared the scenes to Levinson 's 1982 film Diner , said , " That really made the show different from other shows , because we had the room to have conversations that seemingly didn 't ( <unk> ) connect anything , but they did reveal a lot about the characters . " Levinson specifically asked that the body by Howard and Felton be badly decomposing and attracting flies because he felt other police dramas did not portray corpses in a realistic way .
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= = = Photography style = = =
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Levinson and Fontana sought to establish many of the stylistic elements in the episode which would define the series for its entire run . Among them were near @-@ constant movement with hand @-@ held Super 16 cameras to give the episode a naturalistic documentary look and an editing style involving jump cuts that was unusual for television at the time . Levinson said this camera and editing style was partially inspired by Breathless , the 1960 Jean @-@ Luc Godard film . The scenes were shot on @-@ location in Baltimore , as would be the case throughout the duration of the series . The use of hand @-@ held cameras allowed the film to be shot more easily in the city , rather than on a sound @-@ stage in Los Angeles or New York City , where most shows are typically shot . Levinson said being on location at all times allowed Baltimore " to be a character in the show " .
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While filming the episode , Levinson said he would simply allow the actors to perform while he switched back and forth between them with the hand @-@ held camera instead of filming carefully planned shots and individual scenes from multiple angles . This camera style largely persisted through the end of the series in 1999 . Some individual scenes involved a number of jump cuts repeated several times in fast succession . Another unusual stylistic element used in the episode involved sudden changes in jump @-@ screen direction ; a shot with an actor looking from left to right might immediately jump to another shot of the same actor looking from right to left . This process was born during the editing sessions for " Gone for Goode " , where Levinson insisted that the footage be edited to include the actor 's best performances . During editing , Tony Black cut together two shots that did not match and began looking for a cutaway shot he could use to disguise the edit . Levinson , however , liked the technique that came from cutting the two conflicting shots together and insisted it stay in .
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In addition to stylistic touches , the episode established several narrative motifs that stayed with Homicide : Life on the Street throughout the duration of the series . Among them was the white board where detectives kept the names of their open cases in red and their closed cases in black . The names of NBC employees and friends of the Homicide crew were used on the white board . The episode was noted for its deliberate lack of gunplay and car chases in favor of dialogue and story . Levinson and Fontana also allowed humor to be incorporated into the show , particularly through the interactions between the detectives ; Levinson said of the first episode , " We have to inform the audience , but at the same time you want to do it with a sense of humor so you don 't seem too pretentious , in a way . " Several long @-@ standing character traits were established in " Gone for Goode " , including Kay Howard 's extraordinary streak of solved cases and the antagonism between Felton and Pembleton , which is demonstrated when the two argue loudly after being assigned to a case together . The animosity between Felton and Pembleton is based on the real @-@ life Detective Donald Kincaid , who was the inspiration behind Felton , and the strong dislike Kincaid had for Harry Edgerton , as chronicled in Homicide : A Year on the Killing Streets . Howard 's perfect streak is based on a similar ( although shorter ) lucky streak experienced by the real @-@ life Detective Rich Garvey , who is also featured in David Simon 's book .
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