Acting
Barney Miller is the kind of cop we'd all like to run into. Always sensible, he maintains order over a band of detectives who gamble, hit on anything in skirts, go to renaissance philosophy conventions for fun, and would really prefer to be writing. Nearly all of the action takes place in the squad room where citizens and criminals are brought in to complicate the mix.
Joe Louis, portraying himself, is a good influence on a group of Harlem youths who are tempted to "go bad" by a gangster known as Caper, an older brother of one of the youths.
Pigmeat and Shorty, who own "Pigmeat and Shorty's Bootery", are told by their landlord to either pay up or get out. They get caught trying to short-count him, and he threatens to have them arrested. After a series of disasters--they ruin a customer's suit, their store blows up--they get a telegram notifying them that a man they once did a kindness for has left them quite a bit of money and a house, but in order to get the inheritance, they have to spend a night in the bedroom of the man's house. When they arrive there, they notice two things--the place is kind of creepy and a series of spooky incidents leaves them to believe the house is haunted.
Night club singer Nelle Hill has many suitors an escaped convict, a piano player and a newspaper man. One is killed. With musical shorts such as “Murder in Swingtime,” “Black and Tan Fantasy,” “Symphony in Black,” and “Ain’t Misbehaving.”
