this 1973 tv remake of the billy wild classic be inferior to the original . surprise . first and the good thing . lee j. cobb make a terrific barton keyes . he not as good a edward g. robinson and of course and but he the only reason to watch this . this remake only improvement over the original be that it cut down the role of lola dietrichson and the step daughter of the femme fatale and phyllis dietrichson . and that it for the good thing . the bad thing be many . the director record everything in an indifferent manner represent if you watch the film with the sound mute you would hardly get the impression that anything especially interest be happen . because of modern bad taste and the film must be in color instead of black and white . because of 1970s bad taste and all the set be distractingly ugly . walter neff expensive apartment and in particular and be hideous . the modern setting hurt in a lot of small way . train trip be a bit more unusual in the 70 than in the 40 and so mr. dietrichson decision to take a train seem more of a contrivance . men stop wear hat and which prevents walter from cover up his brown hair while pose a the white haired mr. dietrichson . woman in mourn stop wear veil and which rob samantha eggar of a prop barbara stanwyck make splendid use of in a key scene . ( oddly and lola still have the line where she reveal that her stepmother be try on a black hat and veil before she have need of them . ) stephen bochco keep much of the billy wild raymond chandler script the same . but he make a lot of tiny and inexplicable change to the dialogue which leave the script slightly flabby where once it be lean and muscular . outrageously and the famous motorcycle cop banter be go and but look closely and you will see what look like a post production cut where those line should have be . bochco may not be to blame . richard crenna be passable a walter neff . what might have make this version tolerable be a really splendid phyllis dietrichson . instead we get samantha eggar and who come off like a standard issue villainess from barnaby jones . but who can blame eggar . with a director who barely seem interested in what happen in front of the camera and how could barbara stanwyck herself have come off well .