Crime Story/Pauli Taglia's Dream

Pauli Taglia's Dream
Season 2, Episode 15
Airdate	March 8, 1988
Teleplay by	Tom Towler & Ken Solarz
Story by	Michael Mann
Directed by	Jeff Stein
← 2x14 Last Rites	2x16 → Roadrunner
Crime Story — Season Two

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Pauli Taglia's Dream is the fifteenth episode of the second season of Crime Story, and the thirty-seventh episode overall.

Starring: Dennis Farina (Lt. Mike Torello (archive footage)), Anthony Denison (Ray Luca), Bill Smitrovich (Sgt. Danny Krychek (archive footage)), John Santucci (Pauli Taglia), Steve Ryan (Det. Nate Grossman (archive footage)), Bill Campbell (Det. Joey Indelli (archive footage)), Paul Butler (Det. Walter Clemmons (archive footage))

and Starring: Stephen Lang (David Abrams (archive footage))

with Johann Carlo (Cory Luca (archive footage)), Ted Levine (Frank Holman (archive footage)), Jay O. Sanders (Steven Kordo (archive footage)), Andrew Dice Clay (Max Goldman (archive footage))

Guest Stars: Audrey Matson (Donna (archive footage)), Jimmie Ray Weeks (), Andreas Katsulas (), John Dennis Johnston ()

and Renee Coleman ()

Co-Starring: Nick Eldredge (2nd Doctor), Scanlon Gail (Clampet), James Lashly (Warner), Nestor Serrano (Messenger)

Featuring in Alphabetical Order: Joseph Dickey (White Suit #2), John W. Fleck (Gamson), Michelle McCabe (Nurse), Darryl Phillips (Doctor), Mark Thomson (Pilot), Joseph Wheeler (White Suit #1)

Uncredited: James Gammon (Jack Claymore (archive footage)), Jon Polito (Phil Bartoli (archive footage))

Plot Overview

Pauli has a bad dream about the events that followed once he and Luca were caught in the nuclear blast. He and Ray were taken to a government hospital after being examined for radiation. Ray is on a ventilator for most of their stay, but Pauli, who is conscious (well, as conscious as Pauli can get!), is accosted and questioned by American and Russian agents, who suspect him and Luca of being Russian spies and demanding to know who their boss is. Additionally, Pauli also has a number of other flashbacks in his dream (via archive footage) of the shootout on the Strip (where both Luca and Torello were seriously wounded), of their early days in Vegas where they took over Pete Bauer's casino, of the rape of Pauli's girlfriend Donna and his subsequent rage, which led him to testify against Luca, various beatings that Pauli took from Luca, Torello and the Task Force members, and even a Chicago flashback. Once Pauli learns that he and Luca are about to be pumped full of LSD (then an experimental drug), he manages to get to a phone to call Weisbord to tell them of their plight, which leads the elder mobster to get a plane there, where Pauli and Luca escape, but not without a glitch or two, but they do make it to the escape plane.

Trivia

The Show

Songs featured in this episode: "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night" by the Electric Prunes (which plays over the early dream sequences), "Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley, "I Fought the Law" by the Bobby Fuller Four, "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison and "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris.

Memorable Moments

• Pauli dreams himself as a rock star, complete with Elvis pompadour, lip-synching "I Fought the Law" on stage, with backup dancers, the sequence intercut with footage of Pauli taking heat from Torello and his men and also the government agents who are holding them.

• Pauli goes to great lengths to get himself and Luca off the military base where they are being held, knocking out an MP and stealing his uniform, and knocking out another MP in order to steal an ambulance, in which he loads Luca on a gurney. For all the things he did right here, he failed to do one simple thing...lock the back doors of the ambulance! This results in a comic scene where Luca rolls out down a dirt road (with Pauli chasing after him) and is hurtled over a cliff.

Quotes

• Luca: First you get me arrested, then you get me shot at, now you're tryin' to get me blown up. You're unbelievable, Pauli!

• Pauli (to the government agents demanding information): Ever since the blast, I got some kinda ammonia in my head!