TV Review: Decoy | The Shadow

TV Review: Decoy | The Shadow

Decoy is a 1957-58 series about Casey Jones (Beverly Garland), a female police officer in New York City.  She often goes undercover, thus the series title.  This show is noteworthy as the first TV cop series to star a woman in the lead role.  Like Dragnet, the series fictionalized real cases.

As an undercover cop, Officer Jones often deals with the very human side of the suspects–many of them come off as sympathetic, or at least their friends and relatives do.   Jones narrates the episodes, and frequently addresses the audience directly at the close of a case.

Many of the episodes are in the public domain, and I watched six on DVD.

• “To Trap a Thief”  After a robbery suspect is caught and the money recovered, it’s discovered that over half the money in the satchel isn’t there.  The arresting officer is one of several suspects, and Officer Jones goes undercover as a blackmailer to see which one has a guilty conscience.  The ending is happier than expected.
• “High Swing”  A mysterious series of muggings takes a lethal twist when one of the criminals dies of a drug overdose.  Officer Jones attempts to take her place in the small gang.  Notable for its portrayal of a marriage that is both loving and extremely bitter.
• “The Sound of Tears”  The only episode where we learn something about Casey’s personal life.  A man is shot six times by an unidentified woman,  and Officer Jones must work through the reminder of her own slain beloved.  It’s suggested that the remaining pain from this is why she never shows interest in any of the men who hit on her during the series.
• “Night Light”  A ruby necklace is stolen, and Officer Jones poses as a representative of the insurance company trying to buy it back.  But the real story is that one of the criminals has a young son who he is putting on the path to crime, whether he means to or not.
• “Fiesta at Midnight”  A recent arrival from Puerto Rico is mistakenly identified as a robber and murderer.   His only alibi is a young woman he talked to at midnight, who said she was getting married on Sunday.  Too bad she seems to have disappeared!  The solution to the mystery was fairly obvious to me, but it takes Officer Jones longer to catch on, in large part because one of the witnesses is outright lying to protect the real killer.
• “The Come Back”  Counterfeit winning tickets are being passed at the racetrack, so Officer Jones poses as a crooked cop muscling in on the racket.  The criminal operation turns out to be bigger than suspected.  This episode is most notable for its guest star, Peter Falk, as a crooked racetrack cashier.

This is an interesting little series, and I especially recommend “The Sound of Tears” and “The Come Back.”

The long-running Shadow radio show and pulp magazine inspired an attempt at a television show as well, but only a pilot for The Shadow was made, “The Case of the Cotton Kimono.”

Lamont Cranston (Tom Helmore) is a criminal psychologist who is an on-call adjunct to the police.  He’s kept very busy, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Margot Lane (Paula Raymond.)  In this instance, Commission Weston is calling Cranston in on the murder of a woman who was dressed in a cotton kimono at the time.

The police have gotten nowhere, even having an officer from the woman’s home town come in to assist them.  Cranston is able to locate two likely suspects, the boyfriend and the woman’s music teacher, but not enough to positively link either of them to the crime.  So he calls on “our old friend” the Shadow.  Interestingly, the story never actually establishes that Lamont Cranston and the Shadow are the same person (though they have similar voices and never “appear” at the same time.)

The Shadow’s arrival is indicated by a flashing light, and those whose minds he clouds not only don’t see him, but become distracted and lose focus.  it’s a nice touch.

The leads are good, but the story is kind of plodding.  With the state of special effects on television being what they were in 1954, it might have been just as well this never made it into a full series.