Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Decoy, which aired in Syndication in 1957 and 1958.  The show can be viewed on Tubi!

This week, Casey goes undercover …. again!

Episode 1.36 “Blind Date”

(Dir by Stuart Rosenberg, originally aired on June 16th, 1958)

When Gladys (Mary Finney) and her niece Millie (Irene Dailey) are involved in a car accident, the police discover that they are transporting a large amount of stolen money.  Millie, who has been transporting drugs, had a meeting with a money launderer to exchange the money for clean bills.  Casey goes undercover, pretending to be Millie when she and Gladys meet with the launderer.  However, when Millie’s boyfriend (Elliott Sullivan) shows up, the entire operation falls apart.  Can Casey convince Millie’s boyfriend to turn on the criminals?

This is yet another episode where Casey’s carefully constructed cover is destroyed by something that the police should have been prepared for.  Not only is Casey pretending to be a real person (which increases the risk that she’ll run into someone who actually knows the person that Casey is pretending to be) but she’s also accompanied by the increasingly hysterical Gladys.  Usually, Casey is at least convincing when she goes undercover.  This time, she comes across as way to calm and collected to be believable as someone committing her first crime.

To be honest, after 36 of these episodes, I’m amazed that Casey has survived for as long as she has.  The New York police department seems to be truly incompetent.

Despite all of that, this was a good episode.  There was plenty of on-location New York footage and Beverly Garland did a good job of portraying Casey’s growing realization that 1) she was in over her head and 2) it was a mistake to bring Aunt Gladys along.  Lou Polan was also well-cast as the avuncular but still menacing money launderer.  He may have been a criminal but he was also very proud of his boat.  Who can blame him?

This episode ended up on vaguely upbeat note, one that really didn’t feel as it had been earned.  Decoy was always at its best when it was downbeat and realistic.  New York was a tough city, even back in 1958.