Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.4 “To Catch A Thief”

Posted on September 18, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 investigates a case of insurance fraud.

Episode 1.4 “To Catch A Thief”

(Dir by Teddy Sills, originally aired on November 4th, 1957)

A thief and his girlfriend mug a business owner named Mr. Whitaker (John McGovern). When the police capture the thief, Mr. Whitaker claims that more money was stolen from him than was recovered. Casey is sent undercover to discover whether or not Whitaker is lying or if a cop actually skimmed the cash that they recovered.

Pretending to be the thief’s girlfriend, Casey approaches Mr. Whitaker and tries to blackmail him. When Mr. Whitaker appears to be innocent, his secretary (Mary James) falls under suspicion. Mr. Whitaker, however, is eventually exposed as trying to commit insurance fraud when he has a conversation with his secretary at the police headquarters. Unfortunately, for him, the room was bugged.

This episode bothered me. On the one hand, I didn’t want an innocent police officer to be suspended for stealing money that he didn’t steal. On the other hand, having Casey go undercover as a blackmailer felt almost as if it verging on entrapment. As well, I found it hard to understand why Mr. Whitaker would be fooled into thinking Casey was the one who had robbed him earlier. Didn’t Mr. Whitaker see the people who mugged him?

This episode just didn’t work for me.

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.3 “The Phoner”

Posted on September 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Casey help to stop an obscene phone caller.

Episode 1.3 “The Phoner”

(Dir by Teddy Sills, originally aired on October 28th, 1957)

Betty Hodges (Pat Englund) has been getting obscene phone calls. It’s the 1950s. That means there’s no caller ID, there’s no cell towers to ping signals off of, there’s no way to block a number, the phone rings until its answered, and every call is made and taken on a landline phone. This is the era when most calls were still connected by an operator. Terrified of the calls but determined not to be chased out of the city like so many other young women who have targeted by the so-called Phoner, Betty calls the police. Casey (Beverly Garland) moves in with Betty, pretending to be her sister. When the phone rings, it’s Casey who will answer and it’s Casey who will have to keep the guy talking for five minutes while the phone company traces the call.

We don’t ever learn the name of the man making the calls. In the credits, he’s listed as the Phoner. Played by Frank Sutton, the Phoner is a sweaty man who makes his calls from a phone booth and who brags about how many girlfriends he claims to have had. (He’s the 50s version of an incel.) We’re told that he says disturbingly obscene things over the phone but, this being a 50s show, we don’t hear any of them. Of course, we don’t have to hear them. Betty’s terrified reactions are all we need to see.

Eventually, Betty is attacked leaving work. She stumbles out of an alley, her face beaten and her clothes torn. And again, it’s the 50s. So all we hear is that Betty has been attacked but anyone watching would understand what had happened. In the hospital, Betty whispers to Casey. When Casey is asked what Betty said, Casey replies, “She wishes she was dead.”

Eventually, the Phoner calls Casey back. They set up a date in the park. The Phoner doesn’t show up at the park but he does show up at the apartment later. After a struggle, he’s subdued by Casey and the other cops watching the apartment. Even though common sense tells the viewer that nothing too bad is going to happen to the show’s lead character, it’s still a tense scene, largely because of Frank Sutton’s feral performance as the Phoner.

This is a poignant episode, even if it did obviously have to hold back due to the censorship rules of the time. Just as frightening as Sutton was as the Phoner, Garland was equally impressive as the determined Casey. If I did have any problem with this episode, it’s that when she’s initially confronted by the Phoner, Casey doesn’t recognize his voice. When a man threatens you, you never forget the voice.

This was a good episode. Hopefully, the Phoner died in prison.

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.2 “The Red Clown”

Posted on September 4, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This episode, Casey searches for a man who has abandoned his daughter so he can pursue a career as a painter of clowns.

Episode 1.2 “The Red Clown”

(Dir by Teddy Sills, originally aired on October 21, 1957)

Mike Foley (John McLiam) has quit has job and left his New York home. His wife (Barbara Barrie) suspects that Mike has returned to Greenwich Village so that he can pursue his dream of being a painter. Normally, this wouldn’t be a police manner but Mike has also left behind his daughter, Bobby (Barbara Myers), and is facing charges of child abandonment unless he starts paying child support. Policewoman Casey Jones (Beverly Garland) works undercover, pretending to be a bourgeois art collector who wants to buy one of Mike’s horrid clown paintings.

This episode featured some wonderful on-location footage of New York City in the 1950s. The history nerd side of me loved that. I have to admit, though, that I found myself wondering whether or not Casey is actually that good at her job. Bobby managed to follow Casey all the way to Greenwich Village without Casey noticing. When Casey did notice, she did the whole thing where she went to a phone booth and told Bobby, “Stay here while I make a call.” Well, of course, Bobby didn’t stay there. Bobby went running off to look for her father.

(Was Bobby’s mother not concerned that her daughter was basically wandering around the city?)

Of course, if Bobby hadn’t followed Casey to Greenwich Village, they never would have found Mike. Mike, it turned out, was living in a shabby building and spending all of his time painting. He was pursuing his dream. When Bobby asked him to come home, Mike replied that he had no interest in his old life and that he didn’t want anything to do with his family. Mike’s harsh words left Bobby in tears. The episode ended with Bobby playing in a playground a few wees later, with Casey watching her and telling us, “I think she’ll be okay.” Yeah, I don’t think so, Casey.

The episode was depressing! But I have to give the show a lot of credit for not having Mike have a sudden change of heart. The truth of the matter is that he left his family because he was self-centered. He didn’t become any less self-centered when he was confronted by his daughter. After listening to Mike’s self-serving crap, Bobby dropped the clown doll that she carried with her as she searched for Mike, saying that she didn’t like clowns anymore. It’s a painful lesson and a sad one but at least Bobby now knows that truth about her father. Other than that playground coda, this episode had the guts not to give into false hope.

Next week: Casey deals with an obscene phone caller!

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.1 “Stranglehold”

Posted on August 28, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we start a look at Decoy, a show that will hopefully be a considerable improvement on Malibu CA!

Episode 1.1 “Stranglehold”

(Dir by Don Medford, originally aired on October 17th, 1957)

“There are 249 of us in the Department. We carry two things in common wherever we go – the shield, called a “pottsy”, and a .32 revolver. We’re New York’s finest …. we’re police women.”

Those are the words that end the first episode of Decoy and they’re delivered by Casey Jones (Beverly Garland), a former ballet dancer who now works undercover as a member of the NYPD’s Department of Policewomen. Casey holds up her revolver for the audience to see, leaving them no doubt that she’s telling the truth. A woman who know how to handle a gun!? Audiences in 1957 were no doubt stunned.

Of course, the audience had also just spent 25 minutes watching Casey work undercover. After a merchant seaman is murdered and a woman named Molly Orchid (Joanne Linville) is caught with some of his jewelry, Casey is sent to live across the hall from Molly. (Casey is also living in the dead man’s apartment. Casey, a true New Yorker, comments that she’ll do anything to get a good apartment.) After hiding her gun in a lighting fixture and hiding her badge under her blouse, Casey befriends Molly and tries to meet George, the mysterious boyfriend that Molly says gave her the jewelry.

Molly loves to talk about George but George never seems to be around. Molly says that George is a musician and that he’s often out of town. Casey comes to feel sorry for Molly, feeling that the emotionally vulnerable woman is being manipulated by George. Whereas the male cops would just as soon shoot Molly than try to negotiate with her (this entire show is from the pre-Miranda era), Casey does her best to reason with Molly. That is the difference between a policewoman and a policeman.

Of course, as you probably already guessed, there is no George. Casey eventually figures it out after she realizes that Molly has been going to the movies alone as opposed to meeting up with George. Molly, spotting Casey’s gun, grabs it and finally admits the truth. The merchant seaman tried to assault her and Molly strangled him in self-defense. George is a figment of her imagination, someone who she made up as a way to deal with her guilt. A policeman barges into the apartment and points his gun at Molly but Casey steps in front of him and then manages to talk Molly down.

The first episode of Decoy was distinguished by some on-location shooting in New York City and the performances of Joanne Linville and especially Beverly Garland. Garland’s empathetic but strong-willed performance dominates the show and it leaves us with little doubt that Casey Jones is the best at what she does. Meanwhile, Linville, in the role of Molly, may be dangerous but she’s also sympathetic. Her crime was initially one of self-defense and George was someone she created as her way of surviving in a world where no one was willing to look out for her.

Next week: Casey searches for a missing artist.

Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us For Decoy and Hard Times!

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1995’s Decoy! Selected and hosted by RevMagdalen, this movie features not only Peter Weller but also Robert Patrick! So, you know it has to be good!

Following #MondayActionMovie, Brad and Sierra will be hosting the #MondayMuggers live tweet. We will be watching 1975’s Hard Times, starring James Coburn and Charles Bronson!

It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto twitter, start Decoy at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! Then, at 10 pm et, start Hard Times , and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag! The live tweet community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.