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!

Casey goes under cover at yet another cocktail lounge.

Episode 1.21 “The Showplace”

(Dir by David Alexander, originally aired on March 3rd, 1958)

There’s been a murder at a cocktail lounge.  One of the girls who worked there has been found in alley, strangled.  That means that it’s time for Casey to go undercover as a clip-joint girl, convincing men to buy her drinks.  It’s a sleazy place, run by two brothers (Bill Hayes and Lewis Troy) and featuring a sad-eyed bartender (Lou Polan) with a mysterious past.  Casey’s investigation uncovers all sorts of nefarious dealings.  In the end, the murderer is revealed and it’s not who you might have thought.  In a cocktail lounge full of largely ugly people, the murderer is the one handsome man.  Casey mentions that he may have been handsome on the outside but, on the inside, there was nothing.

This was a great episode, a moody slice of downbeat noir that featured Casey doing actual undercover work.  The cocktail lounge was a wonderfully atmospheric location, the supporting cast was full of strong character actors, and Beverly Garland did a great job as Casey both empathized and suspected the men with whom she was working.

This episode ended, as the best ones always did, with Casey talking about the tragedy of it all.  Casey’s New York is a city of dreams but it can also be a nightmare.