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, Peter Falk guest stars!
Episode 1.37 “The Comeback”
(Dir by David Alexander, originally aired on June 23rd, 1958)
When a fire breaks out at the race track, someone steals two rolls of blank tickets. The police think that the syndicate is planning on printing up counterfeit tickets that they can use to make a killing at the track. Casey quickly figures out that track clerk Fred Dana (Peter Falk) was in the perfect position to steal the tickets during the fire.
Because Fred already saw (and flirted with) Casey at the police station, Casey can’t do her usual undercover shtick. Instead, when she later approaches Fred, she tells him that she’s looking to make some extra money and she’s willing to help Fred and his bosses get away with their crime. Fred introduces Casey to his boss and then that boss introduces Casey to another boss and soon, Casey is working her way to the top.
However, Fred is worried that Casey is getting in over her head and starts warning her that she shouldn’t get involved. When Fred figures out that Casey is just pretending to be crooked, he doesn’t betray her. Instead, he betrays the Syndicate and helps to save Casey’s life.
Why?
Fred says that Casey has “class.”
Casey looks at the camera and tells the viewers that Fred is the one with class.
Awwww!
So, this was a typical Casey-Gets-In-Over-Head storyline. We’re only two episodes away from Decoy’s finale and it’s hard not to feel that, as the series progressed, the writers made Casey less-and-less competent. She’s gone from being a smart, streetwise cop to someone whose cover is continually getting blown. This time, it’s Peter Falk who steps up to save not only Casey but also this entire episode. Falk was 30 when he appeared on Decoy but he already looked several years older. He gives an intelligent and sensitive performance here, one that almost feels like it could come from an alternative universe where Columbo became a low-level mob associate instead of a detective. His scenes with Garland are especially interesting to watch. It wasn’t unusual for Decoy to feature men hitting on Casey. But this is the only episode (at least so far) where there was a genuine romantic chemistry.
Indeed, Fred had class.
Through the Shattered Lens 