"Decoy" Night Light (TV Episode 1958) Poster

(TV Series)

(1958)

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6/10
Doin' the right thing
kapelusznik1818 November 2014
****SPOILERS**** Just released from prison after doing a two year stretch for embezzlement Nick Spandau, or Santos as he's in the episode's credits, played by Martin Balsam is back in action using cleaning ladies and butlers to steal jewelry from their rich employers in upscale neighborhoods in Manhattan. Nick then ends up fencing the jewels off for as little as one tenth of their original price. It's Nick's partner in the jewelry store Joe Mundy, Martin Wolfson, who's been looking after his 13 year old son Tommy, Pug Flanagan,while he was doing time in the can or behind bars and is worried that Nick will use him to smuggle the stolen jewels out of the country into Mexico.

It's undercover policewoman Casey Jones, Beverly Garland, who uncovers Nick's operation and tries to get him to spear his son Tommy, who thinks the world of him, from ending up behind bars as an accomplish in his crimes. Not realizing what he's doing, in corrupting his teenage son, Nick has Tommy booked on a flight to Mexico City with the stole jewels where he's to later meet him and, after taking the jewels off him hands, take him to the bull fights.

****SPOILERS*** It's Casey Jones who after confronting Nick about his plans that has him become even more arrogant and criminal-minded, in her having no proof of his crimes, then he already was. That's until Tommy showed up unexpectedly after feeling lonely and getting cold feet at the airport with the suitcase full of stolen jewelry that he had no idea was in it. Nick knowing that his goose is cooked,in facing as much as 10 to 15 years behind bars, then listen to what Casey Jones told him to do in the first place. That's for Nick not to make Tommy think of him as a hero and follow in his footsteps. That made Nick's stay in prison a lot more easier knowing that he did the right thing, in getting Tommy to feel he betrayed and left him out in the cold, in doing what he did.
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Poignant
dougdoepke17 October 2019
No need to recap the plot thanks to reviewer Kapel. The 30-minutes amounts to a Martin Balsam showcase as he tries to square love for his son with a yen for easy money. He's a familiar face from that period, especially as Det. Arbogast trying to climb a staircase in Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). Here he manages both tender and conflicted moments in affecting style. And catch Casey who gets to model some upscale upholstery as she goes undercover as a jewel hungry matron. As usual, she helps bring out the human interest side. However, don't look for much action, though that opening scene is a rolling grabber and surprise. NYC locations only figure in the first part as a kind of introduction. On the whole, I've never been able to decide whether I like Garland breaking character to speak to the camera at the end. On one hand, it's usually blended into the rest in fairly smooth visual style; on the other, however, it reminds me that I'm watching a TV show, after all, no matter how well done. Anyway, I'd like to know what the producers' reasoning was behind this rather risky break with TV convention.
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