Ross Macdonald's detective yarn "The Ferguson Affair" becomes above-average TV-vehicle for Farrah Fawcett, playing lawyer from the Los Angeles Public Defenders office assigned assembly-line case of nurse arrested for trafficking stolen goods which quickly turns into a complicated web of murder, kidnapping, and another out-of-work actor in Hollywood gone wrong! Modern-day pulp amusingly retains all the standard noir clichés (saxophones on the soundtrack, wistful voiceover at the beginning and end, a glove compartment full of old parking tickets, et al.). Fawcett is appealingly tough yet personable in the lead; A Martinez, as a cop who helps Farrah solve the case, is appropriately hunky but questionable as a credible love-interest (scowling throughout, he's more dangerous-seeming than romantic); Cliff DeYoung, never a strong actor, does all right as a judge. The movie has some puzzling red herrings, an overly-complicated second-half (with too many fishy characters), yet the L.A. locations are well-captured and the gritty script from Wendall Mayes has sharp dialogue.
