Decoy

Decoy's the first TV police drama to star a woman and casting couldn't have done better than Garland. She's strong and appealing but hardly glamorous, and really good at not over-playing her part though the tension is often there. As Casey Jones she goes undercover in downscale NYC to crack cases. The on-location filming in the city's seediest precincts lends a lot of color plus perspective to even the mildest episodes. Nevertheless, I'll bet the Chamber of Commerce was none to happy about grubby sites not often shown. Anyway, we get perspectives on the Statue of Liberty, crowded city streets, and soaring towers that seemingly entrap her as she walks along. All add color and period interest to the storylines. Of course some episodes are better than others but all offer abundant compensations. I haven't seen every episode, but let me recommend The Red Clown as particularly riveting. A look at the cast lists shows no stars but an abundance of familiar A-grade supporting players, e.g. Simon Oakland, Barbara Barrie. I guess ratings weren't strong enough for a second season (1958). Likely, 50's audiences weren't ready for a female lead in a traditionally male genre. Then again, to my knowledge, Decoy's never been re-run or put into syndication; so to say it's obscure is a mild understatement. Too bad, because the series was clearly ahead of its time, while its abundant human interest has no time limit.

In passing-- I caught up with the complete series in a DVD collection titled "Decoy" from Film Chest Media. I'd recommend the collection because of the detailed notes about locations and historical aspects of the productions that the enclosed booklet provides. For those like me who've never been to NYC, it's something of an interesting tour guide.

Most lead characters on TV cop shows in the 1950s and 60s were guys. Decoy was a departure from the usual fare by casting Beverly Garland as Policewoman Casey Jones. Amazon Prime currently has all episodes available.

"Decoy," a title fitting perfectly with Casey's assignments, would have benefited with the more marketable name "Policewoman." Surprisingly the classictvhistory.wordpress blog only mentions Decoy once in an article about Brenner, another late-50s Manhattan-based crime show. It deserves a detailed analysis.

What I first noticed about Decoy is the performance by the great Beverly Garland and her sympathetic yet no-nonsense, duty-bound and calm characterization. There is no humor whatsoever in Decoy, not even fatalistic police humor or the sardonic closing line of a conversation that Jack Webb practically patented in Dragnet. In her narration, she accepts her job with a sense of pessimism about the worst qualities of human nature that she knows will continue to repeat. What real policemen and policewomen see and deal with everyday would break the average person.

Then there's the world Casey lives in, when police science technology was still fairly crude and a lack of knowledge by the TV writers about the physical reality of criminal acts, something that continues in today's TV and films. She relies on her intuition and her ability to influence criminals to accept her so she can find the evidence or get the confession that allows her to slap the cuffs on them. There's very little gun play and shootouts, no insane car chases or gun glorification that's filled TV screens for decades and there's not much physical violence, something that Angie Dickinson's Policewoman would make up for in the more permissive 1970s, adding sexual themes and an emphasis on Dickinson's sex appeal to the mix.

The black and white location shooting of New York City and outer boroughs, when the city was heading to a decline adds a huge downbeat, melancholy tone. The dirty streets, sense of decay and crumbling tenements that Naked City also captured (and Hawk did in color in the 60s) creates a moody, grim feel to Casey's thankless job. The threadbare, shabby studio sets, a standard in 50s TV, reinforces that atmosphere. The brief, opening theme music to Decoy is stock, used in several earlier movies, and creates a sense of impending doom that sets the pace.

Casey solves her cases with a sense of fatalism, knowing that solving a case doesn't close the book on the tragedy in the wake of a crime. Families are destroyed, reputations are tarnished.

Later on, Beverly Garland opened the Beverly Garland hotel in Studio City. I occasionally attended movie collectible shows at the hotel but never had the chance to meet her and get an autograph. Now called The Garland as of 2014, it was built by her second husband.

A couple of years ago, I was able to get a set of 5 DVDs that contained 20 of the 39 episodes of Decoy, and it was great to watch them again after so long. Back when Decoy aired in 1957-58, I was 12 and 13 years old and had something of a crush on Beverly Garland. Recently, I found an advertisement--for the first time--for a DVD set with all 39 episodes. And the price was hard to beat as well. Naturally, I ordered the set and have been enjoying watching them all over again.

The picture quality is excellent, but at times the sound is a little muffled; however, all in all, it is great viewing. For anyone who enjoys the genre of Dragnet, Police Woman, etc., this is a great series that ran, sadly, for only one season. Yet, I consider it to be a classic.

The original DRAGNET TV series ran from 1951 to 1959 until star Jack Webb decided to cancel it after 8 seasons despite continued high ratings. It became the template for every cop show that followed including a second DRAGNET from 1968-1971. Among the many police programs that followed in its wake was DECOY which featured a policewoman as its main character. That made it the flip side to DRAGNET. It featured Bevely Garland as policewoman Patricia "Casey" Jones and lasted for one season (39 episodes) in 1957-58. In many of those (25 of 39), Casey went undercover to try and catch the criminals thus the series title, DECOY. There were several other differences between the two shows besides having a female undercover officer.

To start with, DRAGNET was a West Coast produced show centering around Los Angeles (it was actually shot at Walt Disney Studios) with very little location shooting whereas DECOY was centered in New York City with lots of location shooting. Interior shots were done in the old Biograph Studios where D. W Griffith once worked. DRAGNET's performers were mostly from the movie industry while those in New York came from television and the NY stage. Jack Webb was already well known in Hollywood and, in addition to being the creator-star, he was also the head of production. DECOY's head of production was Stuart Rosenberg, an unknown TV director who would go on to a successful Hollywood career (COOL HAND LUKE, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR).

Each DRAGNET episode opened with "The story you are about to see is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent" DECOY's disclaimer came not at the beginning but at the end of the episode and read "This story is based on actual cases. All names and places are fictitious for obvious reasons" Since the series featured a policewoman as its principal character, each episode opened with "Presented as a Tribute to Bureau of Policewomen, Police Department Of New York City". Also each opening featured some different New York locale before the title credit appeared. A celebrated, retired policewoman, Officer Margaret Leonard, on whom the Casey Jones character was based, was credited as the technical advisor for the show.

However the biggest difference between the two series was in the storylines. In DRAGNET, each program was basically "Chase 'Em, Catch 'Em, & Convict 'Em" while DECOY's was "Chase 'Em, Catch Em & And Try To Understand 'Em". Sgt. Joe Friday was just an ordinary, everyday, hardworking cop doing his routine job. Policewoman Casey Jones' job was more exciting. She got to pose as everything from a high class call girl to a fashion model to a nightclub singer as she tried to flush out the chief criminal responsible. Once they were caught, Casey would address the camera and point out how it was the faults in our Society that made these people criminals. DRAGNET closed out with the criminals being tried, convicted, and sentenced.

While Jack Webb was the ideal personification of Joe Friday (as it should be since he created the character), I can't say the same for Beverly Garland as DECOY's "Casey" Jones. Garland was a very capable actress as she proved in a number of 1950s B movies and she could be really tough when she had to be as shown in movies like SWAMP WOMEN and GUNSLINGER (both 1956). Here, however, I found her a little too glamorous to be believable as an undercover cop. It might work for the occasional high class assignment but not for the majority of the down and out characters like a singer in a nightclub or an inmate in a women's prison. I blame the producers and 1950s sensibilities for the glamour. Ida Lupino would have been my choice for the role.

Having said all that, there are 2 things that DECOY has going for it. 1) The New York City locations ca.1957. This show is a rare opportunity to glimpse iconic NYC locations such as Peen Central railway station, the Horn & Hardart automat, The Stork Club, Charlie Parker's Birdland Jazz Club, Colony Records on Times Square, and Sardi's Restaurant. 2) The performers. While there are old pros like Al Lewis, Vincent Gardenia, Albert Dekker, and Frank Silvera, it's the up and coming talent like Colleen Dewhurst, Martin Balsam, Ed Asner, Lois Nettleton, Larry Hagman, Frank Sutton, Suzanne Pleshette, and Peter Falk just starting out on their careers that are really interesting to watch. Almost all of them came from the New York stage and would later make their mark in television.

Although inspired by and modeled on DRAGNET, DECOY explored some controversial subject matter which DRAGNET avoided. These topics included obscene phone calls, heroin addiction, gun running, dysfunctional families, spousal abuse, and mental illness. Unlike DRAGNET which had several episodes in the can when it aired, DECOY's shows were only shot two weeks in advance before they aired. The location shooting used hidden cameras so people wouldn't stop and stare. Ultimately the controversial subject matter of some shows and the lecture-like endings discouraged advertisers and the series ended after only one season for lack of funds. Now thanks to Film Chest Media, all 39 episodes are available on 3 CDs with a lot of bonus materials for a very good price...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Watching this on Amazon Prime. It's a series I hadn't had the opportunity to view on television. Yes, it's dated and some police techniques might seem questionable by today's standards, but it's ahead of its time by focusing on a female police officer and female victims and criminals. Lots of terrific early performances by actors who became well known and respected.