In 1973, women rarely served as police officers in the field. Heck, today they still are a bit of a rarity. So, it's nice that the folks from "Police Story" did a show about a lady cop--albeit a highly flawed one.
It seems that the police department has a new rule--for an officer to get promoted, they have to serve time working the streets. So, for lady officers that previously had desk jobs, they now need to do field work to have any chance at higher ranks and higher pay. One of these new cops in the field (Sue Ane Langdon) is paired with an experienced cop who thinks ladies don't belong in this sort of setting (Hugh O'Brian). However, through the course of the show, the lady proves her worth--and at times doesn't. While she is able to pursue a crazy drunk driver quite well as well as shut up some loudmouths in a restaurant, she is, at other times, very uncertain of herself and even, dare I say it, less than competent. Her crying at the end, comments about having PMS and her wild shooting when the police confront some insane suspects all made me think that although the show seemed to be saying lady police in the field was good, they showed that, at least in this case, it was a real mixed bag.
Despite this, the show is interesting and well worth seeing-- particularly at the unusual choices at casting the two villains. One was not unusual (Dean Stockwell) but seeing Jerry Lee Lewis playing his partner was a shock!
