This time the case is about magazine subscription swindlers. Doesn't sound particularly spellbinding, but such fraudulent solicitation does allow Friday and Gannon (Jack Webb and Harry Morgan) to go after crooks preying upon the kindhearted and easily duped using tactical con artist magic (one criminal takes his deceased war hero father's Congressional Medal of Honor using it as a means to swindle a film editor's trusting wife!) to motivate suburbanites to supposedly support the Vietnam troops and help nurses get college degrees. Anytime there's a swindle over the innocent who give up cash out of the gentleness and good will of their hearts, Friday and Gannon will give extra effort to see that those con artists are caught. Not exactly a mesmerizing episode of Dragnet 1967 but seeing a "fat slob" named Benson (Larry D Mann), a mastermind behind his recruits swindling the naïve and trusting among us, cornered by Friday and Gannon after a trip with some kids patrolling new neighborhoods to swindle, get his comeuppance (his contempt for "gumshoes" is expressed verbally for them, but they don't hold him in high regard, either, with the tension quite visible among the parties) is wholly satisfying. Brian Avery and Marianne Gordon make for an uncharacteristic, soft-spoken, clean-cut, handsome couple who seem to have used their looks to supreme effect in conning many out of their savings. While this couple doesn't seem on their face to be some evil swindlers, this fact adds potency to just how they got away with swindling for as long as they did. This episode includes a funny scene where Friday and Gannon discuss Joe's nervousness before appearing on a television show about "bunco" artists, which in essence jump starts the swindle plot.
4 Reviews
Not bad, but I really disliked the way some of the characters were written
planktonrules16 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
While this is a pretty good episode, one element bothered me a bit. Two of the supporting characters were really, really annoying--so much so that they didn't seem real in the least. One was the guy who spoke weirdly (inserting the word 'there' randomly into his speech) and his annoying wife (is anyone THAT stupid?!). I think they were intended as comic relief, but it just didn't work for me.
On the positive side, this is one of the few episode where Gannon gets in a good line about his partner--like the ones for which Joe Friday was famous. As for Friday, at the end, he too gets in one of his patented zingers.
The episode is about a rather petty crime. While I am NOT saying that the people shouldn't have been prosecuted, this episode involved a crime that isn't quite up there with homicide or armed robbery. Gannon and Friday are working bunco and the show begins with Friday on a local talk show discussing common ways con-men and women defraud the public. One of the crew for the show approaches them afterwords and complains about some phony magazine subscription salespeople who have targeted his gullible wife. It seems that a husband-wife team are posing as a decorated marine and a nurse to make sales. Things get worse later when the check used to pay one of them is altered by the swindler--cleaning out their bank account.
Interesting and worth seeing. I just wish the victims had been written better.
On the positive side, this is one of the few episode where Gannon gets in a good line about his partner--like the ones for which Joe Friday was famous. As for Friday, at the end, he too gets in one of his patented zingers.
The episode is about a rather petty crime. While I am NOT saying that the people shouldn't have been prosecuted, this episode involved a crime that isn't quite up there with homicide or armed robbery. Gannon and Friday are working bunco and the show begins with Friday on a local talk show discussing common ways con-men and women defraud the public. One of the crew for the show approaches them afterwords and complains about some phony magazine subscription salespeople who have targeted his gullible wife. It seems that a husband-wife team are posing as a decorated marine and a nurse to make sales. Things get worse later when the check used to pay one of them is altered by the swindler--cleaning out their bank account.
Interesting and worth seeing. I just wish the victims had been written better.
Poor accuracy
dustywrn-993-59802510 January 2020
One Of The Most Entertaining Of The Series
ccthemovieman-15 April 2008
"Joe Friday" and "Bill Gannon" are assigned to the bunco squad, meaning they deal with con artists, of which are many in every city and town and always have been.
Friday goes on a local TV show, filling in for someone, to explain some of the rackets these guys use. It's quite interesting. You'd be amazed at the tricks people play on gullible, trusting citizens.
The story in this one involves a guy posing as a Marine selling magazine subscriptions so the boys in Vietnam will have something to read. He's quite successful, too, having bilked one lady for $1,800 in subscriptions.
Another one he swindled is interviewed by Friday and Gannon and she, "Marilyn Tate," is a hoot. The expressions she uses are ones I've never heard anyone say. She's a real character in a TV program that likes to feature weird characters here and there. Sarah Selby was the actress. Her husband, "Cliff," was weird, too. He used the word "there" in every sentence. He was played by Doodles Weaver. Later, we get some more great dialog as Larry Mann plays "Pete Benson," the head of the subscription service. He's a real wise guy who spouts one film-noir expression after another. All of this made this episode one of the best I've seen in the series.
Friday goes on a local TV show, filling in for someone, to explain some of the rackets these guys use. It's quite interesting. You'd be amazed at the tricks people play on gullible, trusting citizens.
The story in this one involves a guy posing as a Marine selling magazine subscriptions so the boys in Vietnam will have something to read. He's quite successful, too, having bilked one lady for $1,800 in subscriptions.
Another one he swindled is interviewed by Friday and Gannon and she, "Marilyn Tate," is a hoot. The expressions she uses are ones I've never heard anyone say. She's a real character in a TV program that likes to feature weird characters here and there. Sarah Selby was the actress. Her husband, "Cliff," was weird, too. He used the word "there" in every sentence. He was played by Doodles Weaver. Later, we get some more great dialog as Larry Mann plays "Pete Benson," the head of the subscription service. He's a real wise guy who spouts one film-noir expression after another. All of this made this episode one of the best I've seen in the series.
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