M Squad (TV Series) The Woman from Paris (1958) User Reviews

Detailed Detective Work For A Good Detective

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 6 June 2010]

How will "Det. Frank Balligner" prove a French lady's suicide was a murder? That's the story here. We see in the opening scene a mystery murderer plugging the dame in her apartment.

Now "Ballinger" (Lee Marvin) and his police buddies have to find enough evidence to first get some suspects. and then prove if anyone of them was behind this. This was a good example back in the '50s how the cops did behind-the-scenes investigative work. It's not a fascinating episode, but it did hold my interest.

It's also another example of "you reap what you show," even if you are a rich family like the "Bradens."

Andy what are you driving at!

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 16 September 2014]

***SPOILERS*** When Pauline Sorel, Gine De Bard, is found shot to death in her hotel room that let Det. Frank Ballinger, Lee Marvin, is called in to find out if it were either murder or suicide. It soon became obvious that the late Mrs. Sorel was acquainted with millionaire George Brayden's, Phillip Ober, French wife Simone, Paula Raymond, in that back in the old country they were cell-mates in a French prison. It didn't take Ballinger long to figure out that the reason behind Mrs.Sorel's murder was in that she was somehow blackmailing Simone in her threatening to expose her background as a convicted criminal unless she got paid off. An as it turned out the pay-off was two bullet in gut and a one way trip, in that she died broke with no one claiming her body, to Potters Field.

It's soon that Let. Det. Ballinger found out that international playboy and all around heel as well as Simone's daughter Liz's, Jennifer Lea, boyfriend Andy Markham, Paul Maxwell, had a keen interest in the Brayden's bank accounts and was using the information that Simone was an ex-con to squeeze money out of her old man, George Brayden, to finance his playboy lifestyle. What Ballinger want's to find out is what lead to Sorel's murder which he suspects was a falling out between her and the blackmailer!

****SPOILERS**** One of the most bizarre of the M Squad episodes in that its star Det. Let. Ballinger went international here solving a crime that spanned two continents. It was Ballinger working around the clock effort, for 48 straight hours without sleep, that broke the case wide open. And in the end it was totally unnecessary since the blackmailers victim's Simone Brayden's husband George knew all about her past and had since forgave her for it! So the reason to expose it, by shaking him down for cash, to him by the blackmailer made no sense at all!