NOT FOR HIRE – The Set Up - 1960
This 1959 to 1960 television series starred Ralph Meeker as Sgt Steve Dekker. Dekker is an Army investigator with the Criminal Investigations Division (CID of the US Army. CID investigates serious crimes committed by or against army personnel. Dekker is based in Honolulu, Hawaii. Meeker seems to be channelling his Mike Hammer persona (Kiss me Deadly) in this series. He plays the character as hard-nosed as they come. This episode is the 18th episode of the 39 episode production run.
A soldier, Michael Miller is doing poorly at a high stakes poker game. When the game ends the man is 1500 smackers in the red. He does not have the loot. The gambler running the game, Henry Condren, tells Miller that he will square Miller's debt and thrown in a grand for a favour. Miller is all ears and jokingly asks. "Who do I need to kill?" Corden answers with a straight face that it will be another soldier from Miller's base.
Miller heads back to base and quickly looks up his superior officer. The higher ups call in CID man, Ralph Meeker. Miller relates the tale again to Meeker. Meeker tells the soldier he needs to contact Corden and accept the deal. Meeker says Miller needs to play along so they can find out who is in danger of being killed. Miller is not thrilled with the idea, but agrees to help.
Miller and Corden hook up the next day at a club for a drink and to iron out the details. Corden points out another soldier sitting at a table with a pretty girl. Miller knows the soldier, Patrick Waltz, as a man from one of the base warehouses. Corden tells him that he will pay him once the job is done. Corden lets slip that the hit is being paid for by out of town money.
Miller hooks up with Meeker and passes on the name of the intended victim. Meeker has his aide, Norman Alden round up Waltz and bring him in. Meeker grills Waltz about any possible enemies he might have etc. Waltz admits to being something of a ladies man, but that he stays away from dames with boyfriends, husbands and the like. But he does recall a woman back in Chicago he was dating who was rather clingy. He had dumped her just before being shipped out to Hawaii.
Now Meeker and his men fake up an attack on Waltz. Pictures appear in the Honolulu papers of a battered and bandaged Waltz. Now Miller is sent to collect the cash from Corden. Meeker is following at a handy distance in case of any trouble. Corden only coughs up 500 bucks because the target was only badly injured, not killed. The person hiring the hit was not amused.
Meeker now puts in an appearance for a bit of "friendly conversation" with Corden. Corden is not in a talkative mood, and fists and boots are soon flying with Corden on the losing end of the disagreement. Corden is cuffed and hauled down to the Honolulu Police Station. Meeker has his Police Lt pal, Stanley Adams look up Corden's record. And a long one it is, going all the way back to the bootlegging days in Chicago.
Now we find out, that the clingy woman Waltz has been seeing in Chicago is the wife of a Chicago gangster. And it turns out that the gangster, Karl Lukas, and the wife, Nina Roman, are staying at a downtown hotel. Meeker figures that the gangster, must have found out about his wife stepping out, and is here to settle the matter.
Meeker pays a visit to the hotel for a word with Lukas. Things take a dangerous turn when Meeker is put down with a pistol butt to the head by Lukas. Meeker manages to recover enough to go after Lukas and a free for all develops. The gangster's wife, Roman, picks up the dropped piece and puts a couple rounds into her husband. Meeker grabs the gun away and calls up the Police.
The whole mess it seems was due to the fact that the woman, Roman had fallen bad for Waltz. She took it hard when he dumped her in Chicago. She had arranged the hit here with old Chicago friend Corden. The husband, Lukas knew nothing about his wife's dalliance. She had of course taken advantage of the opportunity to put down her hated husband when it was presented.
This 1959 to 1960 television series starred Ralph Meeker as Sgt Steve Dekker. Dekker is an Army investigator with the Criminal Investigations Division (CID of the US Army. CID investigates serious crimes committed by or against army personnel. Dekker is based in Honolulu, Hawaii. Meeker seems to be channelling his Mike Hammer persona (Kiss me Deadly) in this series. He plays the character as hard-nosed as they come. This episode is the 18th episode of the 39 episode production run.
A soldier, Michael Miller is doing poorly at a high stakes poker game. When the game ends the man is 1500 smackers in the red. He does not have the loot. The gambler running the game, Henry Condren, tells Miller that he will square Miller's debt and thrown in a grand for a favour. Miller is all ears and jokingly asks. "Who do I need to kill?" Corden answers with a straight face that it will be another soldier from Miller's base.
Miller heads back to base and quickly looks up his superior officer. The higher ups call in CID man, Ralph Meeker. Miller relates the tale again to Meeker. Meeker tells the soldier he needs to contact Corden and accept the deal. Meeker says Miller needs to play along so they can find out who is in danger of being killed. Miller is not thrilled with the idea, but agrees to help.
Miller and Corden hook up the next day at a club for a drink and to iron out the details. Corden points out another soldier sitting at a table with a pretty girl. Miller knows the soldier, Patrick Waltz, as a man from one of the base warehouses. Corden tells him that he will pay him once the job is done. Corden lets slip that the hit is being paid for by out of town money.
Miller hooks up with Meeker and passes on the name of the intended victim. Meeker has his aide, Norman Alden round up Waltz and bring him in. Meeker grills Waltz about any possible enemies he might have etc. Waltz admits to being something of a ladies man, but that he stays away from dames with boyfriends, husbands and the like. But he does recall a woman back in Chicago he was dating who was rather clingy. He had dumped her just before being shipped out to Hawaii.
Now Meeker and his men fake up an attack on Waltz. Pictures appear in the Honolulu papers of a battered and bandaged Waltz. Now Miller is sent to collect the cash from Corden. Meeker is following at a handy distance in case of any trouble. Corden only coughs up 500 bucks because the target was only badly injured, not killed. The person hiring the hit was not amused.
Meeker now puts in an appearance for a bit of "friendly conversation" with Corden. Corden is not in a talkative mood, and fists and boots are soon flying with Corden on the losing end of the disagreement. Corden is cuffed and hauled down to the Honolulu Police Station. Meeker has his Police Lt pal, Stanley Adams look up Corden's record. And a long one it is, going all the way back to the bootlegging days in Chicago.
Now we find out, that the clingy woman Waltz has been seeing in Chicago is the wife of a Chicago gangster. And it turns out that the gangster, Karl Lukas, and the wife, Nina Roman, are staying at a downtown hotel. Meeker figures that the gangster, must have found out about his wife stepping out, and is here to settle the matter.
Meeker pays a visit to the hotel for a word with Lukas. Things take a dangerous turn when Meeker is put down with a pistol butt to the head by Lukas. Meeker manages to recover enough to go after Lukas and a free for all develops. The gangster's wife, Roman, picks up the dropped piece and puts a couple rounds into her husband. Meeker grabs the gun away and calls up the Police.
The whole mess it seems was due to the fact that the woman, Roman had fallen bad for Waltz. She took it hard when he dumped her in Chicago. She had arranged the hit here with old Chicago friend Corden. The husband, Lukas knew nothing about his wife's dalliance. She had of course taken advantage of the opportunity to put down her hated husband when it was presented.