I'm the Law (TV Series) The Trucking Story (1953) User Reviews

Good cop TV

[gordonl56 · 7/10 · 31 January 2009]

The "Trucking Story" is an episode from the 1953 George Raft series, "I Am The Law". There is something funny happening on the N.Y. waterfront and Poice Lt. Kirby gets the assignment. A teamster is dead after a large crate "slips" and lands on him. The police decide there is more to the accident when they discover a large wad of cash on the body. No way this guy made it legit so he must be involved in something underhanded. Raft goes undercover as a dock hand and starting digging. He soon discovers that the trucking outfit is playing fast and loose with the customs boys. The shipping outfit is loading extra cases onto ships bound for China. The cases have explosives hidden in them. Raft figures he has all the goods he needs in-order to make an arrest. Before he can call in the boys however, he is waylaid by a large gun in the back. Helen Parrish, the company owner has tumbled to Raft and calls in her heavy, John Doucette. "Get rid of Him!" She commands. Our man Raft soon gets the upper hand and disposes of Doucette after a rousing bout of fisticuffs. The gang is rounded up and off to the big house they go.

A quite watchable little bit of early crime TV. John Doucette seems to show up in every third TV show. Most of his bits are not even listed on IMDb. Helen Parrish was director Robert Parrish's sister. John Eldridge is also in the cast as a cop on Raft's squad. The director was Robert G. Walker who only worked in TV production. The d of p is of note though. Joseph Biroc lensed Roughshod, Cry Danger, Loan Shark, The Glass Wall, Vice Squad, World for Ransom, Down 3 dark Streets etc.

Crime on the docks

[Paularoc · 6/10 · 24 September 2012]

A dock worker is killed in what the police are told - and they initially believe - was an accident. However, a friend of the dock worker who is a peddler hanging around the docks makes a pest of himself at the police station telling everyone that his friend wasn't killed by accident. They by now believe him because his friend was found with a bundle of cash on him. Kirby goes undercover at the docks and soon discovers a smuggling operation. Interesting that the peddler's friend was known to be a very kind and generous man but he also was on the take. John Doucette does a very good job as the heavy but I prefer him as a cop. In this episode, Kirby never takes his hat or trench coat off (he substitutes the trench coat for a jacket when he goes undercover) even when he's in his office, even though other characters do. I don't remember him hatless or coat-less in any of the episodes but perhaps he was. Not that it matters, but it is odd.