New York, the 1920's: A girl is killed at an alcohol-drenched party,
and the host, notorious gangster Earl Coleman (Robert Carricart), is very
quick to point his finger at Chicago Ray Baker (Stanly Adams), a member of
Al Capone's mob. When brought into the precinct and questioned by
hard-boiled cop Barney Ruditsky (James Gregory), Ray doesn't even deny the
allegations but claims he has been so drunk he cannot remember. Soon
enough, one of Capone's cronies shows up to offer Ruditsky $10,000 for
dropping the charges against Ray, but Ruditsky not only refuses, he almost
beats the man up, too ... and then he releases Ray anyways, to the shock
of the public, because something in the case simply didn't fit, and
eventually he fingers host Coleman himself to be the killer - but proving
this is quite another matter. Ruditsky goes about this to give Coleman the
impression that his bodyguard (Richard Reeves), who he knows has been
present at the murder, has spilled the beans, this way putting the
bodyguard on the spot and pretty much forcing him to spill the beans - and
thus, Coleman gets his just dessert. Mediocre is probably the
best I can say about this story (and the series as a whole): It sadly
lacks the action gangster tales from the 1920's need almost by definition,
but at least it makes an effort to bring a coherent and at least
slightly original plot to life.
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