"Naked City" continues a losing streak with "Fallen Star", a corny story about hero worship that like the just-previous segment makes poor use of Manhattan locations and is corny, where an opportunity to trail-blaze is completely avoided.
Robert Alda coasts through the show as a former football hero reduced to shilling in poker games, taking money off out-of-towners in New York attending conventions. Guest star Rocky Graziano is part of the gang of penny ante bad guys, who kills a mark with his fists when the rube complains about the card game, setting Captain McMahon and the cops (namely Franciscus, now a one-man police force in "Naked City") on the trail of the murderers.
Police work is minimal with coincidence leading Jim to track them down at Manhattan Bowling Center (it no longer exists 60 years later), the only location used outside of studio interiors. Final shootout is lousy and sentimental.
Key plot item is that a young bellboy, well-played by Arnold Merritt (a teenage TV actor who never made it, his only film being "13 West Street") is taking care of Alda, and becomes the key witness in the crime. There are no women in the cast this week, and the obvious homoerotic nature of the two leads, old retread and young fan turned acolyte is completely avoided, understandable for 1959 TV. However, had Bert Leonard the producer boldly exploited this Gay subplot, albeit tastefully, history might have been made. All the accoutrements of the alternate Gay story fit the script but are carefully not followed up.