User Reviews

A very noirish episode of Target: The Corruptors! Based on a story by Gene Roddenberry, starring Robert Vaughn and Robert Culp.

Paul Marino is invited by the police to a dubious gambling town run by a crooked mob led by crippled Jesse. Their tentacles that have spread from gambling to money laundering to police corruption.

Lace (Vaughn) is Jesse's smooth enforcer. He thinks police captain Meeker (Culp) is the weak link. He has a sick child and debts with his business interests. Lace could make it all go away if Meeker came over to them.

This is a strong episode of The Corruptors. Chief Swenson finds out that corruption runs deep in his own department.

Good performances from Royal Dano who likes to dance on his crutches, Michael Constantine as well as Vaughn and Culp.

Paul Marino investigates a crooked gambling racket, that have infiltrated a Police department, and seemingly gotten away with murder.

I really did enjoy the story, in the days before online betting, and a time where you could literally spend a fortune vetting at home in the comfort of your own armchair, there were the casinos.

I would imagine different states had different rules, so there would always have been illegal gambling dens.

Marino is put to great use here, his presence feels very natural, he definitely didn't feel shoehorned into the story, he's looking into the illegal gambling and a murder.

I really did enjoy the various characters, the acting was top draw here, Robert Culp, Royal Dano and Robert Vaughn were all terrific, I really did enjoy the latter's cold and sinister character.

Enjoyed, 7/10.

I always enjoy the presence in this series of guest stars who have so enjoyable evil characters performances to pull. Watch out here the tremendous performance of Royal Dano as a cripple gang chief of a gambling racket. Look out for the first sequence when he speaks to his troops and humiliates one of his men in spite of his handicap. Terrific and so surprising scene. You also have here Robert Culp as a police officer helping the columnist Mc Nally to nail Dano and his crew. And, I almost forgot, Robert Vaugh is also in the run, as a rotten, corrupted official trying to bribe the cop Culp. I will never emphasize enough about the quality of this series, so perfectly done, with so much care to performances and details, and with such a noir atmosphere. I know there were many crime series in those times, but this one seems to have been unfairly forgotten. Such a shame.