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8/10
Nifty P.I. Tale
gordonl5620 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
MEET McGRAW – Time for Dying -1958

MEET MCGRAW was a Private Investigator television series that starred Frank Lovejoy as P.I. McGraw. The show started as a stand-alone episode of the popular FOUR -STAR PLAYHOUSE in 1954. It took till 1957 before the actual series hit the airwaves. It ran for 42 episodes between 1957 and 1958. This particular episode is the 30th of the series run.

There have been two murders in town by a man wearing a Halloween mask. Both times the man gets clear away. Or so it seems. The second murder had happened at a barber shop, where the shop manicurist, Rachel Ames had caught a quick glimpse of the killer removing the mask as he fled. Ames however says she could not make an id from what she saw, so she says nothing to the Police about it.

Ames' fiancé, Robert Patten, decides that Ames might be in danger and brings Ames over to see Private Investigator, McGraw. McGraw is played by Frank Lovejoy. Ames explains the events to the P.I. and how they are now worried the killer might come after her. Lovejoy tells the pair to go to the Police and relate to them the tale. If there are any other problems, then give him a call.

That night, at Ames apartment, Ames is shot in the back by a man with a double barrelled shotgun. Lovejoy meets the boyfriend, Patten several days later at the funeral of Ames. Needless to say Lovejoy feels like a heel over the whole thing.

While talking to Patten, Lovejoy catches something out of the corner of his eye. The something is Miss Ames driving by. What the hell? Lovejoy grabs Patten and does a bit of forceful questioning. Ah, it seems that the woman killed had been a friend of Ames on a visit.

Ames and Patten had then decided to pretend it had been Ames who was killed. Lovejoy now dives right in, and looks for any connection between the first two murder victims. Lovejoy finds that the two had been members of the same jury in a murder case. They had found the man guilty and he had been executed.

Lovejoy does some more digging, and out pops, Doris Dowling. Dowling is the widow of the man who had been executed. Dowling seems to be a person worth keeping a close eye on. Lovejoy gets the woman a job as a cashier at the same barber shop as Ames.

Lovejoy has talked Ames into going back to work as bait to draw out the killer. He stakes out the place and waits. Of course the killer makes their move to dispose of Ames. The killer turns out to be none other Miss Dowling. The woman had planned on killing all the jury members who convicted her husband. Ames had been a possible problem in completing her plot.

A pretty good episode, that gets out of the studio and onto the streets to film. Extensive use of the Bunker Hill area is used with the Angel's Flight tram prominent among these. The director was long time b-film hand, Frank McDonald. Also in the cast is Willis Bouchey as the local Police Lt.
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7/10
The Halloween mask killer
Paularoc13 May 2013
Warning: Spoilers
A man is shot by a killer in a Halloween mask; soon there is a second murder. A bellboy, Eddie, at McGraw's hotel comes to McGraw asking for his advice. It seems Eddie's girlfriend, Sue, was a witness to the second murder and saw the killer just for a second when he removed his mask, but she doubts that she could actually identify him. McGraw tells them to go to the police but they don't want to do this because then the killer would think that Sue could identify him. But the killer already thinks this and knows where Sue lives. Soon after the visit to McGraw, a woman is shot and killed going into Sue's apartment. It comes out that it was Sue who was killed and before leaving town, McGraw goes to the cemetery to pay his respects. There he sees Sue driving by in a car. He tells Eddie that he is sticking around because "I always get curious when I see someone driving away from their own funeral." McGraw learns that the two earlier murder victims were both jurors at a trial of a man later executed for murder. This is a pretty tense episode with a nice bit of detective work on McGraw's part. The supporting cast, especially Willis Bouchey as Lt. Stark is good. Another enjoyable episode.
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