This certainly was a different kind of story, and the title of it is misleading, except maybe for mother who was petrified she was going to lose the one-year-old she had adopted.
The story is basically about a couple of con artists: 1 - the real couple of a baby; 2 - a crook posing as someone who arranges the adoption but is only it in to bilk the adopter out of thousands of dollars.
Our hero, "Lt. Det. Frank Ballinger" (Lee Marvin) is a not a happy cop, right from the start. He knows the woman who is being conned. She and her husband are old friends. The husband is in Europe during all of this. The wife acts too hysterical at times and did a lot of stupid things which led her nightmare. However, she's the victim, not the crook and Frank wants nothing better than to prove these people are bad news and belong behind bars. It's not an easy case to solve, and it doesn't help when Ballinger sets up a "sting" near the end and his wires under the carpet are discovered! (Frank often bungles part of the operation but usually winds up successful!).
Fay Baker is annoying but convincing as the victim and Doris Paker is very interesting as the old-lady con who never admits she did anything wrong. Tom Pittman and Barbara Benson play the roles of young '50s punks beautifully, especially Pittman, a little punk you just want to slap! Sad to say, Pittman died later in the year, at the tender age of 26 after getting in a car accident. In another note, Baker began her acting career in Alfred Hitchock's feature film "Notorious."
The message in this episode, as Frank repeats several times, is to make sure you do all the right legal things (i.e. sign the correct documents, etc.) if you are going to adopt and don't want troubles like the woman in this episode went through.
The story is basically about a couple of con artists: 1 - the real couple of a baby; 2 - a crook posing as someone who arranges the adoption but is only it in to bilk the adopter out of thousands of dollars.
Our hero, "Lt. Det. Frank Ballinger" (Lee Marvin) is a not a happy cop, right from the start. He knows the woman who is being conned. She and her husband are old friends. The husband is in Europe during all of this. The wife acts too hysterical at times and did a lot of stupid things which led her nightmare. However, she's the victim, not the crook and Frank wants nothing better than to prove these people are bad news and belong behind bars. It's not an easy case to solve, and it doesn't help when Ballinger sets up a "sting" near the end and his wires under the carpet are discovered! (Frank often bungles part of the operation but usually winds up successful!).
Fay Baker is annoying but convincing as the victim and Doris Paker is very interesting as the old-lady con who never admits she did anything wrong. Tom Pittman and Barbara Benson play the roles of young '50s punks beautifully, especially Pittman, a little punk you just want to slap! Sad to say, Pittman died later in the year, at the tender age of 26 after getting in a car accident. In another note, Baker began her acting career in Alfred Hitchock's feature film "Notorious."
The message in this episode, as Frank repeats several times, is to make sure you do all the right legal things (i.e. sign the correct documents, etc.) if you are going to adopt and don't want troubles like the woman in this episode went through.
