by Hal Erickson
synopsis
In one of the sillier black-and-white Dragnet episodes, Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are approached by a pair of young farmers, Otis and Marvin Spengler (Alvy Moore, Kevin Hagen). The two rustics are convinced that their 75-year-old grandfather Chester (Raymond Greenleaf) has been swindled of his life savings--a munificent $10,500--by his 24-year-old "girlfriend", striptease artist Marilee Tomlin (Eve Brent). Dragnet historian Michael Hayde has singled out this episode as an example of how, in several of the series' seventh-season entries, "characterization became caricature." Even so, it's good for a few laughs, if for no other reason than the presence of future Green Acres costar Alvy Moore (aka "Hank Kimball").
