CASES OF EDDIE DRAKE, THE: THE JUDAS COIN (TV)
Summary
One in this series of mystery dramas about New York-based private eye Eddie Drake.
In this episode, Drake visits Gayle and relates his latest unusual tale: a man calling himself Richard Durand arrives at Drake's office and offers him $1,500 to deliver a "priceless object" to San Francisco, explaining only that it has a "colorful history" and cannot be insured. Drake accepts the risk – and the money – and boards a train heading west, but he is soon accosted by a gun-wielding man, Leonidas, who attempts to rob him. Drake overpowers the nervous "bungler," who swears that he is working alone, but Drake is then knocked out by a second person, who takes the package. Annoyed, Drake returns to New York and seeks out Durand, only to learn that he has been killed at his shop, supposedly by a burglar. The dead man is not the man who hired him, however, and Leonidas soon reappears at Drake's office and hauls him off to see Colonel Gregory Amherst, who bought the package from Durand in the first place.
Amherst admits that he attacked Drake on the train in hopes of securing the package without having to pay, and Drake, pretending that he still has the item, demands to know what it truly is. Amherst explains that it is the sole surviving coin from the fabled "30 pieces of silver" paid to Judas Iscariot for his betrayal of Jesus Christ. Deciding that he is caught, Amherst offers to pay Drake $50,000 for it, plus $10,000 extra if he does not alert Stanton, Durand's partner. Drake returns to Durand's shop and meets daughter Elsie Durand, and he takes a package from the safe and returns to his office, where the fake Durand – really Stanton – attacks him and takes it. Stanton is shot and robbed immediately upon leaving Drake's office – but Drake then returns to Elsie, having noticed that she had the coin on a chain around her neck all along. Amherst and Leonidas barge in, angry that Drake has tricked them with a decoy package, though Drake points out that Leonidas did not actually pay him the promised $60,000, but instead murdered Stanton and took it. The widow Durand then bursts in and, revealing that she and Stanton had been having an affair and killed her husband together, shoots Leonidas in revenge. Elsie then shoots her stepmother, though non-fatally, in order to save Drake. The detective reveals to Gayle that Amherst has fled and that Elsie has entrusted Drake himself with the priceless coin. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: DuMont
- DATE: November 30, 1951
- RUNNING TIME: 0:27:21
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: B:05438
- GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/private detective; Drama, mystery/suspense
- SERIES RUN: DuMont - TV series, 1952
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Harlan Thompson … Producer
- Herbert Strock … Producer
- Paul Garrison … Director
- Jason James … Writer
- Don Haggerty … Cast, Eddie Drake
- Patricia Morison … Cast, Dr. Karen Gayle
- Gil Warren … Cast, Richard Durand / Stanton
- Luis van Rooten … Cast, Leonidas
- Aubrey Mather … Cast, Colonel Gregory Amherst
- Eve Miller … Cast, Marlene Durand
- Donna Higgins … Cast, Elsie Durand
- Theodore von Eltz … Cast, Detective Lieutenant Walsh