Heart of the City (Big Town)

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b4hTOoH8u5ucJ1JYsI2Yxk5f9YUjHJGG/view?usp=sharing

Title: Big Town (1950)
Medium: TV Series
Actress: Joyce Holden

Description: Episode: “The Auctioneer” (4.25)

Big Town is a 1950s crime drama starring Patrick McVey as Steve Wilson, crime-busting editor of the Illustrated Press, the city's biggest newspaper. Joyce Holden plays occasional character Merrilee Winters, a fledgling reporter who substitutes when the regular reporter is on vacation.

John Hoyt guest stars as Barcley J. Bancroft. Bancroft runs a crooked auction house that sells knock-off merchandise as genuine antiques and even has Harry the Shill in the audience to jack up the bids.

Wilson is visited in his office by Hobbie Miller, a huge man who went to Bancroft's auction house after seeing it advertised in the Illustrated Press. There, he bought a fake platinum engagement ring that cost him $100 – and his fiancee. Wilson decides to investigate.

Because Wilson is too well known in the criminal world, he sends Miss Winters to infiltrate the gang.

In due course, Merrilee manages to work her way into the gang's confidence. Harry the Shill, smitten with Merrilee's beauty, takes her deeper inside the operation than he should have, showing her the warehouse where they produce and store the fake goods. Merrilee calls Wilson at his office to get the warehouse's address to him by means of a coded telephone conversation. Bancroft cuts off the call, but not before Merrilee gets the information to Wilson.

Exposed as a snoop, Merrilee attempts to flee, only to find the doorway blocked by a henchman. She is brought back inside where she hears Bancroft say those words we all love to hear: “Tie her up and gag her.” He adds, in oily villain's tones, “She may be a story tomorrow morning, but she's not going to write one tonight.”

Disappointingly, we do not get to see the lovely Miss Winters being tied up. In fact, all that we see is a lid being placed on a wooden crate, with Merrilee implied to be bound and gagged inside. Bancroft's three henchmen begin to load the crate onto the bed of a truck...

When suddenly, Wilson and Miller arrive on the scene, and a fistfight breaks out. In just a few minutes, the bad guys have either fled in panic or been knocked cold.

The good guys then hear some muffled screams. Wilson calls out Merrilee's name. More muffled screams lead to the wooden crate, now leaning obliquely against the edge of the truck bed. The men remove the crate lid, and sit Merrilee up. She is sporting a huge white cloth OTM, and has several windings of rope around her torso, pinning her arms to her sides (if she has any leg bindings, they are not visible).

Miller removes the gag, and the first words out of Merrilee's mouth are, “When's Lorelei (the regular reporter) coming back (from vacation)?” “Don't worry about her,” says Wilson. “You're doing just fine.”