STATE TROOPER

Don Haggerty and Rod Cameron

STATE TROOPER (1956). Half-hour TV series. 

State Trooper starred Rod Cameron as Rod Blake, the chief investigator for the Nevada State Troopers. In some episodes he was advised or assisted by Don Haggerty (of King of the Rocket Men) as Sheriff Elder and Robert Armstrong (of King Kong fame) as Sheriff Andy Anderson. The series lasted for three seasons and amassed 105 episodes, all of which are available on DVD. The stories ranged from chases after escaped convicts to missing persons cases to classic, complicated murder mysteries which sometimes sent Blake way outside of his normal stomping grounds. The show was slick, fast-paced and entertaining. Cameron was perfect as Blake, a strong but sympathetic character who could be as tough as nails when he had to be but also had a soft and fair side to him. If you were going to be arrested, you wanted the arresting officer to be Blake, as he'd ferret out the truth if anyone could. 

Faith Domergue

The most memorable episodes of the series include: "From Here to Molokai" --  a fugitive is accused of murder in Hawaii; "Boulder Joe's Bottle House" -- an old, retired safecracker is forced to do a job (with Jeanne Cooper); "The Last Stage" -- a hotel's prop stage coach is actually robbed (with Doris Packer); "Cinder Jungle" -- a railroad robbery leads to the murder of a sympathetic cop; "Diamonds Come High " -- a series of diamond robberies (with Doris Singleton); "No Blaze of Glory" -- a store owner's wife is caught in a blaze (with Vivi Janis and Frank Ferguson); "Safe on a Boat" -- a robbery of a casino's safe during a honeymoon boat trip; "Fury on Freemont Street" -- an intense woman (Virginia Christine) is supposedly scared of her ex-con ex-husband. 

Constance Ford

A passenger disappears from a charter boat in "The Talking Corpse" with Craig Stevens and Jeanne Cooper (again). Rod goes undercover to investigate thefts of mine ore and finds a nasty foreman and a trampy wife in "The Fancy Dancers of Steptoe Valley." Rod investigates what caused a stampede that killed a blind woman in "The Sound of Death" with Laurie Mitchell. In "Dancing Dowager" a con woman thinks Rod is rich and tries to fleece him. In "Cable Car to Tombstone" a man (Dennis Moore) falls off of the Hoover dam and a cop (Ross Elliott) is accused. In "Sweetheart of Sigmund Kaye" a young woman (Norma Eberhardt) with a fiance (Corey Allen) reports her parents missing after quite a long time. In "The Case of the Happy Dragon" the twenty-year-old corpse of a Chinese woman is stolen from a funeral home and ransomed. In "Stay Lost, Little Girl" an old man hires a private eye to find his missing niece, but she may not want to be found. "And Baby Makes Two" features a wonderful Constance Ford in a dual role of a Vegas showgirl and her lookalike involved in a casino robbery.

Norma Eberhardt and Corey Allen 

Other guest-stars on the show include Bart Burns, Paul Langton, Patrick O'Neal, Walter Reed, Andrea King, Virginia Gregg, Joan Taylor, Angie Dickinson, Joi Lansing, Faith Domergue, Robert Vaughn, Douglas Fowley and even Joan Crawford's brother Hal Le Sueur. State Trooper presented satisfying mini-dramas of good and evil and often featured lively fight scenes, interesting characters, and exciting chases. The episodes rarely went below a B+ in quality. 

Verdict: Good cop show with an excellent, perfectly-cast Cameron. ***.