Highway Patrol (TV Series) Efficiency Secretary (1957) User Reviews

That DDT is a killer!

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 27 April 2024]

A secretary at an agricultural cooperative reports fifty thousand dollars missing from the cooperative's safe just before a big payout is to be made. Dan Matthews and company respond to the call. The secretary blames herself, saying she was so busy on this day as the farmers came and went that she closed the safe, but didn't lock it. She has every list that the Highway Patrol would need to do their investigation including farmers who had been to the cooperative that day, and those who came inside versus those who stayed outside.

But not all is as it appears. The secretary took the money herself and has it in her purse. At lunch, she meets her accomplice and gives him the money to put in a safe deposit box in another town for a year until the heat is off.

She planned carefully, but Matthews has been eliminating possible suspects all morning and thus turns back to the people who actually worked in the cooperative near the safe. And then "the hand of fate" makes everything clear. To find out what I mean, watch and find out.

In 1957, such a woman as the titular efficiency secretary could really not hope for anything more career wise than that of secretary, teacher, or nurse - Careers that involved serving men. Not an excuse but perhaps an explanation for why such a person would turn to crime. In 1957, fifty thousand dollars was worth about 600 thousand in 2024 - Not an amount that would have you fixed for life, by any means. So perhaps this secretary was more interested in the challenge than the cash. It appeared that way.

A Woman Mastermind

[dougdoepke · 18 September 2017]

Paula Houston delivers an ace performance as the super-efficient secretary in a farm co-op. The actress's credits are only six and I wonder why. She was certainly good enough for a TV career and maybe more. I guess it goes to show how much talent exists on the edges of the industry. Meanwhile, get a load of the run-down warehouse. No upscale Sunset & Vine here. Clearly, production rented a real structure out in the LA boondocks. The realistic touch lends credibility to the co-op if not to the flawless secretary who's skills suggest a career on Wall Street. Perhaps, instead of a bigger job, she's planned this major heist from the lowly co-op for years.

As reviewer telegonus observes, action doesn't pick up til the second part. The real draw, however, is the plain-faced Mrs. Mauldin and her no-nonsense personality. Seldom did 50's TV make a woman the mastermind of a criminal operation, but here the gamble rates a resounding A+.

Getting The Job Done

[telegonus · 10/10 · 4 May 2012]

Yet another first rate Highway Patrol episode, Efficiency Secretary starts slow and is a bit dull for its first few minutes, then picks up as head of steam. The criminal here is a woman, and she's pretty much the gang leader: the catch is that she has no background in crime, is the girl Friday in the agricultural co-op where she works; and prior to her theft of several thousand dollars of the money of hard-working farmers, she was an upstanding citizen.

What made her do it is never explained. As I think on it she's a bit like insurance man Walter Neff of Double Inemnity, also a highly trusted employee; and Psycho's Marion Crane, the attractive young woman who absconds with forty grand from her long time employer. All three characters are middle to low level business types, a far cry from upper level management, they're not exactly working stiffs, either. They steal less from greed as a desire to break free from their humdrum lives.

The character of Miss Mauldin in Efficiency Secretary is the least sympathetic of the three. I could never warm up to her. There wasn't much to like, though her professionalism earned my admiration. She was clever enough to outfox top cop Dan Mathews early on, but even he noticed that she was almost too efficient, so disciplined and reliable to actually raise suspicions. Counter-intuitive types, whether in crime or business, often forget that they can themselves be "counter counter-intuited" by others and that no, this doesn't take a rocket scientist, just a professional cop with a keen eye. The episode features a good story, decent acting and an interesting villain of the week whose motive is never explained. Indeed, the subject never comes up.

This one isn't action packed but it's worth sticking with, as it gets better as the story moves along.