Mrs. Kerby--way overplayed Noel Niell only good part is end when son flips ]
When I recently began watching old episodes of "Racket Squad", I have been very impressed. The show is still very watchable after more than half a century. However, I must admit that a few of the episodes are terrible--and "The Long Shot" is certainly one of them. It isn't because the story is bad but the character of Mrs. Kerby is meant to be rather cute and funny, but I just found her to be poorly acted and annoying. The bottom line is that she was just over-played.
Mrs. Kerby is a gambling addict. She thinks she is very clever in her choices for bets, but she's really just another gambling addict. Her son is naturally disgusted by her behaviors but he seems pretty helpless to get her to stop. However, when she thinks she has a winning Irish Sweepstakes ticket, she thinks she finally has stuck it big--and so do the local stores that offer to completely refurnish her apartment. This is so nice of them! However, the problem is that the ticket is a forgery--and the man behind the fraud is pretty clever and tries to get the ticket back because he doesn't want to ruin a great racket. After all, buying it back for many thousand isn't bad when he makes even more selling the forgeries--and who was to think that one of his forgeries would have the winning number?! By the end, Mrs. Kerby hasn't really learned her lesson. However, the baddies were caught AND her son finally has had enough and threatens her!
Mrs. Kerby is annoying...very, very annoying. So annoying that despite being an interesting episode, the show will, at times, make you cringe. Seriously.