User Reviews

This one was a lot of fun. It was filmed 16 years before The Sting, otherwise I would have said that this was based on that movie. More likely, the plots for both this and the 1973 film were inspired by The Big Con, written by David Maurer and published in 1940.

"Richard Diamond, Private Detective" itself is quite the stylish show. So this story is a great fit. Diamond plays the mark and he's trying to catch the con men, who conned his client out of $25,000. The meeting takes place aboard a train. The actual con takes place inside a New York hotel and involves a phony off-track betting parlor with the race announcer sitting in a different room. Diamond had called the police the night before, telling them to raid the "horse room." But the con men get a tip that Diamond could be a cop, so they move up the betting race and Diamond's left on his own without police protection for an hour.

The Sting is one of my favorite movies of all time and certainly The Sting is better than The Big Score. But the condensed version of this plot fits well into this half hour show. The only misstep is the race announcer – he didn't have a good voice or the cadence for it. Otherwise, this was really enjoyable!

"The Knockout" This episode of "Richard Diamond, Private Detective" looked very familiar to me. In an interesting coincidence, a few weeks earlier I'd been watching episodes of an earlier series, "Racket Squad". And, one of these shows, "The Knockout", has a plot that is almost exactly like "The Big Score"!

The show begins with a woman coming to Richard Diamond asking for his help. Her husband has been cheated and they cannot prove it. Diamond agrees to go under cover and sets the bait--posing as a rich and gullible business man on the same train the husband took when he met up with the con men. And, like clockwork, Diamond meets a new 'friend' who introduces him to the con. It seems that a guy has a system--he learns about the horse racing results just before they are broadcast and using this short delay, he's able to bet and win every time. Diamond and his 'friend' bet small and win--using this man's recommendation. So, the crooks have him hooked and plan on having Diamond bet much, much larger the next time--only the winner they give him won't be the winner after all.

While the episode is interesting, the ending is a magical one--and I hate magical endings. Diamond is discovered to be a phony by the baddies and JUST before they kill him, the police happen to arrive!! Coincidences/acts of the hand of God are not great ways to handle plot problems, though the show is otherwise interesting.