ACTOR

Ambulance-chasing shamus and long-ago amateur thespian Stanley Hastings (Juror, Shot, etc.) runs up to Connecticut to help out his old college friend Herbert Drake by taking over the role of Bluntschli, in Arms and the Man, from the late Walter Penbridge. Opening night, which Stanley miraculously survives, is marred when he discovers the corpse of stage manager Goobie Wheatly, who had loudly humiliated him just the day before—so that he naturally becomes friendly local Chief Bob's chief suspect, beating out even such competitors as hammy TV actor Avery Allington and leading lady Margie Miller, whose amorous exploits can't leave her much time to sleep. The usual Hastings formula—mystery-mongering with amusingly lowbrow byplay substituting for detection. Middling for the series.