Phyliss Derring (The Detectives starring Robert Taylor)

Phyliss Derring is a villainess in the TV series The Detectives starring Robert Taylor (USA ABC 1959 - 1962).

Episode - Season 2:32 The other cheek (first broadcast on the18th of April 1961).

Played by - Joan Marshall (1931 - 1992).

Story - Two robbers are interrupted during a warehouse heist and in a shoot out with the police one of the robbers, Harry Derring, is killed, the other, Max Williams, is wounded. The wounded man escapes. Lou Wayne, whose bullets killed and injured the bandits, is a rookie still at the police academy, and is badly affected psychologically by having to shoot a person dead, especially since the man he killed wasn't actually armed, though Williams, his accomplice, was. Later Wayne cannot bring himself to shoot at the bandit when his hiding place is discovered, allowing Williams (a double murderer) to get away once again.

Harry Derring's hard case of a wife, Phyliss, sheds no tears for him when told he's been killed. Indifferent to Harry, she's actually in love with Max Wiilliams. She contacts Williams and the pair hide out in a cabin at a shooting club. Tracked down by the police, Phylliss and Williams shoot it out with them. Phyliss is an expert with a gun, and her rifle shots put detectives Ballard and Russo out of action when the bullets send particles from the rocks they're sheltering behind into their eyes. But Williams has been killed by the detectives in the exchange, and an angry Phyliss, probably thinking she's got all the detectives helpless, emerges from the cabin, rifle in hand, taking aim at Ballard. But Lou Wayne is outside too and unhurt; fortunately he has managed to conquer his inhibitions about using his gun, and he shoots Phyliss in the wrist just before she pulls the trigger on Ballard. With a cry of pain the injured Phyliss drops the gun.