9.1/10 16 votes#1 - Portrait of Lenore
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/28/1959
Rex searches for a stolen painting, becoming involved in a missing persons case and a murder.
Director: Robert Gordon
Writer: N/A
- 8.7/10 14 votes
#2 - The 10% Blues
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 2/8/1960
Cal and Rex go up against imported killers to find the elusive power behind a talent agency using gangster tactics to get clients.
Director: William J. Hole Jr.
Writer: Dick Nelson
- 8.7/10 15 votes
#3 - Last Exit
Season 1 Episode 30 - Aired 5/2/1960
Rex flies to the Caribbean to find a client's missing daughter and the man he believes killed his son.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: N/A
- 8.5/10 22 votes
#4 - Woman in the River
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/26/1959
Rex and Cal investigate a disappearance in a wealthy New Orleans family.
Director: William J. Hole Jr.
Writer: N/A
- 8.5/10 16 votes
#5 - Find My Face
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 1/18/1960
Rex and Cal try to identify an accident victim, who refuses to accept his wife and doctor's assurances that he's a wealthy executive and instead claims to be someone else entirely.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10 17 votes
#6 - Target of Hate
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 3/7/1960
An assassin uses Rex and Cal's office to set up a political killing. Trapped, the detectives try to goad the killer into a confession that could turn his crony against him.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10 12 votes
#7 - Wall of Silence
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/28/1960
Investigating a client's suspicious suicide leads Rex to a strange island under the sway of a mysterious blackmailer.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/10 14 votes
#8 - Six Hours to Midnight
Season 1 Episode 29 - Aired 4/25/1960
Cal has six hours to uncover evidence that a condemned man is innocent of murder.
Director: Charles R. Rondeau, Arthur Hiller
Writer: Lee Loeb
- 8.4/10 12 votes
#9 - Green Hell
Season 1 Episode 34 - Aired 5/30/1960
Rex gets caught between two power-mongering revolutionaries when a tropical nation hires him to recover vital information.
Director: Charles R. Rondeau
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/10 17 votes
#10 - Invitation to a Murder
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/23/1959
Rex is invited to witness a murder by an enigmatic killer who switches victims and leaves the detectives trying to sort out a houseful of straying wives, night club operators, newsmen, and other New Orleans characters, each with a motive for the murder.
Director: Reginald Le Borg
Writer: Stephen Lord
- 8.3/10 14 votes
#11 - Suitable for Framing
Season 1 Episode 32 - Aired 5/16/1960
A beautiful woman hires Rex when she suspects her husband of trying to kill her, but when he goes to check out her mansion he finds himself at the wrong end of a murder investigation.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Gerald Drayson Adams, Charles Hoffman
- 8.2/10 21 votes
#12 - Torch Song for Trumpet
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/19/1959
Cal takes on a murder case to prove a hot-tempered ex-con didn't beat his boss to death with a trumpet.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: James Barnett
- 8.2/10 19 votes
#13 - The Black Magnolia
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/21/1959
Cal uncovers a family's skeletons when he searches for a missing fortune and a secret killer.
Director: Reginald Le Borg
Writer: Earl Baldwin
- 8.2/10 14 votes
#14 - The Missing Queen
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 3/14/1960
Cal searches for a missing beauty contestant.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/10 10 votes
#15 - Teresa
Season 1 Episode 39 - Aired 7/4/1960
Rex runs into gangsters and a hurricane while searching for a missing playboy at an island casino.
Director: William J. Hole Jr.
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/10 12 votes
#16 - The House of Ledezan
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 2/22/1960
Rex is hired to prove an heiress innocent of her father's murder.
Director: William J. Hole Jr.
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/10 14 votes
#17 - Neon Nightmare
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 3/21/1960
Cal is hired to break up a political gang with a stranglehold on a small town, but must end his partnership with Rex to avoid suspicion.
Director: William J. Hole Jr.
Writer: Dean Riesner
- 8.1/10 11 votes
#18 - Ferry to Algiers
Season 1 Episode 35 - Aired 6/6/1960
Rex and Cal go off on a fishing trip, leaving Kenny Madison in charge of the office. Kenny's first assignment is to guard an elderly shopkeeper.
Director: William J. Hole Jr.
Writer: N/A
8.0/10 33 votes#19 - The Taste of Ashes
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/5/1959
A New Orleans private eye searches for the killers of his partner and turns to a local police officer for help bringing the murderers to justice.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Charles Hoffman
- 8.0/10 17 votes
#20 - Mrs. Viner Vanishes
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/30/1959
Hired to find a missing wife, Cal soon becomes caught up in a deadly game of hide-and-seek.
Director: Paul Henreid
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/10 11 votes
#21 - Interrupted Wedding
Season 1 Episode 37 - Aired 6/20/1960
Rex helps a lovely young private eye investigate a bomb discovered at a society wedding and ends up in the clutches of a pair of siblings intent on avenging their parents' long-ago deaths at the hands of a trucking magnate.
Director: William J. Hole Jr.
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/10 17 votes
#22 - Secret of Hyacinth Bayou
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/16/1959
Cal becomes entangled in a blackmail/murder plot when he is savagely beaten and framed for murder by an old swamp-dweller hiding a secret.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/10 13 votes
#23 - Inside Man
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/11/1960
Rex goes undercover in a prison gang and joins a prison break.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Howard Browne
- 7.8/10 17 votes
#24 - Girl in Trouble
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 11/2/1959
Cal sets out to prove a friend is innocent of murder and investigates a gangland killing.
Director: Reginald Le Borg
Writer: N/A
- 7.7/10 19 votes
#25 - The Mourning Cloak
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/12/1959
Rex and Melody Lee go to the decrepit Cavanagh plantation to investigate ghostly appearances that are driving a woman insane.
Director: James V. Kern
Writer: Sig Herzig
The Best Episodes of Bourbon Street Beat
Every episode of Bourbon Street Beat ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Bourbon Street Beat!
"Bourbon Street Beat" is a private detective series produced by Warner Brothers Television which aired on the ABC network from October 5, 1959, to July 4, 1960. It featured Richard Long as Rex Randolph, Andrew Duggan as Cal Calhoun, Van Williams as Kenny Madison, and Arlene Howell as Melody Lee Mercer, the secretary at the New Orleans detective agency in which they worked. The show is set in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA and revolves around the lives of Rex Randolph (Long) and Cal Calhoun (Duggan), who run a detective agency called Randolph and Calhoun — Special Services. The agency is based in the Absinthe House, a French Quarter nightclub on Bourbon Street.
Genre:Drama
Network:ABC
Top Episode Ratings Summary
The best episode of "Bourbon Street Beat" is "Portrait of Lenore", rated 9.1/10 from 16 user votes. It was directed by Robert Gordon and written by N/A. "Portrait of Lenore" aired on 12/28/1959 and is rated 0.4 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "The 10% Blues".