MAVERICK Mondays: "Two Beggars on Horseback" (1959)

 



MAVERICK Mondays: Number 5







MAVERICK: "Two Beggars on Horseback" (Warner Brothers/ABC-TV 1959) Starring James Garner as Bret Maverick, Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, Patricia Barry as Jessamy Longacre, Ray Teal as Harvey Stryker, Will Wright as General Bosco, Roscoe Ates as Kibitzer, John Cliff as Sundown and Duane Gray as Howie Horowitz.  Written and Directed by Douglas Heyes.

During a poker game, Bret and Bart learn that their $10,000 bank drafts from Gannet Express are practically worthless, since Gannet just went bankrupt.  Enter the opportunistic Jessamy, who informs them that there is one Gannet office isolated from the rest of the franchise due to the lack of telegraph access.  Ms. Longacre has inside information that the office still has enough cash on hand to fulfill one of the drafts, and is willing to lead the way there--for 10 percent of the proceeds.  An offer she extends seperately (and seductively) to each Maverick brother.

But there's a catch: the office is located in Deadwood, requiring dangerous travel through the heart of Indian territory.  Great minds thinking alike: Bart and Bret decide to trek there seperately--it's a race between Bret and Bart to determine which sibling will reach the last branch standing first.  Jessamy catches on--and pragmatically latches on to whichever Maverick is in the lead at a given time.  Meanwhile, there are few supply hubs along the way (one "General" store, literally--Bosco's) and Indians aren't the only hazards, with armed highwaymen and crooked traders joining Jessamy's ever-switching loyalties to provide additional obstacles between a Maverick and his money.

Parodying the title of the George S. Kaufman play but otherwise unrelated to it, Douglas Heyes' Two Beggars on Horseback gives us a mad, mad Maverick world as Bret and Bart race against time and each other.  So much for any spirit of brotherly cooperation: both secretly start out alone towards the destination after nightfall, sabotage is within the rules (and always suspected) and neither brother is initially willing to let Ms. Longacre (the source of the inside information) in on the plan.  Not that she can't take care of herself, which she does in admirable fashion.  Well, admirable to a Maverick, at least.  She's willing to woo Bret, Bart or a highwayman (with the same lines!)--whoever happens to have the upper hand at the time.

Like the third season's Maverick and Juliet, Two Beggars on Horseback is a fine exploration of just how far a Maverick is willing to go for money.  In each example, the line is somewhat reluctantly drawn at "my brother's life".   In Juliet, Bart is put to to the test, but this time out Bret has the decision of risking his $10,000 to save Bart.  Before that specific dilemna arrives, a highly entertaining game of "can you top this?" takes place.  Bret jumps to an early lead with a fresh horse and supplies while Bart is left afoot.  Bart catches up by winning a horse in a sucker bet around the time Bret runs into robbers, then sneakily cuts his older brother's saddle cinch before the race starts again.  And so on, until the stakes reach life-threatening levels.

After a remarkably unhinged performance in Prey of the Cat, Patricia Barry returned for an equally memorable role in her second and final MAVERICK.  Ms. Longacre proves to be calculating, cunning, and cool but not necessarily cold.  Nevertheless, she's all business, especially when using her wiles.  None of her three "marks" can fully resist, though it appears that Bret and Bart both know better.

Like series creator Roy Huggins, Heyes was a first rate creative talent sadly lost to MAVERICK for good after the second season.  Hayes is hamstrung a bit by the usual budgetary constraints, but still gets a lot of mileage out of the greed of all three of our travelers--not to mention everyone they run into, with the exception of the General.  "Business is business", indeed, but it is notable that they all reach their destination only after setting natural selection aside and deciding to work together.

HOW'D THEY DO AT POKER?

Poker quickly falls by the wayside as redemption of the $10,000 drafts takes precedence.  It is curious to see Bret and Bart at the same table, cutting into each other's profits in a busy casino.  Wasn't there a second table?

WISDOM FROM PAPPY?

"When it comes to poker, never trust anyone, not even your brother", Bret shares with us via voiceover.  Bart corrects him: "actually, Pappy said especially your brother."

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Jack Kelly cited this as his favorite episode.  Brother Bart had good taste, as we see the resourcefulness of each Maverick on display.  Bret actually has the better role though, honorably(!) putting family before profit for once and coming up with a neat solution to the problems faced by all three travelers once they reach their Deadwood destination.  The installments featuring both Bret and Bart tended to be the very best MAVERICK shows, particularly when a sense of competition arose out of the situation.  Heyes concocts an involving plot, Patricia Barry makes a beautiful and fitfully pragmatic leading lady, and we can still root for both of our picaresque brothers since the adversaries they meet (Teal and Cliff) are positively slimy.  One of the best of a lights-out second season. (**** out of four)

Television Review: LOVE THAT BOB - "Bob Gets Harvey a Raise" (1958)

LOVE THAT BOB: "Bob Gets Harvey a Raise" (Original Air Date: 3/11/1958) Starring Bob Cummings as Bob Collins, King Donovan as Harvey Helm, Jesse White as H. R. "Hap" Henderson, Ann B. Davis as Schultzy, Joi Lansing as Shirley Swanson, Lisa Gaye as Collette DuBois.  Written by Paul Henning, Shirley Gordon and Dick Wesson.  Directed by Bob Cummings.

Series overview of LOVE THAT BOB a.k.a. THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW previously published here for the one hundredth anniversary of the star's birth in 2008 at this link. 

While putting the finishing touches on a mink layout with gorgeous models Shirley and Collette, ace photographer Bob Collins realizes he's made a seperate date with each for that evening.  Meanwhile Bob's old war buddy Harvey Helm is now a married milquetoast who arrives at the studio with a big problem of his own.   Midwestern furniture buyer "Hap" Henderson ("who everybody knows and everybody owes!") is en route to the City of Angels expecting a night out with women, wine....and women...prior to signing a big contract with Helm's firm.  Needless to say, this is something that Mrs. Helm won't stand for.

Upon Hap's unexpected arrival at Bob's studio, the Furniture King mistakes Collins for Helm, and Harvey persuades his old comrade in arms to keep up the ruse long enough to close the business deal.  Bob reluctantly agrees, realizing that this "double date" does give him a chance to juggle his own dating dilemma.  Telling each model that the other is Henderson's date, Bob takes the imperious Hap out on the town with Helm's career hanging in the balance.

Rosemary de Camp and Dwayne Hickman are nowhere to be found in this fourth season entry, but despite the dearth of household action Bob Gets Harvey a Raise is still quintessential BOB: hyperactive and thoroughly un-PC.  Things move swiftly from the studio to the nightclub and back during this very long evening and Collins deftly steers Hap, Shirley and Collette from the truth throughout with some extremely close calls along the way.  My pick for the most amusing: Bob holding hands with both models at the table (while clueless Hap drones on) until a spilled drink outs him--just one of several sight gags expertly directed by the series' star.

Unlike some reviewers, I could always take the leap of faith and buy Cummings as a ladies' man on LOVE THAT BOB.  After all, he was an untamable bad boy and a single, successful business owner (the latter, of course, making him a "good catch") whose chosen profession also put him in a position to further a model's career.  Having said that, Bob Gets Harvey a Raise is truly a guilty pleasure.

(L to R) Lansing, White and Gaye

Within the first two minutes, Bob is calling Shirley a "cheesy face" and Collette a "bonehead", and has them both loving it--using their lack of familiarity with French and English respectively.  Just the first of many shameless manipulations.  Both models are subjected to unwanted attention from the loutish Henderson.  "Hap" talks loudly and incessantly about himself, carries pornographic calendars and stereoscopes, and repeatedly steps on the feet of both dance partners with nary an apology.  Before his long run as the Maytag repairman, Jesse White made a living playing characters like this.  You know--assholes!  Watching him here, it isn't a stretch to picture him ending up lonely....

Joi Lansing

Joi Lansing and Lisa Gaye were arguably the two most popular recurring models on LOVE THAT BOB.  Both actresses appeared in all five seasons and obviously impressed co-workers as much as the viewers.  Lansing later played Gladys Flatt on Paul Henning's biggest hit, THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, and Gaye guest starred on both of Cummings' subsequent series, THE NEW BOB CUMMINGS SHOW and MY LIVING DOLL.  Incidentally, Gaye later named Cummings her favorite of all the directors she ever worked with.  High praise--Gaye had nearly 100 imdb credits before her 1970 retirement.

Bob Gets Harvey a Raise has a plethora of the show's typical sexual innuendos.  Also a lot more drinking than usual, with the result that neither Bob nor Henderson is anywhere to be found the morning after--at first, that is.  It is even implied that everyone got so schnockered that Henderson scored!  (Listen for the line about the "small but springy" dance floor after the awakening.)  Given Hap's overall appeal to the fairer sex, this a definite "guy's episode", though even men might wince now.  Nevertheless, taken as cringe humor, it is frequently hilarious.

Bob Gets Harvey a Raise is actually the first of a two parter (Henning loved multi-episode arcs, something he would continue on HILLBILLIES) but part one is far better than part two, Bob Saves Harvey, and works more than well enough as a self-contained installment. 

WHO WAS BLOCKING?

No one, for once.  Even Henderson was inadvertently helping Collins out with his scheduling conflict.


DID BOB SCORE?


See above.  If Henderson scored, then you know Bob was a slam dunk.

With more objectification of the models than usual (yes, even for this show), Bob Gets Harvey a Raise is the very definition of a guilty pleasure.  One of the guiltiest.  It's a little hard to buy Collette and Shirley putting up with some of the shenanigans at the nightclub, Bob or no Bob.  Assuming you can take that leap, this one is frequently hilarious.  Henning, Wesson and Gordon provided the usual sharp, risque lines and funny situations, and Cummings continued to impress with Emmy-worthy work behind the camera.  Yeah, you'll wince a few times, but you'll be red-faced from laughter and embarrassment in roughly equal amounts.  A genuine artifact from an earlier time that retains its entertainment value, both intentional and not.    (***1/2 out of four)


Bob Gets Harvey a Raise is on Youtube for your viewing pleasure at this link.

Our Favorite Episodes: THE EQUALIZER: "Breakpoint" (1986)

THE EQUALIZER: "Breakpoint" (1986 Universal TV/CBS) Original Air Date: February 19, 1986.  Starring Edward Woodward, Tony Shalhoub, Patricia Clarkson, Sam Schact, Phyllis Newman, Richard Hamilton, Keith Szarabajka, Aharon Ipale, Tony Spiridakis, Ned Eisenberg, Joseph Kell, Earl Hindman.  Written by Scott Shepherd and Don Carlos Dunaway.  Directed by Russ Mayberry.

At a high rise New York hotel, Robert McCall (Woodward) is giving away the daughter (Clarkson) of a late colleague at her wedding.  Meanwhile, middle Eastern philanthropist Ipale is staying at the same hotel when he is abducted by terrorists (Shalhoub, Spiridakis, Eisenberg) with intent to take him back to their unnamed home for trial and execution.  With their escape route foiled, the heavily armed Shalhoub and friends crash the wedding party, taking guests hostage for leverage in the negotiations for safe passage.

Tony Shalhoub in his TV debut

Two decades before Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills, Edward Woodward's Robert McCall was that retired operative with a particular set of skills acquired over a long career.  After being a nightmare to kidnappers, slumlords and corrupt cops for the first eighteen installments, The Equalizer found himself without a client to help for the first time.  In "Breakpoint", it's McCall who is among the victims.

Of course, with McCall's many years of experience, he knows the International Terrorists Playbook better than his captors.  This well-developed entry allows the audience to really see the payoff for all that past agency work, in a situation requiring very quick thinking, tremendous discipline, and absolutely no margin for error.  As he notes (sotto) to one guest, practically reading the man's mind: "We will have one chance--and believe me, that is not it!"

The Equalizer starts balancing the books immediately, taking the place of another party member and subtly communicating that no picture ID's should be turned over when Shalhoub demands identification.  Once taken, McCall correctly deduces every move in advance that will be made to keep his fellow captives fearful and off-balance, diffuses well meaning but ill-advised heroic attempts by the both laymen and the local police, and waits for just the right moment to turn the tables on the middle easterners.  Robert's patience is tested more than once, as McCall has to grit his teeth through an attempted (off-screen) rape of Clarkson and the execution of another hostage "to speed things along".

Many early EQUALIZER episodes featured performers on their way to stardom, and "Breakpoint" marked the television debut for Tony Shalhoub as the head of the captors.  The future MONK star would turn down terrorist roles after this ("Having done it once was more than enough." he said in one interview) but Shalhoub established himself well with this performance.  Dapper, calculating and calm but very capable of swift, brutal violence, Shalhoub's character is sort of a forerunner to Alan Rickman's even more elegant criminal in DIE HARD (1988): Hans Gruber without the humorous lines.

Other parallels with the Bruce Willis hit can be seen with McCall's sometime right hand man Mickey (Szarabajka) trying to find his way to the wedding party through the air conditioning ducts once he learns McCall is among the hostages.  I'll try to avoid spoilers, but intentionally or not, DIE HARD also lifted a critical moment of its denouement from the conclusion here.

In addition to Shalhoub's first small screen performance, "Breakpoint" features Patricia Clarkson's second (after a SPENSER: FOR HIRE) as the beautiful bride who has a bit of apprehension (since her father shared McCall's former line of work).  TV veteran Richard Hamilton (BRET MAVERICK) also contributes fine work in an almost wordless supporting role that nevertheless will stick in your memory afterward.

An expert but no superhuman, McCall consistently makes the most out of whatever tools he has as his disposal.  A reason is eventually given for every one of The Equalizer's actions, but in Mayberry's hands, the audience is never bludgeoned with the point to be made.  Woodward communicates everything to us with efficient expressions and terse dialogue.  The (limited) background information on McCall's relationship with his late colleague is also welcome--he remained a mysterious figure throughout this first season, of which "Breakpoint" was a clear highlight.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

While the dispatchment of one bad guy is a tad unconvincing, "Breakpoint" remains engaging throughout, very well written and directed.  This entry offers all of Robert McCall's skills under fire on full display, and in doing so serves as a unique installment of THE EQUALIZER as well as a solid introduction to the show for the uninitiated.  Clarkson and Shalhoub both show the acting chops we would become very familiar with later in early roles.  This episode is good enough to make you understand why Max Belfort was so upset about those Tuesday night phone calls.  (**** out of four)

MAVERICK Mondays: "Trooper Maverick" (1959)

 



MAVERICK Mondays: Number Four





MAVERICK: Trooper Maverick (1959 ABC-TV/Warner Brothers) Starring Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, Herbert Rudley as Colonel Sam Pearcy, Suzanne Lloyd as Catherine Pearcy, Joe Sawyer as Sgt. Schumaker, Sammy Jackson as Private Heaven, Myron Healey as Benedict, Charles Cooper as Captain Berger, Mark Tapscott as Sgt. Rogers, Tony Young as Acando.  Directed by Richard L. Bare.  Written by William Driskill.

While fishing for profits at an army post, Bart is arrested for gambling under a rarely enforced law by his old acquaintance Colonel Percy, the C.O.  With the alternative being the same length of time in the stockade, Maverick is blackmailed into a six month enlistment.  The Colonel then reveals his real reason for wanting the thoroughly un-military Maverick in his troop: he wants Bart to work undercover.  Percy believes Bart's slacker ways will attract the traitor (or traitors) in his ranks who has been selling guns to the Indians.  Oh, and of course, no one else is to know, not even the Colonel's wife (who was raised by the local tribe).

Bart performs his assigned role well: frustrating by-the-book Sgt. Schumacher, finding a source of amusement in eager beaver Private Heaven, and attracting shady Benedict with his lackadaisical, contemptuous approach to his enlistment.  The aptly named Benedict is predictably untrustworthy, and Percy's wife is revealed to have questionable loyalties despite her outward dismissal of the people who raised her.  But when Bart is caught "consorting" with the traitors and tribesmen while the Colonel is away, it's Trooper Maverick who is facing the hangman's noose.

Trooper Maverick has the intriguing premise of Bart being blackmailed into the Army, rich with comic possibilities both visual and verbal, not unlike Driskill's only other MAVERICK contribution, The Sheriff of Duck n' Shoot.  Kelly is given plenty of opportunities to react as a fish out of water, with Bare proving as adept at handling the humor as he would be in his best known gig, the 168 episodes of GREEN ACRES.

Driskill does a good job living up to Roy Huggins' MAVERICK credo for over a half hour--the situation is indeed "always hopeless, but never serious".  Unfortunately, he couldn't come up with an ending.  Trooper Maverick is weakened greatly by its final reel, with not one, but two unconvincing examples of the banal "character change as resolution" cliche that too many sitcom scripters utilized when they apparently found themselves stuck.  While some Maverick resolutions are more satisfying than others, and the show is capable of surprising you fairly often, Trooper Maverick provides one of the least persuasive conclusions of the first three seasons.   
  

For a much better example of "how to get Maverick out of the hangman's noose", see the underrated High Card Hangs from Season 2, in which Bart has to rely on Dandy Jim Buckley for help. By itself, that's a suspenseful enough idea to keep one's interest. 

MAVERICK twice mined the cavalry for comedy during the third season, with Garner apparently choosing to do The Ghost Soldiers over this episode.  Both scripts had their problems, but Garner probably made the right choice overall.  And yes, that is the future Fort Courage from F TROOP serving as the set for both.  (Colonel Pearcy even has the exact same portrait and frame of General Grant in his office that Captain Parmenter had in his!  Waste not, want not, Warner Brothers always said.)

Among our supporting players, the always eye-catching Suzanne Lloyd would return in Last Stop: Oblivion and Sammy Jackson would parlay his performance into his best-remembered television role in 1964.  When Warner Brothers was casting for a series version of NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS (which ironically would air opposite Andy Griffith's hit show on the 1964-65 schedule), Jackson offered his performance as Private Heaven in this episode as proof that he'd be perfect for the role of Private Will Stockdale.   Jack Warner apparently agreed; Jackson got the part.

Yeah, I know, a lot of pics of Suzanne Lloyd.  You complaining?  Didn't think so.

HOW'D BART DO AT POKER?

Money aside, this was highly unprofitable for Bart, as just playing at the post interrupted his career for six months.  But Maverick also loses some money while we're watching during his first attempt at play, which results in his arrest immediately after he loses his first hand.  His second game is brought to a halt before it even starts by a good old fashioned fist fight with the hard-nosed Sergeant.

WISDOM FROM PAPPY?

"Once you get the call, don't be a backslider."  But not Bart's Pappy, some soldier's.  No wonder it isn't that wise.

WARNER BROTHERS RECYCLING, PARTS 1,567 AND 1,568:


Both cavalry episodes of MAVERICK naturally got re-worked as F TROOP episodes nearly a decade later, with The Ghost Soldiers providing the basic premise for Captain Parmenter, One Man Army and this episode's plot borrowed for Guns, Guns, Who's Got the Guns?

THE BOTTOM LINE:

It isn't often you'll see a MAVERICK writer painting himself into a corner, but that's what happens as Driskill experiences the sophomore slump after his much-loved first entry.  Some fine comedic moments here, with Kelly surprisingly good at slapsticky pratfalls, but the situation rings false when all is said and done. Trooper Maverick requires a leap of faith to begin with (after all, Bart had army experience as mentioned in the earliest episodes) and ultimately, fails to convince.  A sometimes fun but forgettable entry.  (** out of four)