MAVERICK Mondays: "Rope of Cards" (1958)

MAVERICK Mondays: Number 17







MAVERICK: "Rope of Cards" (1958 ABC-TV/Warner Brothers) Starring James Garner as Bret Maverick, Joan Marshall as Lucy Sutter, Tol Avery as John Sloan, William Reynolds as Billy Gregg, Will Wright as Jabe Hallack, Hugh Sanders as Blaine, Frank Cady as Hamlin, Don Beddoe as Price, Emile Meyer as Pike, George O'Hanlon as Caldwell, Harvey Cheshire as the Judge, Ken Christy as the Sheriff.  Written by R. Wright Campbell and Robert Ormond Case.  Directed by Richard L. Bare.


Bill Gregg is arrested for killing John Sloan, having been caught running out of Sloan's house with the dead man's cattle profits found on his person.  Bret Maverick's poker game is interrupted by the Sheriff, since Gregg has identified Bret as one man who can back up his seemingly impossible alibi.  Unfortunately, Bret can't, and Gregg is put on trial for Sloan's murder with Bret and the rest of the town's poker players among those selected for the jury.

With a politically motivated prosecutor presenting the evidence, it's clear that Gregg faces long odds.  In addition to the facts above: Sloan's fence had been cut, Gregg had recently purchased wire cutters, and a half-dozen witnesses in the saloon saw a confrontation between the two shortly before Sloan's shooting.  The tally is 11 to 1 in favor of a guilty verdict on the jury's initial vote, with Maverick being the lone holdout.  Why?  Bret knows things aren't always what they seem.

Though it is another of TV's seemingly endless variations on the Rose classic, it's way too simplistic to say that Rope of Cards is 12 ANGRY MEN, MAVERICK style.  We get a puzzling mystery that is solved in flashback by Gregg's testimony, yet seems so far-fetched that (as Bret surmises) Billy himself doesn't believe it.  Only Bret Maverick does, with the series once again making one of its key recurring points: the deductive reasoning required for success at poker translates well to life's other areas.

Rope of Cards also features a marvelous battle of wits between ambitious Blaine and defense attorney Hallack.  Sending a "murderous thief" to the gallows will only enhance Blaine's planned run for Governor under the banner of law and order.  Hallack, who finds his colleague ethically lacking, takes the case to stop him from using Gregg as a stepping stone.   The ensuing courtroom battle is even better than the one that follows in the jury room between Bret and Pike; in fact, for my money it's as good as any Perry Mason/Hamilton Burger confrontation.

The role of Hallack gives flinty Wright (I'd imagine he and Charles Lane were up for a lot of the same parts) a chance to play a good guy for a change, and the old pro clearly appears to relish the opportunity.  Rope of Cards was the first of six MAVERICK appearances for Wright, who had his penultimate TV role in the final season's The Troubled Heir (he died of cancer in June 1962).

Of course, the final third is dedicated to jury room deliberations, with Bret as the lone holdout (a.k.a. "Juror 8") and Pike as the leading antagonist, ostensibly "Juror 3".  Pike is the toughest nut to crack, and--as we heard while the card game was still going--has definitely pre-judged Gregg's guilt.  But Pike isn't the sadistic bigot that Juror 3 was revealed to be in Rose's original, and in fact is given plenty of reason to dig in his heels--by Bret.

Before discussing a single shred of testimony, Maverick bets Pike $500 that Gregg will be acquitted, putting the bet's outcome entirely in Pike's hands--Pike must vote "not guilty" for Bret to win his money.  While it is typical MAVERICK subversion to feature such a perverse bet (a man's life literally hangs on the outcome!), in making it, Bret ensures that Pike will remain entrenched in his position before he gives evidence even the slightest chance of changing the man's mind.  A minor flaw, no?  Still one more than compensated for by Bret's ensuing presentation of logical thinking.  He's a worthy rival to Fonda's dramatic Juror, and rather than giving us the high minded homilies that other westerns would, Maverick climaxes his presentation with a card trick.

Which is what everyone remembers about Rope of Cards: the introduction of Maverick Solitaire.  Watch closely: director Baer presents the entire sequence in one continuous shot, starting with the shuffle and ending with the highly unlikely (or is it?) five pat hands.  Pike, being a player Bret accurately pegs as "only betting on sure things", falls hook, line and sinker for the presentation, but this second "safe bet" turns out to be anything but.  Rather than ending up a shattered man like his 12 ANGRY MEN counterpart, Pike proves in the conclusion to be a "pretty good man" (as Bret suspects) in addition to a pretty good player.  In modern poker parlance Pike is "book smart" but not "street smart", and a professional player had better be both--like Bret.  Maverick bluffs Pike off of a hand holding King high during the poker game, then later bluffs him into a call by making Pike think he has a near-certain winner in the denouement (when in fact, Pike is almost drawing dead)--playing the player both times.  And using his poker skills to set an innocent man (another sharp read by Bret, the pro) free.
  

HOW'D BRET DO AT POKER?

Bret was losing to Mr. Sloan, but once Sloan's untimely demise removed him from the game, Bret seemed to be doing better--though he still appeared to be stuck when the Sheriff called him away at Gregg's request.  We did see Bret pull off a nice bluff with a busted open ended straight draw on the game's final hand.  After Bret took down the respectable pot, the game was interrupted for good to choose a jury pool.  Bret did make at least $1,000 back in side bets with the hapless Pike, meaning that Maverick Solitaire was the more profitable game (by far) this time.

AWARD WORTHY:

Future LAWMAN director Robert Sparr was deservedly nominated for an Emmy for his editing of Rope of Cards.  Curiously, while he also directed episodes of 77 SUNSET STRIP, HAWAIIAN EYE, CHEYENNE and BRONCO among other Warner Brothers series, he never helmed a MAVERICK. Sparr (who was killed in a 1969 plane crash) scored both of his Emmy nominations for editing MAVERICK episodes; his second was for The Quick and The Dead.

WISDOM FROM PAPPY?

None, which is mildly disappointing since you'd think Pappy would have something to say about our justice system.  Just one of several instances in which we should expect the unexpected here.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

While I doubt that Roy Huggins was literally correct in claiming that "every store in America" was sold out of playing cards within days of its initial airing, there's no denying that Rope of Cards was very effective in selling the country on tuning in to ABC's freshman series at 7:30 P.M. on Sunday nights.  Everyone remembers the introduction of Maverick Solitaire, but Rope of Cards is also a solid mystery with outstanding courtroom theater.  Over a half century later, MAVERICK remains the most pro-poker series ever to hit prime time, portraying the skills needed to succeed at the game in a consistently positive light.  If this installment isn't quite Exhibit A in that regard, it isn't too far down the alphabet.  (***1/2 out of four)


MAVERICK currently airs Monday through Friday at 1 PM Central/2 PM Eastern without commercial interruption on Encore Westerns, and every Sunday morning at 10 AM Central/11 AM Eastern on COZI TV.

Television Review: HONDO: "Hondo and the Singing Wire" (1967)

Your lives are meaningless compared to HONDO!







HONDO: "Hondo and the Singing Wire"  (1967 ABC-TV/MGM/Batjac Productions) Episode 3; Original Air Date: September 22, 1967.  Starring Ralph Taeger as Hondo Lane, Noah Beery Jr. as Buffalo Baker, Kathie Browne as Angie Dow, Gary Clarke as Captain Richards, Michael Pate as Chief Vittoro, Buddy Foster as Johnny Dow, William Bryant as Colonel Crook.  Guest Stars Donald Woods as Dr. Paul Stanton, Perry Lopez as Delgado, Pat Conway as Redell, Donald 'Red' Barry as Sergeant Daniels, Iron Eyes Cody as Chief.  Written by George Schenck.  Directed by William Witney. 


Series Overview for HONDO: TV's Unlikeliest Cult Hit at this link  


Southwestern Telegraph Company is expanding through Apache territory, making good progress at up to five miles of wire per day.  Vittoro gives the project his tentative blessing, but renegades led by Delgado manage to make Redell's first demonstration to the Chiefs a very public failure, massacring Southwestern's repair crew and wounding Hondo.  Moving in for the kill, Delgado sees Lane wearing Vittoro's eagle claw and recognizes Lane as Emberato.  Learning also that Hondo doesn't work for Southwestern, the renegade's leader relents, with a message for Lane to deliver if he lives.  "Tell Redell that he will die with his singing wire!"

Picking up on a clue from the encounter, Hondo lives to convalesce at the home of Dr. Stanton, a fugitive from justice whose location is known only to the Natives.  Meanwhile, Redell pressures the Army to mount an offensive against Delgado's men.  Captain Richards eventually agrees, but it soon becomes clear that the conflict between Delgado and Redell is a very personal war with the latter considering anyone to be acceptable collateral damage.

Directed by William Witney (DARKTOWN STRUTTERS) and written by George Schenck (BARQUERO, CRAZY LIKE A FOX), Hondo and the Singing Wire is ostensibly about establishing a needed telegraph service while winning the cooperation of the Apaches and neighboring tribes.  Like that other renegade Silva in the preceding episode, Delgado vows death to the white man who wishes to take Native land.  Any commonality between the two agitators stops there, however.

Unlike the disdainful and bloodthirsty Silva, Delgado respects Chief Vittoro, and is only after one white man--not them all.  This dissident is just using the expected rhetoric as a recruiting tool in his personal vendetta against the Southwestern Telegraph company and its owner specifically.  Delgado (whose father was a white settler) has much in common with fellow half-Apache Hondo, something that helps Lane survive their initial skirmish.  Delgado is seeking revenge against the man and the entity that he holds responsible for the death of the person he loved most--just as Hondo himself did during the Civil War.

Delgado kills several employees and soldiers in the process, but also offers to spare everyone remaining if Redell is turned over to him.  Given his backstory, the renegade isn't entirely unsympathetic.  The same can't be said for racist, condescending Redell, who proves to be completely uncaring of any life other than his own.  As Buffalo aptly puts it: "he's lower than a snake's belt buckle!"  (Not to spoil anything, but we learn that the acorn didn't fall far from the tree, either.)

While the regulars take something of a back seat to this grudge match, Hondo and the Singing Wire isn't stolen from them entirely.  Hondo Lane gives further evidence of his resourcefulness and his scouting expertise, and Buffalo mulls a career change (to bounty hunter) near the end of his hitch.  Captain Richards' rigidity is put to the test during the pursuit of the renegades.

HONDO continues to boast a tremendous supporting cast on a weekly basis.  Lopez (DEATH WISH 4) is properly intense with the episode's plum part, while Conway (TOMBSTONE TERRITORY) does what he can with a one dimensional villain.  Iron Eyes Cody plays a Chief for about the 194th time, and to the surprise of no one familiar with his roles post-RED RYDER, Donald 'Red' Barry's Sergeant turns out to be an opportunistic douche.

The most memorable impression among the guests is left by another B-movie vet, Donald Woods (NEVER SAY GOODBYE), who has the meaty part of the compassionate but understandably reluctant physician.

Hondo and the Singing Wire is intriguingly scripted by Schenck, unfortunately fizzling in its final act with one head-scratcher of a plothole: what happened to Delgado's contingent after they surrounded their cornered prey?  It seems more than implausible that they'd all disperse and disappear, since we didn't see Delgado dismiss them.  And why would he?   Doing so would be giving up his huge strategic advantage, which Delgado maintained throughout--he was always two or three steps ahead of the Army and Hondo, even.    Delgado's followers are presented as true believers, so you'd certainly think they'd appear and open fire during the denouement if they've been camouflaging their presence.  It is completely out of character for the calculating renegade, marring an otherwise above average segment.

HOW MANY CANS OF WHOOPASS?

Hondo Lane was busy recouperating from his bullet wound for most of the first half of Singing Wire, and only ends up throwing one punch the entire episode, understandably decking Redell with it.

IS THE CANTINA STILL STANDING?

Since Hondo and Buffalo are too busy to stop in for a beer, Fort Lowell's answer to Madison Square Garden suffers no property damage in Hondo and the Singing Wire.

IT'S A DOG'S LIFE:

When Hondo is wounded, it's up to Sam to bring him his horse and help lead him to the Doctor.  Later, Sam has a tender paw from their initial travels, putting him on sick call until the episode's epilogue.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Light on the fisticuffs and a tad heavier on exposition than usual.  Hondo and the Singing Wire is a curious assignment for action specialist Witney, and Delgado's strategic lapse at the end fails to hold water.  Plenty of plusses though: another top notch supporting cast, handsome production values, and the sound foundation provided by Taeger's understated yet consistently effective presence.  Either a weak three star or a strong two and a half--I went back and forth on it and your mileage may vary.  Witney would later helm the outstanding Hondo and the Death Drive.  (*** out of four)

  
HONDO: THE COMPLETE SERIES is currently streaming at Warner Archive Instant and also airs every Saturday at 3:30 PM Central on GetTV.