Television Review: HONDO: "Hondo and the Death Drive" (1967)

"Your lives are meaningless compared to HONDO!"  








HONDO: "Hondo and the Death Drive" (1967 ABC/MGM/Batjac Productions) Season One, Episode 13.  Original Air Date: December 1, 1967.  Starring Ralph Taeger as Hondo Lane, Noah Beery, Jr. as Buffalo Baker, William Bryant as Colonel Crook, Glenn Langan as Victor Tribolet.  Guest Stars: Alan Hale, Jr. as Ben Cobb, L. Q. Jones as Allie, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez as Sancho, J. Pat O'Malley as Rufus, Reed Hadley as Morgan Slade, Terry Wilson as Dakota, X Brands as Coro, Ted Gehring as Kemp, Dave Cass as Harper, John Mitchum as Bartender, Bill Catching as Saloon Brawler, Roy Sickner as Cox, Tom Steele as Hudson, Jeff Morris as Galin.  Written by Peter Germano.  Directed by William Witney.


Series overview and introduction to the HONDO episode guide is at this link.


A cattle drive delivering to the Pinto Basin Apache reservation is lost to a stampede in a storm, forcing Colonel Crook to scramble for beef.  Heading the cattlemen's association in the Basin, Ben Cobb tries to extort too high a price to provide it.  Rationalizing that marbled steak and wool provides more overall value and sheep will be easier to keep, Crook purchases 500 head from Slade and orders Hondo and Buffalo to oversee the delivery.  Meanwhile, Cobb plots to stop them from reaching their destination by any means necessary.

Hondo and the Death Drive marks an intriguing change in direction for the series, with Fort Lowell moving from focal point to springboard and the Dows receding into the background.  In fact, both Kathie Browne and Buddy Foster appeared for the last time in Hondo and the Ghost of Ed Dow.  Beefed up is Noah Beery's role, with Hondo Lane and Buffalo Baker receiving road assignments in each of the final five installments.  This time, they head west to the Pinto Basin.

Buffalo: "Colonel, I don't even wear wool socks!"
Crook: "You don't wear any socks!"

The last and best of the trio of episodes directed by William Witney (DARKTOWN STRUTTERS), Hondo and the Death Drive is a tailor made project for the former Republic serial specialist.  The action isn't quite nonstop, but the ambush or round of fisticuffs is always right around the corner.  Jones, Beery, Taeger and Wilson all put up their dukes before the titular journey even starts, with the last two seem mighty close to getting kicked by a horse in their fracas:

Witney really brings his 'A' game once the scouts and shepherds hit the road.  Fistfights give way to strategic ambushes and counterattacks, with weapons ranging from saltpeter to molotov cocktails.  A bottle of Bay Rum comes in handy for Buffalo at one point.  Blustering Cobb has seemingly endless avenues for sabotage: while it's never stated, it sure seems highly probable that the corrupt cattleman had something to do with that stampede that caused Crook's predicament.

Writer Peter Germano (The Art Lovers, for MAVERICK) works hand in glove with the director.  Amidst the well-paced activity, Germano's efficient teleplay allows us to get to know Lane's partners in the unlikely drive.  We learn about various methods that they cope with their losses and longings: Sancho's wife, Dakota's father, Rufus's son.

Slade: "One day, there won't be any need for Indian reservations."
Hondo: "Mr. Slade, there's no need for 'em right now."

Succinctly, Germano also makes pertinent points about the Apache "getting the dirty end of the stick" in both food and shelter.  Taeger's blunt Hondo is the perfect vehicle to deliver them non-intrusively, and the actor's expressions say it all before his sparse responses to the justifications he hears from Crook and Slade.

Practically every HONDO offers a top notch guest cast, and Hondo and the Death Drive offers another plethora for cultists.  In his first post-Skipper dramatic role, Alan Hale, Jr. really digs into Ben Cobb's avarice and lack of conscience yet remains charismatic enough to believably draw in cattlemen and Native Americans alike in his glad-handing.  Keeping Cobb treacherous without a lapse into caricature, Hale's a fine choice to bring him to life.

After guest starring in THE REBEL and BRANDED, the ubiquitous L. Q. Jones completes his Fenady trifecta as Allie, the accomplice who almost learns too late that Cobb doesn't intend to leave loose ends.  The part is somewhat thankless (he takes punches from both principals), but Jones portrays Allie's initial leeriness (greed eventually reassures him) and post-attack P.T.S.D. effectively.

Nearly three decades after starring in ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION, Reed Hadley reunites with Witney in what would turn out to be one of his final roles.  X Brands (YANCY DERRINGER) is the renegade Apache hired by Cobb, and David S. Cass makes one of his earliest appearances as Cobb's right hand cowpuncher.  The always looming John Wayne connection is alive and well with character actor extraordinaire Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez (CHISUM) and Terry Wilson having plenty of dialogue fourteen years after doing stuntwork on the 1953 HONDO.

Wilson is joined by a who's who of stunt coordinators: Tom Steele, Wally West and Bill Catching also have speaking parts.  It isn't that big a surprise to see the last two uncredited, but it is unusual to see John Mitchum missing from the cast list.  Glenn Langan is yet another CHISUM alumni here, and his always despicable Tribolet makes a fifth and final series appearance.  Would it surprise you to learn that he and Cobb are fast friends?

"I guess this country's big enough for sheep and cattle, Mr. Lane."
"I reckon they don't build 'em any bigger."

The final showdown offers a neat twist, with Cobb running afoul of his own scheme thanks to Hondo's creativity.  Confronted with the final failure of his scheme, the heretofore verbose magnate can only manage repeated and unheeded commands to "shut up" in the presence of his manipulated minions.  Unimpeded in the least by its worthy underlying statement and boasting solid work on both sides of the camera, Hondo and the Death Drive is a terrific yarn from start to finish.

HOW MANY CANS OF WHOOPASS?

Indicative of the greater emphasis on Beery's role, it's a close competition between Hondo and Buffalo this time.  However, Lane gets a 4-3 edge in the final tally.  Hondo kicks the crap out of initially unruly Dakota after taking over as drive boss, then subdues a renegade Apache in hand to hand combat during the raid and dispatches both Cobb and his henchman with a single punch each.  Not to be outdone, Baker impressively handles the younger, larger Allie at Fort Lowell's cantina in the teaser.  Later, Baker dispatches a brawler objecting to his sheepish scent at Mitchum's, then scores his own one-punch knockout engineering Hondo's jailbreak.

IS THE CANTINA STILL STANDING?

Before hitting the trail, Buffalo tangles with sheep man Allie in Fort Lowell's watering hole, which only loses a single chair in the skirmish.  Mitchum's barroom is even less scathed later.

A DOG'S LIFE:

The always versatile Sam tries his paw at sheep herding and makes a new girlfriend after meeting Sancho's sheephound Maria.  He damned near stays behind with her at the fade-out, even.  Not that he neglects his usual duties: Sam helps Sancho discover the stashed whisky, and finds that one saboteur (Harper) who is afraid of dogs once again during the attempt to poison the waterhole.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Does Hondo and the Death Drive sound exciting?  It should.  Top notch old school entertainment, the first of a final quintet of episodes taking Hondo, Buffalo and Sam on weekly road trips is one of the finest installments, period.  Germano's economical writing perfectly complements Witney's ability to stage action sequences.  As rewatchable a segment as any in this long underappreciated series.   (**** out of four)

HONDO airs Sunday mornings at 11:15 A.M. Eastern, 10:15 A.M. Central on GetTV.

MAVERICK Mondays: "The Golden Fleecing" (1961)

MAVERICK Mondays: Number 25   









MAVERICK: "The Golden Fleecing" (1961 ABC-TV/Warner Brothers)  Original Air Date: October 8, 1961.  Starring Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, Paula Raymond as Adele Jaggers, Richard Loo as Lee Hong Chang, Olive Sturgess as Phoebe Albright, John Qualen as Henry Albright, Myron Healey as Frank Mercer, J. Edward McKinley as Loftus Jaggers, Herb Vigran as Mr. Butler, Harry Harvey as Captain Owens, Bert Stevens as Poker Player.  Written by Charles B. Smith.  Directed by Irving Moore.


Bart is on a serious roll as his riverboat treks the San Francisco Bay.  He's holding all the Aces and Kings on the felt and the Queen of San Francisco social circles off it: wealthy heiress Adele Jaggers.  Bart's rungood is interrupted by an stuck safety valve on the vessel, resulting in an explosion that interrupts both the game and the voyage.  Fortunately, the downturn doesn't get worse than that--Maverick is saved from the floating wreckage (along with Adele and her wannabe suitor Mercer) by the Albrights, a Quaker family.

Forty miles from the original San Francisco destination, Maverick recuperates at his rescuers' farm and learns that the farmers are praying for a miracle from their "worn out" soil.  With daughter Phoebe's endorsement, Henry seeks a favor for his hospitality.  Showing Bart small gold deposits from the latest stream overflow, the elder Albright thinks the gravel bluffs have much more to be extracted.  With Adele pushing her wealthy father to put Bart to work for the brokerage, taking the mine public seems like a perfect solution for all.  That is, until the predatory Loftus Jaggers sees an opportunity to steal the mineral-rich land via the freshly established Eureka Mines Corporation with the Quaker-trusted Maverick as his Judas goat.

New producer William L. Silver took a back-to-basics approach with MAVERICK's fifth and final season, introducing ersatz updates of Dandy Jim Buckley and Samantha Crawford in the opener (Dade City Dodge) and subsequently updating Shady Deal at Sunny Acres in The Art Lovers with surprising success.  This third installment recalls an even earlier time: the very first episode, War of the Silver Kings.  As was the case in the premiere, a corrupt local kingpin has home field advantage as he steals a lucrative mine from poor farmers (silver then, gold now, upping the stakes) and eventually comes to admire Maverick's guts after he's bested at his own game by the traveling gambler.

Just as Bret got a crash course in mining law in that memorable opener, Bart had to master the market here.  The Golden Fleecing is far from a tracing of the pilot, though.  Phineas King was a cheat on and off the tables; Loftus Jaggers keeps his corruption off the felt, with no sign of dishonesty in his home game.  Bart's romantic dalliance with aristocratic Adele adds tension that Bret didn't have to deal with while battling daughterless King.  Bart's education in equities is even more daunting, requiring a far more truncated timetable than Bret's legalese lessons: ten days, to be exact.

With Mercer (henchman hoping for a promotion to son-in-law) assisting him, Jaggers manipulates the market and their investment with ease--they're practically the century's answer to Gekko and Fox, with the Quakers just one more overmatched group to be lured, then strong-armed.  Crookery at the table isn't necessary; Jaggers' actions away from it (intentional production delays and inflated costs, with the goal of bankrupting the hospitable farmers) are more than enough to make him a deserving recipient of a satisfying takedown.  Ditto for daughter Adele (a well cast Paula Raymond) and Mercer.  They are shockingly ungrateful to the community assisting them after their close call on the water, and Ms. Jaggers gets downright haughty at the prospect of competition from the guileless Phoebe.

Penning his only MAVERICK, Charles B. Smith (SHOTGUN SLADE) cleverly sets up Jaggers' eventual undoing.   You'd never expect this unrepentant swindler to reveal all of his secrets to Bart, whose status as trojan horse leaves him out of the real club--and he doesn't.  Not willingly; Bart just happens to be standing there when broker Butler reminds Loftus of the new requirements for short selling, and that foot in the door allows Maverick to pick just enough of Loftus' brain for later use.

Smith does make some missteps in handling Bart's eventual allies.  We meet a mysterious young Chinese man who attempts to bushwhack Jaggers in front of his mansion, learning that the tycoon swindled him and several other railroad workers earlier.  Later, the same man is revealed to be working for Mr. Loo.  This is rather poorly thought out, since Loo would clearly have knowledge of Loftus Jaggers' usual business practices from his assistant.  So why would Loo buy Eureka Mine stock after finding out that newcomer Bart is working for a known cheat?  He and Bart developed a mutual admiration society on the felt, but Loo surely couldn't trust Maverick that much on the basis of one friendly game (that he lost handily, btw)!  Loo ends up investing enough to put his own thriving business in considerable jeopardy before the short selling begins--highly illogical.

Larcenous Loftus seems to handle his defeat well--way too well, as he's shown no sign of sporting blood or conscience prior to this comeuppance.  And while the parallel of shorting to bluffing is an apt one, the analogy of sand bagging (a.k.a. "slow playing") to losing swing trades escaped me.  Oh well, it is welcome to have poker looming large in the MAVERICK universe again, and the most fitting comparison of all is made by Mr. Chang, who notes that getting involved in the stock market is in no way giving up gambling.  While entertaining throughout, The Golden Fleecing is a better tutorial for the former than the latter.

HOW'D BART DO AT POKER?

He won two big pots from Lee Hong Chang (totaling at least $1,000 by my count) on the boat before the explosion, one with three aces and the other with deuces full.  Later he cleans up at a game hosted by Jaggers, to Mercer's chagrin in particular.

WISDOM FROM PAPPY:

"There's nothing like a boat trip, if you're going somewhere by water."  Pappy's sayings were really losing steam and wit by this time.  His advice on the stock market turns out to be just as generic: "Buy low, sell high."  There's a third nugget: "The most important thing to know about any gambling game is when to quit," a clear case of Pappy contradicting himself, since he previously told Bret that "the only time you quit when you're winning is after you've won it all".  Maybe he advised Bret and Bart a little differently.

WISDOM FROM MR. CHANG:

"One cannot gather honey without risking the sting of bees."  And: "He who is fortunate at cards is less fortunate at other endeavors."  Bart noted as an exception to the latter.  Hell, Mr. Chang is sounding at least as wise as Pappy by this point, with the latter seeming rather tapped out.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Like most of the season's attempts to recapture the show's salad days, The Golden Fleecing is perfectly enjoyable and solidly executed, but not quite a full return to form.  A mostly welcome addition and a gallant attempt to get back to basics that nevertheless can't quite match the better, earlier episode it evokes.  (**1/2 out of four)

MAVERICK is back on Encore's Western channel Monday through Friday at 2:35 P.M. Central, and also airs on MeTV every Saturday morning at 9 A.M. Central.

Television's Greatest Moments: (Some of) The Best of Larry Storch

The great Larry Storch turns 96 years young today!  While he has his own saloon in New Jersey, a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame, and (according to MARRIED...WITH CHILDREN) the world's premier School of Acting, it just doesn't seem to be enough to properly honor him.  There definitely needs to be a statue of this man somewhere.  Preferably one at least as tall as the one of Sam Houston outside Huntsville, Texas along I-45.

Until some wise person makes that happen, we'll just have to celebrate by remembering just why Larry Storch is a national treasure.  Let's take at look at some of his classic television moments apart from his best and most famous television role, that of the incomparable Corporal Randolph Agarn on F TROOP.

                                              CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?: (1962-63) 

It's hard to believe that Storch played Charlie the drunk on CAR 54 only three times; like Ernest T. Bass, it seems like he was there a lot more often.  His drinking might have been overstated, since he could actually get drunk without drinking a drop.  You don't believe me?

THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW:  "Bilko Joins the Navy" (1958)

Sticking with Nat Hiken-land, Larry made two appearances on Hiken's 1950's classic, giving us a preview of the crying act that would become much more prominent in the next decade:

In the other BILKO appearance, "Bilko's Bopster", Larry gets to indulge in his jazzy side.

                                       HOLLYWOOD PALACE (November 27, 1965)

Introduced by host Janet Leigh, Storch treats the prime time audience to some of his standup act.  Forrest Tucker and Ken Berry joined in the fun, but Storch got this bit to himself:

                           
                                  THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW (December 4, 1966)

Still in F TROOP's heyday, and making the variety show rounds.  Storch gets nine minutes this time!

                                 KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATRE: "The Jack is High" (1964)

A dramatic role, with Edd "Kookie" Byrnes co-starring, and Storch bringing plenty of humor of his role in this tale that has echoes of OCEAN'S ELEVEN:

                                                  COLUMBO: "Negative Reaction" (1974)

Like his frequent co-star Forrest Tucker, Larry made only one COLUMBO appearance, but what a scene it was!  Storch has the misfortune of being Columbo's driving instructor, and also has a field day with it:

There's many, many more classic Storch moments, but I don't want to spend the whole night on YouTube.  Suffice to say, happy birthday, Larry Storch!  Hopefully there's more television magic to come in the near future from the Storch---he is, after all, only semi-retired.