When the Clock Strikes

Glamorous blonde hitching a lift, out in the wilds, in the middle of a violent storm - a bit odd somehow, and the sure sign that things are not what they seem in this story.

In a small roadhouse, several people are awaiting the chimes of midnight, when a condemned bank-robber will meet his fate at the local penitentiary. The blonde announces herself as his wife, but doesn't show much emotion about her imminent widowhood, apparently a hard-bitten cynic who cares for no-one and nothing (in other words, business as usual for Merry Anders).

Her rescuer turns out to be James Brown, left over from Rin Tin Tin, where he was Rusty's virtuous role model, a character essentially replicated here. He is feeling guilty because his evidence has been twisted by the prosecution, making it look as though he alone is responsible for the death sentence, which he felt was unsafe. But the whole picture alters when another self-proclaimed widow checks-in at the same hotel...

Naturally it's all about recovering the loot, which finally does arrive through a most ingenious sub-plot, which we can't reveal. But Brown's good-scout act which ends the story is looking a little tame for the Sixties, which were just starting to take shape.