ben-thayer

Jim Hardie has been sent to Silver City to investigate an extortion ring that's demanding money from all the local business, including Wells Fargo. Upon arrival he finds the Wells Fargo agent has been murdered. The sheriff in Silver City, Pete Haney, was once a famous lawman with a well-known reputation, but that was years and he's considerably older and is a shadow of his former self. He no longer has any self confidence and he's also developed a drinking problem. Hardie has to ensure the town is cleaned up and the murderers are brought to justice, but he faces a difficult job not only with Haney, but also an unwilling and timid group of townspeople as well.

Well, this episode is not particularly epic, and is fairly mediocre in relation to the better episodes of S3. In addition, I just to don't see a long term solution in getting Pete Haney to stand up to the bad guys who were extorting the citizens. Although he was able to resolve this one problem, he's not a young man and it's unlikely he'd be able to protect the town continually on his own. Without some experienced deputies to back him up a new group of outlaws could move in easily and the town would be right back where this episode started. Hardie states in the epilogue that three years have passed and that anyone looking for trouble knows not to challenge Pete Haney, but I'll be honest in saying I don't particularly buy it, since Hardie made it sound as if Haney was doing things all by himself.

The cast isn't well known at all other than LQ Jones as nasty henchman Wes. Jones was in the outlaw phase of his career after being Clint Walker's sidekick in the first three episodes of Cheyenne, where he was one of the good guys. But he was a versatile actor capable of portraying a wide range of characters, from both good to bad as well as serious to comedic. I'll be honest, I'm partial to his lighter roles, but he could play nasty, sneering gunmen with the best of them. He's also notable for directing only one picture, A Boy and his Dog, with a very young Don Johnson and Jason Robards. I'm not sure why he never sat behind the camera again, but it can't be because his only picture was trash. On the contrary, it's a great picture, and is very well known as a bonafide dystopian sci-fi cult classic with legions of fans that love it, and I count myself among them. I always enjoy seeing LQ Jones in any cast.

The remainder of the cast is basically unknown today. James Bell appeared as Sheriff Pete Haney, and he had a decent career, but no high-profile roles to speak of. Julie Van Zandt appeared as Haney's daughter Lucy, and she had a short career with only 21 roles. Harry Tyler appeared as handyman Jason, and he'd be the only other actor that a viewer may recognize, as he had a long career with 392 roles. He appeared in supporting roles in some great pictures such as Jesse James with Tyrone Power and Sullivan's Travels with Joel McCrea, and in a ton of TV roles. I recognize him from his appearance in one of most popular episodes of Cheyenne, Big Ghost Basin.

All in all, not a great episode, but as I say regularly, Jim Hardie is always a good watch. EWIBIG y'know.

An amusing spoof of the classic noir picture "Alias Nick Beal" which starred Ray Milland as Beal and Thomas Mitchell as the aspiring politician who finds himself entangled with the nefarious Beal, better known as Old Scratch, whose assistance comes at the price of his soul. This time out Betty (Eleanor Donahue) is reading a story she wrote to the Anderson family, and it includes a mysterious character named Beal who provides a set of enchanted books with pictures of possessions the Andersons merely have to wish for to get. However this version's Beal isn't Nick, it's Harry.

The episode contains the usual laughs viewers expect, except Betty's story does contain a twinge of darkness as Jim (Robert Young) discovers that wishing for the possessions they see in the books comes with a high price: anyone who wishes for something now belongs to the nefarious Beal, portrayed amusingly and competently by British actor John Williams.

An excellent episode spoofing the equally excellent noir, a picture that displays the versatile talents of Ray Milland and is one of Thomas Mitchell's best roles.