The Masked Bandits

decent episode about robberies involving youths wearing red plastic masks. i guess the writers and Webb were flexing their creative juices writing up the side story of one of the kids being married to an older woman. as a previous reviewer noted, it is kind of an unusual story and characterization. virginia vincent was 43 with bags under her eyes and considerable crow's feet, playing 29. she really doesn't pull it off. being the fifth episode of the series, you'd think they'd have had a bunch of actors set up for a number of shows. maybe Ms Vincent was a friend of the show, or its creator. Tom Baker, not of Dr Who fame, but of andy warhol acquaintance, has a small role as one of the youths.

While much has been made of 43-year old Virginia Vincent trying to pull off being an insecure 29-year old with a horrible hairdo, this episode is notable for being Dirk Rambo's last acting role (as Fred Tillar). This episode was shot sometime during the fall of '66--- the resurrected series' first season in color, which had a strange softening effect compared to the 50's B&W version. Dirk would be killed by a drunk driver on February 7, 1967 (devestating his twin brother Dack) and this effort would air shortly after his death. We can speculate all we want about Dirk's career chances in the business. He had model-good looks but his acting resume was severely limited and here he gives off a pretty vacant 1000-yard stare while delivering lines dissing the theft attraction qualities of 1950's Cadillac convertibles (my how the collector car market has changed). This episode devotes a lot of energy on Vincent's relationship with her teenage hooligan husband, which demonstrates the writers were trying. Webb was a cheapskate producer: stock exterior shots, sparse sets, off-the-rack wardrobe budget (Friday and Gannon wore the same suits over entire seasons!) and his use of a relatively small stock company--- unusual for a show like this--- indicates he was a steady scale-level employer. R.I.P. Dirk.

Virginia Vincent stars as "Edna Hubbert," a 29-year-old who had married this 17-year-old who is accused, along with several other men, of robbing a string of lounges (nightclubs). They all wore red masks and drove off in a big red Cadillac. Larry Hubbert, the teen, has both the Cadillac and a red mask at his house, along with a stolen gun. That kind of makes him look like part of the group.

Vincent did a considerable amount of acting in television from 1952-1988. Ron Russell, who plays the teen, didn't do any acting from 1971 all the way to the mid 1990s when did a couple of small roles on film. Art Gilmore, who plays "Captain Mert Howe," was in 15 episodes of Adam-12, a cop show in the early '70s that was co-created by Jack Webb.

This episode had both the normal talk plus a little action in final part as Joe Friday and Bill Gannon were driving around trying to track down the other thieves after young Hubbert confessed.

Earlier some of the show was reminiscent of the Dragnet shows feature often featured odd characters. Mrs. Hubbert is odd in her reasoning for marrying a guy so much younger. Vincent does a good job of playing this insecure woman.

The topic of Gannon's amazing sandwich provides a little humor in here.

Virginia Vincent was born on May 3, 1918 so she was NOT 43 at the time of this episode, she was 48. It's amazing how many people can't do simple math!