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Post by alpha128 on Nov 21, 2020 4:02:27 GMT
"The Night of Miguelito's Revenge"Sue Kesler disparages this episode in her book, but upon review I thought it was terrific. Unfortunately, there won't be "another time" as Doctor Loveless promises near the end of the episode. Some thoughts: - Starting at 5:48 a mouth-shaped piece of scenery becomes an unexplained source of Gas!
- At 7:19 we see Dr. Loveless in a suit of plate armor - shades of "The Night of the Green Terror".
- At the 9:00 mark we finally get the introduction to Jeremy Pike that we should have gotten before "The Night of the Camera".
- At 11:09 Jeremy refers to Monday's Child as "that old rhyme". However Wikipedia notes it was first printed in 1838. Since the previous episode was set in 1875, that would make the rhyme only 37 years old in the current West timeline.
- There's no shortage of Beautiful Women in this episode. Delilah is played by Susan Seaforth, while Lynn Carstairs is played by Linda Chandler. I noted that the latter actress has the same initials as her character.
- At 30:16 Jeremy Pike's carriage stops in front of our favorite brick building - soon to be featured in a comprehensive episode list by vrkalak ! This time the building is once again displaying the signs of the "Hotel Proctor Hotel", previously seen in "The Night of the Death-Maker".
- At 37:44 there is an obvious difference between the interior and exterior dimensions of Jim's underwater "coffin". I know that Dr. Loveless was a scientific genius, but I would have thought transdimensional engineering was beyond him.
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Post by Prime etc. on Nov 21, 2020 6:01:57 GMT
THE NIGHT OF THE HUMAN TRIGGER -- Orkney Cadwallader is my favorite bad guy so far. Also, I didn't recognize Mrs Darren McGavin, but thought she was very well cast as Burgess Meredith's daughter. In one scene it looked like their horses got very close to the cliff's edge. I was worried there would be no disguise scene--lucky it came before the end. I wonder if this episode inspired the Luthor plot in Superman 1978.
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Post by alpha128 on Nov 21, 2020 16:49:12 GMT
THE NIGHT OF THE HUMAN TRIGGER I was worried there would be no disguise scene--lucky it came before the end. You inspired me to check my The Four Elements of The Wild Wild West thread, to see how many episodes per season include the Disguise element. The answer is: Season Episodes Disguise Percent 1 28 21 75.0% 2 28 23 82.1% 3 24 24 100.0% 4 24 21 87.5%
The percentage of disguise episodes was rising each season, peaking in the third season at 100%. It probably would have been 100% in the fourth season as well, if not for Ross Martin's heart attack and subsequent absence from the show. Three of Jim's sidekicks, listed in "The Night of the 800 Pound Gorilla", were not the disguise wearing type: Ned Brown (Alan Hale), Sir Nigel Scott (John Williams), and Lionel (Steve Carlson).
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vrkalak
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Post by vrkalak on Nov 21, 2020 21:28:46 GMT
What shall we do with a drunken Alpha, early in the morning. 😎 IMO, much better episode than the one in season 3.
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Post by alpha128 on Nov 21, 2020 22:11:14 GMT
IMO, much better episode than the one in season 3. I liked it better than the Season 3 episode too, although I like all the Loveless episodes.
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Post by alpha128 on Nov 26, 2020 4:36:57 GMT
"The Night of the Pelican"I had previously noted in my review of "The Night of the Deadly Blossom" written by Daniel Mainwaring, that "The Night of the Pelican" can be considered a half remake of that earlier episode. And this brings me to "The Night of the Pelican" written by Richard Landau. The first half of that fourth season episode bears little resemblance to "The Night of the Deadly Blossom". But the second half, starting at 26:10, is practically a remake of that earlier episode. Consider these similarities: - Artie/Jeremy goes to the docks disguised as a stevedore.
- He finds large crates with fraudulent captions (Art Objects/Uniforms), that actually contain rockets, and stows away in one.
- The Chinese villain makes mention that his people have been using rockets for centuries.
- Artie/Jeremy knocks out a guard and steals his uniform.
- The villain plans to sink ship(s) with the rockets.
- One rocket is fired and comes near/hits a ship
- The bunker the rockets are fired from blows up.
There is one difference though, in "Pelican" the villain escapes instead of dying in the bunker explosion. Even so, if I were Mainwaring, I would have a word or two with Bruce Lansbury about Landau's script. Despite the deja vu, "The Night of the Pelican" is an enjoyable story. Charles Aidman continues to do a fine job filling in for Ross Martin. Meanwhile, this episode's finale once again reminds the audience that Artie is gone but not forgotten. Some thoughts: - This episode opens with Chinese New Year, presumably for 1875, which would be the year of the pig.
- Like "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary", this episode could have been titled "The Night of the Bevy of Babes". The guest cast includes Ella Edwards as Amy Stafford, Francine York as Dr. Sara Gibson, Debbie Wong as Kuei, Linda Ho as Chinese Girl #2, Lorna Denels as Jeanne and Holly Mascott as Molly. Linda Ho had previously appeared as Oriana in "The Night of a Thousand Eyes".
- At one point in the episode Jim is forced to relocate 105 iron cannonballs, with each ball weighing 42 pounds. Furthermore, Jim is ordered to move them twice. 105 times 42 times 2 = 8,820 pounds or 4.41 U.S. tons! And yet, Jim doesn't seem fatigued after completing this task. I know he's a prime physical specimen - but come on!
- This is a gastastic episode with Gas! at 36:05 and 43:40.
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Post by alpha128 on Nov 28, 2020 19:26:23 GMT
"The Night of the Spanish Curse"I suppose it's only fitting that having faced "The Night of Montezuma's Hordes" last season, this season West and Gordon are taking on Cortez and his conquistadors. I would consider this a solid, but not spectacular, episode. I only took a page of notes, and Susan Kesler's book has no episode commentary at all. Some thoughts: - It turns out that "Cortez" and his men are mortal imposters. However, there apparently is one supernatural figure who rose from the dead to influence the events of this episode. It is established in "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary" that this season takes place in 1875. And yet, at 8:20, Jim produces a document signed by Mexican President Benito Juarez, who died in 1872.
- This episode includes two return performers from last season. Thayer David, who played Hannibal Egloff in "The Night of the Samurai" plays Cortez in this one. In addition, Toian Matchinga, who played Henriette Faure in "The Night of the Legion of Death" plays Cosina.
- Cosina is noted in the episode as being the most Beautiful Woman in her village, and shares the spotlight with no other female characters.
- The music is credited to Johnny Parker. What I call "The Conquistador Theme" is very memorable and appears in several different arrangements during the episode.
- The set design of the heart of the volcano ("drum room") is impressive.
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 1, 2020 4:13:00 GMT
"The Night of the Winged Terror" (Parts 1 and II)This is the only two-parter in the series. I've always thought that the secret organization RAVEN was the West equivalent of SPECTRE from the James Bond films. Over on the TWWW board of that other site, I even came up with not one, but two versions of what the RAVEN acronym stood for - a serious one and a jokey one that Artemus would use. Alas, this bit of creativity on my part was purged from the IMDb board long ago. Some thoughts on Part 1: - Jackie Coogan plays the Mayor of Pinewood, Cecil Pudney, having previously appeared as the Sheriff of New Athens in "The Night of the Cut-Throats".
- The main Beautiful Woman in these episodes is Michele Carey as Laurette. Carey previously played another deceitful woman, Gerda Sharff, in "The Night of the Feathered Fury".
- A raven is released from a confined space twice in this episode, first from a crate at 8:35, and then from a wardrobe at 34:08. This immediately begs two questions: 1.) How did it breathe? and 2.) Why didn't it poop all over everything?
- At 28:16 Dr. Horatio Occularis (Bernard Fox) is killed by a gun rigged to fire backwards. This trick previously appeared in "The Night of the Tottering Tontine" and "The Night of the Bogus Bandits".
Some thoughts on Part II: - Yes, the numbering of the two parts is inconsistent. The first part uses the Arabic numeral 1, while the second part uses the Roman numeral II. The DVD menu uses all Arabic numerals, while Sue Kesler's book uses all Roman numerals.
- At 14:17 a dramatic zoom in on a photograph is designed to clue in the audience that Jim realizes it was Frank Harper posing as the Mexican ambassador. The pinky ring belonged to Mayor Sneed, and Frank noted in Part 1 that he was having trouble removing it. I don't remember catching this detail before, and think I might have missed it had I not watched the two episodes in the same evening.
- Starting at 35:45, when Frank Harper raises his eyebrows, the creases in his forehead make it obvious where his skin stops and his appliance begins.
- In Part 1, Jackie Coogan was promoted from Sheriff to Mayor. But in Part II, Frank Sorello is demoted from Mexican President Juarez to Mexican Ambassador Ramirez.
- Counting the two parts as one episode, this is the last of five episodes that include the word "Terror" in their titles, following: "The Night That Terror Stalked the Town", "The Night of the Green Terror", "The Night of the Underground Terror", and "The Night of the Simian Terror".
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Post by brimfin on Dec 1, 2020 17:43:23 GMT
"The Night of the Avaricious Actuary"This is another 24 Karat Pure Classic episode. The premise, a villain using a giant tuning fork as a weapon of mass destruction, is quintessential West. I can't imagine any another series using a plot like this. Some thoughts: - After the minimal beautiful women in the previous episode, this one could have been titled "The Night of the Bevy of Babes". The guest cast includes Emily Banks as Arden Masterson, Judi Sherven as Miss Cora Lester, Jenny Maxwell as Billie (the arcade cashier), Sharon Cintron as Girl #1, and Linda Cooper as Girl #2. It just so happens that both Sherven and Cintron had previously appeared in The Night of the Circus of Death.
- At 06:45 we see the letter from the Cyclops Insurance Company is dated 1875, with the first two characters printed, and the last two hand written.
- At 25:27 it appears that Jim weighs well over 175 pounds.
- At 43:23 we see the most effective disguise of Artemus Gordon's long career. Why, he doesn't look anything like Ross Martin! This footage was obviously shot with another actor after Ross Martin broke his leg.
- However at 45:41, it's apparent that Ross Martin is in the makeup of the gas inspector.
Yes. I've been wondering for years what actor played that scene subbing for Ross Martin. I was surprised Sue Kessler didn't mention that substitution in her book. He reminded me a little of Ed Wynn, with the higher pitch in his voice, but it clearly wasn't him.
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 2, 2020 1:05:20 GMT
"The Night of the Avaricious Actuary"- At 43:23 we see the most effective disguise of Artemus Gordon's long career. Why, he doesn't look anything like Ross Martin! This footage was obviously shot with another actor after Ross Martin broke his leg.
Yes. I've been wondering for years what actor played that scene subbing for Ross Martin. I was surprised Sue Kessler didn't mention that substitution in her book. He reminded me a little of Ed Wynn, with the higher pitch in his voice, but it clearly wasn't him. Sue Kesler does mention that a "stand-in actor" was used, but that's all. I'm surprised that Bob Herron wasn't used in this scene. As I mentioned in my review of The Night of the Skulls, when both made up the same way, e.g., as Tigo, he and Ross Martin closely resembled each other.
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vrkalak
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Post by vrkalak on Dec 2, 2020 1:26:19 GMT
Yes. I've been wondering for years what actor played that scene subbing for Ross Martin. I was surprised Sue Kessler didn't mention that substitution in her book. He reminded me a little of Ed Wynn, with the higher pitch in his voice, but it clearly wasn't him. Sue Kesler does mention that a "stand-in actor" was used, but that's all. I'm surprised that Bob Herron wasn't used in this scene. As I mentioned in my review of The Night of the Skulls, when both made up the same way, e.g., as Tigo, he and Ross Martin closely resembled each other. Yes, very much alike. No wonder Herron was his body double.
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 2, 2020 3:43:25 GMT
Sue Kesler does mention that a "stand-in actor" was used, but that's all. I'm surprised that Bob Herron wasn't used in this scene. As I mentioned in my review of The Night of the Skulls, when both made up the same way, e.g., as Tigo, he and Ross Martin closely resembled each other. Yes, very much alike. No wonder Herron was his body double. Another close match for Martin, who appeared on the series more than once, was Andre Philippe. Philippe played the "real" version of more than one character that Ross Martin impersonated, including Ascot Sam in "The Night of the Poisonous Posey" and Rimsky in "The Night of the Tartar".
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 4, 2020 2:32:11 GMT
"The Night of the Sabatini Death"While hunting through the archives of the old IMDb board, trying to find my explanations of the RAVEN acronym, I found an amusing exchange regarding the preceding two-parter and this episode. IMDb user gavbrown01 was complaining about the episodes without Ross Martin writing, "The show lacks any humor at all... just watched the "Raven" ep and thought it was terrible." I replied, "Don't worry, you're almost to the episode where the cast of Gilligan's Island shows up. No, I'm not kidding." His response was, "Nooooooooooooooooo...." Indeed Alan Hale Jr. plays guest agent Ned Brown, while Jim Backus also appears in a smaller role as funeral home proprietor Fabian Swanson. But this episode is no zany comedy, and is in fact a pretty creepy mystery, and a very good one at that! Gilligan's Island had been cancelled as West's second season was ending. So the two Gilligan actors were available, and both seem to enjoy playing serious roles. Some thoughts:
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vrkalak
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Post by vrkalak on Dec 5, 2020 11:16:14 GMT
“I found this episode reminiscent of "The Night of the Colonel's Ghost", which was also about people searching for hidden treasure in an underpopulated town.“
Ironically, they used a clip of “Colonel’s Ghost” in this episode.
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 5, 2020 16:19:46 GMT
“I found this episode reminiscent of "The Night of the Colonel's Ghost", which was also about people searching for hidden treasure in an underpopulated town.“ Ironically, they used a clip of “Colonel’s Ghost” in this episode. I thought the empty street scene, as Jim comes riding into town, looked familiar. Was it that? Or something else?
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vrkalak
Sophomore
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Post by vrkalak on Dec 5, 2020 19:00:05 GMT
“I found this episode reminiscent of "The Night of the Colonel's Ghost", which was also about people searching for hidden treasure in an underpopulated town.“ Ironically, they used a clip of “Colonel’s Ghost” in this episode. I thought the empty street scene, as Jim comes riding into town, looked familiar. Was it that? Or something else? Correct.
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 10, 2020 2:11:35 GMT
"The Night of the Janus"This episode is the last of four (in both production and air date order) guest starring Charles Aidman as Jeremy Pike. Although this was shot after "The Night of the Pelican", the network decided to air four other episodes, with three other sidekicks, before this one - as detailed in "The Night of the 800 Pound Gorilla". In other instances the delay might indicate an inferior show, but not here - this episode is excellent IMO. Some thoughts: - In the opening scene we see that the Jackson Bend Colorado Mortuary has a proprietor by the name of J. Swanson (Vince Barnett). The previous episode (in air date/DVD order) featured funeral home proprietor Fabian Swanson (Jim Backus). Is this Swanson's a chain?
- There are plenty of Beautiful Women in this episode. Torrey Elder is played by Jackie de Shannon, the other saloon girl Linda is played by Bonnie Hughes, while Myra Bates is played by Gail Billings.
- At 2:37 Joe the piano player starts playing "Two Faced Stranger in the Garden", but two seconds later Torrey snatches up the sheet music and starts singing from it. Joe must have a photographic memory cf. "The Night of the Camera".
- Speaking of the song, I tried to figure out what a "spooning tree" is, without much success. It might have something to do with the source of wooden spoons.
- At 8:15 Myra officially names "The Lab Car". This has now seemingly replaced "The Stable Car". The footage at 17:45 shows only two train cars.
- At 8:27, and more clearly at 14:41, we see that the Secret Service Headquarters in Denver is our favorite brick building - soon to be featured in a comprehensive episode list by vrkalak !
- The earlier two-parter gave us RAVEN, the West equivalent of SPECTRE. This episode gives us Prof. Montague (pronounced Mont-A-Q), the West equivalent of Q from the James Bond films.
- And at 14:06, Prof. Montague gives us this episode's quota of Gas!
- At 47:56 Jeremy enters the fray and gives Jim a little help with knocking out the bad guys.
- Considering the villain's plot, it's ironic that one of the actors in this episode is named Bill Monemaker.
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vrkalak
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Post by vrkalak on Dec 10, 2020 2:47:18 GMT
“I tried to figure out what a "spooning tree" is, without much success. It might have something to do with the source of wooden spoons.“
Assumed that it meant a cuddling tree.
Funny, this episode was on FETV today, caught part of it.
“At 8:27, and more clearly at 14:41, we see that the Secret Service Headquarters in Denver is our favorite brick building - soon to be featured in a comprehensive episode list by vrkalak !“
2021, I promise. 😎
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 10, 2020 3:18:54 GMT
"I tried to figure out what a 'spooning tree' is, without much success. It might have something to do with the source of wooden spoons." - alpha128 (me) Assumed that it meant a cuddling tree. "At 8:27, and more clearly at 14:41, we see that the Secret Service Headquarters in Denver is our favorite brick building - soon to be featured in a comprehensive episode list by vrkalak ! - alpha128 (me) 2021, I promise. 😎 I never heard the expression "cuddling tree" before. Is that the kind of tree a guy and a girl sit in K-I-S-S-I-N-G? If so, that would certainly explain why he was hanging around impatiently. Looking forward to that list some time in 2021. In the meantime, I've got a plenty of content to post including: - Reviews of final six episodes, and my Season 4 recap
- Reviews of the two made-for-TV movies
- An episode index with hyperlinks to each of my reviews
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 16, 2020 4:44:19 GMT
"The Night of the Pistoleros"Going into this one I mainly remembered that it was another traditional western episode. After the recent Bondian episodes, this throwback to Season 3 seems a bit out of place and rather dull. Even the "death" of Artemus Gordon fails to liven up the proceedings. Some thoughts: - Speaking of throwbacks to Season 3, Fort Savage from "The Night of the Firebrand" makes a return appearance here. This time a burial ground, that we don't get a good look at until 25:15, has been added. And the name has been changed to Fort Challenge.
- This episode has very little spy flavor, with Artie's gas bomb (5:07) and Jim's lockpick (47:31) being the only familiar gadgets.
- There is one notable new gadget however, a grenade that can be launched from a revolver.
- At 43:13 a reprise of "The Conquistador Theme" from "The Night of the Spanish Curse" is heard.
- Although this episode does contain all four elements, the only beautiful woman of note is Sarita Vara as Mariana, the cantina girl. The "stew girls" in the tag are uncredited.
- Speaking of the tag (starting at 48:30), I noticed that Ross Martin looked different. Sue Kesler's book confirms that this scene was shot after Ross Martin's return to the series, following his heart attack.
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