vrkalak
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@vrkalak
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Post by vrkalak on Dec 16, 2020 17:47:20 GMT
I enjoyed Pistoleros. One of the good episodes of S4. Henry Wilcoxon from Caddyshack fame. 😂
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 17, 2020 0:02:07 GMT
I enjoyed Pistoleros. One of the good episodes of S4. Henry Wilcoxon from Caddyshack fame. 😂 I wouldn't say "The Night of the Pistoleros" is either a good or bad episode. IMO, it's mediocre. Even compared to Season 3 traditional westerns like "The Night of the Firebrand" and "The Night of the Arrow", I found "Pistoleros" lackluster. Henry Wilcoxon may have been memorable in Caddyshack, but on West he was a boring villain IMO. Furthermore, this time I found the West trope of tying our heroes to a pipe, allowing them to escape by merely by unscrewing it, tiresome. At the same time I was hoping for another "Dance of Death" with Bernal the photographer ( Eugene Iglesias), and was disappointed that we didn't get one.
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 19, 2020 3:29:03 GMT
"The Night of the Diva"This take on "The Phantom of the Opera" is a fantastic episode that approaches all-time classic status. Some thoughts: - At 10:00 Jim bursts through a wall. I remember him doing the same thing way back in "The Night of the Bars of Hell".
- There are several Beautiful Women in this episode. Rosa Montebello is played by Patrice Munsel (a real opera singer), Miss Ellen Collingwood is played by Patricia Dunne, while Angelique is played by Beverly Todd.
- There are numerous exciting Fistfights in this episode, including one immediately after Jim joins in singing a chorus of "Buffalo Gals".
- At 20:19 we see a painted glass window that reads "Ford County Cattleman's Co-operative". The problem with this is Ford County is in Kansas, while this episode is set in the consolidated city-parish of New Orleans, Louisiana.
- At 33:04 Jim rides in front of our favorite brick building. And moments later the same building appears in a slightly different guise, with signs reading "Palace Hotel". #ComingIn2021
- At 37:45 the coach starts filling with Gas! and Artie's reaction is the same as mine, "There we are!"
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vrkalak
Sophomore
@vrkalak
Posts: 510
Likes: 416
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Post by vrkalak on Dec 19, 2020 3:44:21 GMT
I noticed when I watched this episode recently that you can see the shadow of the boom mic and operator when Arte’s carriage pulls away from the curb in front of our favorite building. 🤓
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 19, 2020 3:57:05 GMT
I noticed when I watched this episode recently that you can see the shadow of the boom mic and operator when Arte’s carriage pulls away from the curb in front of our favorite building. 🤓 I didn't notice that, but I did notice that Artie's carriage passed the same building over and over again. I'm not sure if that was a production blooper, or a deliberate attempt to show the carriage was going in circles while waiting for the bad guys to make their move.
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 22, 2020 3:30:44 GMT
"The Night of the Bleak Island"In my review of "The Night of the Sedgewick Curse" I noted: The Sedgewick House exterior is briefly seen in the day (13:54, 48:02), at night (16:38) and then during a dark and stormy night (26:57, 34:28). This last bit of stock footage previously appeared in "The Night of the Tottering Tontine", and will be seen again in this season's "The Night of the Bleak Island". I decided to watch "Tontine" and "Bleak Island" back to back to determine what, other than the stock footage, the two episodes had in common. Consider these similarities: - In "Tontine" Jim encounters a bunch of guys dressed in black, including black hoods, in the cellar. In "Bleak Island" Jim encounters a bunch of guys dressed in black, including black hoods, in the greenhouse, and later the caretaker's cottage.
- In "Tontine" Grevely, the owner of the house, has a sliding wall made of metal as an "added security precaution" to protect his "collection of Egyptology that rivals the National Museum." In "Bleak Island", Bleak, the deceased former owner of the house, had a "room of treasure" behind a locked metal door. Bleak's treasure room includes not only Egyptian artifacts, but the priceless Moon Diamond, destined for... the National Museum.
- The "Tontine" and "Bleak Island" houses both contain multiple secret passages.
- Not only that, each house has a very particular secret door, in the form of a giant wine cask, that leads to their respective wine cellars.
- In "Tontine" Jim gets locked in a room with wall spikes which he climbs to escape. In "Bleak Island" Jim is "disposed of" down a well, and climbs out to escape.
So while this is not a semi-remake situation as with "The Night of the Deadly Blossom" and "The Night of the Pelican", it's safe to say that "Bleak Island" took some inspiration from "Tontine". It's also safe to say that this episode draws on The Hound of the Baskervilles, as Sue Kesler also makes that observation. Given the Sherlock Holmes connection, I suspect that the decision to team Jim up with a British detective is no accident. This episode does have one brilliant original idea, however. After previously teaming Jim up with three different guest agents, "Bleak Island" makes Jim's sidekick the villain! Interestingly, the twist in this episode is remarkably similar to that in the 1988 play "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes". So while the episode is not very original overall, it is nonetheless very enjoyable, with great atmosphere. Some thoughts: - The episode opens with the same footage of the S.S. Minnow from the opening credits of "Gilligan's Island".
"The weather started getting rough / The tiny ship was tossed" - The Beautiful Women in this episode include Alicia Crane, played by Jana Taylor, Celia Rydell played by Beverly Garland, and Nancy Conrad played by Yvonne Shubert. Garland had previously played Sally Yarnell (Mike Trayne's second favorite thing to kiss) in "The Night of the Cut-Throats". Shubert is actually listed as "Girl" in the credits, and her character's name was apparently assigned on set. I noticed the "Conrad" surname immediately, and Sue Kesler's book confirms that this character was named after Bob Conrad's daughter.
- At 47:26 Jim records a message stating, "And as of 3 PM March 29th, the Moon Diamond was officially turned over to the National Museum." But Jim does not record the year. The last episode to specify the year was "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary", which first aired 12/06/1968 and was set in 1875. This episode originally aired 03/14/1969, so it seems likely that the year on the show has now rolled to 1876.
- The episode ends with Jim being presented a photo and note from Artie, stating he will be back soon. This is yet another example of the messy air date order mentioned in "The Night of the 800 Pound Gorilla". This scene would have made sense if the episodes had aired in production order, coming at the end of the eighth of nine Artie-less episodes. But since the air date order had two Artie episodes immediately preceding this one, this scene now makes no sense at all.
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Post by alpha128 on Dec 30, 2020 3:14:18 GMT
"The Night of the Cossacks"I was in no hurry to review this episode, as I distinctly remembered it had disappointed me - twice. Disappointment #1: In my review of "The Night of the Sedgewick Curse" I wrote, "However, the rules against violence would take their toll on later Season 4 episodes, producing situations that don't make much sense." It was this episode I had in mind when I made that statement. Yes, there are "fights" starting at 1:44, 18:36, and 46:52, but Jim doesn't throw a single punch in any of them. After the fistastic "The Night of the Diva" only two episodes earlier, this is just embarrassing. This is the first episode without a proper Fistfight since "The Night of the Man-Eating House", way back in Season 2! Disappointment #2: At 46:46 Count Balkovitch (John Van Dreelen) opens the icon and gets a face full of... Ink! When I first watched the episode on TNT I rightfully expected Gas!, and was disappointed. As for the rest of the episode, it's... incredibly boring! For my overall rating, it's appropriate at this time of year to quote from my favorite holiday special, "Stink, stank, stunk!" Some thoughts: - At 5:02 we get an expanded title card reading "© MCMLXVIII COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC."
- This episode was written by Oliver Crawford, who contributed a much better script back in Season 1, "The Night of Sudden Death".
- One thing this episode does get right are its Beautiful Women. Princess Lina is played by Mary Frann, while "shapely wench" Maria is played by From Russia with Love Bond girl Aliza Gur. Frann previously played Dr. Virginia Mays in "The Night of the Juggernaut".
- The scenes of Jim walking down the mine car tracks (31:28-31:41), falling into a hole (32:20), and subsequent escape are all lifted from Season 3's "The Night of the Arrow".
- Starting at 39:42 we see Prince Gregor and party are staying at the famous hotel seen in "The Night of the Death-Maker" and many other episodes.
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Post by alpha128 on Jan 2, 2021 20:34:16 GMT
"The Night of the Plague"In her book, Sue Kesler writes a two sentence review of this episode concluding, "This is a very basic story with nothing exciting going on for one full hour." As with Kesler's disparaging mini-review of "The Night of the Headless Woman", I disagree. Once again I think this is a solid episode that deserves more consideration. This time I took five pages of notes. So have a seat, this is going to be a long review. I should also note that there seems to be some confusion as to the air dates of the final two episodes of the series. This episode precedes "The Night of the Tycoons" on the DVD set. That is consistent with both the IMDb and The Actors Compendium. However Susan Kesler's book, and the source I used for the original The Four Elements thread on the IMDb (circa 2008), both show the correct order being "Tycoons" then "Plague". So what is a West chronicler like yours truly to do? Simple, I'm to have it both ways! I'll leave The Four Elements thread unchanged, and use the alternate order for my upcoming episode index with hyperlinks to each of my reviews. Some thoughts: - The shots of the stagecoach driver in the opening scene look fake. It appears that rear projection was used, as the background sky is much grainier than the driver and stage.
- At the April Valley Relay Station (3:02) Averi Trent offers the Sheriff $500 to let her back on the stage. I wondered how much that would be in today's money. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI Inflation Calculator only goes back to 1913, but shows $500 back then had the same buying power as $13,276.99 in November 2020. By the way, if the gang had tried to steal the $150,000 in 1913, that would equal $3,983,096.94 in November 2020.
- The aforementioned Miss Trent is the main Beautiful Woman for this episode, played in her second series appearance by Lana Wood. Wood had previously played Vixen O'Shaugnessy in last season's "The Night of the Firebrand". Speaking of "Firebrand", the setting of Red Rock Cave in this one seems to be the same location used in that earlier episode.
- At 4:18 we see that mannequins have been placed in the stagecoach. But it's never explained why.
- This show features the same sort of expanded title card as the previous episode. I neglected to mention last time that in addition to the copyright, the words "ALL RIGHTS RESERVED" appear.
- This episode turns out to be prophetic. At 9:43 it's revealed that Artie's prisoner has "some kind of an Asian disease" that's "very deadly" and "unbelievably contagious".
- At 10:40 the Doctor reveals that it's March 12th, and Jim needs to be inoculated by March 15th, by March 17th on the outside. This of course raises the question, what year is it? We get a good close-up view of the Doctor's daily desk calendar starting at 11:34, but the year is not printed on it. In my review of "The Night of the Bleak Island" 2-3 episodes earlier, I noted that Jim gives a date of March 29th, and I speculated that the year was now 1876. Are we supposed to think that this episode happened two weeks earlier, even though it was shot about three weeks later? Or are we supposed to think that almost an entire year has elapsed and it's now mid-March 1877? Since numerous sources say the series was set during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, which ended on March 4, 1877, I'm going to assume that there was some kind of localized distortion of the space-time continuum and this episode is also set in 1876.
- At 14:03 the gang opens the Wells Fargo lockbox and gets a big face full of... Gas! Ha! Eat your heart out "The Night of the Cossacks"!
- With the benefit of home video technology, there's a rather obvious use of stock footage from 16:12-16:13. Jim is fighting a white man named Carl (Red West) who is wearing a long brown coat. We see Carl fall, but what hits the bottom of the cliff is a dummy dressed as an American Indian, complete with buckskin, headband, and pigtails.
- Speaking of stock footage, from 19:09-21:43 there is, as noted in my review of "The Night of Jack O'Diamonds": "A lengthy sequence that is repeated in Season 4's 'The Night of the Plague'. Jim climbs up the same steep incline, knocks out the same poncho-wearing sentry, pulls out and looks through the same heptagonal telescope, fires the same piton into the same rock with the same revolver, and lowers himself down the same cliff face. The only difference in the footage between the two episodes is what Jim sees through the telescope. Both episodes were directed by prolific TWWW director Irving J. Moore. Apparently this scene was expensive and/or dangerous to shoot the first time, prompting its reuse."
- Starting at 25:37, Artie assumes the role of a Shakespearean actor, a nice callback to "Night of the Casual Killer" way back in Season 1.
- Like "The Night of the Diva", which featured the song "Buffalo Gals", this episode has a performance of "The Yellow Rose of Texas". I should note that both songs are period accurate. The former was written and published in 1844, while the latter dates back to at least the 1850s.
- At 31:36, we see an autographed photo to Malcolm Lansing reading, "Farwell (sic) Brother until the day of great meeting Duncan".
- This is the last appearance of Douglas Henderson as Col. James Richmond in the series. According to the IMDb he appeared as the character in ten episodes over the last three seasons, and IMO did a great job.
- At 35:50 I laughed out loud at Jim's capture of Averi.
- At 45:01 Averi refers to "James West" by name. However, Jim does not introduce himself when he boards the stagecoach at the start of the episode. Nor is there any on-screen introduction prior to this. And in their earlier scenes together, at no point does Averi address Jim by name, despite numerous opportunities. But she does speak at length about her Donald.
- Speaking of Donald, we finally see him at 49:23, and discover that this episode recycles the same gag at the conclusion of "The Night of the Bottomless Pit". Namely that the man we meet strongly resembles another character we already know, in this case
James T. West himself!
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Post by Prime etc. on Jan 9, 2021 3:43:47 GMT
THE NIGHT OF THE TORTURE CHAMBER The Artie disguise scene was very amusing here-especially when the bad guy laughs in relief that his collection wasn't full of fakes. Co-written by Jason Wingreen--the actor (and voice of Boba Fett)?
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Post by alpha128 on Jan 9, 2021 5:42:22 GMT
THE NIGHT OF THE TORTURE CHAMBER The Artie disguise scene was very amusing here-especially when the bad guy laughs in relief that his collection wasn't full of fakes. Co-written by Jason Wingreen--the actor (and voice of Boba Fett)? Glad to see that you are still with us. "The Night of the Torture Chamber" was the subject of my first episode review in this thread. From this point forward, I reviewed almost every episode of the series. I still need to rewatch and review the final episode. Maybe I can do that this weekend. I did not know that writer Jason Wingreen was also the voice of Boba Fett. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by Prime etc. on Jan 9, 2021 5:55:41 GMT
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Post by alpha128 on Jan 14, 2021 3:29:11 GMT
"The Night of the Tycoons"OK folks, this is it - the last episode on the last disc of the last season of The Wild Wild West. And it's a good episode, certainly much better than "The Night of the Cossacks", the previous episode (in air date order) directed by Mike Moder. Some thoughts: - Starting at 7:29 there's an establishing shot of our favorite brick building, once again displaying the signs of the "Hotel Proctor Hotel", last seen in "The Night of Miguelito's Revenge". #ComingIn2021
- At 10:00 the late Mr. Gorhan gives us the last "Dance of Death" in the series. His corpse leans against the brick wall next to the "Saddle Sirloin Service Entrance" until Jim emerges, and then falls to the ground.
- At 10:21, as noted in Sue Kesler's book, Robert Conrad rebelled and did his own falling stunt for the first time since his injury while shooting "The Night of the Fugitives".
- Starting around the 11:00 minute mark, we once again see our favorite brick building, this time representing Miss Amelia Bronston's home. The iron gate they put up in front of the building isn't fooling anybody! #ComingIn2021
- The main Beautiful Woman in this episode is Joanie Sommers as the singing secretary Kyra Vanders. Sadly there is no Disguise and no Gas! in the episode.
- At 14:14 Jim spies on Kyra through an open balcony door. In the meantime, there's a fire burning in the fireplace. Lady, if you're cold, maybe you should close the door! I'm surprised that Miss Bronston doesn't complain about paying to heat all of Denver.
- In the aforementioned scene Kyra seems to be playing and singing "Greensleeves". This is the third musical number in recent episodes, following "Buffalo Gals" in "The Night of the Diva" and "The Yellow Rose of Texas" in "The Night of the Plague".
- At 17:58 Lionel's boxing opponent literally breaks the wall when he falls into it.
- I got a good laugh at 28:05 from Kyra's question to Lionel about his eye.
- There appears be a cameo appearance at 29:42 by the toy clown from "The Night of the Whirring Death".
- At 39:46 I remembered that two of the mannequins are
actually alive! Season 4 Recap:Not only did Season 4 return the series to its original concept of "James Bond in the West", it was a triumph in the face of adversity. In one of my earliest posts on this website, I agreed with vrkalak that Season 4 was "the weakest... because of the absence of Ross Martin". But upon review, having spent the last year and a half rewatching the entire series, I must recant that statement. In my Season 3 recap I noted that "the emphasis on traditional western elements did, to some extent, rob the show of its unique identity." I also noted an "increased number of stinkers compared to" Season 2. IMO, even the inestimable talent of Ross Martin can't save an execrable show like "The Night of the Iron Fist". Therefore, I now believe that Season 3 is the weakest, and would rank the Seasons as follows: 2 > 1 > 4 > 3. Looking back at my earlier comments, I can summarize my opinions on Season 4 as follows: - A couple of all-time classics in "TNOT Big Blackmail" and "TNOT Avaricious Actuary"
- Several episodes that approach all-time classic status, including "TNOT Sedgewick Curse", "TNO Miguelito's Revenge", "TNOT Janus" and "TNOT Diva"
- Several more episodes that, despite seeming overly familiar, are nonetheless very entertaining, including: "TNOT Juggernaut", "TNOT Kraken", "TNOT Egyptian Queen", "TNOT Pelican" and "TNOT Bleak Island"
- Many other episodes that are either great or good
- A couple of mediocre episodes in "TNOT Gruesome Games" and "TNOT Pistoleros"
- And only one (congressionally mandated) stinker: "TNOT Cossacks"
Review Index: (Added 01/16/2021) An episode index, with hyperlinks to each of my reviews, can be found here.
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vrkalak
Sophomore
@vrkalak
Posts: 510
Likes: 416
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Post by vrkalak on Jan 14, 2021 10:36:53 GMT
Did you notice Jim’s change of clothes in the beginning of the episode as he rode into town, then walked down the street? Also, when James hair length change from scene to scene during the aftermath board room bomb discussion? I always liked the name: mercury phosphorus grenade.
I respect your opinion, but cannot agree, 9 episodes without Artie puts S4 in the 4th position. But, hey, I love every season, so what does it matter? 😎
Our “favorite brick building” will be coming soon at an IPad near you.
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Post by alpha128 on Jan 15, 2021 0:04:52 GMT
Did you notice Jim’s change of clothes in the beginning of the episode as he rode into town, then walked down the street? Also, when James hair length change from scene to scene during the aftermath board room bomb discussion? No, I did not notice either of those things. I think in the first case I was distracted by what I did notice, that Jim rode down a dirt road and then immediately walked down a paved road. I respect your opinion, but cannot agree, 9 episodes without Artie puts S4 in the 4th position. There are numerous aspects to each West episode, and that means numerous opportunities to either delight or disappoint different viewers. I enjoy well-written episodes, regardless of who Jim's sidekick is. In my Season 4 Recap I listed four episodes that approach all-time classic status - two of them are Artemus Gordon episodes and two are Jeremy Pike episodes. But, hey, I love every season, so what does it matter? 😎 In that case, I noticed there's a used, "very good condition" copy of the Season 4 DVDs available on Amazon.com for only $8! That's 33 cents per episode!!! Our “favorite brick building” will be coming soon at an IPad near you. Looking forward to it!
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Post by alpha128 on Jan 15, 2021 23:55:10 GMT
The Made-for-TV MoviesI reviewed the The Wild Wild West Revisited / More Wild Wild West Double Feature DVD in another thread just a few years ago. Since I don't have much to add to my earlier comments, I'm just going to quote myself below. I finished watching the first film, The Wild Wild West Revisited, tonight. I had never seen this made for TV movie before, and I've got to admit that it actually recaptured the spirit of the series. It even had three of The Four Elements of The Wild Wild West - the only one missing was gas. There were fistfights, an Artemus disguise (as a dancing girl!), and several beautiful women. I really did enjoy the film. I finally completed "More Wild Wild West" and results were mixed. Conrad and Martin were in fine form, but the movie was weak with too much emphasis on comedy. The Hulks who were actually referred to, and credited as, "Hulks" were pretty ridiculous. At one point you can see one Hulk has normal skin tone on his legs, as if the make-up department couldn't be bothered to do a complete make-up job. The twin girls, Yvonne and Daphne were beautiful, and I liked the scene where Jim "interrogates" one of them. There was also a welcome return to some classic West gadgets, namely Jim's "Rosa Klebb" style knife in the tip of his shoe. In "The Wild Wild West Revisited" Jim only used his hidden lock pick, which hardly qualifies as a gadget. According to Sue Kesler's book, the original plan for "More" was to bring back Paul Williams as one of the five clones of Miguelito Loveless, Jr. alluded to "Revisited". That would explain why Albert Paradine II has the same atomic bomb technology (and stock footage ) that Junior had in "Revisited". When we see AP 2's bomb, it even has the same color scheme as the bombs in "Revisited". All in all, I have to say I'm glad I bought the DVD double feature which cost about $14. "Revisited" is actually pretty good and "More" has its moments.
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vrkalak
Sophomore
@vrkalak
Posts: 510
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Post by vrkalak on Jan 16, 2021 2:18:18 GMT
Revisited has grown on me over the years, it is really quite good.
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Post by alpha128 on Jan 16, 2021 19:03:39 GMT
I have now completed my rewatch of all four seasons of the series. Starting with Season 1 Episode 13, I posted reviews in this thread, which definitely got more thorough for Seasons 2-4. Now I present the following episode index with hyperlinks to each of my reviews. I'm doing this for the benefit of Prime etc., who is currently doing his own watch of the series, as well as for any other IMDB v2.1 users who decide to visit this thread in the future. EDIT: There is also a Season 4 - Alternate Viewing Order. That index puts the episodes airing after Ross Martin's heart attack into production order. Watching Season 4 in this order avoids the messiness mentioned in "The Night of the 800 Pound Gorilla". As a result, the events surrounding Artie's departure and return actually make sense! The Wild Wild West - reviews by alpha128
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vrkalak
Sophomore
@vrkalak
Posts: 510
Likes: 416
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Post by vrkalak on Jan 16, 2021 19:56:08 GMT
Thanks Alpha!
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Post by alpha128 on Jan 16, 2021 19:57:49 GMT
You are welcome!
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Post by Prime etc. on Jan 23, 2021 4:06:31 GMT
The Night of the Howling Light
In this one it had some interesting things----no Artemus disguise. He gets pretty serious as well, no joking around for most of it. Sort of the Manchurian Candidate but the "villain" of it is more of a real world concern than a James Bond story. The ending is amusing where they can't figure out why they should save Sam Wanamaker from his brainwashed victims until they do think of a reason.
the lab looked familiar like I had seen before.
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