Modesty Blaine ropes Bret into a cat-selling scheme to a mining town infested with rats.Modesty Blaine ropes Bret into a cat-selling scheme to a mining town infested with rats.Modesty Blaine ropes Bret into a cat-selling scheme to a mining town infested with rats.
Lane Chandler
- Gibbons
- (uncredited)
Hal K. Dawson
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Luis Delgado
- Man at Auction
- (uncredited)
Dan Dowling
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
Colin Kenny
- Poker Player
- (uncredited)
Frank Mills
- Barfly
- (uncredited)
Hank Patterson
- Hanrahan
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
Bret Maverick: Do you ever notice how nice the evening smells when there's money in the air?
Featured review
Pull Up a Tombstone and Let's Play Cards
Not every script can drop in "perfidy" without trading in the action for a dictionary. This is an offbeat screenplay that humorously manages to keep us interested without need of a college degree. In passing-- I remember as a boy in a small western mining town how important cats were to keeping down the rat population. It's little known facts like this that can turn an good episode into a memorable one.
Once the series' light-hearted approach was established, coming up with teleplays that kept that approach for a full 60 minutes must have been a challenge. Many later episodes unfortunately veered from humor to more conventional seriousness, which is understandable since the series was breaking new ground in a genre where conventions were almost literally set in sacred stone. Producers must have agonized at times over how many liberties could be taken with the unconventional Maverick "hero". After all, they were, in a sense, tinkering with John Wayne.
Here Bret is trying to dodge a devious woman, a murderous sheriff, and a "friend" willing to sell him out for a measly $200. His future is none to bright since everybody has an angle that doesn't include him. But as long as he's got a tombstone to hide behind, 13 male cats, and a can of shoe polish, he'll probably be around for the next episode. Fine work from Buddy Ebsen as the surprisingly mean sheriff, Lance Fuller as a parody of Have Gun, Will Travel's Paladin, and that most unlikely Westerner Richard Deacon as the undertaker, along with a hilarious shootout that likely put the series on the Humane Society's do-not-watch list. All in all, 60 minutes that never once veers from a humorously light-hearted approach.
Once the series' light-hearted approach was established, coming up with teleplays that kept that approach for a full 60 minutes must have been a challenge. Many later episodes unfortunately veered from humor to more conventional seriousness, which is understandable since the series was breaking new ground in a genre where conventions were almost literally set in sacred stone. Producers must have agonized at times over how many liberties could be taken with the unconventional Maverick "hero". After all, they were, in a sense, tinkering with John Wayne.
Here Bret is trying to dodge a devious woman, a murderous sheriff, and a "friend" willing to sell him out for a measly $200. His future is none to bright since everybody has an angle that doesn't include him. But as long as he's got a tombstone to hide behind, 13 male cats, and a can of shoe polish, he'll probably be around for the next episode. Fine work from Buddy Ebsen as the surprisingly mean sheriff, Lance Fuller as a parody of Have Gun, Will Travel's Paladin, and that most unlikely Westerner Richard Deacon as the undertaker, along with a hilarious shootout that likely put the series on the Humane Society's do-not-watch list. All in all, 60 minutes that never once veers from a humorously light-hearted approach.
helpful•162
- dougdoepke
- Sep 27, 2008
Details
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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