A step down from its near-perfect predecessor "Top of the World, Ma," but still a solid show with a stellar cast. A highlight was watching the opening credits and thinking, wow, what a TV Western round-up this episode will be: Dennis Weaver, Chester on GUNSMOKE; Barry Sullivan, Pat Garrett on THE TALL MAN; and Cameron Mitchell, fresh off four seasons playing Buck Cannon on THE HIGH CHAPARRAL. But that highlight also proved the show's greatest disappointment as Sullivan and Mitchell each received only about ten minutes of screen time. Talk about a bait n' switch.
The spotlighted guest stars turned out to be Julie Sommars and Gabriel Dell. I was surprised Sommars' character was named Jenny since she was best known at the time for playing Jennifer Jo Drinkwater on THE GOVERNOR AND J. J. As another reviewer rightly noted, Sommars had "a knack for playing mentally ill women." She played Jenny with kooky charm and appeal, at least until the hysterical shrieking started after Dell stepped out of the painting. A few years later Sommars played a similar role as the eccentric title character in "Gertrude," the opening episode of HARRY O.
Erstwhile East End Kid Gabriel Dell was granted generous screentime to shine as master of disguise Ira Maston, gaslighting with glee the increasingly unhinged Jenny. I loved how he played the elevator operator and within moments had switched to the rheumy-eyed cad with a sword cane! It was a shame Maston had to push Jennie over the edge because their matching decor and shared love for old movies could have led to romantic nights slurping his bad soup and watching Carole Lombard on the late, late show.
Old movies and TV oftentimes provide snapshots of history in the making. When McCloud and Jennie stroll through 1971 New York City, did you catch in the background the Twin Towers under construction? It was on another such stroll that the director stretched audience credulity by having Maston perched in the perfect place peeking out from behind a newspaper as McCloud and Jennie passed by. Okay, that reveal was eerily effective, I admit, but even a child would not have believed it was really raining in that Mexican village on the Universal backlot, bathed in bright SoCal sunshine glinting off the bus and casting distinct shadows. You would think director Jack Smight would have abandoned the pretense as the rain served no narrative purpose and ended up being more of a distraction.
Oh, on that note, award for most welcome distraction goes to Anne Randall in that red bikini.
Her harem-keeping boss Gen. Touhy was ahead of his time in warring against the cubicles and beehives of offices, preferring to work from home. He could have been a champion of the post-pandemic back-to-office resisters if he wasn't such an irredeemably unwoke sexist, referring to his eye-candy secretary as "the scenery."
Barry Sullivan was practically typecast playing decadent powerbrokers in this era. In the span of a few years he played virtually the same corrupt character on THE IMMORTAL, LONGSTREET, HAWAII FIVE-O, THE MAGICIAN, and KUNG FU to name but a few that spring to mind. Cameron Mitchell developed a reputation for playing bad guys, but I always think of him as the loveable, loyal, and looking for a drink and a fight Buck Cannon on HIGH CHAPARRAL, just as Sullivan will always be the uncompromising and upstanding Sheriff Pat Garrett of the early sixties Western THE TALL MAN.
Speaking of uncompromising and upstanding, it was a delightful surprise to see Priscilla Pointer as Shirley, the smitten-with-Sam-McCloud art gallery curator. So attractive and flirty, enticingly offering to circle her wagons for McCloud to attack. I best know her as Pam and Cliff's stodgy millionaire mother on DALLAS, so her brief appearance here was a welcome revelation.
If you enjoyed the plot of a man believed dead disappearing to live a Bohemian painter's life, you can catch another well-done variation in "The Big Ripoff" episode of THE ROCKFORD FILES.
In closing, as ol' Chester quipped to Pat Garrett in what was certainly a nod to their cowboy pasts, "happy trails."