"Red Dog" would probably be an unexceptional episode were it not for the marvelous cast assembled to support Roger Moore's Beau Maverick, on hand for a clandestine meeting of wanted outlaws with a price on their heads. Expert gunman Buckskin Charlie King (Mike Road) seems a decent enough fellow, impatient loner Wolf McManus (Lee Van Cleef) much less so, while Kid Curran (Evan McCord) simply has his hands full trying to keep an eye on his young hot to trot bride (Sherry Jackson). The mastermind is Judge Reese (John Carradine), his plans for a bank robbery approved by everyone except for Beau Maverick, whose identity as 'Red Dog' only gets him so far with the suspicious Judge. Legendary scene stealer Carradine is in fine form, though several lines are curiously dubbed by a voice not his own, providing a neat plot twist near the end where everything makes sense. His Judge does reference the NBC series LAWMAN in mentioning John Russell's Marshal Dan Troop (Carradine appearing in the episode "The Actor"), and scrumptious Sherry Jackson continued to prove herself a memorable actress for TV censors, particularly in STAR TREK's "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" It's still jarring to find the very British Roger Moore in the Old West, but with this his final appearance on MAVERICK he didn't have long to wait before THE SAINT.
Review of Red Dog
