Jack Kelly didn't get his reputation as James Garner's competition from this episode. The initial "con" where Bart connives his way into Belle's graces by stealing her dog and then returning it to her is cute. And Bart and Belle (Julie Adams) make a cute couple.
But the episode is filled with It's In The Script (IITS) moments. Why is Bart is in such a hurry to get to New Orleans? Does he really plan to settle down with Belle, just because they're in wuv?
The episode devolves into a pretty standard "two rival railroads fight it out". There's nothing special about it, other than Bart pulling some con maneuvers to sucker Rufus Elgree (Ken Lynch) into buying some future contracts on cattle that Bart has bought. I... think. The last part of the episode is rather rushed, and the con is laid out in a lot of exposition.
But the relationship between Bart and Belle is pretty tropish for the time, and hasn't aged well to 2020. Bart doesn't want to see anything that makes Belle "any less of a woman". And while Bart and Belle make a cute couple, Belle hardly seems worthy of Bart's attentions or the infatuation he has with her to get her to come with him. She's kind of a doofus, letting Elgree run roughshod over her.
Belle grows a spine at the end, and Bart chooses his share of the $50,000 and his freedom. Fortunately, Belle caves at the end and heads to New Orleans with Bart. Why, I have no idea. And we'll never see Belle again, so I guess the production crew agreed with me.
The end battle, with stock footage, doesn't really accomplish anything other than to let Kelly put on a white Stetson so his footage matches with the "borrowed" footage of Gary Cooper. Bart gets hurt, but then he's fine. Oh, that was dramatic. Not.
The financial wheeling and dealing is also pretty boring. There's a lot of exposition, to state the simple fact that Brasada is undercutting Belle's company, Great Western. There's no action: just a bunch of people standing around from scene to scene, expositing on the financing. Compare that to "Shady Deal", where Bart was going around with Dehner's character, laying everything out and suckering the crook in.
Overall, "Brasada Spur" is a so-so episode that other than a few Maverick touches, you could find in any Western of the period.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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